The Naxos series of Glazunov orchestral works reaches volume 19 with this disc. Composed by Glazunov in 1898 Ruses is also known as The Trial of Damis. This disc is a reissue originally released on Marco Polo 8.220485.

Glazunov was a precocious student of Rimsky-Korsakov during the artistic ferment of the revival of Russian musical nationalism. Composed when he was a sixteen year old Glazunov gained sudden acclaim with the success of his Symphony No. 1. The audience would have been shocked when Glazunov took his bow at the premiere wearing his school uniform. International recognition was established with his symphonies, the tone poem Stenka Razin, the ballets The Seasons and Raymonda, and the ever popular Violin Concerto. He was still composing music in the manner of Rimsky, Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky. His works soon became marginalised having failed to compete with the growing enthusiasm for progressive composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, Stravinsky and his own pupils Prokofiev and Shostakovich. After a century or so we should now be able to reassess Glazunov’s music for its innate qualities rather than be reference to the dynamic of the era in which it was written.

The première of the ballet Les Ruses d'amour was given in the small hall of the Hermitage Theatre, St. Petersburg in 1900. Marius Petipa provided the choreography. The leading dancers were the Italian prima ballerina assoluta Pierina Legnani and her Russian partner Pavel Gerdt. Briefly the story of Les Ruses d'amour centres on the role Isabella who is the daughter of a titled Lady. Isabella pretends to be a maid in a bid to test that the love of her fiancé the Marquis Damis is true and not driven simply by her wealth and status.

The popularity of Les Ruses d'amour has certainly not endured to the same degree as The Seasons and the longer Raymonda ballets that have remained on the fringes of the repertoire. Reasonably appealing, the music of Ruses d'amour is not as recognisable as Glazunov’s other ballets. The composer has not managed to achieve the same melodically memorable quality.

Showing a convincing enthusiasm the Romanian State Orchestra under Horia Andreescu provide creditable playing. I enjoyed the gentle and swaying lyricism of the Introduction and Scene I and in the Recitatif mimique the woodwind-infused music has a distinct bucolic feel. Melody after melody is released in the Sarabanda but the themes are typically unremarkable. One notices the childlike lyricism of the Danse des marionettes and Scenes IV and V are gentle and romantic. The movement Ballabile des paysans et des paysannes is infectious and energetic. I was struck by the soft and tender love music of Grand pas des fiancés which is sugar-coated with a gorgeous line for solo violin and cello. The engaging La Fricassée brings the score to an exciting and energetic conclusion.

Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

While filled with Rossini's distinctive musical hallmarks and notable for some wonderful duets, Sigismondo was one of his very few failures in the genre, for which blame is usually laid at the feet of librettist Giuseppe Foppa. Today, however, we can appreciate how this tale of an abused wife who retains her love for her deranged husband pushes the boundaries of the grand narrative tradition info a more searching psychological drama. An emphasis on madness and guilt and coloratura expressions of finer feeling results in a fascinating meeting of convention with experiment, Rossini's subsequent re-use of his music for Sigismondo in later hit operas being ample evidence of its intrinsic quality.

Vaughan Williams' Piano Concerto is a wonderful, wholly characteristic work. The fact that it ends softly probably accounts for its lack of popularity in concert, but it's been very lucky on disc. Almost all of the available versions are very good, and this one is no exception. Ashley Wass offers a scintillating account of the opening Toccata, alternately brilliant and delicate, a lovely and lyrical Romanza, and an aptly gutsy fugue and finale. Having James Judd on the podium virtually guarantees sharply focused, idiomatic accompaniments. He's one of Naxos' most reliable and interpretively characterful conductors.

