Classical Music

Ondine’s releases on Baltic composers continue with a new exciting release featuring recent orchestral compositions by New York-based Lithuanian composer Žibuokle Martinaityte (b. 1973) composed within a span of six years performed by Lithuanian orchestras conducted by the young talented Lithuanian conductor Giedre Slekyte and pianist Gabrielius Alekna as soloist. Martinaityte was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020. Among her output are impressive orchestral compositions with evocative titles and beautiful orchestral textures with precision to detail. The most recent of the works, Saudade (2019) symbolizes the stratum of multiple yearnings: sadness for missing and happiness for experiencing the past. Millefleur (2018) is a work that the composer has described as “acoustic hedonism, a search for acoustic pleasures”. Martinaityte’s Chiaroscuro trilogy (2017) is a 3-movement work for piano and strings, reflecting the very essence of our existence; the various grades of darkness and light. Horizons (2013) was written in New York and Lithuania and was inspired by two movies, Cloud Atlas and The Hours as well as Italo Calvino’s novel If on a winter’s night a traveler. In this work the listener travels through one story to another.

REVIEWS:

When listening to Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, you might be tempted to assign her to a school. The composer clearly likes extended time scales and slowly mutating materials, so does that make her a Minimalist? Further evidence for such a label includes praise she has received from the composer Ingram Marshall.

The Ondine imprint’s new album-length survey of her orchestral music, “Saudade,” doesn’t radically upend such a classification—though it does complicate the story. While the title track invites comparison to works like John Luther Adams’s calmly roiling “Become Ocean,” other pieces on the album show off Martinaityte’s distinctiveness.

She can create hovering nimbus clouds of harmony with the best of them. Yet she’s not afraid to throw a thunderbolt through her subtle, scenic designs. Midway through the otherwise beatific “Millefleur,” a percussive edge emerges, offering an unexpected martial cast to the work. And on “Horizons,” as played by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the handoffs between strutting flutes and stark strings also serve notice regarding this composer’s winning unpredictability.

-- New York Times

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973) is a Lithuanian composer whose orchestral music has links to the French Spectral school, Minimalism, and the world of Pärt, Silvestrov, and the Eastern European “Spiritual Minimalists.” She is interested in sonority (like the Spectralists), but her sonorities, while they sometimes employ avant-garde playing techniques, are not necessarily dissonant. Martinaitytė has moved beyond shock value: She uses tonal harmonies and, while her textures are highly imaginative, she tends to avoid ugly noise. Nor is her music simply feel-good New Age doodling: she recognizes the symphony orchestra has immense power, which she summons up expertly at climactic moments. The performances are dazzling, and the sound picture captures everything in a satisfying balance. I heartily recommend this program to listeners who think they may not like it.

-- Fanfare

The first volume of the premiere recordings of Jurgis Karnavicius’ (1884–1941) string quartets resulted in a growing number of excellent album reviews. It included the composer's romantic and folk music-inspired first two quartets. This second volume includes the composer’s last two quartets: Nos. 3 & 4 which are more expressive and modern in nature. Karnavicius wrote his four impressive string quartets during his study and teaching years in St. Petersburg during the 1910s and 1920s, filling the chronological and stylistic gap between the String Quartets of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. After its premiere in St. Petersburg, it took nearly a half century before the String Quartet No. 3 was heard again: in 1969, long after the composer’s death. Similarly, the composer’s String Quartet No. 4 had to wait for its next performance until the 1980s and still remains unpublished. In this album the Vilnius String Quartet is giving beautiful world premiere recordings to these two expressive works by the Lithuanian composer.

Classical Music

This album brings together some of the loudest, most exciting music ever written - neither music, nor your hearing, will ever be the same! The music has been arranged for continuous listening. With that in mind, three quiet "valleys" have been programmed to provide contrast with the very loud music that follows them. You may find that the contrast actually adds to the excitement. The 140-piece Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under Leif Segerstram includes, among others, a 22-person percussion section, four sets of rocks hit with hammers, two heavy metal chains, anvils, steel plates, sirens, and several dozen cannon shots. The final track, Hekla, is probably the loudest single piece of music ever written. It describes, in very graphic terms, the eruption of Hekla, Iceland's largest active volcano.

The first and still best-loved tango star, Gardel brought the culture of Argentina and the music of Latin America to the rest of the world. Here are Volver; Ventarron; Silencio; Rie Payaso; Por Una Cabeza; Pato; La Cumparsita; La Cieguita; Caminito; Almagro; La Garconniere, and more-plus a DVD with 28 video performances!

