Vivaldi's universally popular Four Seasons has become one of the most recorded pieces of classical music. The four concertos, with their virtuoso part for solo violinist, depict the changing seasons in a pastoral landscape with dazzling variety.

From West Side Story to the Simpsons, Barber' Adagio and music by John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, this recording captures all the excitement of some of the most popular movie and television soundtracks, arranged for brass quintet.

The Missa Cellensis was Haydn' first Mass setting for his new employers at EszterhAza. In common with his Stabat Mater, Haydn draws upon the wealth of musical styles and traditions associated with the Viennese Mass. Scored for strings, oboes, bassoon.

SUMMERTIME - MUSIC FOR CLARINET QUARTET

Bridge: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 4 - Phantasy Piano Quartet

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductors: Paul Murphy, Gavin Sutherland. Soloist: Andrew Vinter.

Autobiographical in content, Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben is one of a series of tone-poems, including, Also Sprach Zarathustra (Naxos 8.571215), in which he explored the utmost limits of extra-musical content in this form. The hero passes through love and adversity, confrontation, triumph in battle and fulfilment in a single, powerfully descriptive symphonic span. Gerard Schwarz's Ein Heldenleben has been acclaimed as "exciting and inspired" (Gramophone). The opera Capriccio is a romantic struggle to choose between words and music which opens with a gloriously bitter-sweet string sextet.

Written mostly during the last five years of his life, Purcell' Theatre Music is a rich and varied collection of some of the composer' finest melodic inspirations.

Includes work(s) by Francis Poulenc, Jacques Ibert, Darius Milhaud, Jean Françaix. Ensemble: Danish National Radio Symphony Wind Quintet. Soloist: Ralf Gothóni.

This disc of music by internationally renowned British composer Philip Wilby includes several world premiere recordings.

MOZART Divertimento in B?, K 254. Piano Trios: No. 1; No. 3 • Kungsbacka Tr • NAXOS 8.570518 (63:28)


While the string quartet and piano trio almost certainly originated in earlier Baroque models, Franz Joseph Haydn is generally credited with having established both of them as permanent, formalized fixtures, if by no other measure than sheer dint of his voluminous output. At latest tally, Haydn’s piano trios number 45, though in the late 1970s, when the Beaux Arts Trio set out to record its monumental œuvre intégral for Philips, there were 43; and in a more recent period-instruments set from the Van Swieten Trio on Brilliant Classics that calls itself “complete” the total seems to have dwindled to 37. I suppose one could explain away the discrepancy based on an interpretation of what constitutes a piano trio; for clearly Haydn’s earliest efforts in the medium (he began writing trios as early as 1766 and continued as late as 1797) resemble more closely the trio sonata from which the piano trio most likely evolved.


No such ambiguities or count controversies exist when it comes to Mozart’s piano trios; for there are only six of them, and of those, all but one were written late in the composer’s life, between 1786 and 1788, a period that saw the creation of some of his greatest works. And yet, the trios have long been consigned to a seat at the back of the bus. It’s understandable, I suppose, to regard the modest forces of a piano trio as Lilliputian compared to the cast of singers and players to be marshaled for a performance of The Marriage of Figaro , completed in the same year as the G-Major Trio. But if you listen closely to these miniature masterpieces, you will hear the mature Mozart at work, with all of the perfection of craftsmanship and subtleties of melodic and harmonic expression to be found in the scores dating from the composer’s last five years.


That Mozart had the advantage of Haydn’s trios as models meant that he did not have to reinvent the wheel; it was ready-made for him to adopt and advance. Haydn had to learn how to free the cello from its trio sonata role of merely doubling the left hand of the keyboard part. Even in Mozart’s first foray into the medium, his 1776 B?-Major Divertimento, K 254, much of the time the cello still plays Doppelganger to the bass line. But by the time he came to write his five mature piano trios, Mozart had absorbed and in some ways surpassed what he learned from Haydn. I would not be prepared to claim, however, that the works in this medium, either by Haydn or by Mozart, prognosticate the piano trio’s future in the hands of Beethoven; for its transformation by Beethoven into a supersized and supercharged vessel for dramatic and expressive communication would cement its permanence, along with that of the string quartet, as the most populous and significant chamber music genre even unto the present day.


