Volume Five in Naxos' complete Sibelius piano music cycle is given over to miniatures, most of which fall within modest technical and registral parameters. Although they were intended for home consumption by amateur pianists, a sensitive and imaginative professional like Håvard Gimse can really make these pieces sound vital and characterful. He does marvelous things. For instance, his angular, push/pull rubato in the Impromptu (Op. 99 No. 4) and varied phrasing of No. 12's dotted rhythms underline the music's superficial resemblance to Schumann. The controlled vehemence he brings to the five Op. 101 pieces admirably downplays their sometimes-mawkish melodic invention. And Gimse is fully attuned to the quirky harmonic twists and turns permeating Op. 103 and 114 (these sets might be described as chips off the blocks that fashioned the composer's Sixth and Seventh Symphonies). In short, collectors who've acquired previous volumes of this excellent series need no further recommendation. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Margaret Jane Wray has performed with some of the most important musical figures of our day, including Daniel Barenboim, Maris Janssons and Seiji Ozawa and enjoys a busy career as a concert artist in addition to her varied operatic performances. Included on this disc is the rarely recorded 1862 concert ending to the 'Love Duet' from 'Tristan und Isolde'.

Although Brahms arranged many of his own works for piano, either played through to friends or published in this form for a wider public, he also turned his attention to the music of other composers.

DANCE MUSIC FROM OLD VIENNA

Busoni: Piano Music, Vol. 2

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) originally composed his Seven Inventions and Four Inventions as a score for the 1932 Italian film Acciaio (Steel). The music's intended function as an accompaniment to visual storytelling perhaps explains its consistent use of a basic melodic idea, which sounds deceptively like a novice at the piano playing up and down the white keys. That Malipiero creates interesting and beautiful musical moments from this raw and unadorned device is most impressive, as is the ever-captivating orchestration, which at times reminds us of the colorful works of Respighi (especially in the dramatic opening and concluding movements).


The Four Inventions, though slightly more tuneful, follow the same melodic principle as the Seven, which can lead to an impression of sameness if played in succession. Malipiero's 1925 opera Il finto Arlecchino evoked the world of 18th-century Venice, and the music ranges from neo-classical to near parody of the period. For some of today's "authenic performance"-trained ears this will seem quite anachronistic, as will Malipiero's Vivaldiana (1952), a loving tribute that is true to the text of Vivaldi's concerto movements while imbuing them with newly vivid and vibrant orchestral colors. Peter Maag's insightful and committed conducting makes the most of these elements, which are wonderfully realized in brilliant performances by the Veneto Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in clear, full sound by Naxos. Do give this a try.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Naxos, the world's leading classical music group, supports the Alzheimer's Association with the release of the Purple Classics series. Each release in this new series of 10 recordings features approximately 2 hours of classical music on 2 CDs. For every CD sold through June 23, 2017, Naxos will donate $.50 to the Alzheimer's Association, with a minimum donation of $25,000,to advance their efforts in Alzheimer's care, support and research.

Originally issued on Marco Polo, these performances make a welcome reappearance on the Naxos label. Villa-Lobos used the "Chôro", a popular type of urban street music found in Rio de Janeiro, as the basis for a new and vibrant type of orchestral composition. Chôros No. 8 evokes a primeval Amazonian jungle with its wonderfully vivid sound-imagery. By making extensive use of Brazilian rhythms and percussion, particularly the caracaxa, which sounds like a huge set of maracas, Villa-Lobos gives the music an impetuous, even sinister feel. This powerful rhythmic thrust pervades throughout, taking a strangely Coplandesque turn for a brief mid-point sequence that brings to mind El salon Mexico.


Chôros No. 9 opens in a brightly festive atmosphere, punctuated by kinetic bass drum thuds. In its colorful character, varied moods, and scenes that segue one into another, the piece is reminiscent of Respighi's Feste Romane (though there's nothing Italianate about Villa-Lobos' language). This is fun stuff--mysterious, exciting, and sensuous--and it's all done with astonishingly authentic flair by the Hong Kong Philharmonic (they really whack the percussion!) under conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn. The 1985 recordings retain their clarity, but also their tendency to brightness. At the Naxos price, this is an irresistible invitation to sample the music of this Brazilian master.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

VIEUXTEMPS: Viola and Piano Music

Prolific in every aspect of music throughout his long and distinguished career, Carl Reinecke represented the complete musician with the belief that art should bring happiness to mankind. His imaginative transcription of Beethoven's bravura Triple Concerto sees the three instruments retaining their solo essence and sharing in the orchestral tutti to create a quintessential addition to the piano trio repertory. Heard here in its world premiere recording, Reineckes First Piano Trio inhabits the passionate and expressive sound world of Schumann and Mendelssohn.