The couplings are also quite appealing. The complete Wasps suite is another excellent work that you'll probably never hear in concert, at least outside of England, and more's the pity. Judd delivers a flavorsome performance. His tempo for the overture is particularly well-judged, not as slow as Boult's but not as slick and swift as some prefer. Rather, he finds a sturdy liveliness of pace and gruff good humor that comes across as quintessentially English. The Folk Song Suite and Running Set march are charming and never seem to lose their tuneful freshness, while the entire program is very well played by the RLPO. Very good sonics too. A treat for RVW fans.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Described by Classical Guitar Review as "nothing short of inspirational", this d+-but recording by Tracy Anne Smith and Rob MacDonald unveils a refreshing and innovative program of works by some of the most exciting living composers of our time. Stephen Goss's contrasting miniatures in the Raw and the Cooked reference musical greats from Django Reinhardt to Astor Piazzolla, and Still the Sea is a homage to Toru Takemitsu. Christopher William Pierce's mellifluous sound world explores the sensual, the ornate and the spectacular. Following his innovative and rhythmic Niter+¦i, Roland Dyens brings US home with the succulently melodic Comme des Grands. Praised by Soundboard Magazine for their "great fluidity and technical perfection" and "sensitive and lyrical style", Tracy Anne Smith and Rob MacDonald of ChromaDuo unveil refreshing and innovative programs of new works by some of the most exciting living composers of our time.

Antoni Wit's ongoing cycle of Penderecki orchestral works is yet another of those truly outstanding Naxos projects that's unlikely to get the attention it deserves. The music isn't easy, or popular, but Wit is a marvellous conductor in this repertoire, and his unfailingly intense and idiomatic performances look to become the standard by which all others will be judged. This new release just may be the best so far.


The Seven Gates, though largely unthreatening in its use of consonant harmony, is a very difficult work to perform. The choral and solo writing is tiring (if often incredibly moving and impressive), and the presence of a lengthy narration may bother some listeners. In my opinion Penderecki is one of the very few composers who can pull it off, and here he does so magnificently.


Perhaps the most wonderful thing about this recording is its ability to be serious (isn't Penderecki always?) without sounding labored, or relentlessly heavy. Partly it's a function of really exceptional choral singing and a uniformly high-quality bunch of soloists. The rest, though, is Wit's ideal pacing and that feeling for timbre and texture that made his Messiaen Turangalila-Symphonie so memorable. In short, even if you don't normally warm to Penderecki, you probably will find this disc surprisingly appealing. The sung texts are available on Naxos' website, but it's just as much fun to simply wallow in the evocative sonorities that Penderecki gets from his very large vocal and instrumental forces. Excellent engineering makes the music both rage and shimmer as it must. A splendid release in every way! [1/24/2007]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

SAINT-SAËNS Violin Sonata in d. Berceuse, Op. 38. Elégies: No. 1 in D, Op. 143; No. 2 in F, Op. 160. Sarabande et Rigaudon, Op. 93. Romance in D?, Op. 37. L’air de la pendule triptyque, Op. 136 • Fanny Clamagirand (vn); Vanya Cohen (pn) • NAXOS 8.572750 (68:01)


This CD turned out to be more than a pleasant surprise; it turned out to be a sheer delight. I wasn’t sure what to expect from two relatively young and relatively unknown (on record, at least) artists in Saint-Saëns’s frequently essayed Violin Sonata in D Minor, but the performance by Fanny Clamagirand and Vanya Cohen proved positively persuasive and more than competitive with some of the very best, among which I would count my first recording of the piece with Heifetz and Emanuel Bay on a 1950 RCA LP, along with more recent versions by Gil Shaham and Gerhard Oppitz on Deutsche Grammophon, and the very impressive young violinist Jack Liebeck with Katya Apekisheva on Quartz.


Clamagirand (b. 1984), a past graduate student of Jean-Jacques Kantorow at the Paris Conservatory, sports a robust tone that projects with a good deal of authority, yet is of an alluring sweetness. Saint-Saëns’s D-Minor Sonata, the first and by far more popular of two he wrote, can invite some coarseness in tone in a number of its rough-and-tumble passages, but Clamagirand will have none of it. She cuts through the slashing first-movement chords without slashing them, and she springs sprightly through the ricochet-like spiccato bowing in the Allegretto moderato . Vanya Cohen, born in 1980 in Monaco of Russian parents, leaves no doubt in her confident delivery of the piano part that Saint-Saëns’s swirling and whirling score is as much piano sonata as it is violin sonata. This is as brilliant and thoroughly convincing a performance of the piece as I know.


