Polish by birth, Fryderyk Chopin made his name in post-Revolutionary Paris and is often depicted as the archetypal Romantic artist – blessed with extraordinary talent but consumed by the flame of genius, tormented by intense and tempestuous relationships and doomed to an early death. But how much of this story is based on fact? This account of Chopin’s life and times separates myth and reality. Illustrated with numerous musical examples, the narrative, written by music historian Dr. Davinia Caddy and narrated by actor Lucy Scott, takes us from his youthful beginnings as ‘a second Mozart’ to the darkness and light of his life and the brilliance of his work.

Claude Debussy is regarded by many as the quintessential French composer, with music that invited both warm applause and frosty criticism in his day. While our ears no longer hear him as controversial, his works heralded the dawn of an artistic period founded on innovation and experiment, and a desire to break with the past in search of new expressive means. With never a dull moment, Debussy went from being a musical misfit at the Paris Conservatoire to bohemian life amongst the Symbolist poets with involvement in some scandalous love affairs. The transformative effect of pieces such as the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune eventually saw him awarded the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneurin 1903. The narrative is illustrated with musical excerpts from Children’s Corner, String Quartet in G minor, Images, Nocturnes and Pelléas et Mélisande, among many others. Actor Lucy Scott delivers musicologist Dr. Davinia Caddy's words with conviction and warmth.

Kemal Belevi’s works for the guitar, either solo or in combination, as heard on this album, exude the color and allure of the eastern Mediterranean. Without alluding to any specific tunes, he evokes Cypriot folk music in Cypriana, while the linked Four Sketches show his variety in the work’s bracing modernity. Belevi is at heart a romantic and a melodist of touching beauty as can be heard in Catch 22 and in the subtle color study Clouds. The poignant Suite Chypre is heard in this special arrangement made for Silvia and Livio Grasso.

When we think of Ludwig van Beethoven images of a stormy and passionate but tortured genius are brought to mind, alongside the transformative effect of his work on musical history. All of these things are true, but no artist lives in a vacuum, and even music that opens a portal onto ‘the infinite realm of the spirit’ has its wider context. Illustrated with music from each period, this enlightening life history by esteemed musicologist Davinia Caddy tells us about Beethoven’s place in society from his earlier career as a fine pianist, his life on the edge of the Napoleonic war, his professional triumphs and many romantic misfortunes, and that famous defiance of deafness and declaration that he would ‘seize Fate by the throat’. The musical excerpts include the ‘Pathétique’ and ‘Moonlight’ Sonatas, ‘Diabelli’ Variations, Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 9, ‘Emperor’ Concerto, Missa solemnis and Fidelio, among many others.

Featuring performances by...

City of London Choir | Béla Drahos | Kenneth Schermerhorn | Kodály Quartet | Jay Baylon | Inga Nielsen | Kölner Kammerorchester | Nina Tichman | Capella Istropolitana | Maria Kliegel | Michael Halász | Sergio Gallo | Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | Westminster Boys' Choir | Helmut Müller-Brühl | Hilary Davan Wetton | James Taylor | Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia | Nashville Symphony Orchestra | Stefan Vladar | Edmund Battersby | Lori Phillips | Stuttgart Piano Trio | Jeno Jandó | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

A student of Hummel, Sigismond Thalberg was one of the great virtuoso pianist-composers of the 19th century, who enjoyed a celebrated rivalry with Liszt that was largely fomented by the press. Thalberg’s influence on fellow pianists was enormous and his operatic paraphrases and fantasies, designed for his own use in concert performances, proved exceptionally popular. Even Liszt himself performed several of them. Berlioz praised Thalberg as the creator of ‘a new art’ and the thrilling examples here, taking the best-known themes from great Italian operas, reveal bravura embellishments and ingenious elaborations.

