• Heino Eller (1887–1970) was one of the founders of the classical tradition in his native Estonia.
• His output for piano – some 200 works – is largely unknown.
• This fourth volume presents Eller’s First Sonata, a Romantic work of gigantic proportions, a number of miniatures, and ends with the Ballade c.
• Volume 3 in this series won a ‘Choice’ award in International Piano.
• Sten Lassmann, an Estonian pianist based in London, studied these works with Eller’s most important piano student.

"A central figure in Danish musical life, Otto Malling's (1848–1915) substantial output of organ music was cast in the form of eleven suites of ‘mood pictures’ inspired by the Bible. Two of the three suites on this CD have never been recorded before.
Organist Sverker Jullander is Professor of Musical Performance at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.
The 1909 organ of the Vasa Church, Gothenburg (rebuilt, 1943, 2002) is ideally suited to north European late-Romantic music."

Alexander Grechaninov (1864–1956), an eventual Russian exile following the Revolution, was a member of the second generation of nationalist composers – he was a student of both Rimsky-Korsakov and Taneyev – he never abandoned an essentially Russian lyricism. These attractive unknown viola works are as good as unknown: several remain unpublished, and two are in Elena Artanomova’s own viola transcriptions. The CD is released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Grechaninov’s birth this year.

REVIEW:

Primarily known for his orchestral music, Grechaninov also wrote a sheaf of chamber works. That for viola has remained obscure. His Op.161 Sonata for viola (or clarinet) is unpublished which accounts for much of its obscurity and this is its first recording. Its premiere was given by Elena Artamonova and Nicholas Walker in London only in 2013, the same year it was recorded. The premiere was given in December but the recording was made earlier in June. Couched in sonata-form, and written between 1935 and 1940 the work proves amiable, songful and engaging. There is a high quotient of charm in Grechaninov’s chamber music, and that is an element that figures prominently here. His penchant for vocal composition ensures that the melodies are at all times winningly warm, not least in the lyric effusions of the central Canzona movement. I hear hints of Spanish music in the finale though there is certainly a strain of Russian folklore buzzing merrily throughout, and some passages sound almost like Dvo?ák.

The Second Sonata was written in 1943 and is actually a clarinet sonata, whose dedicatee was the great Simeon Bellison. The arrangement for viola is the work of Elena Artamonova, who has taken her cue from the earlier viola sonata and has dealt persuasively with questions of articulation and register. The work sounds convincing in its new form. Once more there’s a fine balance between the instruments, and an uncluttered and jovial quality. Toccata has gone to the trouble of separately tracking each of the variations that mark the theme and variations, with coda, of the second movement of this bipartite work. Here Slavic folk affiliations are to the fore, and a vigorous and engaging variation for solo piano too. I was most taken by the third variation where the piano’s gruff enquiries are met by a pliant viola response. There’s a viola cadenza before the spirited and exciting toccata-like coda.

Early Morning is a cycle of ten pieces written in France in 1930 for cello (or violin) and piano. It has been arranged for viola by Sabine Stegmüller and this is its first recording in this guise. Primarily this is a work of instruction for children, adept and engaging teaching material with nice descriptive titles à la Schumann, two highlights of which are the pensive In the Twilight and the deliciously deft Burlesque. In modo antico is a suite written back in 1918 for violin and orchestra or piano. This arrangement is Artamonova’s. It opens with a somewhat showy cadenza but continues in a romantic vein rather more than anything too self-consciously modo antico, though the movements sport titles such as Sarabande, Gavotte – played with deliciously zesty lift here – and Jig. Finally there are the two Grechaninov transcriptions of songs by Debussy, first published in 1946, which would make excellent recital pieces. Once again these are premiere recordings.

These richly lyrical works, all pretty much unknown, receive highly persuasive and stylistically apt performances from Artamonova – who writes the excellent booklet notes – and Nicholas Walker. Well worth getting to know, in fact.

– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)

C.P.E. Bach’s two collections of religious songs were among the most popular 18th Lieder publications. The songs selected for this CD have never been recorded before with their complete texts. The other work recorded here is the ‘Hamlet Fantasy’ which resulted when the poet Gerstenberg imposed his free translation of Hamlet’s soliloquy on one of C. P. E. Bach’s keyboard works. This CD is released to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

REVIEW:

These devotional songs by CPE Bach are culled from two major sources: Geistliche Oden und Lieder mit Melodien (1758) on poetry by CF Gellert; and Sturms Geistliche Gesänge mit Melodien on texts by Christian Carl Sturm (1780–1). More than half of the songs on the program are recorded here for the first time: ‘Bitten’, ‘Prüffung am Abend’, ‘Abendlied’, ‘Busslied’, ‘Uber die Finsternis Kurz vor dem Tode Jesu’, ‘Passionslied’, ‘Der Tag des Weltgerichts’, ‘Empfindungen in der Sommernacht’, and ‘Der Frühling’.

Meyn and Charlston perform the full text of each lyric (‘Prüffung am Abend’ has 10 stanzas) and in intimate surroundings that replicate the original domestic setting for the performance of these songs. It is the perfect setting for the clavichord (built by Peter Bavington), which is the instrument Bach had in mind. Meyn’s tenor voice is light, just right for this repertory and setting. Texts and notes are in English.

