Violin Recital: Simone Lamsma

Without doubt this is one of the finest all-round achievements by Naxos.

At the risk of courting the charge of hyperbole I would venture this CD as one of the most significant Shostakovich releases in recent years. Fine though the award-laden Petrenko symphony cycle undoubtedly is, let's be honest we already know that is an extraordinary group of works and most have received superb performances before. The score presented here is as significant as it is relatively unknown and this new recording can lay fair claim to being definitive. My reasoning runs as follows; Shostakovich was one of the most important Soviet composers. The Soviet Union was the first state to recognise the power of cinema to influence mass mood and opinion. In the late 1920s the cultural elite of the Soviet Union were still being empowered by the state to produce work that was radical and revolutionary. Exploring utopian ideals and cinema was regarded as being at the forefront of the new radical arts. In the era of Silent Cinema the dedicated film-score was still comparatively new and as such had to carry the dramatic and emotional non-visual weight of the story. Shostakovich had first-hand practical experience of playing for film - this gave him a practitioner’s insight into what would ‘work’ that was simply not part of the skill set of any composer before or probably since. As the liner accurately points out - for all the deprivation and residual violence abroad in the new Soviet State this was an age of idealism and hope. Shostakovich had yet to have his idealistic vision of communism curdled by the cynical realities of living in a totalitarian state. He poured into this score the best that the idiom would allow.
 
Whether measured by the yardstick of the history of cinema, the Soviet Union or simply as part of the Shostakovich oeuvre this is an important release. Add to that the fact that this recording offers the most complete, skilfully reconstructed and authentic - as far as it uses the original 14 player line-up - rendition of the score yet made. It becomes a compulsory purchase. This is the third release of Shostakovich film scores conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald. Very fine indeed though the previous two have been I consider this the best so far. Not that the earlier issues lacked for anything in terms of performing or interpretative quality - simply that this work is more significant than the others on just about every level. Its importance is reflected in the fact that elements of the score have been recorded several times in the past although only the - also fine - version from James Judd on Capriccio with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra comes close to matching the actual quantity of music recorded. The next most extended sequence - from Valeri Polyansky and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra on Chandos (CHAN 9600) - contains some 44 minutes of the score - less than half of Fitz-Gerald’s epic traversal. A pithier selection is offered by Gennady Rohzdestvensky (Russian Disc RDCD11064). This was my introduction to this score in its original Melodiya LP version (later reissued as ASD3381) and I still enjoy its ribald cabaret character. My sole observation of this new Naxos performance - and it is an observation not a quibble - is that the chamber scale and super-refined quality of the playing fractionally detracts from the pure theatre of the work. When I was a student at the Guildhall School of Music in London - around 1983 I guess - they staged a viewing of this score accompanied by one of the college orchestras. To this day the power of the film and accompanying score lives with me. I strongly suggest that any readers who ever have the opportunity to see this performed live should leap at the chance. It is a magnificent piece of work and one that shows how even at the tender age of 23 Shostakovich understood the compelling power of the moving image. The very valid argument advanced by Fitz-Gerald for using chamber scale forces is that these are the maximum resources that Shostakovich would have had for the premiere. My counter-argument is that every silent movie score would be written with a degree of inherent elasticity. I find it hard to imagine for a moment that Shostakovich would not have preferred more players at the premiere - certainly many of the dramatic passages in the score do not sound as though they are intended for such a chamber group. That being said, Shostakovich was commissioned to provide a smaller orchestration suitable for use in the bulk of Soviet cinemas. Indeed reluctant musical directors often reverted to using generic music when the film was shown rather than attempting the complexities of this new score.
 
Every other recording has opted for a full standard orchestra. Although I do naturally veer towards the bigger sound the more I hear this performance the more I realise that this is a score full of proper music of considerable range and power. Initial impressions are of a riot of colour and witty referencing of popular period tunes from the Marseillaise to Offenbach. The New Babylon of the title refers to a department store which in turn is a metaphor for the decadent Paris pre the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The ensuing uprising and short-lived Paris Commune provided the early Soviet State with a historic precedent for their own revolution. Lessons learnt from the failure of the Commune influenced the thinking of both Marx and Lenin. Musical experts differ on whether Shostakovich used these melodies because they embodied all things despicably bourgeois or simply because they are rather good tunes. I tend towards the latter opinion - any young composer who can choose as his first dramatic work a setting of Gogol - The Nose - with its dyspeptic view of authority and institutions is not going to become a star-struck-slogan-wielding-party-line-puller two opus numbers later. At the heart of Shostakovich’s abiding genius is the acidic cynicism that clots and curdles even his most superficially benign music.
 
