BALADA: Hangman! Hangman! / The Town of Greed

Alexander Moyzes was among the leading Slovak composers of his generation, drawing inspiration from the traditions and landscape of his own country while absorbing a number of wider contemporary trends. His Symphony No. 3, or Little Symphony is derived from an earlier Wind Quintet, while Symphony No. 4, with its occasional suggestions of Mahler and Sibelius, combines protest at the injustice of war with the past history of the Slovaks. The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra was established in 1929 as the first professional symphony orchestra in Slovakia. The orchestra is currently led by conductor Mario Kosik. It has made a large number of recordings for labels including Opus, Supraphon, Naxos and Marco Polo. In addition to regular season concerts, which feature works by Slovak composers, many of them as premieres, the orchestra has performed at concerts abroad, visiting Austria and Hungary, and touring in Europe, Japan, and Korea.

The three works in this programme reflect different aspects of Strauss's compositional life. The tone-poem MacBeth, written between 1888 and 1891, offers a grippingly taut narrative. The Dance of the Seven Veils from the 1905 opera Salome is one of it's most exciting and intoxicating moments. Towards the end of his life, facing the ruin wrought by World War II, Strauss took inspiration from Goethe and wrote Metamorphosen, one of the most moving of all twentieth-century works.

Boccherini’s guitar quintets are arrangements prepared from material originally used in a cycle of piano quintets, written in Madrid during the final years of the eighteenth century. Although Boccherini received support from then French ambassador Lucien Bonaparte, contemporary reports suggest that the years prior to his death in 1805 were spent in abject poverty. Nevertheless, he remained as musically productive as ever, and the works recorded here are typically fresh and inventive.

Vocal solo and choral arias by Accademia Instrumentale Italiana; Oxford Camerata; Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca under the direction of Diego Fasolis, Bo Holten, Herve Niquet, Antony Pitts, Jeremy Summerly and Sergio Vartolo. Featuring Hildegard of Bingen's O Euchari in leta via and Dieterich Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri, BuxWV75: Ie. Ad pedes: Ecce super montes.

Given the popularity of Schumann’s A-Minor Piano Concerto, I’d be willing to wager there are readers out there who have amassed recordings of it in double-digit numbers. If you are one of them, you may already have this one in an earlier incarnation, for the performances on this disc are not new. The concerto comes from a 1988 Budapest production; the Introduction and Allegro appassionato, from a 1992 Belgian production; and the Introduction and Allegro, from a 1996 Polish production.

The current release, however, can be recommended for joining this trilogy of Schumann’s concerted works for piano and orchestra on a single disc. In fact, it is the identical program I praised to the heavens in a review of an MDG DVD-A with Christian Zacharias. If you heeded my advice and acquired that disc, the present Naxos recording, and all others, for that matter, are superfluous. Nonetheless, Jenö Jandó, who has become a well-known Naxos commodity, is a very fine pianist whose playing here is technically flawless and interpretively orthodox. Translation? You can’t go wrong.

One minor editorial correction: the note states that Schumann’s two single-movement concert pieces for piano and orchestra, coupled here with the concerto, are his only other works for this combination. Not so. In 1839, he wrote a Konzertsatz in D Minor for piano and orchestra that predates the works on this program. There is a recording of it on a Koch International Classics CD.

Jerry Dubins, FANFARE

The most distinguished pianist of his generation, a brilliant pedagogue and a highly gifted composer, José Viana da Mota was a towering personality in the field of Portuguese music. Disapproving of ‘modernistic’ compositional trends he stopped composing around 1910 but not before he had written his Symphony ‘To the Homeland’, a brilliantly orchestrated paean to Portuguese prowess and discovery which makes use of Portuguese folk dances and songs. Based on the dramatic life and murder of the 14th-century noblewoman Inês de Castro, Viana da Mota’s Lisztian symphonic poem is an early work notable for its kaleidoscopic sections full of inspiring contrasts. This recording presents the complete orchestral works of Viana da Mota.

