Through the centuries composers have brought colour and panache to bear in their depictions of animals in music. For some, such as Sibelius, animals become the central focus in their tone poems, whilst for others a symphonic unity is sought, as Beethoven showed in his ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. Poetic imagery, through song, offers another avenue. The rich variety of the animal kingdom—from bees to birds, from fleas to fish (and much else)—offers memorable opportunities for sonic richness.

Classical Music

The Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds has rapidly become one of the world’s most performed choral composers. His ability to bring a dramatic text to life through textures that are lush yet permeated with a more stringent and angular aesthetic has ensured a steady steam of commissions from leading orchestras and choral forces. The four works here reflect an interest in the beauty of nature, religious faith and legend. The First Tears explores an Inuit story and employs subtle instrumental coloration from jaw harps and Native American flutes, whilst Passion and Resurrection is a profound and powerful exploration of Christ’s death and Resurrection.

Yevhen Stankovych is regarded by many as the most important Ukrainian composer of his generation. + His First Symphony for strings expresses both pathos and drama. + The Second Symphony, with a dramatic requiem at its core, conveys a protest against war and stands as a monument to bravery and to those who perished. + The Fourth Symphony is renowned for its romantic lyrical language and rich string sound.

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We have on this disc three highly entertaining orchestral works saturated with Latin rhythms and melodic motives. The Symphony No. 3 actually casts a wider net than just “Salsa.” The performances, featuring Sierra’s home town team under the capable baton of Maximiamo Valdés, do the music proud, and the engineering is vivid.

-- ClassicsToday.com

This programme presents the first integral recording of the complete published and manuscript duets by the Catalan master Jose Ferrer, last of the charismatic Romantic guitarist-composers, whose light-touched skill at creating music of elegance, charm and nuanced shading made him a darling of cultured society. Taking us from languorous dances to the glamor of Italian grand opera, this is mesmerizingly beautiful music redolent of a lost era of soirees and gallantry, Iberian salons and forgotten Parisian boudoirs. Norwegian guitarist, theorbo-player and mandolinist Jorgen Skogmo studied with Robert Brightmore and David Miller at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. As solo guitarist he has won several prestigious international prizes including Admira Young Guitarist of the Year and the 2002 Ivor Mairants Guitar Award. Jens Franke trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and King’s College, London. An artist of eclectic taste, he has worked with English National Ballet, and was formerly orchestral guitarist of the European Union Youth Orchestra, in which capacity he appeared in concert with Bernard Haitink, playing well-known venues all over the world.

Ludwig van Beethoven stands as a giant in music history for his great symphonies, piano sonatas and string quartets, and the challenges of deafness later in life. This programme shows the younger Beethoven's facility as a creator of light and entertaining chamber works as enjoyable to perform as they are to hear. Taking their cues from Mozart, the 'Duos' build on sonata form and dance movements, the slightly later 'Serenade' taking the shape of a genial 18th-century divertimento. Flutist Kazunori Seo was born in Japan in 1974. He began studying music at age 6 with his parents before going on to study in Paris. He was the recipient of the Premier Prix in flute in 1998 and the Premier Prix in chamber music in 1999. His previous recordings for Naxos include the flute music of Leopold Hofmann, Karl and Franz Doppler, Ignaz Moscheles, and Carl Czemy.

Acclaimed Chinese/American composer Bright Sheng has been fascinated by folk music for his entire career and Northern Lights is his first work to use Scandinavian folk music, exploring its kinship with American sources such as Appalachian and Bluegrass music. Inspired by ancient Chinese poetry, Melodies of a Flute captures deep and sensuous moods of love and longing, while Hot Pepper refers to the spicy cuisine of Si Chuan province. Bright Sheng combines Chinese and Western musical ideas to create luminous, deeply expressive and rhythmic scores, giving new meaning to the idea of music as a universal language.