Fitz-Gerald conducts the Basel Sinfonietta and they prove to be stunningly fine collaborators. The scoring is for a string quartet plus bass, a woodwind quintet and a brass group of a second horn, two trumpets - although the second is there simply to relieve the work-load on the first player rather than having an independent part - and a trombone. The line-up is completed by a piano and three percussion. Again this number allows for ease of changes rather than necessity. The use of this essentially chamber ensemble creates an aural world that instantly delineates the composer's deft scoring. For the first time I heard a positively Gallic wit at work, very much along the lines of Ibert's Divertissement although, as always with Shostakovich, you feel a bleak cold despair might be lingering in the shadows. The spirit of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" clouds the celebrations. Another fascinating characteristic is developed here by the composer. In collaboration with the film-makers Shostakovich chose not to "illustrate the frame". When critics wish to deride a work the ultimate insult is to say its sounds like film music. This is a short-hand for saying it treats emotions/ideas/situations in an obvious and direct manner - in other words it illustrates the frame. Shostakovich does the reverse - if the image is happy, the music is sad, epic - petty. Its a crazy almost anarchic ploy but one that makes for an extraordinarily powerful juxtaposition of sight and sound. The problem we have here is that we are divorced from the image and wonderful though that is it cannot be anything less than a fraction of the whole.
 
Across the two discs the music is presented as a continuous flow of music as it occurred in each of the film's eight reels. The abiding impression is of a kaleidoscopic riot of sounds and impressions, fragments of musical stories, passing characters and changing mood. There is a hedonistic delight in the sheer indulgence of influence and pastiche. No real surprise to read that the original score quickly fell into disuse - it was both too hard for the average cinema player and too subversive for musicians brought up on a diet of illustrative generic music and excerpted 'classics'. From a historical perspective the quite remarkable thing is that as late as his Op.145 - his Suite on verses by Michaelangelo Shostakovich was applying exactly the same principle of contrast. There a verse with the slightly daunting title Immortality is set to an accompaniment of a piccolo whistling a tune any paperboy would be proud of. Back with New Babylon Fitz-Gerald has more practical experience of conducting this score in context with the film than any other person. This deep knowledge converts into a performance that is perfectly paced and remarkably finds a unity, a through-line in the midst of the mayhem. Allied to the virtuosic playing of his Swiss Orchestra and you will appreciate the level of achievement. The superlatives do not stop there. The engineering is first rate. The sound is quite close, certainly very detailed but it treads the tricky narrow line between large chamber group or small orchestra. The scale of the group is very effectively caught allowing the intimate passages to beguile while the bigger sequences have an impressive impact. Yes I do miss the sheer extra weight that Judd is able to deploy or the uniquely sly and sarcastic Rozhdestvensky. I repeat, the more I listened the more I was converted to the style of this version.

The booklet is surely Naxos' finest yet. Once one gets past the obligatory I-need-to-get-my-eyes-tested minute font this is packed with fascinating information, film stills and even a facsimile page of the original score. Fitz-Gerald has had to reconstruct the final part of the final reel because late in the film's production the ending changed turning the original bleak ending into something more positive. Fascinatingly we have two essays by Shostakovich scholars which give different interpretations for this change. One by David Robinson feels the changes were artistically driven whilst the other by John Riley cites political expediency. Both are full of fascinating insights. Riley provides a detailed synopsis and the notes are completed by an article by Fitz-Gerald outlining the long overdue restoration and reappraisal of this very important score. Don’t listen to this score expecting the profundity of the composer’s greatest work - that was never the remit here. Treated as a musico-social document - as well as containing much wonderfully entertaining music - this is a magnificent achievement from all concerned from composer to performers and the production team.