The 11-year-old Kungsbacka Trio (Malin Broman, violin; Jesper Svedberg, cello; and Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano) was formed in 1997 and takes its name from the Swedish town that hosted its first public performance in 2001. The current release, designated by Naxos as Volume 1, promises a follow-on disc containing Mozart’s remaining three trios. As of this writing, however, the Kungsbacka Trio has made only two other recordings—Schubert’s great E?-Major Piano Trio, also for Naxos, and for BIS a program of works by contemporary Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist.


Despite the modest scale and the less than crown-jewel worth accorded these trios, there has been no dearth of high-profile ensembles that have committed them to disc, among them the always trustworthy Beaux Arts Trio, long available in a budget twofer from Philips, as well as more recent entries from the Florestan and Parnassus Trios on Hyperion and MDG respectively, and my own personal favorite from the Gryphon Trio on Analekta. Not to slight the period-instruments buffs, there’s also the Trio Stradivari on cpo and the London Fortepiano Trio on Hyperion.


The Kungsbacka Trio is a modern-instruments ensemble, but it plays stylishly and tastefully. Translation: articulation is crisp, vibrato is minimal, tempos are spirited in allegro movements and forward moving in andante movements, open strings are not avoided, and first-movement exposition repeats are taken.


For those who don’t already have one or more versions of these trios in their collections and/or who are not uncompromising advocates for period instruments, the Kungsbacka Trio can be recommended for very fine playing, and Naxos’s recording, at a price that can’t be beat, is excellent. A most satisfying first installment of Mozart’s six piano trios; I look forward to its completion.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

arlheinz Stockhausen recalled that one day in September 1969 ‘I had the idea of one single musical figure or formula that would be expanded over a very long period of time…I wrote down this melody on an envelope.’ Thus was born Mantra, the first mature example of Stockhausen’s ‘formula’ technique which was to dominate his output until his death in 2007. Effectively a trio including a sound projectionist, Mantra retains a good deal of freedom, transcendental mysticism and playful, abandoned inventiveness within its quasi-serialist approach. This recording is the first to use digital technology, with equipment specially designed by Stockhausen’s former assistant Jan Panis, and approved by the composer.

Georges Onslow was descended from an aristocratic English family, his paternal grandfather being the first Earl of Onslow. Georges was born in France, where he studied, though he also took lessons from Dussek and Cramer in London. His esteem was such that he later succeeded to Cherubini’s chair of music in Paris. He was famed for his chamber music, and the three Cello Sonatas, Op 16, completed in 1820, were compared with those of Beethoven. They represent some of the finest such sonatas to be written in France in the first half of the nineteenth century.

A native of Leipzig and steeped in the musical tradition of J. S. Bach, Helmut Walcha was one of the most influential organists of the 20th century. Building on Baroque examples, Walcha started composing the Chorale Preludes during the war years and they became popular teaching pieces as well as ideal vehicles for expressing the clarity and colour of organs both historic and new. As one of Walcha’s most renowned students, Wolfgang Rübsam’s interpretations are uniquely authoritative. This is the first of four volumes of Walcha’s complete Chorale Preludes.

Five vividly contrasting works, four of them in world première recordings, make up this latest issue in the Naxos series of orchestral music by the Italian composer Gian Francesco Malipiero. Visions of heroism and death form the cornerstone of the release, in the Ditirambo tragico (Tragic Dithyramb) composed during the First World War, and in Malipiero’s two earliest surviving pieces, Dai sepolcri (From ‘Tombs’) and the Sinfonia degli eroi (Symphony of Heroes). They are heard alongside the deceptively relaxed charm of Armenia, based on traditional Armenian melodies, and the varied, pungently Stravinskian moods of the aptly titled Grottesco (Grotesque).

Following Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Ivan Karabits became the country’s leading musical figure. An inspirational composer, artistic director and teacher, he absorbed into his own music three particular traditions: Mahler, Shostakovich, and the folk-music of his native country. The colourful, virtuosic and at times theatrical Concertos for Orchestra reflect the influence of his friend and mentor, Rodion Shchedrin. Following Karabits’ untimely death, his compatriot Valentin Silvestrov composed two heartfelt memorials. The first of these, Elegie, makes use of Karabits’ own unfinished pencil sketches which sit side by side with Silvestrov’s own ideas as the piece progresses, almost as if it were a dialogue between the two friends about their work.