Down a Path of Wonder: Memoirs of Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Other Cultural Figures Hardcover - Robert Craft met Stravinsky by invitation in 1948, after nearly four years of letter correspondence with the composer. It was this close association that steered Craft into a stimulating world of leading composers, writers and artists. At virtually the same time that he became a member of the Stravinsky household, Craft, aged twenty-four, discovered the 'path of wonder' created by Arnold Schoenberg. In 1950, the young conductor sought instruction from Schoenberg in the performance of his music, and maintained a friendship with him that became increasingly cordial until the week of the composer's death a year later. 'Remembering Schoenberg', the first chapter of "Down a Path of Wonder", charts with charm the development of this mutual understanding and friendship. Craft's musical observations are pertinent and witty, and it is music that underpins this collection of memoirs. However, his descriptions of Stravinsky's collaborator-friends, such as George Balanchine, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Aldous Huxley and other Makers of the Twentieth Century, also provide a fascinating contribution to the intellectual and cultural history of our era. Craft's travel diaries, forming the final part of this book, focus on Italy, Seville and Cambodia; they are similarly insightful, colorful and edifying. "Down a Path of Wonder" is a unique and truly compelling perspective on the post-Second World War artistic world - and beyond.

Aaron Copland's suite from the ballet Appalachian Spring won him a Pulitzer Prize and global recognition. The famous Quaker song 'Simple Gifts' and the American ambience of this suite contrast with the more modernist Symphonic Ode, which conveys rugged grandeur through an uncompromising structural unity. Neglected since the late 1960s, Paul Creston's music was once amongst the most frequently performed of any American composer. His poetic Symphony No. 3 is an orchestral Life of Christ, movingly expressed through themes inspired by Gregorian chant.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote music for the lute throughout his career. He had in his possession not only a lute but also two lute-harpsichords (Lautenwerke), gut-strung keyboard instruments allowing a fuller range of sound than the normal lute. For the present recording Elizabeth Farr plays a lute-harpsichord reconstructed by Keith Hill from Bach’s own specification for one of his two instruments. -- Naxos

R E V I E W S:

"The harpsichord and its repertoire can make for a sensual, intimate avenue of aural escape. That takes not only a sensitive player, but an alluring instrument and the right acoustics. Even those who think they are allergic to the harpsichord may find themselves beguiled by the tone of the lute-harpsichord. This mysterious Baroque hybrid, strung mostly in gut like a lute rather than in metal like a harpsichord, combined the compass of a keyboard with the warmth of a plucked instrument. A fan of their ravishing sound, Bach owned a couple of lute-harpsichords. Robert Hill's sublime 1999 release in Hänssler's complete Bach edition has been the go-to disc for the lute-harpsichord works. But American keyboardist Elizabeth Farr—whose William Byrd collection was one of last year's best recordings [Naxos 8.570139-41]—measures up with this bargain-priced double-CD set...the clarity of Farr's playing has its own poetry, matched by transparent sound. As on her Byrd set, Farr plays a beautiful instrument by top American builder Keith Hill." -- Bradley Bambarger, The Star-Ledger (New Jersey USA), August 26, 2008

"Very expressive and colorful playing in a simply delightful listen."