Whilst Alessandro Scarlatti was largely responsible for the development of early Neapolitan opera, his son Domenico composed a huge sequence of keyboard sonatas designed principally for the use of Infanta Maria Barbara, who became Queen of Spain in 1746. This treasure trove is one of the most important such collections of the 18th century, and continues to furnish the repertoire for pianists to this day. The present volume, performed by Sergio Monteiro, first prize winner at the 2003 Martha Argerich Piano Competition, includes a magnificently varied selection that embraces polyphony, guitar imitation, syncopated writing and an unusually wide keyboard range.

Composer, conductor and organist Gabriel Pierné wrote in a wide variety of genres, from operator pieces for solo piano. His orchestral music for the stage shows the utmost refinement and clarity as well as wit and charm in the finest French tradition. His colorful and evocative score for Ramuntcho is rich in Basque flavor with zortzico dance rhythms and village dances, all beautifully textured. Set in the 18th century, the ballet Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied reveals the full range of his inventive scoring, which remains chamber music-like in its finesse.

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

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REVIEW:

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

– The Observer (UK)

Franz Schreker was a prominent figure in early 20th-century Austro-German music, his reputation as an opera composer rivaling that of Richard Strauss. The Prelude to a Drama is the concert overture of Schreker’s acclaimed opera Die Gezeichneten, a lurid drama involving murder and madness. Conceived as a theatrical pantomime, The Birthday of the Infanta adapts Oscar Wilde’s tragic tale of an ugly dwarf who dies of a broken heart, while the Romantic Suite fully explores the composer’s colorfully detailed and translucent orchestration and lyrical expressiveness. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra dates back to the beginnings of music broadcasting in 1923. Since then it has developed its position to become one of Berlin’s top orchestras, and today is ranked in the highest echelon of German radio orchestras. JoAnn Falletta became the first female conductor to lead a major American ensemble upon her appointment as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999.

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REVIEW:

Falletta obtains excellent playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra with enormous climatic moments, opportunities for which are readily at hand in his late-Romantic, opulent orchestral scores. The sound quality from the German Radio is way beyond today’s norm. Unreservedly recommended.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

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Irish-born Victor Herbert was one of the most celebrated names in American music in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A cellist, conductor, and composer of light operas, he was also a recording artist. His two cello concertos are full of gracious melodies, the D major having a song-like slow movement and a spirited polonaise finale that earned praise at its 1885 première in Stuttgart. The E minor concerto, scored for a large orchestra, is more tightly constructed then the first and it was hearing this work that inspired Herbert’s superior at the National Conservatory in New York, Antonín Dvorák, to write his own great B minor cello concerto.

A supreme virtuoso, the French violinist, composer and teacher Emile Sauret was acclaimed by the greatest musicians of the century, including Sarasate and Liszt. He wrote a series of charming genre pieces (available on Naxos 8.572366) but also a sequence of 24 Etudes-Caprices which marry virtuosity with every expressive opportunity available to the instrument. The result is one of the unsung but major cycles for solo violin spanning all twenty-four keys. The Azerbaijani-born British violin virtuoso, soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral director Nazrin Rashidova made her solo debut at the age of three in Baku and was awarded a gold medal by the Cairo Opera House for an exceptional violin recital three years later. Establishing FeMusa in 2008, Britain’s first female chamber orchestra in sixty years, is merely the latest in a series of achievements. She entered the Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of fifteen, where she had the privilege to play on a rare collection of violins by Antonio Stradivari. She studied with professors Erich Gruenberg, Felix Andrievsky and Lydia Mordkovitch. A prizewinner in several international competitions, she has appeared on international television and radio, played for royalty and other dignitaries, and has also performed in the US, Japan, Europe, and the Middle East.