The first movement of the Serenata is a stately March, in which the smaller and larger groups of instruments are contrasted. There follows a Minuet, and a Trio played by the concertino, leading, after the repetition of the Minuet, to a final Rondo that includes episodes of possible topical reference. Within the framework of the repeated principal theme comes a solemn Adagio, the music of a country dance and a brief and unexpected plucking of strings, before the lively conclusion. The Divertimento in F major is scored for two horns and strings, and was completed in June, 1776, for Countess Antonia Lodron's name-day It starts with a lively movement in all the clarity of classical first movement form. This is followed by a C major Andante grazioso and a first Minuet returning to the key of F, with a contrasting D minor Trio. The next movement, marked Adagio and in the key of B flat, is scored only for strings, the first violin taking the lead. The second Minuet, in F, with a B flat Trio for the strings alone, leads to a final movement with a slow introduction and a varied concluding rondo, all well suited to the occasion of the composition Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Serenade in G, K 525, comes from a later period of Mozart's life. In 1781 Mozart, who had returned from Mannheim and Paris to the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, accompanied his patron on a visit to the Imperial capital, Vienna. There he finally broke with his employer and secured his dismissal from the archiepiscopal court. In Vienna there seemed every opportunity, which it seemed his patron was deliberately preventing him from seizing.

The Third Piano Concerto has been considered the "Cinderella" among Camille Saint-Saëns' five works in this genre, but it owes its comparative neglect to an adventurous approach to harmony which caused unrest in the audience at its premiere. Daring enough in the first movement, the search for tonality in the second was such an extreme experience that is caused unrest in the audience at its premiere. Saint-Saëns also composed for piano and orchestra in more rhapsodic forms, exploring folk tunes and rhythms from Africa, and revealing his playful side in the charming Wedding Cake Waltz. Volume 1 can be heard on 8573476.

All of Saint-Saëns’ symphonies have been thrown into the shadows by the popularity of the last of them, the famous “Organ” Symphony (No. 3). This is a pity, because the others are very enjoyable and rewarding pieces. The First, dating from 1852 when the composer was only seventeen, features a finale whose scoring includes saxhorns, cymbals, and four harps, and it reveals a composer who, despite his classical leanings, wasn’t afraid to challenge convention. The more modestly scored Second Symphony of seven years later continues that trend, sporting a contrapuntal opening movement that’s remarkably assured and formally successful.

The standard reference versions for these works have been Martinon’s EMI (now Warner) recordings, but Soustrot’s are different enough to justify duplication. In the First Symphony, particularly, Soustrot adopts a very slow, dreamy tempo for the Adagio, but it works very well, particularly in contrast to the bold and brassy finale which follows without a break. Soustrot correctly highlights the adventurous writing for the harps, but never tastelessly, and some listeners may feel that the interpretation finds additional expressive depth in music often denigrated as merely sentimental. It’s good to hear it played with no apologies.

In the Second Symphony Soustrot comes closer to Martinon in terms of timing, but there’s no denying the extra clarity and nimbleness of the Malmö ensemble as compared to the old French National Radio and Television Orchestra for EMI. Soustrot’s exciting and rhythmically sharp reading of Phaéton makes a welcome bonus. This is unquestionably one of the best recordings of the piece, with an especially effective thunderbolt as Zeus hurls the hapless chariot (of the sun) driver from his seat. Attractively natural sonics round out a very promising start to this new series.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Puerto Rican composer and guitarist Ernesto Cordero dedicated his Concierto Festivo to celebrated soloist Pepe Romero, who describes the work as having ‘divine inspiration’. These works derive their warmth of expression and rhythmic influence from the composer’s native Caribbean island, and the two violin concertos ĺnsula and Concerto Tropical both contain descriptive elements from landscape and nature. ĺnsula is dedicated to renowned violinist and conductor Guillermo Figueroa, and I Solisti di Zagreb are recognised as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras.

