CHOPIN Ballades. Fantasy. Polonaise-Fantasy • Vladimir Feltsman (pn) • NIMBUS ALLIANCE 6128 (64:13)

"Vladimir Feltsman is an important Chopin pianist. One of the special joys of th[is] album is Feltsman’s marvelously erudite program notes. I find it intimidating as a critic to review an artist who writes about music better than I do. Feltsman’s style in the [ballades] is meticulous and dramatic. The First Ballade receives a beautifully proportioned reading, with a brilliant dénouement. In the Second Ballade, Feltsman alternates between lyric and tragic poetry. His Third Ballade gives us a touchingly rendered narrative, with a B section of high drama. The last ballade comes off as a miniature novel, with lots of plot twists. Feltsman’s Fantasy is a virtuoso statement of musical architecture. In the Polonaise-Fantasy, Feltsman’s playing is tonally lavish, with an improvisatory feel; his use of pedal here is very telling. The album was recorded in the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Performing Arts Center at Bard College. I’ve heard Feltsman play the Schumann concerto in concert, and the sound engineering on this disc is a good approximation of what it’s like to hear him live. I would rank Feltsman’s ballades among the best I know, along with Rubinstein, Kissin, Ohlsson, and Graffman.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that the first recording by Feltsman issued on a U.S. label was Chopin’s preludes. He really is a Chopin player to the manner born. His sense of line is infallible, and no detail is so small as to escape his attention. Plus, he has the rare ability to convey an atmosphere, which is essential to a great Chopin style. That Feltsman has made a considerable career playing Bach may not be coincidental, given Chopin’s love for Bach and the subtlety of the Pole’s harmony. What’s more, Feltsman’s love for Chopin absolutely comes across in these recordings. You really can’t fake the excitement and affection that suffuse these readings. Feltsman here matches the greatest Chopin performances preserved in recorded sound. These [recordings] are likely to remain touchstones for decades to come."

FANFARE: Dave Saemann

The pipa is a traditional Chinese lute, with a tone that falls somewhere between a European lute and an Indian sitar. Wu Man is one of China's most prominent pipa players. Conservatory trained and internationally renowned, she performs both traditional and contemporary pipa compositions.
Disc one is dedicated to solo performance. The delicate, rapid plucking technique and unique pacing creates a distinctive musical environment. Wu's performance of ancient melodies aims to evoke calm, pastoral settings.
Performing with an ensemble of traditional flutes, zithers and drums, Wu's second disc takes on an even more ethereal tone. Washes of harp-like zither and reedy flute melodies provide a lush backdrop for the plucked pipa.
Some of the contemporary pieces such as 1993's 'Run' value the same dissonance favored by other composers, making their distinctive orchestration all the more interesting. However, for the most part, Wu's album is a serene journey through the history of Chinese music.

"[A] collection of choral works composed by Italian and Russian composers between 1765 and 1915; 150 years of spine-tingling creations of sheer uplifting beauty. ... Harmonia Sacra under Peter Leech present this music in performances that are skilful, stylish and hugely attractive to the ear. The air is consistently tender rather than forcefully dramatic, and the great attention to detail readily discloses all the subtleties of these quite inspiring gems." – ClassicalNet

Classical Music

Quite simply exemplary and splendidly recorded as well.

The in this series was what I called ‘a valuable corrective to the partial, more generally held view of Czerny as a composer of an exhaustive number of pedagogic studies.’ This view is simply reinforced by volume 2 which is, similarly, a two disc set and which offers the same tangible musical rewards as the earlier volume.
 
There is nothing in the second volume quite as extensive as the massive Sixth Sonata of 1827. Nevertheless we do get four powerfully proportioned sonatas from his maturity played, as before, with powerful eloquence by Martin Jones, one of the most exploratory and energising pianists before the public. The interesting thing about Czerny’s sonatas is that the primary influence is not that of Beethoven. Rather it often sounds to have been Schubert who exerted the greater pull. The opening movement of the Eleventh Sonata, for example, sounds like a Schubert finale, though Brahms’s name is evoked by sleeve note writer Calum MacDonald. The sonata’s slow movement is a romantic soliloquy, its finale a songful, almost Schumannesque one played with warmth and clarity. This sonata dates from 1843. Nearly a quarter of a century earlier his first effort shows similar virtues. It’s a sonata that was admired by Liszt, who dedicated his Transcendental Etudes to Czerny, and is a powerful, exciting and generous spirited five-movement work. In this nourishing piece the central Adagio is hard to overlook, so richly cantabile is it, and so finely played too. Czerny is careful to balance the two faster inner movements; his Prestissimo agitato is galvanically brisk, whereas the Rondo is altogether more relaxed.
 