Fernando Lopes-Graça was one of Portugal’s greatest composers of the 20th century, whose artistic credo was the binding together of the folk music of his native country with modern techniques to create an alternative and original national identity. With its constantly shifting tonal context the Divertimento perfectly captures Lopes-Graça’s inimitable style, which is further enriched in the concisely constructed Sinfonieta by his admiration for Haydn. The moving, even tragic Cinco Velhos Romances Portugueses are based on traditional ballads while the challenging Quatro Invenções, in the composer’s words, explore ‘essentially atonal dramatic expressionism’.

REVIEW:

Composer Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-94) has been described as sort of a Portuguese Bartók, and with good reason. His music in strongly folk-influenced, but never merely “folksy.” He managed to reflect these nationalist origins in an uncompromisingly modernist style, including atonal expressionist elements (think Ginastera), while still giving listeners more than enough to make the effort worthwhile. This is very evident in considering the program at hand–ostensibly “light” music that still has plenty of meat on its bones.

The Divertimento (1957), scored mostly for winds, is a spiky, harmonically acerbic work in seven brief movements whose humor and verve go hand in hand with a harmonic density that makes the work sound more expensive than it really is. The Sinfonietta “Homage to Haydn” evokes its nominal inspiration without ever resorting to mere imitation–except for one movement of literal quotation that’s all the more shocking (and funny) in its context. I won’t give away the joke, but it’s delicious. Cinco Velhos Romances Portugueses offers sensitive instrumental settings of traditional songs passed down through the centuries among Portuguese women. The Four Inventions for Solo Cello (1961) allegedly belong to the composers atonal expressionist style, but they are quite easy to follow, intensely lyrical, and consistently ear-catching–and I’m not usually a fan of music for solo strings.

In the first three works conductor/cellist Bruno Borralhinho gets fresh and lively playing from the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, making an excellent case for the composer and these particular works. He also plays a mean cello in the Four Inventions, and Naxos provides the necessary clean and clear engineering. This is good stuff.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Twice GRAMMY-nominated composer and performer Derek Bermel studied with Henri Dutilleux, Dutch avant-gardist Louis Andriessen, and ragtime revivalist William Bolcom. In his music, seemingly antithetical qualities – classical and vernacular, comic and serious – merge and transform each other unpredictably, their inspiration ranging from theatre (Ritornello), to gestalt psychology (Figure and Ground), to meditations on cosmology (A Short History of the Universe). Thracian Sketches explores and reimagines Bulgarian folk music, while the Violin Etudes distill Bermel’s intellectual creativity into its purest form. The widely celebrated JACK Quartet has maintained an unwavering commitment to its mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music.

REVIEWS:

The JACK Quartet plays with great clarity and athleticism; and the group is wholly comfortable in any context, from hushed moments to driving climaxes and raucous special effects. Hijmans executes his concerto grosso with flair and virtuosity; and Otto renders the etudes with marvelous skill and artistry. As expected, Bermel contributes his superb fingers, wide dynamic range, and mind-blowing sonic manipulations that should not be possible on the clarinet.

-- American Record Guide

Part of Naxos’s esteemed ‘American Classics’ series, Intonations is a composer-based collection with a difference: Derek Bermel not only wrote its five works, he plays on two also. His clarinet isn’t the only distinctive sound on the nearly seventy-minute release, either. Dutch electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans plays on one piece, and the renowned JACK Quartet appears too, generally as a group but with violinist Christopher Otto playing solo on Violin Etudes. Intonations is marked by many things, including variety, and in featuring five world-premiere recordings, the release is an invaluable addition to the award-winning composer’s discography.

Intonations speaks flatteringly of Bermel’s gifts as a writer but also instrumentalist. To call his clarinet playing impressive hardly does it justice. He’s appeared as a soloist alongside Wynton Marsalis, has performed his clarinet concerto Voices around the world with dozens of orchestras, and is the founding clarinetist of Music from Copland House. His playing is so credible, Bermel could easily fill a personnel spot in an ensemble such as Oregon or The Silk Road Ensemble were the opportunity to present itself...That Bermel’s classical creations often exhibit a pronounced jazz, blues, and/or world flavour shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, given such diversity of experience.