The most enchanting aspect of this album, however, is the short, salon-like pieces that fill out the disc to a generous 68 minutes. All in all, not counting the two sonatas, Saint-Saëns composed no more than six opus numbers originally scored for violin and piano, and on the present disc we have all but one of them, the Caprice brilliant in B Minor of 1859. In its place, Clamagirande and Cohen give us the Romance, op. 37, originally for flute and piano, but published with an alternate version for violin. And for extra measure, they also give us the Sarabande et Rigaudon , op. 93, originally a work for orchestra.


It would be inaccurate to say that these pieces are entirely absent from the catalog, but according to current listings, they’ve received scant attention on disc; and that’s really a shame, for there’s not one of them that’s not a real charmer. This is a most enjoyable program, and it’s one performed to the highest standards by two exceptionally talented artists. Very strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

The wind ensemble repertory has a rich history and a vibrant contemporary presence. Donald Grantham, for example, evokes gospel music of the 1920s and '30s in Starry Crown, which draws on the earthy vitality of call-and-response sermons. Steven Bryant's Ecstatic Waters reaches forward to present a pulsating narrative of exuberance, contradiction and subtle dialogue. Gordon Jacob wrote two series of settings of Old Wine in New Bottles in which he took old English settings and clothed them in his zesty and witty colors. To end, we have the songful lyricism of Carter Penn's Hold This Boy and Listen. Stephen L. Gage has served as instrumental music coordinator, professor of conducting, and director of bands at Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music since 1993.

Highly lauded within the classical music world, Arvo Pärt has forged a singular path through the genre. The BERLINER MASSE was commissioned in 1990 for the Ninetieth Deutsche Katholikentag in Berlin, and finally came to fruition in 1997. Drawing on some haunting strings and choral arrangements, the work is extremely moving. Also included here is SUMMA, which Pärt conceived in 1977, and MAGNIFICAT, from 1989. They are beautifully performed by the Elora Festival Singers and Orchestra, under the watchful eye of conductor Noel Edison.

These things are almost always pleasant--after all, if there's one thing English composers have done well since the beginning of time it is to write appealing, affecting, idiomatic music for strings. Although with Volume 6 in this smartly organized English String Music series the selections may not be uniformly of the first rank, what's not to like here, from Holst's typically well-crafted, traditionalist Moorside Suite (first written for brass) and Purcell's sturdy, stylish Chacony in G minor, to Paul Lewis' melancholy film-score-ish Rosa Mundi and Paul Carr's three-movement A Very English Music (with the "very English" subtitles Cuckmere Haven, Cornish Air, and The Hunt Gathering). Philip Lane's string arrangement of Peter Warlock's beloved Christmas carol Bethlehem Down is a gem, and William Lloyd Webber's Waltz in E minor is a delightfully skittish, meandering take on the traditional dance.


Most sophisticated musically are Lionel Sainsbury's Two Nocturnes and Malcolm Lipkin's From Across La Manche, the latter a substantial (15-plus minutes) work from 1998 that's thoroughly of its idiom, full of good, skillfully developed ideas, and deserving of serious attention by orchestras, listeners, and concert programmers. And thankfully, Gavin Sutherland and his Royal Ballet Sinfonia have chosen to give all of these works their own careful, enthusiastic attention, resulting in one more well-played, eminently listenable addition to this ongoing series (Classicstoday has reviewed three of the earlier releases--see Search Reviews). Highly recommended--and fine sound too!
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Although better known for his nine Symphonies and his film scores, Malcolm Arnold made a significant contribution to chamber music. His two string quartets form a fascinating contrast. The first comes early in Arnold's career, whereas the second was written.

Includes work(s) by Thomas Roseingrave. Ensemble: Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Conductor: Gavin Sutherland.

