Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Purcell: Tempest (The)

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer may not have been a great composer, but he was an important one, not least because his Ariadne musica--20 preludes and fugues in most of the available keys--clearly inspired Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Fischer's Musical Parnassus consists of nine suites of harpsichord music more or less in the French style (as he understood it), each named for one of the muses, though without any descriptive intent in this regard. This first disc contains the first six suites, and in case you've ever wondered how certain French record labels (Calliope and Erato, to be specific) got their names, now you know. The music itself is charming, highly varied in tempo and rhythm, and easily digestible--most of the various dance movements are less than two minutes long. Luc Beauséjour plays with both delicacy and verve, all the more effective due to the attractive sound of his instrument, which is captured in a recording that gives the music an appealing brightness without clangor or excessive mechanical noise from harpsichord's keyboard action. A charmer. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

BACH, J.S.: Concertos for Two, Three and Four Harpsichords

Be honest now: who could possibly have foreseen that we would have had rival versions of both Rawsthorne violin concertos appearing within almost a year of each other? Valuable as that earlier BBC Radio Classics anthology remains, enthusiasts should waste no time in snapping up this new Naxos CD, containing as it does music-making of perceptive dedication and impressive polish.

Rawsthorne completed his First Violin Concerto in 1947, dedicating the score to Walton (listen for the tongue-in-cheek quotation from Belshazzar's Feast just before the end). Cast in just two movements, it is a lyrically affecting, creation that weaves quite a spell, especially in a performance as dignified and consistently purposeful as the present one. However, the revelation (for this listener, at any rate) comes with the Second Concerto of 1956. Pleasing as the 1968 ParikianlSchwarz broadcast account undoubtedly is, Rebecca Hirsch and Lionel Friend locate a deceptive urgency and symphonic thrust in the opening Allegretto that genuinely compel. If anything, the succeeding Poco lento wears an even more anguished, nervy demeanour, the music's questing mood very well conveyed. By contrast, the finale (a theme and variations) proceeds in serene, almost carefree fashion, its witty coda forming a delightfully unbuttoned conclusion to a genuinely striking, much-underrated work.

As a curtain-raiser, Naxos give us the fantasy overture, Corteges. Commissioned by the BBC and premiered at the 1945 Proms by the LSO under Basil Cameron, it is an approachable, well-wrought essay, pitting an eloquent Adagio processional ("wistfully expressive rather than tragic in tone", as annotator Sebastian Forbes astutely observes) against an irrepressible Allegro molto vivace tarantella (echoes here of Rawsthorne's own exuberant Street Corner Overture from the previous year). The composer develops his material with customary skill, and Friend draws a committed and alert response from the BBC Scottish SO (who seem to enjoy the experience hugely).

Boasting a spacious, bright and admirably balanced sound picture (no attempt to spotlight the soloist), here is an enormously rewarding issue. Encouragingly, there's more Rawsthorne in the Naxos pipeline.

-- Gramophone [9/1998]

Bruckner: Symphonies No. 8, WAB 108 & No. 0, "Nullte", WAB 1

Anton Reicha, originally born Antonín Rejcha in Prague, was a friend to both Haydn and Beethoven. While translating French for them, he became preoccupied with change, going so far as to advocate doing away with barlines in music. His radical ideas did not make their way into his woodwind quintets, which are inventive yet thoroughly rooted in late Classical and early Romantic harmony and rhythms. Reicha made this particular combination of instruments "his", and became renowned for his quintets, which rivaled the quartets of Haydn in popularity. The two works presented on this entertaining CD are the last numbers of two different sets--Op. 88 and Op. 91. Sprightly tunes and clever melodic invention abound in both, and the players are each given ample opportunity to shine in virtuoso displays, notably the clarinet and bassoon in the trio of the C minor Quintet's Menuetto and the horn in the Meneutto of the F major. But superb playing is required in every movement of these works, and the Michael Thompson Wind Quintet players are up to the task, turning in some outstanding solo turns and a lot of cohesive ensemble playing as well. The recorded sound is just right--intimate but not close up enough to catch the distracting clacking of keys. --Rad Bennett, ClassicsToday.com