Intonations is an arresting portrait, not only for its kaleidoscopic range but for the sheer breadth of Bermel’s imagination and interests. That no other recording sounds quite like it is one of the better compliments one could pay to its creator. There’s nothing, it seems, he can’t do and no musical subject matter he’s incapable of tackling.

-- Textura

This showcase of music for different forms and instrument combinations is united by Bermel’s musical curiosity and creative showmanship. Elements of folk and blues permeate traditional classical forms in masterful ways, resulting in a joyous listen. Characterful.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The second volume of Leone Sinigaglia’s music for string quartet (Volume 1 is on 8.574183) explores a series of generally shorter pieces for the medium. These deeply expressive works, such as the yearning Romanzafor string quartet and horn, combine compositional rigour with a flowing Italianate lyricism nurtured in the years 1888-89. Also included are the String Trio in A major, which evokes the world of the Baroque through its Bachian counterpoint, and the Trio-Serenata, fusing elysian beauty with joyful elegance. All but one of these pieces are world premiere recordings, many of which are played from the composer’s original manuscripts.

Revueltas and Copland wrote prolifically for film, and these scores are their greatest achievements in the medium. The scores were crafted for two of the most formidable and politically motivated films of the time. Redes is a story of victimized fishermen in Mexico - and the subject matter drew from Revueltas passionate music that Copland himself admiringly described as 'vibrant and colorful'. The City is a documentary that reveals the musical missing link between Copland's 'urban' and 'country' idioms, prescient of minimalism, and masterly in construction and effect. Without narration or dialogue, both scores are heard here for the first time in full.

Peter Breiner is one of the world’s most recorded musicians with over 2 releases and more than two million albums sold, of which his Beatles Go Baroque alone reached sales of a quarter of a million copies. In addition to being a multifaceted composer, arranger and conductor, Breiner is also a pianist, and the third of his 'Calm Romantic Piano Music' series melds melodic substance with delicate musical expressiveness. (Naxos)

With Two Marimbas in Berlin, award-winning duo DoubleBeats presents world premiere recordings of four pinnacles of the keyboard repertoire and two modern classics in their own remarkable arrangements for marimbas and percussion. Soft, resonant tones and high drama emerge through the duo’s exceptional dexterity and control in works by Chopin and Rachmaninov, as well as in Bach’s iconic Goldberg Variations. Haydn’s lighthearted Variations contrast with the thrills of Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango, and the album finishes with Minoru Miki’s poignant Marimba Spiritual.

Ron Goodwin is famous for several iconic film scores such as the rousing 633 Squadron. His was an instantly recognizable musical voice, combining an innate ability to write both memorable tunes and to evoke the many moods demanded by film directors, qualities that extend into the gloriously evocative Drake 400 and New Zealand Suites. Goodwin’s long and distinguished career earned him multiple Ivor Novello Awards and a Golden Globe Award among many other accolades. Conducted by the composer, this recording represents the best of a true leader in the field of popular music.

Tchaikovsky declared that Mozart was ‘full of divine beauty’, and Schubert’s wonder at the ‘countless images of a brighter and better world’ that Mozart was able to conjure up through his music knew no bounds. Many of us carry the image of Mozart as a transcendent genius, but what do we really know about his life and career, and indeed his music? This entertaining and informative biography, written by music historian Davinia Caddy and narrated by actor Leighton Pugh, takes us from Mozart’s beginnings as a child prodigy to his greatest successes and cruelest setbacks. The narrative is illustrated with music from each stage of Mozart’s intense career, including the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, Clarinet Concerto, Coronation Mass, Requiem, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro and many more.