The Second Sonata is not unlike the First in that it too has five movements, one fewer than the Sixth where, one feels, Czerny did at least emulate Beethoven’s multi-movement example in his late string quartets. It is however much more concise than the earlier work. It has a most touching slow movement and an Allegro agitato that reminds one of the similar movement in the First. Another link comes from Czerny’s schema which is to end both these sonatas with a Fugue. In the First sonata the fugue is linked to earlier material, but not in the Second where the fugue stands, in effect, as a separate entity. The effect is grand, but it does lessen the sense of cumulative tension that the earlier work generated. The Sonatine is more compact still, but belies its name by virtue of its elevated and highly personal powers of reflection. And there are two small pieces. The Chanson sans paroles is spiced with delicious filigree, whilst the Character Etude Op.755 is a lissom and decidedly lovely effusion.
 
There is one remaining volume in this series, and one awaits it with anticipation. Jones’s playing is, quite simply, exemplary and he has been splendidly recorded as well.
 
-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

This disc remains an essential component of any collection of English music.

This is justifiably one of the most famous discs in the Nimbus catalogue. When it was first issued all of the works contained on it were new to CD. It includes the complete orchestral music of George Butterworth, the composer who was regarded as one of the great white hopes of the English Musical Renaissance – Vaughan Williams dedicated his London Symphony to him – but whose life was tragically cut short during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
 
Butterworth is known nowadays principally for his songs. Apart from arrangements of English folksongs, these were mainly settings of Housman from his collection A Shropshire Lad, poems which not only reflect the English pastoral tradition but also commemorate the transience of human happiness. Housman himself hated musical settings of his poetry, but ironically enough his words struck a chime with many composers in the early years of the twentieth century – Vaughan Williams, Somervell and Orr all created song-cycles from his texts. There are a very considerable number of other works inspired by the same material. Butterworth’s settings were incorporated in two cycles, A Shropshire Lad and Bredon Hill, the latter more complex and the former mainly strophic treatments that strike an instant chord. Towards the end of his life Butterworth’s music was tending towards greater depth and his later song-cycle Love blows as the wind blows (settings of Henley) contains an overwhelming masterpiece in his setting of the otherwise unremarkable poem Coming up from Kew. His orchestral rhapsody A Shropshire Lad draws on material from the first song of his early cycle, but develops it in a way that presages greater things to come – masterpieces that were, alas, never realised. It is the only one of his orchestral pieces that does not draw on English folksong for its material. It breathes an undeniable air of the countryside of the Welsh borders. The two English Idylls are smaller and lighter, but The banks of green willow develops its folksong material with a surer hand and rises to considerable emotional heights in its comparatively short duration.
 
Since Boughton’s 1986 recording there have been a number of other discs (including re-releases) of the complete Butterworth orchestral works including performances by Sir Adrian Boult (Lyrita, coupled with miniatures by Howells, Hadley and Warlock), Neville Dilkes (EMI), Sir Mark Elder (on the Hallé’s own label, coupled with works by Delius and Grainger), and Sir Neville Marriner (on a Double Decca with pieces by Elgar, Delius, Vaughan Williams and Warlock). Some of these are more smoothly and assuredly played than here, but Boughton’s performances are packed full of feeling and have plenty of passion. None of the alternatives offer this coupling. The Parry suite was also recorded by Boult (now re-released by Lyrita coupled with his other Parry interpretations). It was also given by Richard Hickox in a 1984 recording which is now only available as part of a five-disc set of his EMI recordings of British music. Hickox also recorded the Bridge Suite as part of his invaluable complete Bridge cycle for Chandos.
 