Field: Piano Concertos, Vol. 3

Rheinberger, J.G.: Organ Works, Vol. 2

DUPRE: Works for Organ, Vol. 7

The Suite Bretonne, Op. 21, dates from 1923, and is dedicated to Mademoiselle Hilda Gelis-Didot. She was a close friend of the Dupr� family, and was related to the Firmin-Didot family, who have been responsible for many years for the publications of the Institute of France. The suite consists of three, short programmatic pieces inspired by a visit Dupr� made to Brittany. Berceuse is a cradle-song, which describes the gentle rocking by a mother of her baby's cradle. It uses a folk-like melody which, when it returns, appears in canon at the octave between the soprano and a 4' flute in the pedals. Fileuse (Spinning) portrays a Breton woman at the spinning-wheel. The whirling of the wheel is portrayed through the use of a running semi quaver (sixteenth note) ostinato in the left-hand, played on the Voix C�leste stop, which continues throughout the piece. Les Cloches de Perros-Guirec (The Bells of Perros-Guirec), a small coastal town near Brest in Brittany, depicts a procession of Breton peasants, jauntily on their way to church on a Sunday morning. In Memoriam, Op. 61, is the largest of the composer's last works. It dates from 1965, and is dedicated to the memory of his daughter Marguerite Tollet, n�e Dupr�, who was born in 1909 and died on 26th October, 1963, after a long illness. It is the last in a series of commemorative works which Dupr� composed throughout his career in memory of friends and relatives. In the case of his daughter the grief was intense, and Norbert Dufourcq described the work as "... a votive stone offered in memory of his child." She was an accomplished pianist, and accompanied him on several tours of the United States, performing works for piano and organ with her father. The six pieces are in two volumes, framed by an elegiac Pr�lude and a brilliant Postlude. In the intervening movements the composer remembers aspects of his daughter's life, from her childhood to her death. Allegretto is perhaps a game of "hide-and-seek", and the M�ditation a "bedtime story". The Quod Libet is a series of eight variations on a twelve-note theme, which the composer subjects to a number of slightly humorous turns of phrase. The Ricercare is a sublime piece of six-part counterpoint. It's restrained beauty represents the type of piece that Dupr� would often improvise during communion at St Sulpice. The Suite, Op. 39, was published in 1945 and is dedicated to Marguerite Pascouau-Laborde, Dupr�'s mother-in-law. It's four movements are part of a series of twelve �tudes, which Dupr� wrote for his prize pupil Jeanne Demessieux. These pieces were meant as vehicles for the perfection of a virtuoso technique, much in the manner of the transcendental studies Liszt wrote for the piano. Of the twelve studies, nine survive, which include, together with Op. 39, Offrande � la Vierge, Op. 40, (Naxos 8.554026), and Trois Esquisses, Op. 41. Allegro agitato uses chromatic thirds, sixths, and scales to achieve a rapid shimmer of sound. In her diary, Demessieux wrote of this remarkable movement "... one has to hear the noise of millions of agitated molecules in a forest to be able to assimilate the independence of the writing... " Cantabile consists of rich, chromatic harmony in six parts, including a canon between the upper part and the right foot. The Scherzando is a playful, burbling movement, requiring dexterity of both hands and feet as octaves, thirds and sixths are continually present. The Final begins as a gruff, marcato movement of an ominous nature. This gradually gives way to a sense of joie-de-vivre, which grows in intensity to a conclusion of triumph, splendor and brilliance. Trois E, quisses Op. 41, ('Three Sketches') concludes the series of studies Dupr� wrote for Jeanne Demessieux. The C major Sketch, excluded by the composer from publication in 1946, was brought into print in 1975 under the editorial supervision of the composer's student, Rolande Falcinelli. It is a brooding, turbulent work that rises to an intense climax and ends quietly. The E minor and B flat minor Sketches were published as Deux Esquissess Op. 41, in 1946, and first performed by the composer on 11th February, 1946, at the Salle Pleyel. They are dedicated to Madame St�phanie Borneman, wife of the publisher of much of Dupr�'s music. The first is a scherzo which features repeated notes played on a Bourdon and Tierce. The second is a diabolical toccata for full organ, which uses octaves continually in both the hands and feet.

LEGNANI: Fantasia, Op. 19 / 36 Caprices, Op. 20

Reger, M.: Organ Works, Vol. 3

The American John Holmquist's performing honors include first prize and a standing ovation at the prestigious Guitar International Competition in Toronto, and a Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. John Holmquist was the first person to edit the recently rediscovered Ten Etudes for guitar by Giulio Regondi. Unearthed in a private collection in Moscow by Matanya Ophee and published by Editions Orphee, these compositions are held to represent one of the most significant finds in the guitar literature this century. John Holmquist subsequently recorded the manuscript for Naxos.

STRAUSS, R.: Don Quixote / Romance for Cello and Orchestra