With performances by:

Pier Giorgio Morandi | Kölner Kammerorchester | Petersen Quartet | Werner Hollweg | Celina Lindsley | Capella Istropolitana | Walton Grönroos | Michael Halász | Concentus Hungaricus | Concerto Köln | Anna di Mauro | Helmut Müller-Brühl | John Dickie | Gabriele Schreckenbach | Andrea Martin | Hungarian Radio Chorus | Péter Köves | Janusz Monarcha | Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia | Priti Coles | Mátyás Antál | Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra | Patrizia Pace | Herbert Lippert | Slovak Philharmonic Chorus | Camerata Cassovia

Johann Sebastian Bach today has a reputation as the Godfather of Western European music, as a fountainhead of classical music theory and the creator of some of the greatest works the world has ever produced. Better known as a keyboard virtuoso, Bach was not regarded as a genius in his day, so how did this headstrong and belligerent but ambitious young musician become so extraordinarily productive? What were his influences? How did he end up in jail and what did he get up to in Café Zimmerman? Discover all of this and more in musicologist Davinia Caddy's fascinating biography of a composer who, to Max Reger, represented ‘the beginning and the end of all music’. The narrative, presented by actor Leighton Pugh, is illustrated with musical excerpts including the Brandenburg Concertos, Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, The Art of Fugue, St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor among many others.

With performances by...

Nils Thilo Krämer | Christian Benda | Petra Morath-Pusinelli | Alexander Jablokov | Robert Hill | Kölner Kammerorchester | Takako Nishizaki | Ariane Pfister | Capella Istropolitana | Andrés Gabetta | Helmut Müller-Brühl | Wolfgang Rübsam | Sebastian Benda | Ralf Otto | Swiss Baroque Soloists | Slovak Philharmonic Chorus | Christian Brembeck | Julia Brown | Luc Beauséjour | Gerhild Romberger | Bachorchester Mainz | Jan Cižmár | Oliver von Dohnányi

Robert Docker was one of the giants of light music – a composer and arranger whose works graced stage, screen, radio and television. Two of his best pieces were written for piano and orchestra: Legend, which can rank alongside Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto (Naxos 8.554323); and the brilliantly witty inventions of the Pastiche Variations. Not only was Docker a distinguished orchestrator, he was also a rich melodist as his classic Scèneduba lillustrates, while the composer’s impish humor can be savored in Tabarinage. Docker’s early training as a classical violinist fully equipped him to explore the British pastoral tradition in the languid and beautiful Air.

Haydn’s 30 Piano Trios were written at a time when the harpsichord was being replaced by the pianoforte and when a parallel change saw the emergence of sonata-allegro form. His earliest trios, such as the Trio in F major, Hob. XV: 40, were also known as Divertimentos or Partitas, whilst the Trio in G major, Hob. XV: 15, was part of a group that offers the performer the alternative scoring of flute over the more usual violin. They reflect the airy and nimble qualities that grace all of Haydn’s works in the genre.

PAGANINI: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 2

MOZART Piano Trios: Nos. 4–6; in D, K 442 (compl. Stadler) • Kungsbacka Pn Tr • NAXOS 8.570519 (76: 42)


This may well be the shortest entry I’ve ever submitted; for assuming that my review of Volume 1 of the Kungsbacka’s Mozart piano trios appeared in the 32:5 issue, there’s little to add. The current Volume 2 completes this ensemble’s run of Mozart’s six official trios for violin, cello, and piano, filling out the disc with an additional three-movement trio cobbled together by the Abbé Maximilian Stadler from fragmentary odds and ends that were probably intended for other pieces.


To restate what I said in my previous review, “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.”


Now that this cycle is complete, it definitely vies for equal favor with other preferred versions by the Florestan, Parnassus, and Gryphon Trios. And at budget price, it possibly edges them out slightly. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Best known for his choral and symphonic works, Krzysztof Penderecki has also written many fascinating concertante pieces. His Concerto Grosso No. 1 makes full use of the potential for interplay between three solo cellos and orchestra.

The development of the piccolo trumpet has made it possible to tackle both original Baroque trumpet repertoire and transcriptions of works originally intended for oboe, with which it has a comparable tube length.