The fourth volume in Naxos’s highly praised series of Debussy’s Orchestral Works presents music drawn from three of his theatrical ventures and from one of his Prix de Rome entries. The prelude, fanfares and four symphonic fragments from Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien were taken for concert performance from Debussy’s incidental music for Gabriele D’Annunzio’s scandalous mystery play. While rarely heard today, the ‘danced legend’ Khamma, set in ancient Egypt, and incidental music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, provide suitably atmospheric music, as do the Cortège et air de danse from The Prodigal Son, the cantata which gained Debussy the Prix de Rome in 1884.

The two main works on this recording are among the peaks of twentieth-century Norwegian orchestral music.

Handel: Gideon (Compiled and Arr. by J. C. Smith)

Franz Benda was employed at the court of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, and his exceptionally expressive violin playing led Charles Burney to describe him as ‘a truly great genius’. Benda’s cantabile composing style allowed space for elaborate ornamentation during performance which was the height of fashion in this period. This world première recording reveals Benda’s authentic and often spectacular written-out ‘improvisations’ in new editions of his sonatas, re-uniting them with a violin preserved unaltered since its creation in 1735.

Philippe Gaubert's music is well known to flutists, but to few others, which is a pity because it's lovely. Although we don't generally expect music by flutist/composers, especially French ones, to explore the outer regions of avant-garde expressionism, there's still a big difference between music that's appealing to flutists and music that's just really, really pretty. Gaubert's works fall into the latter category, being attractively impressionistic, graceful, tuneful, and not a note too long. The Trois aquarelles for flute, cello, and piano comprise the most substantial piece on this disc, lasting nearly a quarter hour, and they're so lovely that it's almost painful. Also noteworthy: the sexy little Divertissement grec for two flutes and harp, and the charming Suite in four movements that concludes the disc. But really, if you like any of it, you'll love all of it.


Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist Fenwick Smith plays these pieces with a big, full tone and complete absence of irritating breathiness. In the Divertissement, he and his BSO colleague Jacques Zoon play wooden flutes, and his fellow musicians support him admirably. Pianist Sally Pinkas makes a particularly considerate partner, managing to characterize her playing quite well without overwhelming the flute in climactic passages. The sonics also do full justice to Smith's limpid tone and offer excellent balances between the various performers. Only a few captured breaths here and there point to microphones positioned perhaps a touch too closely, a seemingly ubiquitous failing these days. Still, this is a delightful disc by any standard, and one that works equally well as a light background or as an engaging foreground.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

DEBUSSY Images. Pour le piano: Sarabande (orch. Ravel). Danse (orch. Ravel). Marche écossaise. La plus que lente • Jun Märkl, cond; Lyon Natl O • NAXOS 8.572296 (59:45)


This is the third volume in a series of Debussy’s orchestral music from the Lyon orchestra under its young German conductor; I haven’t heard the other two, but on this evidence I want to.


Images gets off to a good start with a Gigues of smooth, rounded, refined sonorities—little or no hint here of those tangy, fruity, acidic French orchestral timbres of a bygone era (still well in evidence in, e.g., Martinon’s EMI Debussy recordings of the 1970s). Rhythmic and dynamic detail is sharply observed. Phrases are beautifully shaped, with plenty of breathing space, building impressively to the tragic climax.


Ibéria is absolutely first-rate, displaying a masterly integration of the work’s many subtle tempo changes, in the service of Debussy’s incomparably atmospheric evocations: e.g., in “Par les rues et par les chemins,” the transition from sun-drenched glitter to the mysterious, unsettlingly shadowy world of the central part. “Les parfums de la nuit” is taken slowly (9:18; compare Boulez’s briskly efficient 7:30), with beautifully swung habanera rhythms. “Le matin d’un jour de fête” relishes to the full both the majestic, dazzling luminosity of the movement’s outer sections and the quirky eccentricity of its central adventures. I don’t know if Jun Märkl is a string player by training, but throughout he achieves an amazing variety of string sounds and articulations reminiscent of the great string-playing maestros of the past—above all, Monteux, and his classic 1963 version with the LSO (Philips). Listen to the extraordinary care Märkl lavishes over such details such as the violas’ taking over the ostinato in the central nocturnal procession of “Par les rues” ( léger et rythmé , and suddenly rather sinister-sounding in its new surroundings); the darkly delicate swaying of the divided violas’ and cellos’ introduction of the sinuous habanera in “Les parfums”; or the electrifying crescendos of the “giant guitar” effect in “Le matin.”