Nevertheless this disc remains very special. Every collector I know has a copy of it in their library. Boughton’s readings, particularly of the Butterworth works, are superb. For these recordings the string complement of the English String Orchestra was expanded to full orchestral size, and the playing of the woodwind in particular is superb. At 5.50 the trumpets peal across the full orchestra with all the heartbreak not only of Housman but also of the lost generation of British artists who were to fall on the Western Front. The violin solo at 7.41 has an unbearable poignancy. At the end the flute solo sounds properly quasi lontano as marked. Elder with the Hallé is rather slower (over a minute longer), but the closer recording is less atmospheric and there is no sense of distance in the flute solo at the end. Marriner is better recorded but his speeds seem very fast in places – the strings at 4.45 are hardly tranquillo as marked – and the trumpets at 5.44 are more conventionally triumphant than tragic. Boult is even quicker - he cuts three minutes off Elder’s timing - and the atmosphere is lost in this uncharacteristically rushed performance and very prosaic recording. No, in the complete sets of Butterworth orchestral music Boughton is the conductor who best captures the magic of the scores. For these readings alone, this disc remains an essential component of any collection of English music.
 
-- Paul Corfield Godfrey, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

Curious about melodious opera off-the-beaten-track then try this pair of short operas. You will be richly rewarded.

Reviewing what is arguably Bretan’s masterpiece, the full-length opera Horia, I was deeply impressed by the power of the dramatic writing while at the same time he retained his very personal melodic language - truthful, tonal and expressive - just as in his songs. I still regard Horia as a landmark work in the history of opera for its humanity and struggle for freedom. Unfortunately it is let down by a fair amount of less than attractive singing - though the commitment is never in question - and the recording - live from stage performance with intrusive noises and in monaural sound only. The present disc, juxtaposing two one-act operas, is a great improvement. It is in good stereo, albeit analogue, made under studio conditions and the singing is in a different class.

The operas in themselves are as fascinating as Horia, but from different points of view. The theme of humanity is however omnipresent. In Golem, Rabbi Löw has created Golem out of clay. When the opera begins he is worried about Anna, his grand-daughter, who is dying. It is only Golem who knows what is wrong with her. Golem is in love with Anna, he has touched her and kissed her and it is sure death for a human to have any contact with a man of clay. Golem tells Löw this and wants Anna as his bride and so demands from Löw, his creator, the power to procreate. To save Anna, Löw has to kill Golem.

What is fascinating about the opera, which is based on a drama by Illés Kacér, is that Golem, who was created by Löw in defiance of God, is the most human of the characters. It is his feelings, his sufferings that permeate the score and there is a warmth and a melodic beauty in the long solos he has to sing. Alexandru Agache in the title role is superb, singing with great feeling and impeccable legato. His is a glorious voice, powerful, beautiful and youthful. Tamás Daróczy is an acceptable Rabbi Löw but Sandra Sandru has her shrill moments. Dan Zancu, whose black bass was one of the assets of the Horia recording, has little to sing but does it well. The final trio, after Golem has died, recalls the finale of Gounod’s Faust - whether intentionally or not.

Arald also deals with life and death, but here we are already in the underworld and the characters have already passed away. The Poet tells of Arald who is searching for the Seer, who has the power to work miracles. Arald comes and lays the body of his beloved Maria at the feet of the Seer, begging him to bring Maria back to life. The Seer offers Arald a drink, which transforms him into a ghost and Maria is restored to life. They sing an ecstatic love duet together but as day breaks they are swallowed by the earth. The Seer, by death forgot, laments his own eternity.

This is a variant on the Orpheus myth. As in Golem Nicolae Bretan wrote his own libretto, this time based on Mihai Eminescu’s poem "The Ghost". There is little drama in the shape of dialogue; instead the short opera is a sequence of ’arias’ - all of great beauty - and the above mentioned duet. The music has an otherworldly serenity which doesn’t exclude passion and dramatic intensity and most of the singing is on an exalted level. Dan Zancu’s Poet is noble, Jonel Voineag as Arald is a splendid lirico spinto tenor, singing with glow and Alexandru Agache as the Seer is again superb as the Seer with a flow of noble melodious solo singing. Several of the themes stuck at first hearing and I went round humming them for hours. Sandra Sandru is more at ease as Maria than she was as Anna in Golem and the orchestra play well under the inspired baton of Cristian Mandeal.