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Exemplary performances by everyone make these concerti shine all the brighter…the recordings are good. They project a modest soundstage with the soloists well placed and balanced in a reverberant acoustic that will appeal to those liking wetter sonics. The guitar is beautifully captured, while the string sound is generally pleasant…

© 2011 Classical Lost and Found

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The guitar concerto – written for and here played by its dedicatee, Pepe Romero - is exciting and draws on the harsh rhythmic bark of violent strumming. There are moments when one is aware of Cordero’s debt to Rodrigo but it is by no means immanent. The writing, across all three works, puts me in mind of Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas but also of Schnittke’s super-romantic steely hyper-baroque writing. Casting a benign light across these concertos is a presence I had not expected: that of Vaughan Williams. More than occasionally RVW’s characteristic pastoral pentatonic sound comes to mind. It’s a foundation or an overlay rather than a facsimile of The Lark Ascending. Even so the two works for violin and orchestra are rather reminiscent of The Lark but perceived through the intensifying lens of late-twentieth century angst. The orchestration is delicate and the ideas often tender. However, when the music becomes animated the style moves towards the stony despair and the metallic exuberance of the Shostakovich violin concertos. The useful liner-notes are by the composer.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

An essential addition to many collections.

Jerusalem and I was glad have been recorded zillions of times, as you might expect given their exalted status among English cathedral choral works. Even the six motets that make up the Songs of Farewell have been well-treated on disc, and at least one other recording, from St. George's Chapel Windsor Castle (Hyperion), nearly duplicates this program. Among all of those recordings you inevitably could find performances of individual works that are to some degree better than the ones presented here, but Christopher Stokes and his 25-voice Manchester Cathedral Choir (15 boy-and-girl trebles joined with 10 altos, tenors, and basses), along with organist Jeffrey Makinson and the Naxos production team, give lovers of this music the spacious cathedral ambience and the spirited performances they expect, technically sound and fervently expressed.

It's nearly impossible to imagine ever growing tired of Parry's magnificent setting of William Blake's Jerusalem, nor of such sensitive and deeply moving realizations of the poetry in the Songs of Farewell, particularly Thomas Campion's Never weather-beaten sail and Psalm 39 (Lord, let me know mine end). Here they are treated as respectfully and rendered as powerfully as any choir has done, and rarely do you hear such lovely treble singing as in the selection from Parry's oratorio Judith (Long since in Egypt's plenteous land). Speaking of trebles, the recording--and apparently the cathedral space itself--favors them at the expense of the lower voices, and the organ, wonderful as it is to hear, also tends to be a bit too assertive at times. But these are not criticisms serious enough to undermine the very fine, eminently repeatable performances. In fact, for musical value and price, you can't really do better than this in this repertoire. Definitely recommended.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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This is a perfect introduction to the choral music of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. The repertoire covers his three most popular choral works alongside three great works that are typically known to Parry enthusiasts and those who inhabit the organ loft or choir stalls: the two groups are not mutually exclusive. I did a little survey: I asked five people (not British Music fans) to name a piece of music by Parry. Only one was able to suggest Jerusalem, but added that it might have been by Elgar ... The other four, unsurprisingly, had heard of this great hymn, but the composer remained a blank spot.

The CD gets off to a great start with the anthem I was glad. It was originally written for the Coronation of Edward VII and was also performed at the Service for George VI and the present Queen. Manchester Cathedral Choir cope well with this powerful music and the organ is heard to impressive effect. As is traditional, the acclamations of 'Vivat Rex' or 'Regina' are omitted in this recording. One wonders if this anthem will be used at subsequent Coronations (long, long may that be in the future) or whether something more egalitarian and balanced towards 'world music' will be the order of the day?

The Great Service in D major is a fine piece of choral music that can be used in both a liturgical or concert setting. At nearly nine minutes the Magnificat may be a little long for St Swithun's Parish Church Evensong, but in Cathedrals this would be an acceptable length. Both parts of the Canticles reveal a confident composer who is totally at home in the world of Anglican Church music. The service was written in 1881 for Trinity College Cambridge, however it was not published until 1984. This is a great setting that is a million miles away from the popular view that Victorian church music was over-sentimental and stodgy.

The Songs of Farewell are quite simply stunning. This is a major work that explores feelings about the transience of life and involves much reflection by the composer back across the years of his musical achievement. Parry stated that, at seventy years of age, he had reached 'the last milestone.' It would be a project worthy of a dissertation or a thesis to explore the composer's religious sensibilities at this time in his life. He was not a conventionally Christian believer and would have seen the texts in a personal context rather than liturgical. Yet each of these motets is deeply moving and invariably inspiring.

