Haydn’s Keyboard Trios possess a rich variety of themes and musical inventiveness, with strong demands on the pianist. The C major is dramatic and eventful. Patterns are varied in the E major where Haydn gives the violin major lyrical statements, whilst in the E flat major he uses all his wit and guile to launch the finale’s captivating and joyful dance finale. The E flat major Hob. XV: 30 is notable for is subtle thematic development and commanding drama. Volume 1 (8.572040) of this series has been greatly admired, not least by Gramophone which stated that the Kungsbacka Piano Trio had nothing to fear from any other account.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 1, "A Sea Symphony"

Pierre Rode was one of the giants of the violin world. He was a performer of superb technique—he premièred Beethoven’s last Violin Sonata in Vienna—and wrote a large amount of music for his instrument, most prominently 13 concertos. They exhibit the highest qualities of the French School: grace, lyricism, fleetness and fluency. The Third is grandiose and brilliant, the Fourth is tauter and gloriously agile, whilst the Sixth is one of his greatest, most famous and complete statements in the concerto form. The first release in this series, (Concertos Nos. 7, 10 and 13 / 8.570469), earned Friedemann Eichhorn the highest plaudits: “sweetness of phrasing…with the delicacy of a caress—while skirting the technical minefields as if they didn’t exist.” (Fanfare)

Kaikhosro Shapurji Sorabji is known as a composer whose pursuit of extremes resulted in vast works such as his Opus Clavicembalisticum which, for many years, was acknowledged as the world's longest non-repetitive piano work. More important is his music's unique and satisfying beauty. From the mystical impressionism of earlier 'nocturnal' pieces to the awe-inspiring energy and massive climaxes of his later work, Sorabji's legacy is one which is increasingly appreciated as a unique contribution to 20th century music. Michael Habermann's now legendary recordings gained Sorabji's exclusive approval, breaking through the notorious ban he had placed on performances of his own work.

Written under difficult circumstances while he was employed at the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 1 held the composer’s affection throughout his life as “a sin of my sweet youth”. The melodic richness and skillful orchestration in his later music can already be found in this and the Symphony No 2, which owes its subtitle to the use of folk music from the Ukraine, a region known as ‘Little Russia’. These youthful masterpieces are heard here “in performances full of grace and zest. Schwarz is a passionate advocate of this music, and it shows.” (The Seattle Times)

The best of Classical Guitar accompanied by Northern Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Nicholas Ward bring such classics as Cavatina and Dance of the Miller to life.

Antoine Dornel' imaginative and dynamic compositional style was perfectly suited to the lively and ever-changing musical environment of Paris in the first decades of the eighteenth century.

A champion of Haydn', Mozart' and Beethoven' chamber music, Louis Spohr also made a considerable contribution to this genre, composing 36 string quartets and four double quartets, these latter unique in the repertoire.

Excellent program serves as recording debut of a new wind band.

The excellent Wind Band Classics series from Naxos continues here with the recording debut of the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, under the baton of Eugene Corporon, best known for his work at the University of North Texas. This recording could have been titled “American Optimist” or something similar, as the excellent program is dominated by cheery major-key music, balancing shorter and longer works in an excellent flow. Indeed, the selection and pacing of repertoire is one of the highlights of the disc.

Among the older pieces, the Hanson is the least likely to be familiar to band aficionados, and the band’s performance of this work is possibly the finest on the disc. It’s thoroughly convincing, and rewards repeated listens.

Donald Hunsberger’s arrangement of the Gershwin is excellent, and the piece is a natural for winds. There weren’t many places where I really missed the strings, though the arrangement does highlight some aspects of the score which tend to get buried in other recordings, lending the performance a unique sound. Overall, the interpretation is slower and more leisurely than other performances I’m familiar with. In the light of so many other excellent available recordings, I can’t see myself returning to this performance too often – it’s more of a curiosity than anything else, though not without merit.

Steven Bryant’s “Radiant Joy” struck me as the most successful of the newer repertoire; an accessible piece in the post-John Adams mold which somehow manages to feature the hi-hat cymbals without sounding inane. The appeal of the piece is primarily rhythmic, as it owes a clear debt to the complex syncopations of funk or jazz fusion. Catchy melodic ideas and extensive use of some less-common colors (piano, vibraphone, and soprano and baritone saxophones) add to the interest as well.