Readers who felt dispirited by my review of Horia - on basis of singing and recording - need feel no qualms this time. I do urge everyone with an iota of curiosity about melodious opera off the beaten track to try this pair of short operas. You will be richly rewarded.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

Shumsky never recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto commercially, though TV film exists of his performance. Violin fanciers had quivering fingers set on 'record' when he played it on the BBC many years ago and I should know as my own calloused fingers were poised to plunge and capture the great man in action. Some hardy souls have uploaded their VHS copies onto YouTube. I think it's less well known however that he set down the Violin sonatas and Viola sonatas for MusicMasters in 1991 and these performances have now been revivified by Nimbus.

It was always a perplexing matter as to why Shumsky was one of that rare breed who, once he had made his belated and feted reappearance on the international scene, was so seldom asked back by orchestras. I understand that his tart and abrasive manner may have had something to do with it, but playing of his exalted level comes very seldom in one's listening experience. Maybe he was out of kilter with some elements of the public. I remember hearing his American colleague Aaron Rosand at his last Wigmore Hall appearance in London. The stranger sitting next to me turned at the interval and asked what I thought of the violinist so I gave him a more than favourable summary. The man's brow darkened. 'I don't like his tone or his playing', he said and turned away, and that was that. Perhaps he'd have preferred Midori.

Not much of which has anything to do with these late, patrician readings. Nobility courses through the veins of Op.108 - tone and phrasing - and even at 74 Shumsky gives younger players a master class in rubato usage and phraseology. His near contemporary Leonid Hambro demarcates the left hand accents of the slow movement punctiliously whilst Shumsky gauges the rise and fall of the lyric line with great wisdom, reserving greatest weight of tone and bow pressure for the optimum time. Both men catch the gutsy wit of the Scherzo and stake out the finale's geography with practised assurance. It's true that Shumsky's intonation is not infallible and his tone can become pinched from time to time but these are minor glitches amongst the panorama that unfolds.

The G major and A major share these virtues and abundance and also, it's true, some technical failings as well already alluded to as well as a lack of tonal body. Ensemble however is excellent, the double stopping in the Adagio of Op.78 on the money, whilst the piano's bass tolling is memorably insisted upon by Hambro. In the lyrically settled Op.100 things are first class, the lyric warmth conveyed with nobility but no hint of glutinous over vibration, albeit the slowing vibrato makes itself heard most especially in the sonata's finale where tone colours could be better varied.

Some may not know that Shumsky played the viola - though his son Eric does - but as he shows here he most certainly did. He was once an august member of William Primrose's quartet and I think it's to that great Scotsman that we can best ascribe the strongest influence on his viola playing. The tempi are remarkably similar - Primrose recorded I with Kapell and II with Gerald Moore and both with Firkušný. If you admire, say, Rivka Golani's playing (with Bogino, Conifer CDCF199) you will find Shumsky almost brusque in comparison. But this kind of 'alto' toned viola playing aligns well with Primrose's own, albeit the myriad colours and virtuosic panache of Primrose are a very different thing from Shumsky's own playing, which can sound rather more one dimensional. But it does share that same tensile-expressive curvature, that unsentimental affection, the subtlety of metrics and rubati.

This is one for Shumsky's admirers. It's not without its faults but it enshrines playing of rapt wisdom and assurance, and fortunately captures both Shumsky and his excellent colleague Hambro well.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

An outstanding new Nimbus release, excellently engineered.

Brahms's Clarinet Sonatas have always been overshadowed by his masterly Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Trio. They are also less well-known than his three Violin Sonatas. Both these Op. 120 works share a nostalgic and elusive mood that may go some way towards explaining their comparative neglect. This magnificent disc could well change this situation.
 
The First Clarinet Sonata has great melodic charm and is more immediately attractive than its companion work. It is curious how the second movement seems to reinterpret the mood of the first of Brahms's Piano Pieces Op. 119. The phrases droop in a similar way and there is a profound sense of reflection, beautifully realised here by both these sensitive performers. In the third movement, the tempi and phrasing are ideally judged; a glorious rendition. Throughout the whole piece, Johnson and Lenehan revel in the mellowness of Brahms's late inspiration to stunning effect.
 