Curiously for a disc that is literally definitive it does not make me want to throw away either of the two other versions I cherish. Both Judd and Rozhdestvensky in their very differing ways offer valid alternative insights into this box of delights of a score. Judd with his full orchestra gains in impact during the set-piece sequences whilst Rozhdestvensky benefits from an authentically edgy Russian sound and gleeful eccentricity that is quite wonderful. The extra music that has been constructed to cover the discarded ending is effective and suitable but you will have made your mind up about this score and the performance way before that final sequence is reached. Fitz-Gerald achieves an ideal balance with his super-slick players able to slip from queasy waltz to buffoon’s gallop or poignant interlude in an instant. Remarkable results are achieved by ensembles these days in hot-house conditions of read/record. However when you hear a well rehearsed, convincingly argued performance of music with which the players are familiar the benefits are both obvious and great.

Without doubt this is one of the finest all-round achievements by Naxos. 

– Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

This disc collects three of Leonard Bernstein’s very few examples of chamber music. Although written at the onset of his career, the Piano Trio and the Violin Sonata (both student works) and the Clarinet Sonata (here arranged for violin by William Terwilliger) confirm his prowess in a genre to which he simply never had time to return. Rounding out the disc are songs from three of his theatre works, including ‘My House’ from Peter Pan, ‘Take Care of this House’ from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and four songs from the acclaimed madcap operetta Candide, all idiomatically arranged by Eric Stern.

The success of Bizet’s opera Carmen has overshadowed the rest of his output, but this fascinating orchestral programme, which includes a number of seldom performed works, reveals more of his talent for writing colourful, atmospheric and melodic music. The Overture in A was Bizet’s first orchestral work and unperformed in his lifetime, while the Marche funèbre was originally the prelude to an opera about love and vengeance, now lost. The dramatic overture Patrie captures the mood following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71, while the Petite suite is a set of orchestrations of movements from Jeux d’enfants (Children’s Games). Conceived in Italy as a symphony, after Bizet had won the Prix de Rome, Roma occupied the composer for 11 years before the final version heard here.

The late 19th century witnessed unprecedented musical growth in the United States, and it is impossible to imagine a Copland, an Ives or even a Gershwin without the pioneering groundwork of the ‘Boston Six’, of whom John Knowles Paine was the senior member. Favorite among his own works, Paine’s Second Symphony was described on its New York première as “a serious, important and totally beautiful work.” His Prelude to the tragic play Oedipus Tyrannus was an immediate hit, while An Ocean Fantasy was his last orchestral piece.

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The second CD of a two-volume set of the orchestral music of the late-Romantic American composer John Knowles Paine, this 2015 Naxos release presents the Prelude to the play Oedipus Tyrannus, a premiere recording of the tone poem Poseidon and Amphitrite - An Ocean Fantasy, and the Symphony No. 2 in A major, "In the Spring." Paine was a respected music professor at Harvard University and the most prominent member of the group of composers called the Boston Six, so his influence on the development of American symphonic music was significant. However, the flavor of Paine's music is actually less American than German, as befitted his European training and the music that dominated concert halls at mid-century. In Paine, one can hear traces of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms, so a measure of the musical taste can be taken in his music, particularly in the Second Symphony, which was a popular success and Paine's favorite among his works. JoAnn Falletta conducts the Ulster Orchestra in these performances, and the playing is robust and solid, if not especially vibrant. Because Paine's music is quite conservative and lacking in dramatic effects, the orchestral palette is not especially colorful, so the musicians have less distinctive sonorities in Paine's rather homogenous scoring. This is a respectable presentation, if not a revelation, and anyone interested in the beginnings of the American symphonic tradition should hear this album.

– Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide

I sat down to type up this review late on the evening of Tuesday 1 June 2010. Halfway through doing so, wanting to check a date, I went to the website devoted to Benjamin Lees, where I was faced with the following announcement: “IT IS WITH PROFOUND SADNESS THAT THE FAMILY ANNOUNCES THE PASSING OF COMPOSER BENJAMIN LEES ON MAY 31, 2010”. This review - written on the day after the composer’s death - necessarily becomes more of a memorial than I intended it to be when I sat down to put it together.
 
Lees was born in China, brought up and educated in California. From 1949 to 1954 he studied with George Antheil who acted as a largely unpaid tutor out of respect for Lees’ abilities. From the mid-1950s onwards his works began to be performed quite widely and by distinguished performers, without his ever perhaps becoming a ‘major’ figure in American music. A Guggenheim fellowship enabled him to spend much of his time in Europe in the second half of the 1950s. Never a composer who aspired to be thought of as especially ‘American’, these European years were important for Lees, years when he could evolve his own voice without direct involvement in the style wars of American music. Prokofiev, Bartók and Shostakovich became important exemplars for Lees.
 