There are points where I wish the recorded sound was just a bit closer. Some of the vigor of the playing sometimes gets lost, as if the band is coming from a bit too far of a distance, especially on the Bennett. However it’s a subtle complaint, and the overall balance is excellent, including on the Gershwin.

The occasional discrepancies in intonation or ensemble are so minimal that only the most critical ear would know from the aural evidence that this is an all-volunteer ensemble. Their accomplishment is completely stunning when you keep that in mind. I look forward to hearing more from this group, which had only been together for a year when this recording was made.

Benn Martin, MusicWeb International

Handel' oratorio Israel in Egypt was written three years before the Messiah and, like the Messiah, is somewhat atypical of the composer' oratorios. Scored for double chorus and an orchestra using trombones, trumpets, timpani, woodwinds and strings.

A. RUBINSTEIN Theme and Variations, op. 88. Akrostichon No. 2, op. 114 • Joseph Banowetz (pn) • NAXOS 8.570941 (73:44)


Joseph Banowetz might easily be thought of as an Anton Rubinstein specialist. He has, after all, recorded all of Rubinstein’s works for piano and orchestra for Naxos’s sister label, Marco Polo, plus four other discs of Rubinstein’s solo piano music. This is a worthy task, for while there is a grand total of some 50 recordings of Rubinstein’s famous Melody in F, very few other works recorded make even two different versions. The sheer dedication of Banowetz is remarkable, and his fine reading of these two works (both world premiere recordings) implies strongly that it is time for a reappraisal of Anton Rubinstein (1829–94). Banowetz is a pianist of some strength—clearly, he is no shrinking violet, anyway, and this robust approach coupled with exemplary finger clarity lends itself superbly to this repertoire.


The Theme and Variations, op. 88, dates from 1871 and lasts some 47 minutes in this performance. It is therefore a major work, and Banowetz certainly treats it as such. His respect for Rubinstein’s talent is evident in every measure he plays. The music itself might well come as something of a revelation, for the invention flows confidently and appealingly from Rubinstein’s pen. Moments of mystery are honored (try the recitative-like ruminations of the fifth variation). Most importantly, Banowetz provides just the right amount of fantasy. The range of the variations is wide, moving from Schumannesque innigkeit (variation 7) to Handelian grandeur viewed through a decidedly romantic telescope (the very next variation). The climax is formed by the 12th and final variation, lasting some 10 minutes. Banowetz whips the music up to a fulfilling, summatory statement. The recording is a trifle shallow and dry, perhaps, but the ear adjusts quickly.


The Akrostichon , op. 2, of 1890, stands in stark contrast. A set of five salon pieces (which together add up in duration to around 27 minutes), the op. 2 counterbalances the Theme and Variations perfectly. There is a spring-like freshness to the second (Allegretto) that is most appealing. All five pieces make for compelling listening, not least the individual, evocative solo lines of the fourth piece (Adagio).


This constitutes Volume 1 of what is presumably intended to be a complete edition of Rubinstein’s piano works, and I note that ArkivMusic is already listing (and highlighting, at the time of writing) Volume 2 (which contains Akrostichon No. 1; Two Pieces, op. 26; Souvenir de Dresde , op. 118; Two Melodies, op. 3; and the Sérénade russe in B Minor). I hope to hear the next installment in due course; in the meantime, Volume 1 provides ample cause for celebration.


FANFARE: Colin Clarke

The most important Danish composer of the first third of the twentieth century, Carl Nielsen was prolific in almost all genres. The six Symphonies are essentially tonal, emotionally direct works, which alternate long lines of melody with passages of blazing energy. The idea of writing a symphony based on the Four Temperaments – The Choleric, The Sanguine, The Melancholic, and The Phlegmatic, came to Nielsen when he saw a primitive peasant painting in a village inn. The title of the Third Symphony, Sinfonie espansiva, an afterthought, has been explained as an expansion of the scope of the mind and of the life that comes with it.

Lively, tonally varied performances … a very attractive sound.

This is volume two of the Naxos reissue of Lars Ulrik Mortensen’s Buxtehude series. It previously appeared on Dacapo. This particular volume was Dacapo 8.224117.