Andreas Hakenberger spent his entire professional career within the territory of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, remaining for 20 years as chapel-master at the Lutheran Church of St. mary’s in Gdansk. Here he wrote his most outstanding works, a sequence of important motets written in cori spezzati, or polychoral technique. The rich tonal coloring obtained through the combinations of vocal parts is enhanced by the variety of the accompanying instrumentation. With astute use of imitation and rhetorical pauses, Hakenberger’s music emerges as richly colorful, graceful and vibrant. There have been very few recordings of the music of Andreas Hakenberger. This release offers by far the most of his music yet to be issued, and contains all of the 55 motets preserved in the Pelplin Tablature.

REVIEW:

It's remarkable that this classic Christmas opera hasn't received more recordings, but one reason may be its relatively short length (45-50 minutes) and the fact that it's more about the story and its quickly-paced dramatic aspects than the singing--Menotti focuses primarily on dialogue and less on stand-alone arias (this was written for television after all!). But the ensemble nature of the score, the sensitively wrought interaction of the sympathetically drawn characters, the humor, and the poignant relationship of the poor, crippled shepherd boy and his mother, are what give the work its charm and make it so affecting. Not that there aren't many clever and catchy, very pleasing tunes and a couple of fine ensemble numbers and choruses. Menotti's music is just enough and just the right blend of old and newer style.

Although the original 1951 television production conducted by Thomas Schippers (RCA) retains a dramatic edge over this excellent and very welcome newcomer--not to mention a vocally more solid cast--conductor Alastair Willis and his colleagues present a fully satisfying performance that has the advantage of first-rate, modern sound.

My only criticisms concern the acting--there could be a little more use of dramatic pauses and inflective touches, especially at the shocking moment when Amahl discovers he can walk, or in the scene when the Page discovers the Mother and the gold, which here lack the full measure of dramatic force exemplified by Schippers' cast. However, we mostly enjoy the easy interaction of the characters, such as the very effective, poignant moment when the Mother discovers the Kings at the door, or in Amahl's engaging banter with the Kings. The chorus is also fine, as is the orchestra, whose particular colors and instrumental balances are so important to the proper effect of the performance. Ultimately this is a production of this classic work that will hold up to many years of repeat hearings--and it's a pleasure to have it in a recording that obviously relishes and successfully captures the ambience of its chamber-opera character.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Louis Spohr's innovative approach to symphonic writing began with the programmatic Symphony No. 4 (8555398) and was further broadened by Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 121 which he subtitled "The Earthly and Divine in Human Life". Jettisoning traditional symphonic form, this work is in effect a daring symphonic poem in three movements with a small orchestra representing the "divine" and the full orchestra the "earthly". The more traditional Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 137 - enshrining both tragic lament and sweet serenade - enables us to compare Spohr the innovator with Spohr the formalist.

Romain Descharmes concludes his generally impressive cycle of Saint-Saëns piano concertos with this coupling of the formerly popular Fourth, and the increasingly popular Fifth. His performance of the Fourth, the composer’s most original work in the medium, is impressive. It’s a difficult work to pace; there’s a lot of slow music, and the thematic material is expressively pretty neutral. If the work is “about” anything, it’s a study in thematic metamorphosis and chromatic counterpoint versus diatonic harmony.

Descharmes and conductor Marc Soustrot understand the music well. The opening variations are nicely contrasted, the ensuing Andante attractive in its flow. The long finale effectively integrates the ongoing return of the main themes, with Descharmes weaving into and out of the instrumental textures smartly and sensitively. It’s an interpretation that consistently holds your attention, and rewards your patience.

The “Egyptian” Concerto isn’t quite as good. The outer movements are fine, especially the rollicking finale, but the long central movement could be more effectively shaped, its “orientalisms” indulged just that more characterfully. Still, as in the Fourth, the performance reveals a lot of meaningful detail, especially in the finale, and Descharmes isn’t afraid to take a step back and let other instrumental colors take center stage once in a while. Ultimately this complete set of the five piano concertos stands among the best out there, even if everyone will have favorite individual performances. This is an achievement of which everyone can be proud.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

In 1904 Max Reger wrote what was to be the first in a major sequence of variations on themes by his great predecessors. The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by J.S. Bach was written for piano but its richness and virtuosity exceed the scope of the instrument. Ira Levin’s orchestration clarifies the structure, intensifies climaxes and reduces its length. The Four Tone Poems explore the paintings of the symbolist Arnold Bocklin and form symphonic mood pictures that veer from delicacy to Bacchanalian frenzy.