In a 1987 interview with Bruce Duffie, when the interviewer enquired “in a great number of your own works, you have used the traditional approach - Slonimsky calls it accessibility - which makes your music attractive to conductors and soloists.  Is this something you have consciously built in to your pieces, or is this an outgrowth of what you wanted to write innately?”, Lees answered as follows: “The accessibility, I suppose, comes from something that George Antheil told me when I was studying with him.  He put it very succinctly, and it was one of those catch words which stuck in the memory.  He said, “Music must have a face.  A theme must have a face, something which is really recognizable, both to you and to the listener.”  And again, it matters not what style a person writes in, but it cannot simply be amorphous.  It cannot be really formless and it cannot be merely notes spinning”. Certainly Lees’ music never seeks to exclude listeners, or to make their life needlessly difficult by the flaunting of the composer’s ‘cleverness’. Nor, on the other hand, does he write down, or write to please some lowest common denominator of taste and demand. Like any substantial composer, Lees seems always to have been true to himself, to have been serenely unworried, so far as one can judge, by matters of mere fashion or popularity. Honesty, indeed, has always struck me as one of the hallmarks of his work, a directness of communication. It seems appropriate that he should once have said that “there are two kinds of composers. One is the intellectual and the other is visceral. I fall into the latter category. If my stomach doesn’t tighten at an idea, then it’s not the right idea.”
 
Most attention - and perhaps rightly so - has been paid to Lees’ orchestral works, not least his five symphonies. But, as this disc demonstrates well and clearly, he also had plenty to say in that other ‘classical’ form - the string quartet, of which he wrote six. This rewarding Naxos disc contains three of them in fine performances by the Cypress Quartet, for whom the fifth and the sixth were written.
 
The Cypress Quartet begin their programme with Lees’ first quartet, written in 1952, and premiered the following year in Los Angles - and in 1954 played in New York by the Budapest Quartet. In three movements (moderato-adagietto-allegro vivo) it has an appealing grace, at its most obvious in the adagietto, a lovely moment that exudes a simplicity - created by considerable art - and only slightly troubled lyricism that has a more or less pastoral quality. In the movement that precedes it some crisp and dynamic writing alternates with more reflective passages. In the last movement - essentially a rondo - the writing is engagingly animated, seeming to speak out of a mind full of ideas and eagerness. A quartet well worth hearing - especially when so well performed - but not yet fully embodying the composer’s mature voice.
 
The two ‘late’ quartets give us that voice in abundance. The four movements of the fifth quartet (measured - arioso - quick, quiet - explosive) form a musical argument of considerable density, marked both by striking moments and a sense of larger design. The writing for cello at the opening of the first movement, and the ensuing dialogue with the other instruments is one of those striking moments. Another comes in the second movement when an aggressive intervention by the cello disrupts the meditative conversation of the two violins. The more one listens, the more such moments one discovers. The third movement is a miniature delight (it lasts less than two minutes), music of evanescent beauty. The contrast with the fourth movement could hardly be more marked - full as it is of musical contention and turbulence, of assertion and annoyed counter-assertion, a conflict not so much resolved as serving to fuel a still angry ending.
 
Where the sixth quartet is concerned the composer’s markings for its four movements say most of what the mere reviewer might want to say about the work: “measured, dolorous - calm, steady - quiet, eerie - unhurried”. And they are! The use pizzicato passages is a particular feature of this quartet - notably at moments in the first and third movements. Without any wilful oddity or eccentricity, Lees creates some fresh and interesting effects at more than one point in this quartet. To say that one can ‘hear’ his respect for Bartók and Shostakovich is not, repeat not, to belittle his work as derivative. It is merely to recognise that, like 99% (or more!) of all artists, Lees was not a toweringly inventive figure. He was a highly accomplished craftsman who had listened to, and learned from, the music of the past and the present; a composer who refused to be merely modish or to chase the fashionable at the cost of fidelity to what he felt to be right for him.
 