I guess that many habitués of cathedral and parish churches will know the opening My Soul, there is a country - a fine setting of Henry Vaughan's fundamentally optimistic words. Yet the remaining five motets are less often performed and less well known. The composer provides considerable interest in these subsequent motets by use of varying number of parts and a fine balance of a fundamentally harmonic language over against more complex but never 'academic' contrapuntal workings.

Perhaps the mood of the entire collection is best summed up by the last motet Lord, let me know mine end. The last words of this psalm ask God to 'O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen'. Hardly the thoughts of a confident evangelical who 'knew' that he was going to join the saints in glory but more those of a deep-seated agnostic.

For me the most beautiful work on this CD is Hear my words, ye people. It is a compendium of texts taken from the Old Testament books of Job, Isaiah and the Psalms. The work was originally composed for the 1894 Festival of the Salisbury Diocesan Choral Association. Unbelievably, it was conceived for 2000 singers with a semi-chorus of some 400! There was an organ accompaniment and brass band present the first performance. The choral music part was kept relatively simple, as there was little time for rehearsal. The more complex music was given to the soprano and baritone soloists. In this recording the baritone part is sung by Mark Rowlinson: the other solo parts are taken by groups of choristers. The work concludes with the well-known hymn O Praise ye the Lord, which was a paraphrase of Psalm 150 by Sir Henry Baker. Something tells me that this 'pared-down' version is actually more effective and satisfying than the original. It is a truly gorgeous work that ought to have a secure place in the repertoire.

The penultimate piece is from the oratorio Judith. Many folk will know the hymn-tune Repton, which accompanies the words Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, without realising the source of the text and the music. Judith was a highly successful oratorio, which was first performed in 1888. The words are from a poem entitled The Brewing of Soma by the American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. It is given here with great variety of dynamics and constant attention to the meaning of the words.

Jerusalem is the last piece on this CD. Naturally, it is in Parry's incarnation - with organ accompaniment rather than the gorgeous, but manifestly overblown Elgarian version. No matter how many times I hear this work I cannot help feeling that it is one of the finest hymns ever composed on Earth or in Heaven. For the record it was written during the Great War at the suggestion of Robert Bridges and Walford Davies for a 'Fight for Right' meeting at the Queen's Hall in London.

The quality of the recording is superb, the programmes notes by Keith Anderson are suitably informative and the texts of all the works are provided. The cover picture is entitled 'Beach Sunset' and presumably alludes to the 'Country beyond the Stars'. Yet it has a definite feel of Morecambe Bay about it.  
The obvious comparison for this CD is the Hyperion recording of the Choir of St George's Chapel of Windsor conducted by Christopher Robinson. This was - and still is - an essential disc for all Parry enthusiasts and received excellent reviews. However, I have always had a soft spot for Manchester Cathedral: my father's family were from Lancashire and looked towards this great City for work, worship and pleasure. I first visited cathedral in the early seventies, and have enjoyed musical events and services there on an occasional basis over the years. This present recording is a fine monument to a great musical and ecclesiastical tradition. It will be an essential addition to many collections.

John France, MusicWeb International

Recording information: Alsion Concert Hall, Sonderborg, Denmark (12/18/2007-12/21/2007).

Having admirably survived Bax's discursive piano sonatas, Ashley Wass devotes all of his third volume of this composer's piano works to relatively smaller-scaled fare. Actually, the opening selection, What the Minstrel Told Us, times out to 11 minutes. The outer sections feature a bardic melody gently supported by slow moving, impressionistic chords and arpeggiated figures, while a middle section develops this material more agitatedly. Wass summons up all the tone color and sustaining power needed to convey the orchestral sensibility of the piano writing.


He plays the nocturne-like Princess's Rose Garden a bit straighter than Eric Parkin's more garishly-voiced Chandos recording, yet he shapes the chromatic motives with plenty of affection. By contrast, Wass doesn't clarify A Hill Tune's left-hand melodic content and right-hand accompaniment to Parkin's more fluid distinction. However, he scores with more rhythmic snap in the Spanish-tinged Mediterranean and renders the Gopak steadier, sharper, yet slightly slower in contrast to Parkin's brisker, looser approach. In short, collectors who've enjoyed Wass' previous Bax discs also will find this well-recorded, superbly annotated release to their liking. I look forward to this cycle's fourth and final volume.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

As I've noted in previous reviews, the nature of the keyboard writing in Liszt's massive organ fantasy and fugue based on the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam from Meyerbeer's Le Prophete lends itself well to the piano. Although Liszt himself made an effective piano duet arrangement, Busoni's two-handed piano version can stand toe-to-toe with Liszt's B minor sonata as a virtuoso showpiece. That is, if you have the right pianist.