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REVIEW:

That this is a welcome release scarcely needs to be said: too often Reger is considered a significant composer for organ, but significant within that niche: a master of fugal writing, perhaps on the heavy teutonic side. But, of course, there has always been more to him than this. This Naxos release allows wider access to his works in commendable performances by a conductor evidently deeply sympathetic to his cause.

The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by J.S.Bach, Op.81 (1904) are an arrangement by Ira Levin of Reger’s work for piano. In 1904, Reger considered it his finest work to date, and it was enthusiastically greeted on first public performance. The theme comes from the aria ‘Seine Allmacht zu ergründen, wird sich kein Mensche finden’, originally a duet for tenor and contralto, with oboe, viola d’amore and continuo, from Cantata No. 128, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein. Reger had insisted that the pianist treat the theme ‘sweetly and always very legato—that is to say, like an oboe solo’. Levin’s arrangement catches that very well.

It should be noted that Levin does not merely rearrange for different instruments: he reconstructs the work in a valuable reimagining – tempo is slower, preferring 6/4 time to Reger’s more general 6/8. He omits four variations (6,7,11 and 12), and uses a broad variety of instrumentation, notably in percussion, though no instruments not found elsewhere in his works. The result has revealing clarity and a taut architecture, very enjoyable in its own terms. Orchestration brings out very sharply the relationship to the organ, especially in the opening variations, and perhaps even more to Reger’s reverence for Brahms: sonorities are frequently Brahmsian. Levin is absolutely true to the spirit of Reger and his special emotional world. If the letter is Reger is an issue, some will prefer the piano version: but there is more than enough room for both.

Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin, Op.128 (1913) is Reger’s best-known orchestral work, inspired by the paintings of Böcklin, the 19th Century Swiss artist. These were symbolist pictures, with some abrupt changes of mood. Reger marks these shifts with subtlety. The overall mood is serious, but with many charms, notably in Der geigende Eremit (‘The Hermit Fiddler’) with its lovely violin solo, wonderfully captured by Klaudyna Schulze-Broniewska, the leader of the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester.

Add the slightly romantic arrangement by Reger of O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde gross, BWV 622 to the mix, and we have a CD whose appeal should move far beyond Reger enthusiasts. This is a splendid introduction for those who have thought of Reger as too heavy for their tastes, and packed with insights for those who have come to love him.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Wilkinson)

William Mathias was one of the foremost British composers of the 20th century and one of the very few of his generation from Wales who established an international reputation. The lively Christmas sequences Ave Rex and Salvator Mundi contrast with the splendor and tenderness of the rarely-performed anthem An Admonition to Rulers. Also included are the joyful Wassail Carol, the popular organ solo Toccata Giocosa, and premiere recordings of All Thy Works Shall Praise Thee and The Lord's Prayer - respectively the composer's first and last choral works.

These four works are among the few surviving examples of Muzio Clementi’s early orchestral music. The two Symphonies, Op. 18 follow Classical models but are full of the surprise modulations and dynamic contrasts to be found in his piano sonatas. The Piano Concerto has a dazzling solo part and some delightful orchestral touches. Clementi’s Symphonies Nos. 1-4 can be heard on Naxos 8.573071 and 8.573112.

All the works on this recording were composed when Busoni was between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Full of charm and wit, they reveal his precocious absorption of earlier models- principally Bach, Mozart, Weber and Schumann- as well as exceptional technical finesse. Una festa di villagigio charts the day’s events of a village festival whilst Suite campestre, one of his most distinctive early compositions, possesses moments of inwardness that presage the mature works to come. Wolf Harden, who was born in Hamburg in 1962, is one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. He has enjoyed great success in the Trio Fontenay, an ensemble that he founded in 1980 and with which he has toured to all the world’s major music centres. Harden devotes himself not only to chamber music but, with the same success, to the solo piano repertoire. His concert tours have taken him to South America and India as well as to countries throughout Europe, and his special affinity with unusual repertoire is attested by numerous recordings. He was the first to record a complete version of Hans Pfitzner’s Piano Concerto and has recorded piano music by Erno Dohnanyi, Franz Lehar and Ferruccio Busoni.