The Second Clarinet Sonata is perhaps a lesser work than the outstanding first. Listeners will decide for themselves if the variation finale provides a fully satisfying close to the piece. What is not in doubt is the calibre of this performance, which is outstanding in every respect. Johnson's luscious tone and Lenehan's idiomatic approach to Brahms's piano textures make this a particularly satisfying interpretation.
 
The principal rival version is the fine Chandos recording featuring Gervase de Peyer and Gwenneth Prior. There is not much to choose between these two recordings and anyone who owns the Chandos disc should feel no need to replace it. Nevertheless, Johnson and Lenehan get closer to the heart of these splendid pieces, particularly in the middle movements of the First Sonata and in the central movement of No. 2.
 
Mendelssohn's 1824 Sonata is a highly accomplished work written in the composer's early teens. The influence of Weber hovers benignly over much of the first movement, although there are hints of greater individuality, particularly in some of the brilliant piano passages. The decision to open the second movement with the clarinet unaccompanied is a lovely touch. This initial theme looks forward to the main idea of the slow movement of the “Italian Symphony”. Johnson and Lenehan fully realise the melancholic charm of this appealing movement. The finale is, in many ways, the most characteristic part of the Sonata and anticipates the brilliance of Mendelssohn's later piano concertos. This is not a great work by any means, but it is eminently worth hearing, especially in such an ideally paced reading.
 
Schumann's Phantasiestucke are given a relaxed and expansive performance. These attractive pieces also appear in the above mentioned Chandos disc with Gervase de Peyer; the present interpretation is every bit as perceptive. The third and final movement seems absolutely right here, as Schumann's quixotic changes in mood are superbly registered by both performers.
 
This disc is probably the first choice for listeners interested in this programme and it is difficult to imagine these performances being surpassed. The sound quality is fully worthy of such distinguished music making and the booklet notes, by Emma Johnson herself, are interesting as well as informative.
 
-- David Jennings, MusicWeb International

Includes work(s) by Johannes Brahms. Soloist: Martin Jones.

A disc to savour for its serenely grave beauty and profound musicality.

One of the more foolish items in the British music press of the last year was a league table presuming to list in order of merit the world’s twenty finest choirs. Aside from any minor concerns about relevant criteria - only choirs whose performance material centred on what could be termed western ‘classical’ seem to have been judged - the utter impossibility of making absolute judgements about the merits of wildly diverse groups seems to have not concerned the compilers of such a list a jot. Good I guess for your group’s publicity machine if you made the list but wildly infuriating for the many who do not seem to have even been considered. More to do with weight of catalogue presence and therefore familiarity I wager than pure ability. Don’t get me wrong, the final twenty comprised superb choirs but the absence of any from Eastern Europe, or gospel groups or rock choirs or ensembles singing what might be collectively called folk or ethnic material fatally flawed the process. At the time the fact that no American choir either was featured caused as much of a stir as anything in the realm of classical music ever does. Listening to this superb disc from the ever-impressive Kansas City Chorale and you can understand why there was this annoyance. The Chorale under their long-serving music director Charles Bruffy recorded a series of discs for Nimbus back in the mid-nineties and it was through those that I first encountered them. Their Christmas recital Nativitas remains one of my all-time favourite discs for those seeking something away from the traditional Carols arr. Willcocks fare. The Chorale is a professional chamber choir with six voices allocated to each of the usual S.A.T.B. Their sound is characterised by a remarkably refined and balanced tone with the voices blending across all parts as well as I have ever heard. Attack and intonation are also exemplary and they have that superb ability of bending the sound they make to suit the style and period of the music they are singing. I like also the fact that their sound is not overly ‘young’. There seems to be such a predilection for choirs making an ever more pure or blanched sound that I find it something of a relief to here an out-and-out adult group. Not for a second does that imply anything matronly or lacking in focus; far from it. No surprise then that in this disc of warmly romantic music by Brahms they projected a rounded, warm and gorgeously mellifluous sound.
 