Mortensen is a fine musician, whose approach to Buxtehude is vivacious and dignified in equal proportions. His Buxtehude has both passion and seriousness - but not solemnity - of mind. Mortensen makes sparkling use of the resources of his instrument, a copy by Thomas Mandrup-Poulsen of an original by Ruckers. Though the notes to this present CD give no further details, it sounds like the beautifully-toned instrument, made in 1984, which Mortensen played on some of his Bach recordings (CPO 999 989-2) and Froberger (Kontrapunkt 32040). It sings delightfully – at least it does when played by Mortensen! The use of mean-tone tuning will surely disturb very few modern listeners.

The theme of the set of variations on More Palatino (not More Palantino as printed on the back cover) is a student drinking song, though the rather stately form in which Buxtehude presents it is not especially redolent of the tavern. Still, it is an attractive and melodically various set, Mortensen’s varying use of registration producing some charming effects and some insistently dancing rhythms. The same is true of a second set of variations played here, those on Courant Zimble – a title we might translate as ‘Simple Courante’, and aptly so, since it is an uncomplicated piece which invites – and gets – some direct and appealing variations from Buxtehude. Mortensen resists the temptation to over-inflate these or make any excessive claims for them.

Each of the two Suites is made up four movements, in the order Allemande-Courante-Sarabande-Gigue. In each work the allemande is the most substantial movement, considerably longer than any of the other three movements. The allemandes also tend to have a greater musical gravity, that which opens Bux WV 242 being particularly grand in manner and phrasing; the courantes have, by way of contrast, a rippling vitality, that in Bux WV 25 being full of pleasant twists and turns. Buxtehude’s sarabandes have a graceful simplicity about them, a quality heard to perfection in Mortensen’s performances of the two in these suites, especially that in the E minor suite, where the registration is beautifully judged and employed. The gigues of the two suites make more much use of counterpoint, especially in comparison to the simpler lines of the sarabandes which precede them. But these are by no means academic fugues and in both suites the final movements very forcefully remember the dance origins of the gigue.

All of the shorter pieces in this programme have their genuine attractions and all are well characterised by Mortensen. The chorale ‘Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren’ is more often heard on the organ, although it makes no requirements that the harpsichord can’t fulfil – as Mortensen persuasively demonstrates. Indeed there is a particular sprightliness to this reading that is distinct from anything that can be achieved on the baroque organ and which offers an alternative, equally valid, view of the music. Bux WV 170, 171 and 174 are pieces which survive amongst the manuscripts of Buxtehude’s organ music but which, again, are eminently playable on the harpsichord. The fugal writing here is more ‘correct’ than in the gigues of the suites, but don’t let that make you imagine that these are unduly staid pieces. Here they have the same vivacity which characterises this programme as a whole and they are played with the same loving care for the aptness of instrumental sound and tone.

Without wanting to claim Mortensen’s as the ‘best’ recordings of Buxtehude’s harpsichord works – if one had to pick I suppose the vote might go to Ton Koopman – there is not the slightest reason to feel in any way dissatisfied with this fine recital. If you don’t know Buxtehude’s writing for harpsichord – this is an excellent value-for-money place to start; if you are already an aficionado of this repertoire you will surely be just as keen to add this to your collection.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

Antoine Brumel was among the most distinguished composers of his time, the first great French rather than Flemish Renaissance composer.

A perennial outsider in French music, Albert Roussel was the tutor of a whole generation of composers, including such diverse figures as Eric Satie and Edgard Varese.

Arensky’s early Piano Concerto in F minor is delightful, and astonishingly well put together for a student piece. The first movement in particular has such attractive thematic material that it never hangs fire, though it surely benefits from this propulsive and dynamic performance, with both Yablonsky and Sherbakov putting a full measure of romantic fire into their interpretation. The Fantasia on Russian Folk Songs is more Tchaikovsky-like (the concerto is Chopin/Liszt with mellower scoring), while the other two works are attractive fluff. The engineering is the only minor disappointment—overly bright and somewhat studio-bound—but such is the interest of the piano and orchestra works in these passionate performances that it doesn’t preclude a recommendation.