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Soustrot’s Saint-Saëns symphony cycle was quite good, and this new project looks to be similarly successful. For my money, the five piano concertos remain one of the most underrated groups of major works in the entire romantic repertoire. Yes, Nos. 2 and 4 get played more often than the rest, but there isn’t a dud in the bunch. It’s really only prejudice against the French aesthetic–the formal freedom, love of color, flash, and the dance–that prevents the music from getting the recognition that it deserves. That, and perhaps the fact that the melodious ease that informs all of Saint-Saëns’ writing makes a mockery of German pretensions to ownership of instrumental music in large forms.

These performances demonstrate a thoroughly “French” sensibility. Romain Descharmes savors the music’s charm and brilliance without indulging in excessive sentimentality. The First Concerto, with its surprising wiring for horns, has a breezy freshness that completely disarming. It’s played with joyful directness and a complete lack of affectation. I enjoy fast and dazzling versions of the Second Symphony, with its whirlwind finale, but Descharmes treats the piece with almost epicurean relish, nowhere more so than in this sassy, witty account of the central scherzo. There’s no lack of virtuosity, but also time to savor the music’s many harmonic delights.

Through it all, Soustrot accompanies with total confidence, and the sonics are terrific. A disc to savor.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

“First recording of complete ballet” this CD tray card proudly proclaims. Sorry guys, that honor goes (at a minimum) to Karl Anton Rickenbacher with the Bamberg Symphony on Koch, released way back in 1995. Statements such as this are all the more annoying when they can be disproved in about two seconds simply by looking at the listings on Amazon.com. Anyway, the lapse is forgivable, in this case, because that earlier recording is long out of print and the present release features a much better performance. Still, it’s always good to double-check these things, if only to maintain one’s credibility with hard-core collectors, who are the people most likely to be interested in this repertoire.

In its suite form Nobilissima Visione, Hindemith’s ballet about St. Francis of Assisi, consists of five numbers out of a total of eleven. The Introduction and Rondo actually takes two sections from the ballet’s later stages: Meditation and The Wedding with Poverty. The March and Pastoral comes from the middle: the same march, and the Appearance of the Three Women, while the passacaglia concludes both the suite and the complete ballet, in the latter as The Songs of Praise of the Creatures Begin. The entire work plays for about forty five minutes (in this performance), and it deserves to be heard whole–it is very beautiful, sort of an apotheosis of the mature Hindemith’s individual lyricism.

Whether it works as a ballet is another matter, and one which need not concern us. As a concert piece, it is totally viable in terms of length, thematic content, and scheme of contrasts. Schwarz’s performance is markedly superior to Rickenbacher’s. Just compare Schwarz’s “Wedding with Poverty” to Rickenbacher’s comparatively droopy, bland version, and you’ll get the picture. I suppose you could say that Schwarz’s is the more “balletic” interpretation, but its characteristic emphasis on lively tempos, transparent textures, and strong rhythms serves the music best in any context, and the Seattle Symphony plays very well.

The Five Pieces for String Orchestra make an interesting coupling. Arranged from Hindemith’s teaching works, they are designed to acquaint students with modern harmony while remaining easy to play, and they accomplish this goal admirably (meaning Hindemith does not pull any punches). They are not major works, but like all of his music they are well-crafted, and in any event more substantial that Rickenbacher’s coupling, the brief but charming Suite of French Dances. Fine sonics make this a valuable addition to the Hindemith discography, restoring a major and unjustly neglected work to the catalog.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

I’m sorry to say it but these days my heart usually sinks when I receive a disc that includes Allegri’s Miserere. I’m sure it’s an irrational and unfair prejudice on my part but I find the piece repetitive and it’s definitely over-exposed on CD. However, there are two reasons for making an exception here and welcoming its inclusion on this new disc by the Vasari Singers. The first is that it’s very well sung. The second is that’s it’s an integral part of an especially well thought-out programme.