Before listening to this disc with the exception of the Liebeslieder I was rather ignorant of Brahms’ music for chamber choir - as these works might be termed. In his informative liner-note David Andrew Threasher valuably reminds us that Brahms took inspiration and influence from earlier Germanic composers such as Bach, Handel and Mozart. Certainly, one is aware throughout of a master-craftsman at work although apparently Brahms himself had doubts about their enduring worth asking his friend the violinist and composer Joseph Joachim; “apart from the ingenuity, is it good music?” The overall character of this CD is gently benevolent but within that Brahms experimented with various textural combinations of voices. There are straight 4-parts songs with piano accompaniment – Four Quartets Op.92 and Six Quartets Op.112; in the latter group only Nos.1 and 2 are recorded here. Superficially these were written for amateurs to sing at home gathered around a piano but the sophistication of writing would take it out of the range of such a group. Then there are five and six part works – the Five Songs Op.104 have setting for both groups while the Three Songs Op.42 are also for six whilst the Two Motets Op.29 are five part. This listing immediately tells you two things; that Brahms returned to this musical form throughout his life and that he wrestled with the tonal and textural implications of the form as well. Much as he – and other composers at the same time – found that adding an extra viola and cello to a string quartet allowed far greater richness in his String Sextets Opp.18 and 36 so here the line-up becomes SAATBB. Across the voices this adds greatly to the richness of the sound but it also allows, within the male/female split, that each group can cover the notes contained in the triads of basic chords. The Kansas singers are superb at achieving this blend – there is a quiet rapture to their performances of this music that I absolutely adore. In the earlier Op.29 motets only the bass line is split. This is logical since their model is Bachian and the second bass line is able to provide a musical foundation on which the other parts above build. As with the other Nimbus discs recorded in Kansas the production team have favoured a church location with the choir set slightly back into the acoustic. This gives a mellow warmth to the sound which I find ideal matching both the music itself and the performance style.
 
The highlight for me on this disc was the very opening sequence – Four songs for Women’s Chorus, 2 Horns and Harp Op.17. Even more than the famous excerpt from the Liebeslieder Waltzes that closes the disc this is the most truly Romantic (with a capital R) music on the disc. Opening with the quintessentially romantic instrument – the huntsman’s horn – this is simply glorious. I cannot think of any other examples in the repertoire for this unusual accompanying ensemble which no doubt accounts for its neglect either on disc or in the concert hall. One doesn’t associate Brahms with virtuoso harp writing but that is what we have here. Again the Nimbus engineers have placed the instrumentalists slightly back into the body of the church which allows them to play at a proper dynamic without swamping the often ethereal vocal writing. There is a rather serendipitous effect right at the start too –and one I was aware of only when I listened on headphones. The very opening song “Heart notes ring out, increasing love and longing..” is accompanied by bird-song sounding as if it comes from high in the roof of the church – given that the atmosphere of the whole set is powerfully nature-imbued this is disarmingly beautiful. Beauty is indeed the word I take from the entire disc. My only caveat is that the piano used to accompany the choir – although extremely well played by accompanist Cynthia Siebert – does not sound in the first flush of youth. The booklet as usual favours Nimbus’s preferred style of good-sized text printed in English only. Full texts in original languages (all German here) with English translation only are provided. Because this is not a mixed recital perhaps this disc does not show off the remarkable range of the wonderful Kansas City Chorale as impressively as some others I have heard. However, as a coherent well planned and superbly executed programme of rare Brahms this would be hard to beat even if there were multiple versions to choose; a quick scan of the catalogue would imply that there are not. A disc to savour for its serenely grave beauty and profound musicality.
 
-- Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

This release is part of a two album project to include the clarinet sonatas and the first violin sonata, all played by Raphael Wallfisch and John York. The single Sonatensatz (Scherzo) was not published till after Brahms’ death. The piece is originally for violin and piano and formed the third movement of a full-length four movement sonata by three different composers, Schumann, Dietrich his student, and the youthful Brahms. This is the only movement still regularly performed. It certainly makes a strong, effective recital piece. More than twenty years separate the two cello sonatas. While the first, in E minor is generally rather somber, often very low-lying on the cello and serious in its Bachian working-out, the second, in F major is full of turbulent, confident, even heroic qualities. It presents both players at full throttle, strutting proudly through one noble melody after another, and then – in the radically remote and radiant key of F sharp major – has one of Brahms’ most glorious slow movements and a dark scherzo which paraphrases the opening theme from his 3rd symphony’s finale. These two sonatas for cello and piano have achieved a legendary position – wonderful and powerful expressions of 19th century romanticism.