The performance of Rondes de printemps is spacious and finely detailed, holding tempo and power in reserve for an exciting quickening of the pulse in the coda.


All in all, these Images easily stand comparison to the best of the digital era. They come across as less self-conscious than Rattle/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI, with the British maestro’s characteristically imaginative drawing of detail—in Gigues , for instance, chillier northern mists, and a stronger sense of mounting desperation). On the other hand, they sound more emotionally engaged than Boulez/Cleveland (DG, in a gorgeously nuanced sonic tapestry dispatched with cool, patrician elegance).


Märkl lavishes just as much care on the short pieces, from the gorgeous kaleidoscope of marble tints in Ravel’s orchestration of the Sarabande to the swirling mists of the Marche écossaise, whose engaging Celtic camp conceals many touches of real Debussyan harmonic alchemy. The sinuous rubato of La Plus que lente ’s slow waltz (complete with exotically twanging cimbalom) is teased out to the manner born.


The recording is resonant and spacious, a natural concert hall balance with outstanding perspective and depth, and no artificial highlighting of detail. This conductor/orchestra partnership is clearly something out of the ordinary, and I’ll be watching for more from them. At the price, the disc is a terrific bargain, whether you’re a newcomer to these pieces or a seasoned collector of multiple versions.


FANFARE: Boyd Pomeroy

The novelty of Franz Anton Hoffmeister' double bass quartets lies in his substitution of that husky-voiced instrument for the first violin in a regular string quartet line-up.

SPANISH GUITAR

Rheinberger, J.G.: Organ Works, Vol. 5

Playing a golden-toned 10-course lute and using original manuscript sources or his own sensitive reconstructions, British lutenist Nigel North presents a delightful recital of dances by Robert Johnson, a contemporary of Shakespeare for whose plays he wrote songs and incidental music. Although they use the old forms of pavan, galliard, almain and fantasie, Johnson’s exquisite works tend towards the more expansive, lyrical style that would later flourish in the Baroque period.
Nigel North’s critically acclaimed boxed set of Dowland’s Complete Lute Music is also available (Naxos 8.504016).

This collection of piano music is a welcome reminder of the many fascinating stylistic strands that colour George Enescu' work. Seriously under-rated today, he exerted a powerful influence on all those who came under his spell.

FIOCCO: Missa Solemnis / Ave Maria / Homo Quidam

JOACHIM Violin Concertos: in G, op. 3; in d, op. 11, “in the Hungarian Style” • Suyoen Kim (vn); Michael Halász, cond; Staatskapelle Weimar • NAXOS 8.570991 (65:57)


From a position of near-obscurity in the early 1960s (at least in so far as recordings went), Joseph Joachim’s Hungarian Concerto received a lift-off from Charles Treger’s early complete recording with the Louisville Orchestra (Louisville LS 705) and from Aaron’s Rosand’s more brilliant but cut-down version on a Vox LP, reissued many times; while Takako Nishizaki recorded Joachim’s Third Concerto for Marco Polo (now available on Naxos 8.554733).