-- David Hurwitz,ClassicsToday.com [4/2011]

ALBINONI: Oboe Concertos, Vol. 1

Naxos has very intelligently included the spoken superscriptions for each movement of the "Antartica" at the end of the disc, so those who want them (a minority, to be sure) can program them in. Kees Bakels and his Bournemouth forces lead excellent performances of both works, and it's particularly gratifying to be able to report that both the conductor and the recording engineers seems to have taken pains to ensure that the special percussion effects in both symphonies are well caught. Of course, the music itself is splendid. The Sinfonia antartica (a.k.a. the film score to Scott of the Antarctic) takes up where Holst's Planets left off, and fans of that work will love this icy-sounding sequel. The Eighth Symphony, with its fabulous finale employing "all the 'phones and 'spiels known to the composer," deserves to be much more popular than it is. That last movement is a humdinger! So while you're waiting to hear these two masterworks of the composer's old age in a live concert, why not shell out a few bucks and enjoy them at home? --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This disc received the 1999 Cannes Classical Award for "Best Orchestral Recording - 18th Century."

ROSSINI : String Sonatas Nos. 1 - 6

Guitar Recital: Antigoni Goni

FANFARES AND OVERTURES • William Berz, cond; Nicholas Farco (nar); Rutgers Wind Ens • NAXOS 8.572230 (65:46)


REED Overture-1940 (arr. Berz). Fanfare for Remembrance. Renascence. HUSA Smetana Fanfare. Music for Prague 1968. NELHÝBEL Libuše: Fanfares. SCHUMAN George Washington Bridge


The Rutgers Wind Ensemble has released a number of distinguished recordings on the educational Mark label. To my knowledge, this Naxos disc is their first commercial release and a fine one it is.


Wind music enthusiasts will likely know H. Owen Reed for his magnificent programmatic symphony for band, La fiesta mexicana . He is represented here by three smaller scaled works. Overture-1940 , arranged by conductor William Berz, is a driving, energetic work featuring angular melodies, mildly dissonant harmonies, and busy counterpoint in its development. Though a bit reminiscent of Howard Hanson, Samuel Barber, and other prominent composers of the pre-World War II era, it is nonetheless an engaging work in its own right. Similarly, Reed’s Renascence is a pleasant concert overture that calls to mind the band works of Vincent Persichetti. Fanfare for Remembrance is scored for narrator, trumpet ensemble, and percussion. Inspired by the poem “For Remembrance” by Edythe Hope Genée, the work consists of two rather mundane settings of The Battle Hymn of the Republic followed by an unimaginative recitation of the poetry over a repetitious collage of melodic fragments. A concluding gimmick—that of having the last line of the poem repeatedly intoned over whispered “echoes” from the trumpeters—does little to redeem the work’s negligible effect.


Czech-born composers Václav Nelhýbel and Karel Husa are “household names” in the band world, each having penned a number of colorful, dynamic scores that have become standard repertoire for the medium. Both of their fanfares are based on music of their countryman Bedrich Smetana. Though Nelhýbel receives credit as the composer of Fanfares from Libuše , the piece is actually an arrangement of excerpts from the Overture to Smetana’s opera. Unfortunately, the work as presented here does not make much of an impression. Not so of Husa’s splendid Smetana Fanfare , a thrilling concert opener—oddly placed second on this disc—based on material from the elder composer’s Wallenstein’s Camp.


When Husa’s Music for Prague 1968 burst onto the band scene in 1969, it created a sensation and was lauded as the work that would finally break through the barriers of the band subculture and stand the test of time as a true masterpiece of modern music. Forty years later, such an assessment might raise a few eyebrows, but the work is still a very powerful and moving memorial to the crushing of the Prague Spring reform movement by the Soviet Union in the summer of 1968. The work has received thousands of performances, both in the original version for wind ensemble and in the composer’s own orchestral transcription. Conductor Donald Hunsberger and his Eastman Wind Ensemble set the standard with their breathtaking performance on Sony 44916. This new recording, though very good, is blemished by occasional slack rhythms and intermittent intonation problems in the upper woodwinds.


Also a band standard, William Schuman’s George Washington Bridge was inspired by the composer’s view of the bridge on his daily treks to and from the Juilliard School, where he served as president. To Schuman, the bridge took on an almost human personality—a personality that seemed to change depending on the time of day, the weather, and his own mood and state of mind. It is a masterful work in five sections, creating an arc structure and characterized by massive polychords, bold gestures, and vivid colors. The Rutgers players deliver a powerhouse performance.