This is a programme of connections, one of which is the commissioning, by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, of a setting of the Miserere by James MacMillan specifically to complement the Allegri setting. MacMillan succeeds brilliantly in fulfilling the request for his piece to be complementary and it’s very good to hear the two settings side by side, as here. Allegri uses three different choral strands in his setting: the full choir, plainchant verses sung by one or more male voices, and a distant semi-chorus. Some recent recordings I’ve heard opt to have the chanted passages sung by a lone male cantor and that works very well, providing extra contrast. Jeremy Backhouse adopts the more usual approach and has a group of men singing these verses: they do so with impressive unanimity. The semi-chorus is ideally distanced and very impressive they are. The top soprano ornaments some of the phrases. She does so tastefully and these decorations add variety. This is a very successful performance.

James MacMillan didn’t seek to replicate Allegri’s three-strand approach – wisely, I think; that would have risked pastiche. However, he does vary his choral textures most resourcefully during the setting. His piece is expertly imagined for the voices and the music is very responsive to the sentiments expressed in the text. I like very much the way that several times MacMillan writes passages that remind us of Allegri’s setting – yet he writes these sections without compromising his own compositional voice. This is a fine homage to the earlier setting and the Vasari Singers do it very well indeed.

The Allegri and MacMillan pieces are linked, albeit across the centuries. There’s a link also – and one that is much closer in time – between the pieces by Pizzetti and Malipiero that open the programme. They had been good friends but had fallen out – the fault lay with Pizzetti, it seems. In 1937 they patched up their quarrel and, as a gesture of reconciliation, they agreed both of them would write a setting of the De Profundis, each dedicating his piece to the other. Malipiero composed his eloquent setting for a solo baritone accompanied by viola and piano. In this performance an organ is used instead of a piano and, quite honestly, I find it hard to imagine that a piano would be preferable, given the nature of the music and the organ’s sustaining power. Here the baritone is Matthew Wood, a member of the Vasari Singers. He’s very impressive; his voice is well-focused and pleasing in tone and his diction is admirably clear. I enjoyed listening to him very much and the husky tone of Jon Thorne’s viola makes a very attractive addition to the texture. The other interesting feature of the accompaniment is an optional part for bass drum. It’s a very discreet part but Daniel Burges, a member of the choir, gauges the part perfectly so that it adds an unexpected colouring to the piece without intruding.

Pizzetti’s setting, for which he uses a shorter and somewhat different version of the text, is for seven-part unaccompanied choir. It’s very beautiful and Jeremy Backhouse and his singers do it full justice. We should divert for a moment from Pizzetti’s music to consider the small piece by Puccini, which I don’t recall hearing before. It was composed in 1905 to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Verdi. It’s for chorus accompanied by viola and organ. The viola adds a plangent tone to the texture, which is most effective. It’s a short and largely unassuming piece and, in a programme of links, it merits its place because the second time the piece was heard was at a 1924 memorial service for Puccini at which Pizzetti delivered the eulogy.

It’s Pizzetti who provides the most substantial work on this disc in the shape of his 1922 Requiem for unaccompanied choir. This very beautiful piece is something of a rarity in performance though it’s been recorded at least once before. That recording is a superb Hyperion version by the Choir of Westminster Cathedral and James O’Donnell, made as long ago as 1997 (CDA67017). I don’t see that Hyperion disc as a competitor to this new Naxos recording; rather, the two CDs are complementary. One reason is that the programmes differ: The Westminster Choir, who also include Pizzetti’s De Profundis, offer music by Frank Martin as the remainder of their programme. The other, more important factor is that the two choirs offer very different – and equally valid – listening experiences. The Westminster choir is all-male with trebles on the top-line and they’re recorded in the spacious acoustic of Westminster Cathedral. So by listening to them and to the Vasari Singers we can get two nicely contrasting views of Pizzetti’s eloquent Requiem.