STRONG: Ondine / From a Notebook of Sketches, Suites 1-3

Bach wrote his six Suites for unaccompanied cello at Cöthen, about the year 1720. It is thought that the first four, at least, were written either for Christian Ferdinand Abel, bass viol player at Cöthen, or for Christian Bernhard Linike, more probably the latter. Abel, appointed to Cöthen in 1715 is not known to have been a cellist, while Linike was distinguished rather as a player of the cello and in this capacity had been appointed to the musical establishment of the court in Cöthen in 1716, thus rejoining former colleagues from the Prussian court musical establishment, disbanded in 1713 by Friedrich Wilhelm I on his accession to his father's throne. Both musicians were friends and colleagues of Bach. The original autograph of the suites is lost and the earliest copy is that made by the Gräfenroda organist and composer Johann Peter Kellner in about 1726. This is followed by that in the hand of Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena, made probably in 1727 or 1728 for the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel chamber musician Georg Heinrich Ludwig Schwanenberger, who had visited Leipzig at the time and taken lessons in thoroughbass from Bach, for whose daughter Regina Johanne he stood as godfather. Each of the six cello suites opens with a Prélude. Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007, has an introductory movement in which the changing harmonies are made clear in arpeggiated form. The usual Allemande and Courante are followed by a slow Sarabande, with a repeated Menuet II framing a G minor Menuet II. The suite ends, as it should, with a Gigue. Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008, opens again with an elaborate Prélude, ending with a series of grandiose arpeggiated chords. Once again the Allemande and Courante lead to a Sarabande and a D minor Menuet I is repeated to frame a D major Menuet II, before a lively final Gigue. Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009, has a Prélude that is marked Presto in a slightly later source. This opens boldly with a descending scale and an arpeggio that ends on the resonant bottom string of the instrument. A relatively elaborate Allemande is paired with a simpler Courante, followed by a stately Sarabande, a well-known movement that leads to the still more familiar pair of Bourrées, the second in C minor. The suite ends with an energetic Gigue. The fourth of Bach's cello suites, the Suite in E flat major, BWV 1010, opens, like the others, with a demanding Prélude. An Allemande follows, paired with a Courante, leading to a contrasting slow Sarabande. A busier first Bourrée is followed by a second that is simpler in texture and in the same key. The last movement is a lively Gigue. The fifth and six of Bach's cello suites differ in various ways from the first four. The fifth, the Suite in C minor, BWV 1011, was originally written in scordatura, a practice sometimes found in string music of the period, with the top A string of the instrument tuned down to G. The opening Prélude has a slower, embellished introduction before an extended faster fugal section in triple metre, it's fugal texture largely implied. An ornamented Allemande is duly followed by it's companion Courante and a slow Sarabande that strangely avoids the chordal pattern of it's predecessors. A first Gavotte is repeated after the unusual compound rhythm of the second Gavotte and the suite ends with a Gigue in dotted rhythm. The sixth of the suites, the Suite in D major, BWV 1012, is written for a five-string instrument, with an additional top string tuned to E. It has been suggested that Bach wrote this more difficult suite for the viola pomposa, a five-string viola that found occasional use from 1725 to about 1770. It seems, however, that Bach designed this work for the violoncello piccolo, a smaller form of cello, designed for more elaborate solo work and one that he uses elsewhere. The Prélude opens with the characteristic sound of bariolage, as the player repeats the note D on alternate strings. The Allemande has elaborate figuration and the companion Courante again exploits the wider possible range of the five-string instrument. A Sarabande is followed by a pair of Gavottes, played in alternation, and the suite ends with the customary and here demanding Gigue.

Many eminent 20th-century composers have been fascinated by the expressive capabilities of the harpsichord, and this selection unites the instrument's traditional idioms with progressive and highly personal sensibilities. Sir Lennox Berkley's music evinces a distinct French influce, while Howell's Clavichord is a series of musical portraits of the composer's distinguished friends. Gavin Bryars has deep roots in the avant-garde, but After Handel's "Vesper" is virtuosic yet expressive, while John Jeffrey's Four Little English Dances are delightful tributes to the harpsichord's lyricism. Christopher D. Lewis performs.

Sergey Prokofiev’s final years were clouded by ill-health, and the Seventh Symphony was his last significant work, full of poignant nostalgia and restrained but deeply expressed emotion. The Love for Three Oranges consolidated Prokofiev’s reputation in the West in the 1920s, both this and the satirical tale of Lieutenant Kije producing two of his most popular suites. This is the final volume of the acclaimed cycle of Prokofiev’s Symphonies with the Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop.

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REVIEWS:

Alsop captures the lyrical aspects of the Seventh work really well. She also has the advantage of a superior recording in the acoustically friendlier Sala São Paulo. The orchestra is superb throughout, but special mention should be made of the woodwinds that have notable solos in the work.

– MusicWeb International

This is one of the most desirable Sevenths on disc. The Sao Paulo orchestra are in good shape, and continue with a display of their refined tonal quality through the remainder of the disc, the creamy double-bass solo at the opening of the Romance in the Kije Suite worthy of special mention. Commendable inner detail, but play the disc at a very high volume to bring it to life.

– David's Review Corner

Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez is the most celebrated classical guitar work of the 20th century, music that conjures up the color, sophistication and glories of eternal Spain. The founding father of Mexican music, Manuel Ponce, wrote his Concierto del sur for Segovia, and it is a work of vivid grandeur, Sevillian dances and melodic richness. To complete the programme, prize-winning international virtuoso Junhong Kuang plays a piece dedicated to him – Gerald Garcia’s China Sings! – a rhapsody inspired by two popular Chinese tunes. Darrell Ang is the artistic director and chief conductor of China’s Sichuan Symphony since December 2016. He regularly conducts the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony and at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. Darrell Ang received a GRAMMY Award nomination for his Naxos debut recording of Symphony ‘Humen 1839’ by Zhou Long and Chen Yi (8.570611). His most recent albums feature Kabalevsky’s First and Second Symphonies (8.573859) and d’Indy’s incidental music Médée (8.573858), among others.