Award-winning violinist Christian Tetzlaff continues his highly successful series of chamber music recordings on Ondine continues with a new recording of Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV1001–1006) by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas have an iconic status in the violin repertoire. Yet, little is known about the background of these fascinating works. Bach’s autograph manuscript is dated in Köthen in 1720, and it is commonly considered as the year when the cycle was completed. In his booklet notes Christian Tetzlaff offers fascinating perspectives to these masterpieces. Christian Tetzlaff is considered one of the world’s leading international violinists and maintains a most extensive performing schedule. Musical America named him ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ in 2005 and his recording of the violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Schumann, released on Ondine in 2011 (ODE 1195-2), received the ‘Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik’. Gramophone Magazine was choosing the recording of the Schumann Violin Sonatas with Lars Vogt (ODE 1205-2) as ‘Disc of the Month’ in January 2014. In addition, in 2015 ICMA awarded Christian Tetzlaff as the ‘Artist of the Year’. His recordings on Ondine with Brahms’ Trios (ODE 1271-2D) and Violin Concertos by DvorAk and Suk (1279-5) released in 2015 and 2016 earned GRAMMY nominations.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

Triple Feature.

Shortlisted for the 2022 Gramophone Awards!

All four American composers on this new album by the Basque National Orchestra and conductor Robert Trevino wrote music that was known, played and esteemed during their lifetimes, but none of them ever had a huge “hit” and so the pieces here are likely familiar only to musical scholars. Yet while it is uncommon enough to find Charles Martin Loeffler, Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles and Howard Hanson sharing the same album, the conductor Robert Trevino has taken his exploration still further, into the recesses of their repertory – complete with a Hanson piece, Before the Dawn, that has had to wait a century for this, its premiere recording. Robert Trevino’s debut album with the Basque National Orchestra on Ondine featured orchestral works by Maurice Ravel and has received excellent reviews in music media around the world, including the Limelight magazine's 'Recording of the Month'.

REVIEWS:

Americascapes...is an exciting success all the way. Great American music, or great music by American composers? Instead of answering that question, I’d prefer to say that this is great music, full stop. This CD is a must for anyone who wants a thrill without having to resort to yet another recording of music by Ravel or Pictures at an Exhibition. This is Want List material, to be sure.

--Fanfare

The performances here are all splendid. As you may have surmised from their excellent previous Ravel CD, Robert Trevino and the Basque National Orchestra seem to have a great thing going: an enterprising conductor leading a talented and enthusiastic ensemble with both swagger and sensitivity to burn. Ondine’s fine sonics let you hear everything that you should, in a warm, well-balanced acoustic frame. You’ll love this.

--ClassicsToday.com

I have thoroughly enjoyed encountering the works on this CD. They are very well played and excellently recorded, with a most detailed booklet produced to a high standard.

--MusicWeb International

A fascinating and gloriously played programme of little-known American orchestral works, assembled and conducted with real care and passion by Robert Trevino. If there’s a masterpiece among the four works on this disc, I’d argue it’s [Cowell's Variations for Orchestra]. William Strickland’s 1963 CRI recording has held up remarkably well but Trevino’s is equally authoritative, played with greater polish, and the recorded sound is first-rate. Urgently recommended.

--Gramophone

REVIEW:

This release...offers an excellent musical programming concept, with all three works captured live in performances that are absolutely stunning and fully competitive with the best available. Both the Bartók and Martinů pieces were composed during their respective composers’ exile in America, while Gideon Klein’s Partita (an arrangement for string orchestra of his String Trio), is the result of “internal exile” in the Terezín concentration camp. All three men found ways to continue making music despite displacement, personal misfortune, and against the background of the rise of Nazism and the onset of war. More to the point, the program works because it offers plenty of purely musical contrast and variety.

Martinů’s Memorial to Lidice, a town wiped out by the Nazis as an act of retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, is a harrowing but ultimately hopeful orchestral elegy that receives the most gut-wrenching performance yet recorded. Eschenbach is about 50 percent slower than Ancerl (or anyone else), but he uses the extra time to excellent effect, revealing every luminous detail of Martinů’s orchestration and building the music to a shattering climax, with Beethoven’s Fifth balefully intoned by the horns. Klein’s Partita has much in common with Bartók’s Divertimento, with its folk-inflected thematic material. Its central movement is a very attractive set of variations on a Moravian theme, and it’s clear from this performance that the Philadelphia tradition of great string playing is very much alive and well. Eschenbach leads a performance both warm and incisive, revealing a major work in the process.