There is a pronounced flavour of plainchant in the music and that’s evident right from the start of the Introit. From the basses’ chant-like opening phrases the music soon flowers into lovely polyphony, which is beautifully sung here, the sopranos radiant. There’s a full setting of the Dies Irae and the tone of a lot of the music may come as a surprise. The opening, which is again chant-inspired, is very subdued, basses and altos singing the text while the tenors and sopranos float wordless melismas over the melody. These melismatic phrases recur several times during this movement, which is by some distance the longest in the work. There are several impassioned outbursts when the words justify such treatment but the prevailing mood is that of a prayer for forgiveness. The concluding lines, ‘Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Amen’, are set to the most gentle music imaginable. This deeply affecting though brief passage is tenderly sung.

Pizzetti divides his choir into three four-part groups - one female, two male - for the Sanctus. This is memorable, the complex textures creating a ‘buzz’ of sound. The ‘Hosannas’ are ecstatic. The music for the Agnus Dei is texturally much simpler; it’s a gently prayerful setting which the Vasaris sing with great sensitivity. Unlike, say, Fauré or Duruflé, Pizzetti chooses to end not with a setting of In Paradisum but with Libera me. This predominantly dark text is marked to be sung ‘with profound fervour’. This is troubled, unsettled music though there is a serenely beautiful passage at the words ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.’ The very end of the work sets words about God judging the world by fire; a far cry, indeed, from the vision of the angels leading the departed soul into Paradise with which a number of Requiems conclude.

Pizzetti’s Requiem is a work of great beauty and sincerity and it deserves to be far better known than it is. This sensitive and expertly sung performance by the Vasari Singers can only help its cause.

Over the years I’ve heard quite a number of recordings by this choir and I’ve been consistently impressed. However, I fancy this disc may be just about the best thing they’ve ever done. A thoughtfully conceived and interesting programme has been flawlessly executed. The singing not only gives consistent pleasure but also prompts admiration. The recording has been produced by Adrian Peacock and engineered by Will Brown; they have achieved excellent results. Finally, Brenda Moore’s notes are very good indeed. I hope it will not be long before the next Vasari Singers disc and in the meantime I urge you to try this one, especially if you don’t know the Pizzetti Requiem – or even if you do.

– John Quinn, MusicWeb International

Learn more about the music from this Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast episode!

These two concertos - one a staple of the repertoire, the other almost unknown - share melodic richness and a Spanish influence. Lalo's Symphonie espagnole reflects the quicksilver technique of its dedicatee, Pablo de Sarasate, in its ingenious and virtuosic passagework, with its moods and rhythms indelibly Iberian in feel. Juan Manén, in his day almost as famous as his fellow Catalan Pau Casals, was an admired virtuoso violinist and a prominent composer. His Concierto español, the first of three violin concertos, is suffused with technical demands, lyric warmth, and rhapsodic nostalgia. Soloist Tianwa Yang's Sarasate recordings have received international acclaim.

REVIEW:

Yang seems to have a natural affinity for Spanish works, having already recorded the complete violin works of Pablo de Sarasate, and her dazzling brilliance seems perfectly suited to the nature of the music. As in the Sarasate set, Yang is paired with a Spanish orchestra for even more authenticity.

– The WholeNote (CA)

The hugely prolific Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was fiercely independent of any one compositional style or influence, yet his work is unified by a unique synthesis of Brazilian and Western cultures.

One of the least recorded of Paganini's 6 Violin Concertos.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Strathclyde Concertos are amongst his most imposing contributions to the genre. The solo pairing of his Concerto No. 5 was inspired by Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, the soloists appearing in dialogue over intricate harmonies and dense string textures. Illuminated by Peter Bruegel's painting Children's Games, the distinctively scored Concerto No. 6 has an uninhibited lightness and transparency. Strathclyde Concerto No. 2 can be heard on Naxos 8.573017, Nos. 3 and 4 on 8.572353.

Award-winning and much decorated composer Claude Baker here entwines his evocative soundworld with the powerful imagery of two great poets. Recorded in its premiere performance with Marc-Andre Hamelin as soloist, the Piano Concerto ‘From Noon to Starry Night’ draws on and amplifies the structures and meanings of five poems by Walt Whitman, expressing the heroism and darkness of war, exuberant celebrations of nature and a wistful ‘remembrance of things past.’ Aus Schwanengesang is a memorial piece that expands and ‘re-composes’ the poignant Heine Lieder from Schubert’s song cycle with oblique and multi-layered references.