One of the least explored areas of Beethoven’s compositions is the miscellaneous sequence of canons, early exercises in counterpoint, mature jokes and jeux d’esprit that he wrote over many years. He composed a two-part canon for the composer Hummel in 1816 and in 1823 one for four voices (written in a tavern) for Count Lichnowsky. He also wrote birthday and Christmas greetings for colleagues and friends, and songs that punned on recipients’ names or poked fun at them. Viennese chamber choir Cantus Novus Wiendraws on an extensive repertoire of Baroque, Classical, and contemporary music, including a cappella choral music, oratorios by Handel and Haydn, and requiems by Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, and Fauré. Contemporary music is one of the choir’s focal points, including regular world premieres of commissioned pieces. The choir has been conducted by Thomas Holmes since 2001. Ensemble Tamanial is a vocal quartet based in Vienna, Austria. The ensemble was established to provide a place in which to grow and learn as musicians through undertaking soloist responsibility across a wide variety of musical styles, including Renaissance, Classical, Romantic and also in contemporary works. For these Beethoven recordings the ensemble have been working closely with Thomas Holmes as their musical director and wish to express their deep gratitude.

William Henry Fry (1813-64) was the first native-born American to write for large orchestral forces (and the first to compose a grand opera), and was a vociferous supporter of music home-grown in the good old U.S.A. That's not to say Fry's music didn't contain European influences: traces of Berlioz, Wagner, and Verdi all show up in his work; but he also manages to include elements of (then) American popular song. For example, the Santa Claus Symphony of 1853 (really more of an extended symphonic poem) features "Rock-a-bye Baby" played on a soprano saxophone. Actually, Santa Claus makes only a brief appearance in this narrative-derived piece, which among other things depicts a lost traveler dying in a snowstorm and the birth of the Savior, before ending with the strings intoning "O come, all ye faithful". Fry's orchestral writing is vividly picturesque, with much imagination lavished on the score's fantasy elements.


An even more graphic portrayal can be found in the 1854 Niagara Symphony, which after a rumbling introduction roars out a big unison theme that mimics the Tuba mirum from Mozart's Requiem. The Overture to Macbeth (1864) contains some pretty exciting passages as well, and here's where the Berlioz influence is particularly strong (especially in the witches' music). Lastly, Fry's The Breaking Heart (a work once believed to be lost) shows his love for Italian bel canto in its many lyrical and "operatic" passages. All told, this is a highly compelling album of some first-rate 19th century orchestral music, enthusiastically and stylishly performed by Tony Rowe and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and recorded in top-drawer sound--another winner in Naxos' spectacular American Classics series.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

The Vasari Singers’ annual carol concerts always provide a warming blend of traditional favourites and less well-known music from all periods and styles. Here, joyous and masterful 16th-century polyphony sits alongside eternally popular Victorian carols, and exquisitely crafted settings by Howells and Walford Davies join works as recent as Gabriel Jackson’s The Christ-child. Bob Chilcott magically superimposes traditional carols with entrancing new material, and no Vasari Christmas would be complete without some close harmony Swingle singing.

Few painters are as enigmatic as Johannes Vermeer. His works command admiration for their meticulous observation and the sensitive rendering of light and colour.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s two Piano Concertos form a contrasting pair. Concerto No 1, written in 1927, is a vivid and witty example of his romantic spirit, exquisite melodies and rich yet transparent orchestration. Concerto No 2, composed a decade later, is a darker, more dramatic and virtuosic work. The deeply-felt and dreamlike slow movement and passionate finale are tinged with bleak moments of sombre agitation, suggestive of unfolding tragic events with the imminent introduction of the Fascist Racial Laws that led Castelnuovo-Tedesco to seek exile in the USA in 1939. The Four Dances from ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’, part of the composer’s recurring fascination for the art of Shakespeare, are atmospheric, richly characterised and hugely enjoyable. This is their first performance and recording.

R E V I E W:

CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Piano Concertos: Nos. 1, 2. Love’s Labour’s Lost: 4 Dances • Alessandro Marangoni (pn); Andrew Mogrelia, cond; Malmö SO • NAXOS 8.572823 (76: 43)


Naxos’s two discs of this composer’s Shakespeare overtures really turned a lot of heads, mine included, a couple of years ago. Therefore, it was inevitable that the label would add to its Castelnuovo-Tedesco discography. The two piano concertos are not new to CD. However, as happens with greater frequency these days, alternative recordings have either gone out of print or are prohibitively expensive imports. This new release makes a lot of sense then, and it has been made all the more attractive by the addition of the four dances from Love’s Labour’s Lost , in not only their first recording but also their first performance!