That leaves the First Concerto, a one-movement affair lasting about 20 minutes from the early 1850s, when Joachim had hardly reached or passed the age of 20. Already the work displays a certain individuality: Joachim integrated the violin’s first entry into the opening tutti, after which initial statement the orchestra continues on its own. The solo part offered its youthful composer a great number of opportunities for virtuoso display, but the Concerto’s high symphonic seriousness sets it apart from more display-oriented vehicles written for their own use by his contemporaries Ernst and Wieniawski. In its harmonic and melodic style, so heavily tinged with nostalgia, the work resembles the first (or only) movements of Bruch’s later works (such as his Allegro appassionato and, especially, his Third Concerto). Suyoen Kim, producing a slender but pure tone in all registers (but with a steelier core on the G-string) from a 1742 Camillus Camilli, nevertheless projects the mix of pyrotechnical excitement and poignant lyricism the score demands. Joachim exerted a strong influence on the history of violin playing through his students, who included personalities as diverse as Jenö Hubay, Bronislaw Huberman, and Leopold Auer (who, having studied with him for two years, claimed that Joachim had opened his eyes). If the Concerto seems to wander, that’s neither Kim’s fault nor Halász’s.


The Second Concerto, “in the Hungarian style” has been described as the most difficult of concerted works for the violin (although certainly not for the listener); it requires strength and stamina as well as sustained brilliance, demanding a very occasional sacrifice of tonal beauty to achieve the requisite tonal strength. Kim demonstrates a rock-solid technique and the same compound of brilliance and warmth she displayed in the composer’s First Concerto, while the Halász and the Orchestra find both imposing rhetoric and human warmth in the orchestral part (as in the First Concerto, the engineers have balanced the solo and orchestra parts, creating a striking profile for the former against the highly detailed backdrop of the latter). Both soloist and orchestra emphasize the Concerto’s overt ethnicity (an element perhaps most obviously missing from alternative recordings by Treger, Rosand, Elmar Oliveira (Masters 27, 15:3), Rachel Barton Pine (Cedille 90000 068, 26:6), and Christian Tetzlaff (Virgin 502109, 31:6), all of whose readings nevertheless realized a great deal of the Concerto’s potential—except for Treger’s, which fell somewhat short of the work’s technical demands, and, in any case, isn’t any longer available. But Kim’s brilliant while offering a structurally synoptic view of this prolix Concerto (just over 45 minutes in this performance), brings an occasional poignancy that relieves the dramatic tension in the first movement—compared to Tetzlaff and Dausgaard’s thrustingly craggy symphonic reading of that movement, she and Halász take by comparison a more relaxed, expansive view (skirting the danger in such a long-winded movement, that offers no extra time to pause and smell the flowers). And after a long respite in the slow movement, a passage hardly bereft of difficulties and violinistic posturing, she opens the finale with an energetic flash that rivals Rosand’s and surpasses it in Hungarian verve.


For an imposing reading of the Hungarian Concerto, Kim’s and Halász’s could hardly be beat, and the program offers the relative novelty of the First Concerto, both in stunning performances. Strongly recommended to all kinds of listeners.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

CIMAROSA Keyboard Sonatas: R 1–18 • Victor Sangiorgio (pn) • NAXOS 8.570718 (66: 49)


I’ve only heard a small amount of Cimarosa’s music—a smattering of mediocre concerto movements, a few scattered vocal works, and of course the fine opera, Il matrimonio segreto , his only work with a significant recorded history. This constitutes a considerable demotion for the most renowned Italian composer of the late 18th century during his lifetime. As for his keyboard works, the 87 movements attributed to Cimarosa are shrouded in mystery. They weren’t discovered until 1927 (and not in the composer’s hand), contemporaneous accounts of their existence are absent, and there is no hard evidence for the purpose of their composition. Even the grouping of the pieces into two or three movement “sonatas” is largely arbitrary, accomplished apparently by the editors of published editions, although the otherwise excellent notes are ambiguous on the subject.