The Philadelphia Orchestra already has at least two recordings of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra to its credit, both with Eugene Ormandy--a fine early stereo version on Sony, and a mediocre early digital remake on RCA. This newcomer clearly is finer than either of those, as exciting a rendition as any available. Eschenbach thankfully eschews the excessive slowness that has marred his recent Mahler performances and lets the various sections of the orchestra display their considerable prowess in what remains one of the repertoire’s great showpieces. Listen to the rush of excitement in the transition to the first-movement allegro, or to the beautiful balance between woodwinds and harps in the second subject; notice the brilliant brass fugato that initiates the recapitulation, and the driving coda. It’s the real deal, from the very first note.

The sonics are markedly superior to what Sony, RCA, and EMI used to get in any of the various venues that they used, at least in stereo. The microphones are close to the players, the better to reduce the occasional noise from the audience (the occasional light cough isn’t at all bothersome), but the orchestra can take the exposure, and the sonic impact is pretty thrilling. I’m pleased (and honestly relieved) to be able to recommend it to you in the strongest possible terms.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959) is one of the most outstanding voices in contemporary music today and regarded by many as one of the foremost living symphonists. This new album by Tapiola Sinfonietta and conductor Olari Elts includes world première recordings of two concertante works featuring violist Lawrence Power and recorder soloist Genevieve Lacey together with a late masterpiece, Symphony No. 8. Tüür describes his viola concerto Illuminatio (2008) is “a pilgrimage towards eternal light”. The work opens with a mysterious soundscape. As the work progresses, the music develops and grows, and the relationships between the soloist and the orchestra is in a constant change. Whistles and Whispers from Uluru (2007) for recorder and chamber orchestra was written to a commission from the Australian Chamber Orchestra for recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey. When the composer was writing the work at his summer residence in the island of Hiiumaa in Estonia, it was spring and the air was full of birdsong. In his mind, he connected Uluru, the sacred mountain of the Australian Aborigines, to his northern surroundings, and the two impulses fused. The soloist goes through multiple members of the recorder family, from sopranino down through treble, alto and tenor to bass, and then back to the heights of the sopranino. An electronic soundtrack augments the texture at times. Symphony No. 8 was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and was completed in 2010. Tüür scored the work for a sinfonietta-type ensemble instead of a large symphony orchestra, and as a result the music has at times a chamber music feel.

Classical Music

REVIEWS:

The Third Symphony was...favored by Karajan in the 1950s. It was the product of a composer in his sixties writing in his Normandy home at Vasterival. It was premiered by the Boston SO and Koussevitsky on 24 October 1930. The thud and thunder of the first movement contrasts with the pastoral melancholy meditation of the Adagio. This is followed by the fairground pleasantry of the Vivace and the massive fountains of exultation of the last movement. No wonder the audience - whose applause forms part of the track - greeted this performance with such warmth.

Le Festin is here given complete across 21 tracks. You are likely to enjoy this music - if you do already know it - if you already number Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye and Debussy's Prélude a l'après midi d'un faune among your favorites. It has the magical elegance of the Ravel and the sultriness of the Debussy. Add to this the motorized thunder of Roussel's last two symphonies. It is superbly recorded - listen to the whispering distant gold of the violins in The Ants Dance in a Circle (tr. 16). The instrumental howls in the Funeral of the Gadfly (tr. 24) are memorable. Also in the same movement how similar some of the writing is to Ravel's dawn rustlings in Rapsodie espagnole. Those gentle rustles from the tam-tam suggest Ma Mère l'Oye. Eschenbach heartbreakingly captures the valedictory melancholy of Night falling on the deserted garden but brings out the solace too. This makes for an easy full price choice - poetically done in every aspect.

– Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

The liner notes for this release make the argument that French modernist Albert Roussel was the greatest composer of his time. It is an argument Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestre de Paris do much to advance in these live performances. Coupling Le Festin de l'araignée from 1912 and the Symphony No. 3 from 1930, Eschenbach and the Parisian orchestra give Roussel's music the kind of clear-eyed, strong-willed performances that make the most of the composer's best features. Though distinctly of its prewar time, Le Festin de l'araignée nevertheless sounds brightly colorful, lightly ironic, and surprisingly inventive in this smoothly polished and vigorously rhythmic performance. The postwar Third Symphony sounds both of and above its time here, its angular themes, gleaming colors, and muscular rhythms brilliantly brought out by the German conductor and the French orchestra. If Eschenbach and the Parisian musicians' racing finale for the symphony, with its relentless polyrhythms, doesn't get your heart pumping, consult a doctor immediately. Recorded in vibrant live sound complete with appreciative applause, these performances may well convince the listener that Roussel is indeed underrated.

– James Leonard, All Music Guide