Includes work(s) by Judith Bingham. Ensembles: BBC Symphony Chorus, Fine Arts Brass Ensemble. Conductor: Stephen Jackson. Soloist: Thomas Trotter.

Includes christmas carol(s) by various composers.

Includes work(s) for org by various composers. Soloist: Timothy Olsen.

TYBERG Symphony No. 3. 1 Piano Trio 2 • 1 JoAnn Falletta, cond; Buffalo PO; 2 Michael Ludwig (vn); 2 Roman Mekinulov (vc); 2 Ya-Fei Chuang (pn) • NAXOS 8.572236 (60:51)


Don’t bother trying to find Tyberg in Grove , or in the six-volume Baker’s Biographical Dictionary , or in the 14th edition of the International Who’s Who in Music , or even in MGG ’s monumental 17-volume Personenteil , of which the volume with the Ts was published as recently as 2006. Until only about five years ago, Tyberg languished among the many forgotten names of music history, in particular among those of Jewish background who were sent to the death camps by the Nazis. Tyberg was only 1/16th Jewish, but he was deported anyway and died in late 1944 (the circumstances of his death remain unclear). But posthumous recognition is finally coming to this Austrian composer.


Shortly before he was arrested, Tyberg entrusted his scores to his friend Milan Mihich, who in turn gave them to his son Enrico. The latter eventually moved to Buffalo. For years he attempted to interest Buffalo Philharmonic conductors, among others, in Tyberg’s music. Rafael Kubelík expressed keen interest but died soon afterward. About half a dozen years ago, Tyberg’s scores caught the attention of JoAnn Falletta, and she programmed the Third Symphony with her Buffalo Philharmonic. The Tyberg Legacy Foundation was established in Buffalo at the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies, and funding therefrom helped bring forth the Naxos recording we now have.


The Third Symphony, composed in the 1930s, received its world premiere by the BPO and Falletta on May 10, 2008, and the recording soon followed. (Falletta has also programmed Tyberg’s Second Symphony for performances on April 30 and May 1 of this year to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day.)


The score is richly romantic, with strong echoes of Bruckner, Mahler, Zemlinsky, and Szymanowski. The huge orchestra requires quadruple woodwinds, heckelphone, eight horns (four doubling on tenor tubas), bass trumpet, contrabass trombone, two timpanists, and much more. It opens with a portentous call from a tenor horn heralding music of dark, Mahlerian angst (comparison with the opening of Mahler’s Seventh cannot be ignored). One almost immediately becomes aware that, like Mahler, Tyberg is going to use his orchestra as a vast palette of colors to play with. The second subject is as warmly romantic and gracious as the first was menacing and tortured. The D-Minor Scherzo has a Brucknerian drive and energy, thickly yet brilliantly orchestrated and with a virtuosic edge that recalls Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice as well. Shades of Bruckner hover also over the Adagio, which moves slowly and inexorably to its main climax. Its somber colors would have benefited from a warmer recording acoustic, but what is a small defect in this movement becomes an asset in the finale, a rollicking rondo whose main theme has the flavor of a saucy British sea shanty, tossed off in its initial presentation with virtuosic abandon by the Buffalo Philharmonic horns. The Philharmonic sustains the sense of high spirits and energy throughout the movement, indeed, throughout the entire symphony, though one cannot avoid the feeling that Tyberg might have left us a more convincing conclusion—the ending is simply too abrupt and unexpected.


The Piano Trio of 1936 is, if anything, even more engaging, filled as it is with big-boned, sumptuous themes and rich textures right out of Schumann, Brahms, Franck, and Tchaikovsky. Themes are masterfully worked out. One listens in disbelief to music composed in the age of Stravinsky and Satie, of Schoenberg and Berg, of Bartók and Messiaen, that is as accomplished as Tyberg’s yet so untouched by the fast-changing world around him—“as if he had truly lived a century before,” as Buffalo Philharmonic archivist Edward Yadzinski puts it in his fine booklet notes. Concertmaster Michael Ludwig and principal cellist Roman Mekinulov, joined by pianist Ya-Fei Chuang, deliver a performance that glows with passion and power. This disc is worth acquiring for either the symphony or the trio alone. Together they constitute an irresistible combination. This is definitely a Want List candidate.


