Britten: String Quartet No. 3 & Simple Symphony

Any new release of Goyescas faces unavoidable comparison to Alicia de Larrocha's standard-setting interpretation (her 1976 Decca version is the finest of her four recordings). Happily, Douglas Riva's persuasive playing stands up well to such formidable competition. Having prepared a critical edition of Granados' piano works, Riva knows this music cold, and dispatches its colorful, multi-leveled textures and idiosyncratic figurations with fluent elegance. True, he doesn't command De Larrocha's wide vocabulary of articulations, nor her fearless dynamism. Yet his stylish, clear-cut playing benefits from engineering that's superior to Decca's tubby sonics. As a bonus, Riva includes the previously unrecorded "Serenata goyesca", a slight, rather inconclusive piece that may have formed part of Goyescas' first draft. Riva provides his own excellent, informative annotations. A highly recommended release. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Guitar Recital: Jason Vieaux

BACH, J.S.: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, BWV 1004-1

FÜR ELISE - ROMANTIC PIANO MUSIC

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Soviet Red Army Chorus, Red Army Band. Conductor: Victor Fedorov.

Bill Plays Bud

LOS ANGELES JAZZ QUARTET: Conversation Piece

The wedding in 1568 of Renate of Lorraine to Wilhelm V, heir to the throne of the Duke of Bavaria, was a sumptuous, 18-day spectacular designed to rival those of the Italian courts. Orlande de Lassus had been the court’s maestro di cappella since 1556. Using an eye-witness account of the event, Ensemble Origo presents a hypothetical reconstruction of some of his musical contributions – a Te Deum, the moresca (a genre related to the villanella), and an improvised comedy – thereby shedding light on some of the various meanings that the music had for its 16th-century listeners. Ensemble Origo is an early music ensemble founded in 2010 and directed by Connecticut-based musicologist and conductor Eric Rice. Its aim is to present vibrant performances and recordings of early music – from the Middle Ages through to the Baroque – that reflect the context in which the repertory was originally produced and heard; ‘Origo’ is Latin for ‘earliest beginning’, ‘lineage’, or ‘origin’. The ensemble draws on a roster of musicians from Connecticut, Boston, and New York.

From Eric Rice, Director of Ensemble Origo: "This recording originated from my curiosity about the moresca, an Italian musical genre that caricatured Black Africans. I wanted to know where, how, and for whom these pieces were performed; this recording of four vignettes from a 16th-century wedding is the result."

"Like most scholars and performers of early European music, I am a white person of privilege, and among the many things such privilege has afforded me is the opportunity to study and perform this music. While I do not claim any first-hand knowledge of exclusion due to my race, my gender, or the traditional beliefs of my ancestors, I am fervently interested in understanding racism, oppression, and their manifestations in cultures past and present. Oppression in music of the past is often simple erasure on the part of music historians and performers: the tacit denial that people of other races even existed in a particular time and place, either through neglect or refusal to bring their documented presence to light. Such erasure, in turn, has resulted in a lack of understanding of how music was used to perpetuate the myth of white European superiority."

"In this recording, I aim to show the presence of Black Africans in several 16th-century European musical works, to demonstrate how these works were used, and to invite our listeners to consider their various purposes, including the perpetuation of the white superiority myth. While I could have demonstrated such uses solely in the context of scholarly articles, these have less currency and immediacy than the act of listening – of bearing witness with the ears – to this music, which must first be performed by modern musicians. Indeed, many of these representations have to be heard in order to gain a robust understanding of how they function. This performance of Lassus’s moresche in something like their original context does not constitute an endorsement of the views expressed in them, nor does it represent unambiguous advocacy for them as works of art. Though these pieces have been recorded before, little regard has been paid to the original context in which they were created and performed. This recording seeks to address that."

Le Nozze In Baviera: Sung Text

REVIEW:

In the early spring of 1568 the wedding took place in Bavaria of Renate of Lorraine to Wilhelm V, heir to that Southern German dukedom. Lassus had by then travelled extensively (there are claims that he also visited England and France) from his native Mons at least to Germany and Italy. He was Duke Albrecht V’s (Wilhelm’s father) maestro di cappella and so provided the music for a celebration which Albrecht was determined to make an occasion to be remembered. The following year Massimo Troiano wrote a description of the event(s) in a form sufficiently detailed and vivid to allow Rice to attempt a hypothetical reconstruction of how the music may have sounded.