The first composer who springs to mind after these written descriptions and initial hearings is Domenico Scarlatti, whose similarly brief keyboard sonatas have long been standard fare. There is no issue of provenance in his case, and keyboard works were his bread and butter, not an afterthought, as appears to be the case with Cimarosa. However, the possible sonata linkage of movements in identical keys is a well-litigated point for both. Given Cimarosa’s era, we should be examining these pieces alongside the piano works of Haydn and Mozart. Yet, there are so few similarities in style and scale that such a comparison appears fruitless. Again, the more apt relationship is to his countryman Scarlatti, even though the Baroque composer was born nearly 70 years earlier. Remarkably, the sonatas of the much older composer sound more advanced. Scholars are uncertain if Cimarosa heard Scarlatti’s sonatas, but the connections seem undeniable. Listen to the first movement of the Sonata in G Minor (Rossi 10), with its conversation between hands and melodically arpeggiated figures at cadences that are repeated at the end of long phrases, a Scarlatti trademark if ever there was one. Similar commonalities in texture, mood, and melodic construction present themselves throughout this disc.


When I’m asked by a classical-music novice whom to recommend as an introduction to the art, Scarlatti is often the first name that comes to mind, since his music reveals its merits on only one or two hearings, and its brevity fits seamlessly into our pop-song culture (neither of these observations should be construed as criticisms). I could add Cimarosa’s morsels to this short list, except, to put it bluntly, there is a significant gap in quality between the two composers.


Interested listeners should also take note of a single disc of 32 Cimarosa sonatas by Evgeny Soifertis on Meridian, a two-disc set of the complete sonatas by Marcella Crudeli on Arcobaleno, and another by Andrea Coen on Stradivarius. These works were clearly written for the harpsichord, although all three of these recordings use the piano. The recorded sound is satisfactory, and Victor Sangiorgio plays with stylish intimacy.


FANFARE: Michael Cameron

SCHUBERT Mass No. 4 in D, D 452. Mass No. 2 in G, D 167. Deutsche Messe, D 872 • Morten Schuldt-Jensen, cond; Immortal Bach Ens; Leipzig Chamber O • NAXOS 8570764 (61:38)


This is a follow-up to Naxos 8570381, which contained Schubert’s great E?-Major Mass, D 950 (No. 6), his last, coupled with the Stabat Mater in G Minor, D 175, and performed by these same forces. Joel Kasow did not care much for the earlier release, calling the performance “perfunctory” in a Fanfare 32:1 review. He felt that Morten Schuldt-Jensen’s reading of the score “lacked the spirituality of the major defenders of this work, Harnoncourt and Sawallisch, or Corboz to a slightly lesser degree.” Not being familiar with any of Kasow’s notable mentions, I’m unable to comment; but of the three I do have—Robert Shaw with his Atlanta forces on Telarc, Claudio Abbado with his Vienna contingent on Deutsche Grammophon, and Charles Mackerras with the Dresdeners on Carus—the only one I would recommend would be the last-named. But my reasons are not relevant to this review since we’re discussing different works.


The first four of Schubert’s numbered masses are relatively early works, the G-Major dating from 1815, the D-Major from a year later. Of course, in Schubert’s case, age is not a reliable measure of his musical maturity. In 1816, at the age of 19, nearly two-thirds of his life was already over. Comparing his output of masses to his symphonies, it might be useful to say that in terms of musical development and sophistication his first four masses are analogous to his first six symphonies, and that just as the “Unfinished” Symphony of 1822 marks a significant turning point in Schubert’s symphonic writing, the Mass No. 5 in A? of the same year marks a departure in his writing of sacred choral music.


The Mass No. 2 has about it the sound of a wide-eyed innocent. There is something especially precious in the prettiness of its Kyrie and Credo movements. Compared to the aforementioned Shaw recording on Telarc, Schuldt-Jensen’s reading does seem a bit on the swift side. But in this blissful and ingenuous work, I’m not sure the accelerated tempo is deleterious. Slowing it down can have a cloying effect, so I rather like this performance, which is clear-eyed and straightforward. The choristers enunciate clearly, sing in tune, and have plenty of heft and body for the weightier passages.