It is, I hope, timely to celebrate Lees’ achievement, immediately after his death. Not a composer of spectacular fame, he worked with a seriousness and truth that some more famous fall short of.
 
-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

Eric Satie, known as a brilliant pianist and composer, was an integral part of the 20th century Parisian avant-garde. Included in this box of Satie piano works are the Ogives, inspired by the Notre Dame cathedral; the hauntingly beautiful works of Trois Nocturnes, and the calming Reverie du Pauvre. Satie's compositional brilliance, along with Kormendi's virtuosity will surely make this a treasured item for collectors and classical music loves alike.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion is, along with the St. Matthew Passion, without doubt one of the most important works he ever composed. It established a new tradition for Good Friday vespers in Leipzig, and with sublime skill Bach managed to retain a spirit of church worship while creating an almost operatic narrative that movingly depicts Christ’s trial, death, and ultimate apotheosis. Bach’s numerous revisions always demand a certain amount of scholarly decision-making, and this recording of the St. John Passion uses the final 1749 version that not only draws on and reinforces the best of Bach’s original concept, but incorporates the additional movements of the 1725 version.

Glazunov: Orchestral Works, Vol. 17: Chopiniana - Overtures

Jacques Offenbach is best remembered for his operettas, but the dramatic Ouverture a grand orchestra is a rarely heard early piece that presages his future in musical theatre. The enduring popularity of Orpheus in the Underworld is due in no small part to the Can-Can, now one of the most iconic pieces in Western classical music. Orpheus was Offenbach’s first full-length operetta, and The Drum-Major’s Daughter was to be his last, those in between including the popular vaudeville of Monsieur et Madame Denis, humorous satires on Parisian life, and La Belle Helene, an instant success that enjoyed an initial run of 700 performances.

The acclaimed conductor and composer Salvador Brotons is renowned for his music for symphonic band. It was Rebroll (Rebirth), a symphonic poem in one movement inspired by contemporary events, which first earned him international recognition, and is performed worldwide. Symphony No. 6 'Concise' charts a dramatic course between rhythmic dynamism, ceremonial grandeur and lyrical intimacy. Glosa de l'Emigrant is a nostalgic song cast as a sardana, the national dance of Catalonia, and features the beautiful sound of the tenora, a Catalan folk instrument. Brotons' Symphony No. 5 and his Oboe Concerto can be heard on 8.573163.

Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, and is currently Master of the Queen' Music.

A contemporary of Beethoven, Antoine de Lhoyer was a French royalist and professional soldier who was considered "the best guitar player in Europe", and whose complicated life story took him from anti-Revolutionary campaigns to a high position at the court in St. Petersburg. This collection brings together his elegant and virtuosic chamber works for three and four guitars, characterised by free dialogue between the instruments in music both dashingly brilliant and dreamily lyrical. The Air varie et dialogue can claim to be the earliest guitar quartet in the repertory.

IRISH RHAPSODY

The German-Canadian Amadeus Guitar Duo and South German Duo Gruber & Maklar have known each other for many years from encounters at guitar and music festivals. Their love of varied programming prompted them to devise a concert featuring works for one, two and four guitars. Guitar Gala Night brings together the most beautiful works for guitar solo, duo and quartet in the European and Latin guitar repertoire in a spirited evening of virtuosic, lyrical and expressive music. This attractive program joins an eminently collectable series of themed albums from the Amadeus Guitar Duo, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Performing over 80 concerts annually both as a duo and now including repertoire with orchestra, as well as broadcasting both for radio and television, this is a duo with an extensive fan base that eagerly acquires each new release, ensuring a high volume of sales and an enduring popularity. Gruber & Maklar has performed throughout Europe and across the globe. Guitar Review wrote in 2000 that “their technique is spectacular, their musical understanding cannot be overstated, their ensemble with each other is outstanding and… they deserve to be recognized as one of the finest guitar duos in the world.”