There its humour (Lucia, celu [tr.6], for instance), piety (the Te Deum [tr.1]), uninhibited celebration (Cathalina, apra finestra [tr.8]), parody and Burlesque (Álla la pia calia [tr.3]), bawdy (O Lucia, miau [tr.7]), ceremony (Chi chilichi [tr.9]), and pathos (Chi passa per 'sta strada [tr.12]). This last is actually by a contemporary of Lassus, Filippo Azzaiolo, who was born between 1530 and 1540 and lived until after 1570 and gets just that one track on the CD.

In fact there is all the fun, frolicking and abandon of a wedding—especially one lasting as long as this one did… at least a fortnight. So the guests (here the performers of Ensemble Origo) realise that they had better behave themselves and hold their drink, and temper their abandon with lucidity and a measure of decorum which mustn’t sound too reluctant. The performers here get this just right.

For many new to Lassus, Le nozze in Baviera will give a slice of his non-sacred works that ought to delight and invite further exploration. For those who value this—yes—still much underrated composer, the CD may show something new. In all cases, it is one to revel in.

– MusicWeb International

REVIEWS:
Opera News (4/00, pp.85-86) - "...All the vocal soloists give theatrically involved, musically sound performances. [Borst] sings with an undulating beauty that makes up for occasional unintelligibility.... Fersen delivers a fearsomely effective rendition of the Prophetess's incantation..."

Milan / Narvaez: Music for Vihuela

There’s no question that the late Georg Tintner was a great Brucknerian, even if some of his textual decisions, such as his preference for the patently inferior first version of the Eighth Symphony, with its minimalistically repetitive scherzo (sound clip), necessarily make this set one to own alongside other, more traditional approaches. On the other hand, put this together with Skrowaczewski’s Oehms set, also at budget price, and you can have two superb, hugely different Bruckner cycles for a very reasonable outlay.

And whether or not you agree with all of Tintner’s decisions with respect to editions, there’s no question that he justifies his choices by delivering what are arguably the best performances available of the alternative in question. This is true of that Eighth, and even more so of his astonishing Third, one of the very greatest Bruckner performances ever committed to disc. Also noteworthy: superb versions of the Seventh, Fourth, and First. The two early works, “0? and “00?, need to be played as well as they are here. They are not great Bruckner, but Tintner’s commitment carries the day.

The orchestras involved aren’t traditional “Bruckner orchestras” either, and so lack that characteristic rich string sound and dark-toned brass–but even this contributes to rather than detracts from Tintner’s distinctive vision, and the playing is never less than up to Bruckner’s demands. You also get the 1878 “Volksfest” finale to the Fourth Symphony, plus a bonus CD containing a very personal discussion by Tintner of Bruckner’s music. Sonically, these are also some of Naxos’ finest efforts, making this box an essential purchase for anyone who loves Bruckner and who missed these performances the first time around.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

BERCEUSE - MUSIC OF PEACE AND CALM

Malcolm Arnold's music is so well crafted and effectively scored that it seldom fails to make a good impression, as fine recent recordings of the symphonies from Vernon Handley (Conifer) and Richard Hickox (Chandos) have convincingly demonstrated. Naxos' ongoing cycle, recorded in the presence of the composer, equals them, and in this case takes the palm pretty convincingly. Credit for this rests squarely with conductor Andrew Penny. The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland plays very well, but it doesn't have quite the bravura of Hickox's London Symphony. It's the interpretations that make the difference. In the Fifth Symphony, for instance, both Hickox and Handley fly through the first movement, then linger over the second. Penny takes a bit more time at the opening, allowing the delicate sonorities of the second subject the necessary room to blossom, and he doesn't linger quite so much over the Andante con moto, enhancing its oddly disturbing mixture of tackiness and despair.


This approach also works very well in Symphony No. 6's Lento, with its pop music inflections, while in the same work Penny's ever-so-slightly deliberate finale (shades of Shostakovich!) perfectly realizes the ironic hollowness of its ultimate victory. These aren't huge differences, but the opportunity to make comparisons among various versions not only increases admiration for the viability of Arnold's symphonic achievement, but it offers convincing proof of Penny's ultimate superiority. Nor does Naxos have to take second place in the sonic sweepstakes: this is one of the label's best sounding recordings from this source. Superb.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

During the Biedermeier period, the piano gained huge popularity as a domestic instrument, and piano concertos were increasingly arranged for chamber music ensembles. Ignaz Lachner’s superb arrangements of Mozart’s piano concertos are well known, but his brother Vinzenz Lachner’s arrangements of Beethoven’s concertos are a rarity, though equally as valuable. This volume completes the cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos in Vinzenz Lachner’s transcriptions for piano and string quintet.