This new release is an album of eloquent contemporary music for children performed by Mr. E and Me and The Norwegian Radio Orchestra. The wonderful songs are written, arranged and sung by the highly accomplished duo Mr. E and Me, which consists of Martin Hagfors and Erik Johannessen. Martin, American born, is an artist, composer and lyricist in his own right and a popular collaborator for the likes of Ellen Andrea Wang, Bobby Bare, Big Bang, Motorpsycho etc. Erik is a Norwegian composer, arranger and trombone playing member of Jaga Jazzist, he is also known for his studio work with Susanne Sundfor and The Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. New Orchestral Hits 4 Kids also includes a guest appearance by the world music icon, Mari Boine on the hauntingly eerie, Long, Long and performances by The Norwegian Girls Choir. New Orchestral Hits 4 Kids aims to open ears to the wonderful sounds of the orchestra while introducing whimsical, imaginative songs about friendships, forests, wet socks, dancing, space, a robot, a birthday, and a beautiful narrative about a girl on the moon.

Volume 2 of this complete edition of Martinu's songs is set mainly to Czech poems on themes of life, love and nature. Mezzo-soprano Jana Wallingerova, a member of the National Theatre in Brno, Czech Republic, has sung many of the most well-known mezzo roles on it's stage. Concert activities are also an essential part of her repertoire. Prague-born Giorgio Koukl is a pianist/harpsichordist and composer who has given many recitals and concerto performances.

"These two symphonies - the fourth premiered in 1942 in Cleveland, the ninth in 1969 in Philadelphia - are full of arresting moments, both emotionally and in terms of orchestral effects. . . These pieces are layered with dark mysteries that make you want to hear them again and again. Also, the recording quality drawn from Seattle's Benaroya Hall is outstanding." - David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, May 29th, 2005

"...Though separated by decades, the two war symphonies are exceptional -- exemplary showcases of "The American Sound" in symphonic music (i.e. athletic, modal, spacious, dramatic, starkly songful). They are soundscapes full of mass sonority, vigor and seriousness. The performances and recordings are brand new and superb." - John Simon, Buffalo News, Sunday, May 22nd, 2005


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The sparkling overture to Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 musical Candide immediately found a prominent place in concert programs all over the world and is now one of his most frequently performed pieces. Many of Bernstein’s best loved works drew inspiration from the city of New York, and this is true both of the three sailors pursuing female conquest in the ballet ‘Fancy Free,’ and of the rip-roaring swing rhythm and big tunes from the musical ‘Wonderful Town.’ Bernstein celebrated his friends and family with his ‘Anniversaries’- piano vignettes heard here for the first time in colorfully expanded orchestrations. Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives.” She became music director of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and made history in 2013 as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, which she returned to conduct in 2015. As a student of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop is central to his 100th anniversary celebrations, conducting Bernstein’s ‘Mass’ at the Ravina Festival, where she serves as musical curator for 2018 and 2019.

This album of guitar concertos from the Americas features pieces composed for David Tanenbaum. Building on a tradition of prominent guitarists generating repertoire through new commissions, these works present the guitar in a variety of settings. Kernis's concerto dips with ease into the world of pop music, whereas his Lullaby and Soliloquyare reflective, lyrical and romantic. Sierra's concerto asserts a rhythmic and percussive character, while Piazzolla's dark and sentimental double concerto is one of his least-known works.

Beethoven’s permanent move to Vienna in 1782 allowed him direct contact with the operatic and Italianate culture of the city. He took lessons in Italian word setting from Salieri and almost immediately began the composition of a series of arias in that language, including Primo amore, piacer del ciel and later the dramatic recitative and aria Ah! perfido. Beethoven also set strophic songs in German that form part of the popular Singspiel tradition which are genial and rare examples of his art. Here, the songs are performed by soprano Reetta Haavisto, tenor Dan Karlstrom, and baritone Kevin Greenlaw.