Much of the wide-eyed innocence has disappeared a year later in the D-Major Mass (No. 4), which is scored for a larger instrumental ensemble and is more serious in tone. If only a few seconds longer in duration than the G-Major Mass, the D-Major is a bigger-boned and heavier-textured work, more in the style of Haydn’s late masses. Again, I like the clarity of diction and transparency of voicing, both choral and orchestral, that Schuldt-Jensen brings to the score. In any case, pickings are a bit slimmer for the D-Major Mass than they are for the G-Major, though Sawallisch, mentioned by Kasow in connection with the E?-Major Mass, can be heard in the D-Major as well as in a budget twofer on EMI. For the period-instrument crowd, there’s a Sony Vivarte recording with Bruno Weil leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Chorus Viennensis. And for those whose taste runs to boy trebles and altos in place of female voices, there’s George Guest with the Cambridge St. John’s College Choir and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields on Decca.


The so-called Deutsche Messe , D 872, is one of Schubert’s last sacred works, and due to the circumstances of its commission, quite possibly one of the least inspired and least interesting things he ever wrote. But listeners may at least take comfort in its “divine length,” all 24 minutes of its homophonic, hymnic monotony. The commission came from a Professor J. P. Neumann of the Polytechnic School of Vienna, the churchman who had previously provided Schubert with the libretto for Sakantala , an opera that never fully materialized. The texts for the Deutsche Messe are Neumann’s, and his request to Schubert was that the score be as musically simple as possible so that it could be performed by amateurs. Schubert discharged his duty accordingly, providing what sounds like a succession of German Protestant church hymns. The booklet provides only the titles and tempo indications for each of the nine movements, but not the full texts or translations.


Schubert wrote a large volume of sacred choral music, so it cannot be dismissed as an insignificant or occasional interest on his part. Yet with the exception of his two late masses, his sacred works have not been as widely embraced as have his songs, orchestral works, and chamber music. So, if you are just now beginning to explore this area of Schubert’s output, the new Naxos release is a modest enough investment for getting started. The G-Major Mass from the pen of the 18-year-old composer is one of his loveliest creations, and well worth getting to know.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Ildebrando Pizzetti was hailed in 1921 by the Musical Times as 'doubtless the greatest musician in Italy today'. Composed in 1918-19, the powerful Violin Sonata opens with a turbulent evocation of war and continues with a prayer for the innocent be.

Includes work(s) by Girolamo Frescobaldi. Soloist: Martha Folts.

Peter Breiner's arrangements of music from these two operas succeed on a number of levels. First, the two works offer a great deal of symphonic music to work with (the ballets in Vixen, and the overture and pantomime in House). Second, he has arranged the excerpts very intelligently for continuous listening. In the Vixen Suite it's great to hear the scene in Act 3 with the baby foxes, and it makes an excellent lead-in to the final bars. Similarly, the preludes to the second and third acts of House are nicely integrated into lengthier tracts of music.

Yes, I have a couple of quibbles. The added percussion is completely unnecessary: why all the triangle in the Vixen suite? Obviously there's nothing wrong with substituting instruments for vocal lines, or filling out the texture of bare accompaniments, but Breiner gets a bit carried away in spots (though certainly not worse than Janácek's early arrangers, Vaclav Talich included).

As a conductor, Breiner is almost totally successful. Occasionally his tempos drag a bit, as in the "Eagle, King of the Forests" music in House, or in the closing scene of the Vixen's first act--it ought to be mayhem personified, but here it's simply too careful. Elsewhere, everything goes very well, with the New Zealand Symphony making a more positive impression here than in earlier releases in this series. Perhaps it's at least partly due to the generally more colorful orchestration, which the engineering projects to vivid effect. Strongly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Vivaldi was not the only composer to write a universally popular Four Seasons. Composed directly after The Creation (Naxos 8557380-81), Haydn's oratorio The Seasons features three peasant soloists who sing of the joys, trials and tribulations of country life throughout the year, complete with a chorus of villagers. Haydn's genius transforms many genre scenes - a summer storm, hunting episodes, daybreak, the gloomy winter fog and peasant dances - into something truly spectacular, joyous and life-affirming, in keeping with his deeply held religious conviction. Morten Schuldt-Jensen and the Gewandhaus chamber choir join forces again for this their second Naxos release.