Despite a few minor lapses in ensemble precision and the aforementioned intonation problems, the Rutgers Wind Ensemble and conductor William Berz make a very positive impression. The recorded sound is rich and spacious, sacrificing some degree of detail for a concert hall-like ambience. Recommended, despite the caveats mentioned above.


FANFARE: Merlin Patterson

Peter Dickinson' strikingly original approach to organ music, which the composer himself has described as 'far from the English cathedral tradition', reflects a background that was not typical of British organists or composers.

CORELLI: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-6, Op. 5

RIES Piano Concerto in c, op. 115; Concerto Pastoral in D, op. 120; Introduction and Rondo Brilliant, WoO 54 • Christopher Hinterhuber (pn); Uwe Grodd, cond; Bournemouth SO • NAXOS 8.572088 (71.26)


Christopher Hinterhuber has been recording his way steadily through Ferdinand Ries’s 14 works for piano and orchestra. Austrian pianist Hinterhuber and Ries are an excellent match: Ries composed most of these brilliant works for his own concerts while touring Europe as a virtuoso pianist, and Hinterhuber has the brilliant keyboard technique and musical sensibility to bring them back to life.


The three works on this CD are from different periods of Ries’s life (the opus numbers do not accurately reflect the chronology). The C-Minor Concerto (op. 115), published in 1823, was composed in 1809; the date of composition of the Concerto Pastoral in D (op. 120) is not certain, but its dedication to a member of the Swedish royalty in the published edition of 1823 suggests that it was composed near the time Ries became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, around 1813. The Introduction and Rondo Brillant, published posthumously as WoO 54, is the latest of the three works, dating from 1835. Like all of Ries’s music that I have played and heard, the piano concertos are composed with skill and a wealth of inspired musical ideas.


The romantic spirit prevails throughout these works; the concertos are outgoing, flashy works, intended for a less sophisticated audience and more public venue than Ries’s piano sonatas and chamber music. (The word “flashy” is not used pejoratively here—it describes music that aims to entertain the audience with its brilliance.) While Ries indulges in all the typical romantic flourishes in the piano part (very similar to Chopin’s style of figuration), the orchestral sections adhere to classical ideals. The grand opening tutti of the D Major Concerto Pastoral could be by Beethoven; there are even a few brief melodic hints of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” and Ninth symphonies (both, significantly, in the key of D)—but as soon as the piano enters, the romantic keyboard style takes over. A soulful cello solo starts the slow movement, which ends with a horn call to initiate the delightful hunting character of the finale, in a fast 6/8 meter very reminiscent of Mozart’s horn concertos. The C-Minor Concerto from 1809 opens with a sober and melancholy tutti that is somewhat Mozartean, and filled with lovely melodic ideas; it also sounds quite like Beethoven at times—small wonder, since just a few years earlier Ries had premiered Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in Vienna.


Even while Ries often reflects his classical roots, his concertos look forward to the style of the romantic piano composers. His gift for writing beautiful melodies and sparkling keyboard figuration, in addition to his thorough knowledge of orchestral writing, makes these concertos very enjoyable listening. Uwe Grodd, a fine flutist as well as conductor, accompanies Hinterhuber beautifully, the Bournemouth Symphony is excellent, and the balance between piano and orchestra is perfect. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Susan Kagan

HAYDN: Symphonies, Vol. 28 (Nos. 37, 38, 39, 40)

Prokofiev first attempted to write an opera at the age of nine. His mature operas include The Love for Three Oranges, written in 1919, The Fiery Angel and War and Peace, the last based on Tolstoy's novel. His later ballets include Romeo and Juliet, and Cinderella. Both ballets as well as the first mentioned opera are known to concert audiences from orchestral suites based on them. Prokofiev wrote seven symphonies. Of these, the Classical Symphony, a work written in 1916-17 with the work of Haydn in mind, is the best known. Of Prokofiev's five piano concertos the third is best known, written in the composer's instantly recognizable musical language, from the incisive opening to the motor rhythms that follow, in a mixture of lyricism and acerbic wit. More overtly romantic in feeling are the two fine violin concertos. His early Cello Concerto was followed in 1952, fourteen years later, by a Cello Concertino, completed by the cellist Rostropovich and the composer Kabalevsky after Prokofiev's death. Prokofiev, himself a formidable pianist, completed nine piano sonatas out of a projected eleven. His music for piano also includes piano versions of music from the ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella.