That’s probably a good place to start. Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed these in 1953, but apparently Boosey & Hawkes, to which they were offered, did not publish them, and neither did Ricordi. Thus, they remained in manuscript, and unheard, until they were lent by the composer’s niece, Lisbeth Castelnuovo-Tedesco, to Alessandro Marangoni, who prepared a performing edition. This utterly delightful music should not have waited 60 years for a performance. The composer’s affinity for Shakespeare, already demonstrated in the concert overtures, also comes forward here. There is a gently ironic, somewhat Ravel-like and somewhat cinematic approach to old dance forms here. A lush Sarabande (for the King of Navarre) is followed by a mocking Gavotte (for the Princess of France) and a quietly loquacious Spanish Dance (for Don Adriano de Armado). Last is a Russian Dance—the flavoring is subtle—which corresponds to the scene in Shakespeare’s comedy in which the King and his scholarly companions disguise themselves as Muscovites to woo the Princess and her three ladies. Again, it floors me that this music had to wait so long to be heard.


A similar situation applies to the Piano Concerto No. 2. The original score appears to have been lost, but Marangoni found a copy in the Library of Congress and prepared a performing edition of the piano part. (The orchestral parts were found somewhere else—talk about pieces and parts!) Both of the concertos are an unusual marriage of virtuoso writing and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s relatively relaxed compositional style. The second concerto is the darker of the two; it was composed in 1936–37, shortly before the composer, who was a Jew, left Italy, ending up in Hollywood. It is, however, not a tragic work, but it lacks the lightness and wit of the other two works on this CD. For me, its romantic gestures don’t add up to a lot, given the not very distinctive quality of the melodic writing. Also, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s longer works don’t have the structural strength of the Shakespeare overtures, for example, and this also contributes to the sense that the music is always going somewhere but never quite arriving. It is, by the way, proudly tonal. I am reminded of Respighi’s comment, around this time, that “dissonance has its place as a medium of tone-color, and polytonality has important uses as a means of expression, but for their own sake, they are completely abhorrent to me.”


So, as suggested, the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1927), which opens the CD, is less moody. As Graham Wade writes in his booklet note, it “was written in a spirit of optimism and ebullience.” Like the second concerto, its middle movement is a Romanza, although here, its introspection is less merited, and perhaps driven simply by the need for contrast. As I relisten to both of these concertos, I think the best way to describe them would be “Nino Rota meets Rachmaninoff,” although the First, in particular, is less impressive than either of those composers usually managed to be.


Away from the piano bench, Marangoni appears to be putting unusual effort forward on behalf of the composer, and I have no reason to believe that his pianism is holding either of these concertos back. He seems to enjoy their romantic lushness, and he has the fingers to make the most of that quality. Andrew Mogrelia, a familiar name from many Naxos releases, is associated with ballet music, and so it is not surprising that color and transparency are two strong features of these recordings. The Swedish orchestra is just fine, as is the engineering.


This is most desirable, I think, for the 16 minutes allotted to the dances from Love’s Labour’s Lost. I don’t reject the possibility, however, that the two piano concertos might grow on me, in time.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

Leó Weiner, a contemporary of Bartók and Kodály, was a profoundly important teacher in Budapest whose own music developed from a more traditional Romantic model – exemplified by the songful Románc, Op. 29 – to an absorption of his native Hungarian folk music during the 1930s. The two Divertimentos for strings, vibrantly orchestrated sequences of dances, are among the best-known works of this period. The later Hungarian Nursery Rhymes and Folk Songs draw on some archaic and very popular native melodies. Volumes 1 and 2 can be heard on 8.573491 and 8.573847. This is Volume 3 of Valéria Csányi’s ongoing series of the complete orchestral works by Weiner, with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV. Vol. 1 includes the complete ballet C song or and Tünde (8.573491)in which Gramophone wrote that ‘Csányi shapes the score as if she really loves it’, while Fanfare stated that ‘this disc represents a charming discovery.’

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REVIEW:

This is the fourth disc in Naxos’ survey of the orchestral music of Leó Weiner—each performed by the same artists as here. All of these CDs have been impressively and idiomatically performed and the repertoire is valuable in expanding the knowledge of Weiner’s work outside his native Hungary. For those discovering his music for the first time, this disc might be the best introduction to his work of the series so far.