More information on Tyberg can be found at Wikipedia and in an extensive article by Herman Trotter, music critic emeritus of the Buffalo News (reprinted on the website of the Jewish Music Institute). Readers are also referred to an interview in Fanfare 34:2 in which Falletta and Yadzinski disuss the Tyberg situation in some detail.


FANFARE: Robert Markow


How Marcel Tyberg's Third Symphony wound up in Buffalo is an interesting story, related in the booklet notes to this world-premiere recording. Tyberg (1893-1944) was a Jewish Viennese composer who died in Auschwitz in 1944 (as did several members of my own family--it's strange to think that they may have been there together). His Third symphony was composed in 1943, and it's a fine work, obviously in the Viennese tradition--sort of Wagner/Strauss with a Brahmsian structural overlay. It's colorful, uninhibited, perhaps a bit thickly scored, full of attractive melodic invention, and not a moment too long. For its date of composition it's a conservative work, but given the circumstances that hardly counts against it. JoAnn Falletta and her Buffalo forces do it proud: this is a bold, confident performance, excellently paced, that never suggests any unfamiliarity with what must have been a very unfamiliar work.

Tyberg's Piano Trio, from 1936, is even more stylistically reactionary, sounding like a typical example of mid-19th century Romanticism--but again, because it's the real thing and not a decadent relic it comes across simply as freshly melodious. Okay, it's not a masterpiece, but its three euphonious movements pass by very pleasingly, and like the symphony it's very well played (and recorded). Tyberg had a particular knack, both here and in the symphony, for creating vigorous rondo finales that never drag or sound tired, and if you know anything about late-Romantic finales then you know what a rare feat that is! There are many recordings of neglected composers around these days: this one deserves a greater claim on your attention (and purse) than most. It's a real find.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

DUOS FOR CELLO AND VIOLIN • Alexander Hülshoff (vc); Friedemann Eichhorn (vn) • NAXOS 8.572188 (68:20)


GHYS AND SERVAIS Variations brillantes et concertants sur l’air “God Save the King.” LÉONARD AND SERVAIS Grand Duo de Concert No. 4 sur des motifs de l’opéra “L’Africaine.” Grand Duo de Concert No. 3. Grand Duo de Concert No. 2 sur des thèmes de Beethoven. Grand Duo de Concert No. 1 sur des airs nationaux anglais. VIEUXTEMPS AND SERVAIS Grand Duo sur des motifs de l’opéra “Les Huguenots de Meyerbeer”


The first duo in Alexander Hülshoff and Friedemann Eichhorn’s collection of fantasies written in collaboration by Adrien François Servais and violinists Joseph Ghys, Hubert Léonard, and Henri Vieuxtemps seems, in comparison to the others, almost like a warhorse; it’s been recorded twice before, by Gidon Kremer on Nonesuch 79657, Fanfare 26:5, and by Rudens Turku and Wen-Sinn Yang on Avie 2124, 31:6. After a brilliant and rather long introduction, the familiar theme appears in stately double-stops. Bruce R. Scheuneman’s booklet notes make a great deal of the equal partnership of the violin and cello, not only melodically and thematically but in virtuosity as well. In Ghys’s and Servais’s variations, in fact, both instruments engage in Paganini-like hypervirtuosic exchanges. If it’s a competition, it’s not clear who wins. Perhaps that’s because it’s not clear whether Hülshoff or Eichhorn makes the stronger impression: Just when one has done something that seemingly can’t be topped, the other tops it. Both possess electrifying staccatos, crackling with bracing energy; and both revel in the passages assigned to them. Both play with the kind of panache that undoubtedly put it across at the time of its composition. I remember the impression Ruggiero Ricci made in Bottesini’s Gran Duo Concertante, and as brilliant as that might have been, it couldn’t compare to the effect of these performances—in fact, Ricci and Francesco Petracchi (reissued on CD as CBS 72995) seemed to be punching the clock in comparison to Hülshoff and Eichhorn in this kind of repertoire. And if Rudens Turku and Wen-Sinn Yang don’t quite match the boldness of Hülshoff’s and Eichhorn’s virtuosic gestures, Kremer does, in perhaps richer recorded sound. But the collection’s the thing, and those seeking Servais’s duos get them in full force in Naxos’s collection.