For a wind quintet to be successful, each player must be a virtuoso soloist who also is capable of being an ensemble player. The musicians in this quintet fill that bill admirably. On this CD they play a program of 20th century favorites for five wind players--six in the case of the Janácek. The compositions are largely happy works. The opening "March" of the Hindemith is boisterous and upbeat, followed by four movements largely in the same vein. The Barber is more ruminative and romantic, along the lines of the composer's better known works, and the Larsson, except for a somewhat chilly third movement, paints a picture of the sunnier side of Scandinavia. The Janácek, written near the end of his life, is autobiographical, a portrait of the composer's own youth which he had recaptured in an infatuation with a younger woman. The Michael Thompson Woodwind Quintet captures every nuance in these compositions in performances that are virtually free of fault. The sound is more distant than usual for a recording of a small group, but it's exceptionally crisp and clear without any irritating clacking of keys, an effect that often mars more close-up recordings of winds. --Rad Bennett, ClassicsToday.com

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 15 - Symphonies Nos.

Brouwer: Guitar Music, Vol. 1

This volume from the Vlach Quartet Prague's acclaimed Dvorak String Quartet series presents the Third String Quartet of 1869/70, a richly rewarding work.

DURUFLE: Messe Cum Jubilo / Organ Suite, Op. 5

Ego sum Resurrectio: Gregorian Chant for the Dead

SOR: 25 Progressive Studies, Op. 60 / Fantaisie Elegiaque

TRABACI: Keyboard Music, Book 2

Classical Music

TRABACI: Keyboard Music, Book 1

Every so often a recording comes out that is so powerful, so comprehensive in its interpretive vision, that it not only makes the music sound completely new, it forces a complete reappraisal of the music's overall significance. Georg Tintner's Bruckner Third is one such recording. In fact, it offers such a fundamental reappraisal of this music that it's safe to say that until you hear this recording, you have not heard Bruckner's Third Symphony. In order to understand why this is so, it's necessary to understand something of the history of the work. First composed in 1873 and dedicated to Wagner, the symphony went through at least two major revisions in the wake of its disastrous Vienna premiere. For the most part, these revisions involved cuts, but also some recasting of the basic thematic material of the first and last movement in a heavier, more "late Bruckner" style. The final, truncated version published by Nowak is the one most frequently played today, but the slightly less cut Oeser edition (the "middle" version) has been gaining favor recently, and has been recorded by conductors such as Haitink and Sinopoli.

Because Bruckner's later thoughts on the symphony reflect his more mature orchestral practice, the Third has acquired a reputation as a hybrid, a "magnificent failure" that falls between the Schubertian world of the early symphonies and his monumental later achievement. This view was reinforced by Robert Simpson's unsympathetic account of the work in his important English language study of the Bruckner symphonies. Eliahu Inbal's first recording of the original 1873 version for Teldec did nothing to dispel this impression, being a rapid and not especially well played performance that merely set out the notes that Bruckner wrote. Tintner's spacious, epic conception of the symphony couldn't be more different. In the first place, it plays for more than 77 minutes, making it Bruckner's longest symphony after the Eighth (and in fact longer than many performances of that work). But the tempos never sound slow. Rather, Tintner gives each thematic group time to breathe, to present its themes in Bruckner's characteristic blocks of sound, and along the way we make some fascinating discoveries. The first of these reveals the exposition of the first movement to be the richest and most thematically diverse that Bruckner ever wrote, with no less than four complete subject complexes. The spaciousness of the exposition makes the development section sound unusually concentrated for Bruckner, the movement's overall form confidently poised and balanced.