In terms of both musical content and simple length, the Pastorale, Fantasy and Fugue Op.23 is the most substantial work on this disc. The use of folk-inspired melodic and rhythmic shapes is unmistakable but none of these are explicitly folk-derived although the fugal finale does draw on a traditional Hungarian bagpipe song. This is certainly a work that deserves to be more widely known and played outside of its native Hungary.

This well recorded, confidently played programme cements the attractive music of Leo Weiner as being well-worth performing. With the exception of the Op.23, this is essentially quite light but very enjoyable music that benefits from sympathetic and idiomatic performances. István Kassai’s English-only liner is very helpful highlighting information about both the music and this relatively unfamiliar composer.

– MusicWeb International

Ferdinand Rebay was born in Vienna where he studied piano and composition, winning the Brahms Prize. He wrote operas, a symphony, concertos and many songs, but was increasingly drawn to writing for the guitar for which he wrote 600 pieces of various kinds. The three sonatas recorded here are little known and reflect Rebay’s immersion in Romantic neo-Classicism. Themes are lyrical, utilizing folk song, energetic March themes and variations, with a tapestry of emotions both sombre and exuberant. Laurence Kayaleh has recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Medtner, Honegger and Catoire for Naxos. Her Catoire recording (8.573345) was selected in Fanfare’s ‘Want List’ for 2016: ‘The brilliant performance by violinist Laurence Kayaleh and pianist Stéphane Lemelinis lively and its sound is clear, clean and pleasantly warm.’ Guitarist Michael Kolk has performed at music festivals and concert halls throughout Europe and North America. A prizewinner at numerous guitar competitions, he has released four solo albums to date, as well as three releases as part of the HK Guitar Duo, and an album of Mauro Giulianiduos with Jeffrey McFadden (8.572445).

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REVIEW:

These sonatas are full of attractive melodies and a sophisticated harmonic awareness, shot through with a very ‘Viennese’ elegance and laced with debts to the folk tradition. The playing of Laurence Kayaleh is equally fluent and beautifully phrased, whether she is playing violin (a 1742 Guarneri) or viola (an instrument of 1820 by Giuseppe Dalaglio); her playing is lyrically eloquent and rich in tonal variety. Guitarist Michael Kolk complements her well and when his instrument is foregrounded (as in some of the variations which make up the second movement of the Sonata in C minor) his judgement of dynamics and his rhythmic sense are both faultless.

All three of these works are rewarding and enjoyable listening—so long as one doesn’t insist that a composer (poet, painter…) should be very much of his/her time. Though never intellectually profound or emotionally urgent, Rebay’s sonatas do explore a range of feelings, from the melancholy to the joyful.

– MusicWeb International

Claudio Monteverdi was a musical revolutionary who championed the new style of music that replaced intricate Renaissance counterpoint with the more theatrical music of the early Baroque. Yet he was a master in both these styles, as this selection.

The five works that make up this recording were all inspired by Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quijote de la Mancha. Barbieri' incidental music was composed as part of the first official commemoration, in 1861, of the anniversary of Cervantes' death.

Part of the great French musical tradition and a member of Les Six, Darius Milhaud was an important avant-garde figure in early 20th century Paris. The Oresteia of Aeschylus trilogy arose from his lifelong interest in Greek mythology and drama, inspired by the expressive, syncopated rhythms of Paul Claudel’s poetic texts. In addition to innovative rhythmic elements, the trilogy exhibits complex harmonic techniques, particularly polytonality, which Milhaud believed gave him more varied ways of expressing sweetness in addition to violence.

Choral elements from Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and medieval traditions are included in this anthology of anthems and motets, many drawing inspiration from the Psalms. They range from sixteenth-century Germany (Eccard), through the nineteenth-century Anglican tradition of Hanforth, Stainer and Stanford and the twentieth-century Catholicism of Poulenc, to contemporary England (Rose, Tavener, Harvey), Scotland (MacMillan), Australia (Halley) and the USA (Paulus). Previous recordings from the Choir of St John's, Elora have been described as "a real joy" (Gramophone on 8. 557037, Faire is the Heaven), and "world-class... sensational" Psalms for the Soul).