The Grand Duo de Concert on L’Africaine , composed in cooperation with Léonard, sounds, if anything, even more amazing. When Eichhorn’s violin sings, it’s clear that he’s not just a shallow virtuoso, in the mold of early quasi-charlatans like Lolli and Woldemar. And the music, despite sounding like a revolving door of effects on steroids, doesn’t actually sound so circus-like as the descriptions above might suggest. Léonard’s and Servais’s Grand Duo No. 3, including two variations on what must have been an original theme, still breathes the atmosphere of the operatic fantasy.


Vieuxtemps’s and Servais’s Grand Duo opens with a surreal version of A Mighty Fortress before taking off into the main theme (from Meyerbeer). Anyone who might expect from Vieuxtemps’s contribution the same noble restraint so evident in his concertos will find that here, but whipped to a frenzied pitch of virtuoso excitement (remember that Servais took a hand in all these pieces). Still, some of Vieuxtemps’s chromatic mannerisms can be discerned through the tracery.


Léonard’s and Servais’s Second Grand Duo, this time on themes by Beethoven, returns to an excitement undampened by any obstructive view of the composer of the music being varied (or parodied). In this case, I won’t spoil the plot by mentioning some of the themes that flit by in an intoxicating phantasmagoria, but it’s as much fun as listening to a quodlibet must have been for listeners in the know centuries ago. Let’s just say that when the variations come, Léonard and Servais try, with tongues in cheeks, I’d suspect, to outdo Beethoven in a set he’d previously attempted—and there’s a hint for you. Violinists might find that these few minutes alone make the CD worth acquiring—and there’s another.


The program concludes with Léonard’s and Servais’s First Grand Duo, this time featuring variations on God Save the King (again) and Yankee Doodle (with some other familiar things thrown in for good measure). Paganini wrote a set of variations on the first and Vieuxtemps on the second. But again, here the power of two creates more than double the fun.


So consider the effect of a set of Paganini’s variations and raise that to the second or third or even fourth power (anyway, think of more than a simple addition of two parts), and you have the magnitude of the payload these pieces deliver. The engineers have … but with playing like this, who really cares, so long as you can hear the soloists reasonably well? (Actually, you can hear them very well in Naxos’s clear recorded sound, but that’s almost beside the point; would you mind sitting in the highest loge to hear Paganini?) Urgently recommended as a great deal of fun for listeners not too tightly buttoned down to enjoy it on its own terms. I don’t think there’s anything else quite like it.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Giorgio Koukl' survey of Martinu' complete piano music has been praised as "a delight" and "estimable and important". Since the release of Volume 4, which was originally intended to be the final disc of this series, several manuscripts of previously unreleased material.

Love and faith, mortality and eternity are the abiding themes of these three important and beautifully shimmering works by one of the 20th century' most innovative composers. Les offrandes oubliees, Messiaen' first published orchestral work, is a symphony.