After the 30-minute first movement, with its huge contrasts of dynamics and texture, the lyrical adagio comes as the ideal contrast, and Tintner's gracious phrasing, combined with his ability to find just the right tempo, keeps the music moving with a real sense of inevitability. The Scherzo has never been controversial, and Tintner captures its lightness and rustic dance qualities as have few others, but it's the finale that offers the final revelation. Here, Tintner's confidence in Bruckner's vision pays huge dividends in a movement long regarded as almost a complete bust, formally speaking. With all the "cyclical" elements that were later removed still in place (the recollections of earlier themes), and a tempo that gives the music time to reveal its clear derivation from the melodies and accompaniments of the first movement, what we really have is one of Bruckner's most ambitious and far reaching formal successes, an energetic and satisfying counterbalance to the epic expanses of the symphony's opening. Tintner's belief in this symphony reveals it to be not some sort of unfortunate hybrid, but the product of a fully mature (he was 49 when he wrote it!), even radical composer. This in turn makes its initial failure in performance all the more understandable: there was certainly nothing even remotely like it in 1873. The conventional wisdom that the "real" Bruckner begins with the revised Fourth Symphony simply will not stand. It's this work that is his symphonic manifesto, and no one hearing this performance will doubt it for a second.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra deserves a huge amount of credit for sharing Tintner's patience and conviction. The light tone of the strings, in particular, sounds especially "right" in this symphony, and in this case preferable to the darker, heavier sound of many Continental orchestras in this music. Tintner's Bruckner series has been almost uniformly excellent, but I think that this recording is the finest of them all. Its importance to our understanding of Bruckner's symphonic achievement is such that it amounts to nothing less than a premiere performance of a newly discovered masterpiece. Recordings this significant happen all too rarely. Don't miss it.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Franck's Piano Concerto No. 2, composed when he was just 13 (an earlier attempt was destroyed), previously was available on a 1990 Schwann disc that even then was overdue for replacement. Martijn van den Hoeck gives an agile and accomplished reading here, one that fully justifies buying this CD even if you already have the other works on the program. The recording was made in the Musis Sacrum in Arnhem, whose fine Philharmonic Orchestra previously made a strong impression in its first contribution to Naxos' Franck survey. This follow-up gives the rarely played concerto a much needed new lease on life, and in every way this is a considerable advance on the Schwann version by Jean-Claude van den Eyden, whose cautiously under-stated manner suits this volatile and extrovert work less well than van den Hoeck's gutsy, powerfully animated style. The Schwann production also suffers from technical flaws in both outer movements, and keyboard detailing in the adagio is poorly reproduced by the dimly-lit recording.


On this Naxos disc, which shows van den Hoeck in exceptional form in the concerto's virtuoso finale, the sound is rich, spacious, and very detailed, with the piano placed slightly back, just as you'd expect in a concert hall. François-Joël Thiollier is soloist in the remaining works, and he gives estimable accounts of each. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, his performance of the Symphonic Variations doesn't quite attain the poise and flow of the Decca version by Bolet, Chailly, and the Concertgebouw (let alone Rubinstein/Wallenstein on RCA). But Thiollier possesses an assured technique and a firm grasp of structure, making this a very useful interpretation, especially if you don't already have this work in your collection. Recommended.
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

"A mandatory purchase for lovers of Arnold's music... Certainly this Naxos disc is useful for including the Welsh Dances, and for its price it is not to be sniffed at." -- Colin Clarke, musicweb.uk.net

"...at budget price and with the five sets of dances on one disc, nobody will regret giving this disc a try." - Classic CD - September 1996

"This new Naxos set of the Arnold Dances from the Queensland orchestra under Andrew Penny is well worth its modest cost and it has the advantage of including the Four welsh dances, not otherwise available on CD..this Naxos CD offers and excellent and inexpensive collection, more complete than any of its competitors." - Gramophone - October 1996

"An excellent chance to pick up on the music of an undervalued British composer at a very keen price." - Northern Echo - August 1996

"The Queensland Symphony seems to be an excellent ensemble ... Andrew Penny leads his charges with confidence and elan. The sound image hints at concert hall realism; quality is as good as what is found on many higher priced discs." - American Record Guide - Nov / Dec 1996

"only the Naxos release has the Welsh Dances ... much credit goes to young Arnold specialist Andrew Penny" - Fanfare

"Avner Dorman, a 31-year-old Israeli composer who lives in New York, clearly believes that the language of the early 20th century — essentially tonal but ripping free of tonality; within shouting distance of Romanticism but not under its shadow — can still be useful. Though the piano works here are accessible and inviting, describing Mr. Dorman as conservative wouldn't be quite right. These works draw on the energy and spikiness of Prokofiev and Bartok in textures interwoven with moves borrowed from rock, jazz and Middle Eastern folk music...Eliran Avni plays these works with an assurance and flexibility that make them sound as if they had been in his repertory forever. He has the ironclad technique that Mr. Dorman's writing demands, but there is ample suppleness in his playing as well, a quality that makes the slow, quiet movements as arresting as the fiery ones."
- Allan Kozinn, NEW YORK TIMES