Camillo Togni loved the piano and fully understood the instrument’s great potential for colour and virtuosity. This final volume in the series explores Togni’s very first piano works, redolent of Chopin and Liszt, as well as pieces from his formative years of development. They include the Pezzo per pianoforte and the Fantasia a quattro voci e pedale where his use of chromaticism and contrapuntalism is vividly audible. His two cadenzas for the Mozart piano concertos reflect Togni’s endless admiration for his erstwhile teacher, the great pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Pianist Aldo Orvieto has recorded and performed for the main European radio broadcasters, including the BBC, Rai, Radio France and German radio. He has a discography of more than 70 albums including his ongoing series of Togni’s piano music on Naxos, all of which have garnered much critical acclaim. As a member of Ex Novo Ensemble, Orvieto appeared in a recording of Togni’s chamber works (8.572074).

The madrigal, written for courts and patrons, was the ultimate secular song. The genre reached its zenith with the works of Claudio Monteverdi in successive books that trace his technical and expressive innovations. In them, Monteverdi explored themes such as the vicissitudes and pleasures of love, as well as the art of war, and the pain of loss. The editions used in these recordings are the most authentic and uncut, and, in keeping with 17th-century practice, employ male voices only. Praised as ‘compelling, simultaneously controlled and imaginative’ (American Record Guide) the collection also includes pieces never before recorded. The instrumental and vocal ensemble Delitiæ Musicæ is considered one of the most enterprising Italian early music ensembles, with important recordings in the last 20 years that include the Missa Philomena Praevia of Verdelot, four widely acclaimed albums dedicated to Masses of Palestrina based on the compositions of the Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore, Lupus and Jacquet de Mantua. The unconventional yet impassioned interpretations by Delitiæ Musicæ and Marco Longhiniare seen as an important regeneration of Italian Renaissance and Baroque music.

Review excerpts of previously released volumes included in this set:

Monteverdi: Madrigals Book 2 / Longhini, Delitiae Musicae:

These unusual all-male Monteverdi madrigal performances are turning out to be the versions of choice--definitely worth serious attention.

– ClassicsToday

Monteverdi: Madrigals Book 3 / Longhini, Delitiae Musicae:

The less overtly theatrical pieces (O dolce anima mia; Ch'io non t'ami, cor mio?) are rendered with the same care for detail and artful phrasing that characterize the entire program, and conductor Marco Longhini's reasonably defensible decision to perform these madrigals with only male singers proves to be a very satisfying one, especially with such attractive, ideally matched, and expressive voices. This is great stuff, recorded in first-rate sound.

– ClassicsToday

Monteverdi: Madrigals, Book 8 / Longhini, Delitiae Musicae:

The quality of the performances is extremely high. Technical prowess is always in the service of the music, and Marco Longhini is not averse to pushing his all-male ensemble to extremes of slow or fast tempos or to special vocal effects. Another strength of this excellent interpretation is the size and scope of the instrumental forces.

– American Record Guide

Now regarded as one of the most important composers of the second half of the twentieth century, Toru Takemitsu was the first Japanese composer to gain international status.

The Colourful Telemann presents works from different periods of Georg Philipp Telemann’s life, reflecting his lively personality and exploring his seemingly unlimited invention over a wide variety of styles and genres. A contemporary of Bach and Handel, Telemann wrote music that stands out for its delightful and remarkably generous character, each piece like a leisurely walk with a good friend. From the German and French influences of the earlier Sonata to the dignified Sinfonia Melodica, possibly composed in the year of his death, this is Telemann at his best. Barthold Kuijken is an eminent leader in the field of early music. A virtuoso traverso soloist, teacher and conductor, he has shaped the fields of historical flutes and historically informed performance over the last 40 years. Kuijken has widely performed and recorded the repertoire for the Baroque flute and has collaborated with other early music specialists including his brothers, Sigiswald Kuijken and Wieland Kuijken, Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt and Paul Dombrecht.

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REVIEW:

Despite the title, the Sinfonia melodica is neither a symphony in the modern sense nor Italianate; it’s a set of French-style dances and, as such, it receives a stylish performance on Naxos. With Kuijken on hand, playing his copy of a baroque flute, inevitably the high points of the new Naxos recording are the two concertos for two flutes.

There can be no argument with the title: Telemann’s music is colourful, sometimes more colourful than that of Bach. And, with much of the colour in this music provided by the flute—two of them in a pair of concertos here—it’s as well to have a flautist like Barthold Kuijken directing the proceedings.

– MusicWeb International