By and large, Wolf Harden is up to the task. He effortlessly navigates the outer sections' technical difficulties and stamina-testing textures, and sensitively sustains the central lyrical movement. Perhaps the latter emerges with more austere transparency in Hamish Milne's Hyperion studio recording, while the formidable fugue benefits from Giovanni Belluci's greater animation and dramatic sweep in an out-of-print recording on the small Assai label. And perhaps you could imagine more incisive and assertive interpretations of the weak "fake Brahms" F minor sonata Busoni wrote as a teenager and of the composer's late, bitonally obsessed Prélude et etude arpèges. However, this is definitely worth it for "Ad nod" and for Richard Whitehouse's extensive, highly informative booklet notes.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

For a less caustic, more ample-toned, and softer-edged set of Shostakovich Op. 34 Preludes than we usually hear, check out Konstantin Scherbakov. His performances contain many beautiful things. No. 2's whimsical scales and runs magically glide over the bar lines, while No. 9 and No. 12's whirling patterns are impressively controlled and supple--and the pianist articulates the marcato/legato interplay in No. 11 and No. 21 to perfection.


My criticism concerns Scherbakov's arch rubato within certain lyrical pieces. His little holdbacks and gratuitous ritards in No. 8, for example, undermine the effect of the composer's indicated ritards, which the pianist barely observes anyway. And a few exposed wrong notes easily could have been corrected (the E-flat in No. 5, measure 14). Such blemishes, however, do not detract from Scherbakov's compelling pianism.


All the virtues Scherbakov brings to the Preludes equally apply to the composer's gnarly Aphorisms cycle and youthful Three Fantastic Dances. The pianist also sails through the First Sonata's unrelenting polytextural thickets and age-of-steel dissonances with maximum power and minimum struggle. Eleanor Thomason's superb engineering yields one of the finest sounding solo piano discs Naxos has produced.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Boris Tchaikovsky. Ensembles: Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra, Saratov Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Conductors: Eduard Serov, Kirill Ershov.

The first German artist to win the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York, Axel Strauss was acclaimed for his recording of Mendelssohn' Songs Without Words as 'an excellent violinist who plays these with wit and verve'.

Light—life-enabling, life-enhancing. Something fundamental, universal in our life. Images evoking it abound in language, and virtually all the authors of the texts set here deal with or refer to it in one way or another, from ancient seers to the modern luminary Desmond Tutu.

There are of course many different kinds of light, but on its own the single word evokes something bright, pure, clear. These are words which can equally well be applied to James Whitbourn’s music. His writing is simple and straightforward (especially harmonically), and not outwardly virtuosic; his use of texture (often under-appreciated as a musical value) is also simple, but beguiling. The choir often sings homophonically (all voice parts moving in the same rhythm, as in a hymn), which implies a clarity of communication. But with a few sure strokes—the addition of a single element, such as the solo voice in the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and A Prayer of Desmond Tutu, or the use of percussion in the same works, or the tanpura and the cunningly Eastern-sounding viola in Luminosity, he can simultaneously evoke different, non-Western traditions, and thereby multiply the allusions.

-- Bernard Robertson

Includes work(s) by Miklós Rózsa. Soloists: Philippe Quint, William Wolfram.

After Things to Come, his most famous film score, Arthur Bliss composed the soundtrack scores of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS and MEN OF TWO WORLDS, two dramatic pictures which are largely forgotten today. Their music, however, enlivened by Spanish and African rhythms respectively, is colourful and interesting enough to be revived in the form of concert suites. Men of Two Worlds contains BARAZA, a miniature concert piece for piano and orchestra (like Addinsell�s �Warsaw Concerto� from Dangerous Moonlight, Bax�s Oliver Twist, R�zsa�s Spellbound and Herrmann�s �Concerto Macabre� from Hangover Square), with additional male choir. The three orchestral pieces from SEVEN WAVES AWAY are another real discovery and if anything even more deserving of concert performances than the two earlier scores.