Though he was known primarily as a symphonist, and despite his large portfolio of piano works, Raff's first love was the violin and his pieces for the instrument were promoted by no less a virtuoso than Sarasate, The Violin Sonata No. 1 is a powerful work teeming with expressive intensity and lyrical beauty- it remained the most performed of his violin sonatas during his lifetime. The large-scale Violin Sonata No. 2 offers his characteristic lyric impulse and virtuoso fireworks. Laurence Kayaleh has performed as a guest soloist with many distinguished orchestras, including the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Russian National Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and many others. She has recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Medtner, Honegger and Catoire for Naxos. She plays a 1742 Guarneri which belonged to the eminent violinist and pedagogue Carl Flesch.

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James Whitbourn is a Grammy® nominated composer whose music is internationally admired for its direct connection with performers and audiences, The Observer describing him as "a truly original communicator in modern British choral music." Carolae is a fusion of the great Christmas traditions at King’s College Cambridge and Princeton University Chapel, with the Missa Carolæ at its heart. Whitbourn’s love of medieval musical language is reflected in his clever use of original melody with famous carols such as Noël Nouvelet, combined with skillful new arrangements of seasonal favorites such as The Coventry Carol.

Arthur Fagen was responsible for Naxos' excellent cycle of Martinu symphonies, so it's no surprise that he leads Liszt's own orchestra (more or less) in lively and enjoyable performances of the six Hungarian Rhapsodies that were arranged for orchestra by Franz Doppler working under the composer's supervision. Indeed, given the way that subsequent generations of arrangers have monkeyed with this music, it's very nice to have the orchestrations that Liszt himself approved. Fagen treats the music seriously. The funeral march that opens No. 1, and the darker episodes in No. 4, have real gravitas, while he lets his hair down quite effectively in the ebullient Nos. 2 and 6. With fine orchestral playing and bright, slightly bass-shy sonics, this release earns a solid recommendation in a series of works that appear less frequently together on a single disc than their erstwhile popularity might suggest.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Formosa Seasons is based on a series of Haiku-like poems, and is dedicated to the celebrated Taiwanese-American violinistCho-Liang Lin.

Joseph Marx was an excellent pianist: the hugely demanding solo part of his Romantic Piano Concerto, a ‘symphonic duet’ between piano and orchestra, marks him as a true virtuoso who had also absorbed the heady impressionism of Debussy, Scriabin and Delius. While having no connection with film music, Marx left a multitude of intoxicating melodies that eclipsed the wildest of Hollywood’s dreams. His second piano concerto Castelli Romani was inspired by ancient ruins in the wooded hills outside Rome, and is a magical, pyrotechnic display of Mediterranean emotions and masterfully orchestrated atmospheric pictures. Franco-American pianist David Lively’s unique musical personality is drawn from his double culture, passionately attached to his two inheritances. Born in the United States, he went to France in 1969 at the age of 16 to study at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. His technical and musical prowess has brought success in a number of international competitions.

The Estonian composer Toivo Tulev has forged a unique sound world. His music, with it's almost obsessive focus on religious mysticism, can be sensual and emotional but also cerebral and technically demanding. Tulev often takes inspiration from his extensive travels, in particular from the city of Istanbul which, like his vocal music, bridges East and West. His meditation on the words of Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj, 'I said, Who are You?- He said, You,' conjures up a transcendent atmosphere, while his Magnificat departs from the text's traditionally solemn setting with it's stratospherically high string writing and wild percussion solos. The Latvian Radio Choir ranks among the top professional chamber choirs in Europe. Working under the leadership of Sigvards Klava and conductor Kaspars Putnins, the choir is renowned for it's tonal finesse and range of expression. The repertoire of the LRC ranges from the Renaissance to the most sophisticated modern scores. The LRC has participated in the top musical forums in Salzburg and Montpellier, the Baltic Sea Festival, Klangspuren Festival, and others, and has performed in many renowned concert halls.

The orchestral triptych of ‘Meditation, Nach dem Sturm’ and ‘Klage’ is award-winning composer Toshio Hosokawa’s response to the 2011 Tohuku earthquake and tsunami. Meditation mourns the victims with a quiet song of sorrow, Nach dem Sturm uses shamanic elements to suggest stormy darkness and the hope of light, while the healing Klage seeks to connect our world with the supernatural. ‘Autumn Wind’ unifies man and nature through the timeless sound of the shakuhachi. The collaboration between Naxos and composer Toshio Hosokawa has been very fruitful in recent years, and this new release follows on from two collections of orchestral works conducted by Jun Markl. Volme 1 of these “draws magically delicate colors and rich textural intricacies from what is a profoundly attractive score.” (Gramophone on Lotus under the moonlight), and volume 2 “reinforce Hosokawa’s commitment to poetic representations of human presences in the natural world.” (Gramophone). World-class vocal soloists in this recording include Danish soprano Susanne Elmark who has produced an aria recital for Naxos Denmark and mezzo-soprano Mihoko Fujimura whose recordings include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as part of Christian Thielemenn’s Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra recordings on C Major. Tadashi Tajima is one of today’s most respected shakuhachi players, having performed around the world.