Solo piano transcriptions of music from the operas of composer Giacomo Meyerbeer form the focus of Vol. 40 in the Naxos Complete Piano Music of Franz Liszt project. Sergio Gallo takes on the herculean task of playing the three-part Illustrations du Prophète, S414/R223, a work lasting nearly three-quarters of an hour, in addition to the 20-minute plus Illustrations de L’Africaine, S415/R224 and two briefer examples of Lisztian transcription fireworks embedded between these two knuckle busters. Mr. Gallo currently teaches at two US institutions, one being Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Lord Berners’ compositions, often satirical in intention, include ballets for Diaghilev and for Sadler’s Wells. While his first ballet, The Triumph of Neptune, is an ambitious and inventive example of his art (Naxos 8.555222), the choral ballet A Wedding Bouquet is Berners’ most original and successful work, if somewhat influenced by Stravinsky’s Les Noces. Written to a text by Gertrude Stein and choreographed by Frederick Ashton, this is music full of vivacity, festive brilliance and pathos. Set in a freak show pavilion, Luna Park is a ‘fantastic ballet in one act’, succinctly scored and wittily characterized.

"Guitarist Victor Villadangos is excellent. His tone is clear, his playing clean, and as a native of Buenos Aires he has a natural feel for this music." - American Record Guide July/August 2002

"A charming programme elegantly played. Argentina has produced many fine guitarists, as notable for their performance of European music as of that of their own country. Victor Villadangos' reputation rests thus far on the latter... Villadangos is a refined player in every good sense and his avoidance of 'folksy' roughness works in the music's favor. Recording quality and annotation (provided largely by the composers themselves) is excellent." - John Duarte Gramophone May 2002

Carissimi: Mass for Three Voices - 6 Motets

Includes son(s) for fl by Johann Joachim Quantz. Soloists: Mary Oleskiewicz, Stephanie Vial, David Schulenberg, Jean-François Beaudin.

Scarlatti, D.: Keyboard Sonatas (Complete), Vol. 3

Simon Mayr was born in Bavaria but made his name in Italy. Although familiar with the Venetian two-part and Neapolitan three-part operatic overture traditions, he forged a style which at first mirrored the models of his Viennese contemporaries, then broadened out into large-scale and often virtuosic sinfonias filled with unexpected modulations and intervals and beautiful instrumental solots. Spanning a period of 25 years, the works on this recording include Raul de Crequi with its striking fugal opening, the dramatic Ercole in Lidia with its solo part for harp and Gli Americani which recalls Mozart and Beethoven.

Petrassi’s long creative life was marked by ceaseless absorption of ideas and by constant invention. His Flute Concerto is notable for its boldness of design and the surprise of its unorthodox sound world, where instruments rotate in block form. The Piano Concerto is more overtly virtuosic, even showing some influence from Prokofiev. The orchestral suite drawn from the ballet La follia di Orlando (The Madness of Orlando) is often clothed in Petrassi’s experimental orchestral sonorities. ‘The rehabilitation of Italian twentieth-century music by the Naxos label continues unabated: the latest release is this remarkable collection…that any genuine Petrassian will rush to purchase’. (International Record Review on 8.572411)

Masao Ohki' Symphony No. 5, introduced to world-wide audiences by Arvid Janson's and Leopold Stokowski, was one of the first of many Japanese works to be dedicated to the tragedy of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945.

The Italian-born violinist and dancer Jean-Baptiste Lully revolutionized music at the French court in the 17th century. Not only did he transform ballet entertainments into a spectacular new genre, the tragedie lyrique, but he set new standards in orchestral playing- with him the ‘modern’ orchestra was born. The Suite from Roland exemplifies the majesty of his ouvertures, the beauty of his dance movements, and the expressive depth of his chaconnes. Both Georg Muffat and Marin Marais were profoundly influenced by Lully, as their inventive suites show, and Muffat’s own preserved performance instructions have been closely followed on this recording. Named one of the top 25 ensembles in celebration of Early Musi cAmerica’s 25th anniversary in 2011, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra is dedicated to excellent and exuberant performance of 17th and 18th century music on period instruments. It is led by its artistic director, Barthold Kuijken.

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REVIEW:

Despite the rarity of these works, all the music breathes the spirit of the French court, with the influence of Lully clearly at work throughout. Is there more of this music in the pipeline? If not, please, Naxos, get back to Indianapolis and record it post-haste.

– MusicWeb International

RACHMANINOFF The Isle of the Dead. Symphony No. 1 • Leonard Slatkin, cond; Detroit SO • NAXOS 8.573234 (66:20)

Leonard Slatkin and his marvelous Detroit Symphony complete their superb Rachmaninoff symphony cycle with a spectacular First Symphony. Slatkin’s interpretations of the Second and Third symphonies were straightforward, powerful, and no-nonsense, focusing on the structure of both works and downplaying their emotional excesses. Here he takes a similar approach with the First Symphony and it pays off in huge dividends.