BACH Concertos for Solo Harpsichord: BWV 972-93, 975-76, 978, 980 (after Vivaldi); 974 (after A. Marcello); 979 (after Torrelli); 981 (after B. Marcello); 977, 983, 986, 985 (after Telemann); 982, 984, 987 (after Ernst). Prelude and Fugue in a, BWV 894 • Elizabeth Farr (hpd) • NAXOS 8572006-07 (2 CDs: 150:35)


This recording hit me like a ton of bricks in three ways. First, there is the music itself, not actually by J.S. Bach but rather transcriptions he made for harpsichord of concertos by Vivaldi, Torelli, Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello, Johann Ernst, Telemann, and unknown composers, in addition to his own Prelude and Fugue in A Minor. Second, there is the extraordinarily high quality of Elizabeth Farr’s performances, dramatic, nuanced, and extraordinarily colorful. And third, there is the sound of the instrument, a rare Baroque-era harpsichord with a 16’ set of strings as well as damper and sustain pedals. When this CD first started pouring out of my speakers, I thought I was listening to Wanda Landowska in digital stereo. It turns out that such fabulous beasts did exist, after all, in the Baroque era, in fact from as far back as the 16th century. Well, well, well. It turns out that Landowska, who has been lambasted for more than half a century for her “grotesque,” “gargantuan-sounding” instruments, was on the right track after all. Not having an authentic instrument to play, she simply had Pleyel create one for her. Granted, it had a grand piano frame because she was a touring musician and even a newly minted harpsichord with 16’ strings would have gotten pummeled on trains, but the sound was not that far removed from this.


Farr is also an interesting annotator. In order to save space I refer you to her liner notes, which explain why Bach transcribed 22 concertos by primarily Italian composers for harpsichord (six of them are for two harpsichords). The key to the project was young Prince Johann Ernst, the nephew of Duke Wilhelm, who in fact composed three of the concertos transcribed here. The young prince, an outstanding musician, wanted them to play on his instrument. Bach was willing to oblige for one particular reason: By writing out these concertos he could study their composing methods, and apply what he learned to his own “Italianate” music.


Farr’s playing is in the style of Leonhardt and Kipnis, using a great deal of rubato—some of it obvious, some of it quite subtle—to break up the very regular rhythms. I love this style. It is antithetical to British harpsichordists like Trevor Pinnock (whom I also highly admire), but very much in line with the type of “hesitating” style that Bach himself later employed in so many solo harpsichord works, a style he undoubtedly picked up from his friend and older colleague Buxtehude. She also plays very dramatically—heavy chording and rich textures when emulating the full tutti of the orchestral passages, lighter and airier in slow movements and when emulating solo passages. This took me some getting used to, but I came to enjoy this approach.


Some listeners may feel cheated that only one work (the Prelude and Fugue) is actually by Bach, but as a compendium of Baroque style transcribed by a musical genius, played to perfection and stunningly recorded, this set is very highly recommended.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

PAGANINI: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 1

Billed as the start of a new complete Shostakovich symphony cycle, this initial entry holds a great deal of promise. The Eleventh Symphony has more the character of a film score than a traditional symphonic work: it thrives on atmosphere, color, and the repetition of simple tunes and motives rather than drama created by development and tonal contrast. Conductor Vasily Petrenko certainly understands this, whether in capturing the ghostly string timbres of the opening (reinforced by celesta on its many subsequent returns), in the crushing massacre sequence in the second movement, or in the splashy ending, with cymbals, bells, and tam-tam making cinematic contributions.

Petrenko's also very sensible in his handling of tempo. The first and third movements don't drag; the second and fourth have plenty of excitement with rhythms that never turn mechanical (as they have a tendency to do, what with so much militaristic march music). The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic plays very well, with distinguished contributions from all departments. My only quibble concerns the slightly backward positioning and lack of clarity afforded the timpanist, who carries much of the thematic substance of the first movement and presides over the massacre's percussion fusillades. Otherwise, this is pretty terrific on all counts. I recommend it accordingly, and look forward to the continuation of the cycle. [4/2/2009]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicssToday.com