Joseph Lanner was the inventor of the formal Viennese waltz, elevating it from a peasant dance to a refined art form enjoyed by high society. While renowned in his day, Lanner seldom left Vienna and failed to acquire the same European fame as his more widely-travelled colleague and rival Johann Strauss I, but his music endures for its rich generic variety and lyrical, poetic style. These dances range from boisterous and ‘immoral’ gallopades to the spooky Geistermusik of the Hexentanz, and a late masterpiece Die Schonbrunner, given 21 encores at Lanner’s final concert and including melodies quoted by Stravinsky in his ballet Petrushka.

Review:

Naxos's sound engineers have done a first class job on this disc. Robert Letellier's booklet notes provide a welcome and expert introduction to a composer who will be little - if at all - known to many.

Naxos's competitive pricing always encourages taking a risk on unfamiliar material. In this case and after listening to nearly 70 minutes of Lanner's undemanding but nonetheless highly enjoyable music, most buyers will conclude that any risk had turned out to be well justified. Believe me, if you enjoy the music of Lanner’s era you will most certainly like his easy-going tunes. And if, like me, you do so enough that you play the disc more than a few times, I suspect you might even start whistling them too.

– MusicWeb International (Rob Maynard)

The Iranian conductor and composer Alexander Rahbari grew up with and trained in traditional Persian music with it's most influential maestros. His eight symphonic poems, My Mother Persia, of which this is Volume 1 of 2, are full of melodies, rhythms and improvisations in these traditional styles, brought to life with the colors of modern orchestration. The first of these is an emotional violin concerto in which the soloist plays the role of the Nohe Khan, usually a tenor who sings in traditional Persian style at various religious ceremonies. Mother's Tears refers to a gathering of orphans and to Rahbari's own experiences of tragedy, contrasting with a subtext of mischief in Children's Prayer.

Inspired by the vast potential of the tonal foundation of music, at a time when many of his contemporaries were embracing the twelve tone ideology, the eminent German composer Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling produced a rich, varied and highly personal body of work.

Muzio Clementi achieved early success as a widely-travelled pianist, performing for nobility and meeting Mozart, his journeys reflected in the Melodies of Different Nations. The Sonata in A flat major is his earliest surviving work, and the incomplete Allegro and Finale may hve been intended as part of the famous Gradus and Parnassum. Based on a popular dance form, the delightful Monferrinas reveal Clementi's charming side, each one presenting a uniquely interesting character.

This second and final volume of Frederic Mompou's complete songs features the cycle Becquerianas, one of his most ambitious and also one of his most diverse, with it's unprecedented fusion of Andalusian folk-music, virtuosic piano writing and vocal opulence. Comptines, by comparison, are joyful and simple traditional children's counting rhymes. Also included are five recently discovered songs: Et sento que véns, Ets l'infinit, El testament d'Amèlia, Ave María and El viaje definitivo. '... an enticing first offering in a welcome series, and the performers are warmly to be applauded' (Fanfare on Volume 1 / 8.573099).

Fernando Sor was not only one of the great guitarists of his era but a major composer for the instrument, described by a contemporary critic as "the Beethoven of the guitar". His desire for the guitar to represent a miniature orchestra in timbre is a distinctive feature of his many compositions. The 24 Progressive Lessons, Op. 31 offer a panoramic lexicon for the student, moving from a simple waltz to perpetual motion, whilst the charming Six Little Pieces, Op. 32 further explore technical efficiency and musical expressiveness.

Despite the scandal it created with first staged in 1875, Carmen has subsequently become one of the world’s most popular operas. The love affair at its heart shocked contemporary audiences but the music is imperishably vibrant and exciting- so much so that, after the composer’s death, his friend Ernest Guiraud arranged two suites from the opera. Here the Toreador’s Song and the graphically sensuous Seguidilla and Habanera dances are heard in all their orchestral glory. The two suites from L’Arlesienne containe music of great charm and refined elegance.