The first movement’s introduction is grimly menacing and Slatkin makes the allegro proper’s somewhat patchwork structure seem more cohesive than it really is, with deftly chosen tempos, forward moving rhythms, and seamless transitions. The Scherzo has an infectious swagger and Slatkin paces the Larghetto appropriately—well, larghetto (i.,e., not too slow)—so as to keep the music moving along and avoid languishing on the movement’s excessive melancholy. The Finale can often sound like a hodgepodge of discarded sketches of Rimsky-Korsakov, but Slatkin does as well as anyone at molding the seemingly unrelated episodic sections into a convincing unified statement. The performance here is extremely compelling and boasts an especially powerful and ominous coda. The trombones really have a field day. All in all, this is a great performance of a work difficult to pull off, one that can stand alongside the standard-setting versions by André Previn (London Symphony Orchestra, EMI 64530) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Decca/London 448116 and 455798).

Rachmaninoff composed his symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead after viewing Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same title in 1907. Considering the composer’s obsession with his own death, it is easy to understand how he would have been moved to compose a work inspired by this painting. Here Slatkin once again refuses to allow the music to wallow in its own mannerisms, choosing to make the most of its rhythmic momentum. In the opening, one can really feel the quintuple meter, so vividly depicting the gentle yet portentous sound of the oars as Charon, the ferryman, rows his boat with its newly deceased passengers across the River Styx. Throughout the work, Slatkin highlights the contrast between passages of ominous foreboding and those of serene tranquility perhaps more effectively than anyone before him. The climaxes are truly shattering, with snarling brass and pounding bass drum. Each successive statement of the Dies Irae becomes increasingly eerie. The cumulative effect is absolutely bone-chilling.

The city of Detroit may have seen better days, but the same cannot be said of its magnificent orchestra. After suffering its own financial woes a few years ago, the DSO has come back with a vengeance, sounding stronger than ever. Credit must be given to what is obviously a very productive partnership with its music director. I hope we can look forward to more Rachmaninoff from this team: say, the piano concertos and Paganini Rhapsody. Highly recommended, especially at Naxos’s budget-friendly price.

FANFARE: Merlin Patterson

"[A] lovely recording of four flute concertos by François Devienne. Playing on modern instruments..., [Patrick] Gallois and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra do a marvelous job of conveying the lightness and the joyful elegance of Devienne’s very French style. The album is a sheer delight from beginning to end." – Rick Anderson, CD HotList

The great twentieth-century Russian poet, Mikhail Alexeevich Kuzmin, was for much of his early life also passionately devoted to composition. Masterpieces of the vocal miniature, his Sacred Songs for voice and orchestra are settings of his own words based on studies of ancient Russian music. His incidental music for Masquerade is notable for a heartfelt Romance and a closing chorus which draws upon traditional Russian church music. The Society of Honoured Bell Ringers displays Mahlerian and Mozartian influences whilst greater harmonic complexity can be savored in Kuzmin�s edgier music for Deer deutsche Heinemann.

Vivian Fung’s work is influenced by Asian sources such as Balinese gamelan music. Violin Concerto soloist Kristin Lee’s shared experience of Bali with the composer resulted in an intensely lyrical and virtuoso work in which West and East collide to create music of remarkably fresh sophistication. Fung draws on John Cage’s ‘prepared’ piano techniques to create often eerie and otherworldly effects in Glimpses, ideas from which expand into the Piano Concerto. Subtitled ‘Dreamscapes’, this work explores contrasts ranging from hauntingly sustained calm to moments of brutal power.

Pianist, composer and conductor Ignaz Moscheles was one of the most respectedmusicians of his time, and throughout his long life was at the social and musical heart ofEurope. Studies with Beethoven’s old teachers, Albrechtsberger and Salieri, equippedhim with a first-class compositional technique used to notable effect in a series of worksfor his own instrument, the piano. Moscheles also wrote a delightful corpus of works forflute and piano, seldom heard today, yet full of vivacious tunes, contrapuntal interest, andsome technically demanding passages which reflect his own status as a virtuoso pianist.