BLASCO DE NEBRA Keyboard Sonatas: Nos. 1– 5; 107–112; in d; in G • Pedro Casals (pn) • NAXOS 8.572068 (76:16)


This is the first of a projected set of three CDs devoted to the extant piano sonatas of Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750–1784) by pianist and musicologist Pedro Casals. During his short life, Blasco de Nebra is said to have composed some 170 works, though we don’t know in what form nor for what media he wrote. According to Casals’s interesting and informative notes, only 26 keyboard sonatas and six pastorellas are known to survive. Six of the sonatas were apparently published as op. 1, a copy of which is in the Library of Congress. The remainder are known from manuscripts from the Monastery of Montserrat (Catalonia), Encarnación Monastery of Osuna (near Seville), and the Santa Clara Convent (Seville.) Blasco de Nebra was born and died in Seville and, except for two years in Madrid, where his uncle, the zarzuela composer José de Nebra had connections at court, his entire life was spent in the Andalusian city. It may be straddling the fence to call these pieces “keyboard sonatas”: the prominence of Alberti bass figuration alone would seem to argue in favor of the piano. It’s worth noting that one of the more prominent Iberian piano makers, Francisco Pérez Mirabal, flourished in Seville contemporaneously with Blasco de Nebra. Two of Mirabal’s pianos survive. He, like other Iberian makers, had the advantage of basing their instruments on the imported Florentine pianos of Cristofori and Ferrini, unlike Silbermann in Germany, who was forced to experiment on the basis of simplistic published diagrams of the Cristofori action. In any case, it’s obvious from the persuasive performances by Casals (albeit on the modern piano) that Blasco de Nebra’s sonatas are well crafted, often quite beautiful, and never less than effective.


Without being derivative, these pieces bring to mind the Catalan composer, Antonio Soler. Certainly the sonatas of Soler’s master, Domenico Scarlatti, seem a constant point of reference. This recording presents Blasco de Nebra’s sonatas chronologically. The earliest (Nos. 107–112, deriving from the Osuna Encarnación and Santa Clara manuscripts) are cast in single-movement, binary form, like Scarlatti’s. The latest recorded here (Nos. 1–5, from the Montserrat Abbey manuscript) preface each Allegro movement with an extended Adagio. Most of the sonatas unfold in two-part textures; their inventive motivic structure is often triadic and highly ornamented. Blasco de Nebra was active among several organists who played at the cathedral in Seville. It’s not surprising that, in the couple of sonatas that seem to effectively employ tone-painting, church bells are evoked: festal peals in Sonata No. 111, for instance, and in the Adagio of Sonata No 2, somber chimes. Casals brings a rhythmic vitality and crisp touch to his performances, appropriately achieving his varied affects with scarcely any pedal. Given his decision to present the sonatas in the order written, it will be interesting to observe Blasco de Nebra’s stylistic evolution in future releases.


The piano sound (in this case an instrument that could have used a touch-up during the recording) leaves something to be desired, possibly due to overly close microphone placement and a less than resonant space. But the playing is so good and the music so interesting that one quickly forgets the less-than-optimal technical aspects of the recording. Casals’s performances, authoritative and imbued with a love of the music, will no doubt attract greater attention to this little-known but obviously gifted composer. Recommended.


FANFARE: Patrick Rucker

Who was Luís de Freitas Branco? His Second Symphony combines Gregorian themes (Respighi) with richly lyrical chromaticism (Franck). After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro is pure Richard Strauss, Don Juan in particular, right down to the combination of solo violin, harp, and glockenspiel. Artificial Paradises is French, d'Indy trending toward Debussy and Ravel--there's an episode with rippling winds straight out of Daphnis and Chloe, except that the Branco is actually the earlier work (1910), the product of a 20-year-old composer with tremendous gifts.

What makes all of this so fascinating isn't that Branco is derivative, but that the music still rings so true. The Franck is good Franck, the Strauss just as glowing as the real deal. Branco doesn't conceal his influences, he revels in them, and this gives his music an authenticity and focus that makes the issue of sheer originality basically irrelevant. As in previous issues in this series, Álvaro Cassuto is the ideal exponent of his countryman's music, and the sound that Naxos gets in Dublin remains some of the finest on offer from this label. Excellent on all fronts!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Includes partita(s) by Einojuhani Rautavaara. Soloist: Rafael Aguirre Miñarro.
Includes work(s) for guitar by Joaquin Clerch. Soloist: Rafael Aguirre Miñarro.