-- American Record Guide

Mozart wrote only one actual sonata for two pianos. Mozart By Arrangement is the first instalment of six sparkling new Mozart two-piano sonatas. Violinist and conductor Andrew Manze once observed that the frequent concerto-like writing in Mozart's op. 2 (1781) sonatas for violin and piano might make them effective piano duets. The Australian composer Stephen Yates has taken him up on the idea, adding these delightful new works to the two-piano repertoire.

REVIEW:

These transcriptions by British composer Stephen Yates were inspired by none other than one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the original works, violinist Andrew Manze, who suggested that the violin music could effectively be reimagined as piano music. I was dubious of the concept in practice, owing to my supreme respect—wonderment, really—of Mozart’s intuitive sense of instrumental timbre and dramatic intent. Clearly, Manze has better intuition on this matter than do I (no surprise!), because this is a completely charming production. Here is yet another enchanting and novel release from Toccata Classics, an indispensable label for all true piano lovers.

-- Fanfare

•These three early works of the French composer Maurice Emmanuel (1862–1938) show him emerging from under the influence of César Franck. The ambitious Violin Sonata is here receiving its first recording. The Greek Folktunes Suite attest to Emmanuel’s deep knowledge of Greek music. The texts of the song-cycle Musiques, here receiving only its second recording, are by the poet, geologist and historian Louis de Launay.

REVIEW:

The performances here are persuasive and committed. We of course don’t have any points of comparison, and I could perhaps imagine something even more successful with a violinist and a singer with more inherently beautiful timbres. But these are at a level that is more than serviceable, and they convey the essence of the music thoroughly. Pianist Killian is particularly strong. The recorded sound is very well balanced and natural in the violin-piano works, though I find just a bit too much air around the voice. But do not let that stand in your way. The helpful, informative notes and texts and translations round out what is a very important release of music that should be a wonderful discovery for most listeners.

-- Fanfare

As a young man, Harold Shapero (1920–2013) reacted against the dominance of modernism in American musical life by using a Stravinsky-animated neoclassical language with its roots in Beethoven and Schubert. +These three early piano works – two of them receiving their first-ever recordings – reveal his superb craftsmanship and ready wit in music that embraces rather than rejects the past. +The result is an extraordinary fusion between the Viennese classics and contemporary America.

REVIEW:

Massachusetts-born and -raised Harold Shapero belonged to that generation of American 20th-century composers who eschewed European Modernism, including serialism, employing instead a kind of wrong-note Neoclassicism in the manner of Prokofiev. He was extraordinarily well educated; private lessons with Nicolas Slonimsky and Ernst Krenek as a teenager, then on to Harvard where he studied with Walter Piston. World War Two prevented the obligatory post-graduate studies in Paris or Rome, so Shapero worked with Nadia Boulanger, herself dislocated by the war, at the Longy Conservatory in Cambridge.

These three works are from that early period in Shapero’s career, and as the very titles of the works would indicate, are intentionally retrograde. There are echoes of Beethoven strewn about the sonatas, with typical fast-slow-fast three-movement construction in the Sonata in F Minor, and a broad, harmonically complex introduction for the Four-Hand Sonata, while the variations are more Baroque in their use of florid melodic figures and free fantasy. Not surprisingly, given the composer’s superb training, the music is very well crafted. There is an attention to precise detail that recalls Stravinsky. The Four-Hand Sonata is enlivened by an easy theatrical expressivity and jaunty spirit that sounds influenced by the composer’s dear friend Leonard Bernstein, to whom the piece is dedicated, and with whom he performed it. I was mildly bothered, however, by Shapero’s occasional quirky sense of rhythm, including the stuttering pace of the Arioso movement from the Sonata in F Minor. I don’t think I can fault the playing, having heard many fine performances of contemporary piano music from the reliably excellent Pinkas. She is also well abetted by Evan Hirsch, her regular partner (in life as well as on stage).

Shapero, who died in 2013 at the age of 93, probably did not have the robust career that his early days seemed to promise. Perhaps his time is yet to come; this excellent collection of piano music is a step in the right direction.

-- Fanfare

Franois Couperin’s Concerts Royaux (1722) and Les Nations (1726) use open scoring, indicating that they could be performed by whatever instruments were at hand. + He later confessed that he himself preferred to perform them on two harpsichords. + This suggestion had to wait for these two CDs to be taken up in a recording (the second CD is being readied for future release). + Also presented are a number of his Pices de clavecin, also in rarely heard realizations for two harpsichords.

Alfred Hitchcock commissioned his film scores from composers who were Hollywood’s master-craftsmen. The concert items prepared from those scores feature a dazzling variety of styles, from Baroque and jazz to dark Romanticism and angular angst, all using the orchestra with breathtaking virtuosity. The conductor John Mauceri, as at home with this repertoire as any other musician, has prepared a number of concert suites from the film scores and some of them receive their first recordings here. This recording was made live in concert in Danish Radio’s new concert hall in Copenhagen. The booklet contains an introductory text by John Mauceri and an extensive, illustrated essay on Hitchcock and his use of film music and work with composers by British film-music historian John Riley.

REVIEWS:

The concert recordings contain some ambient noises and quirks of balance (lots of bass tones). But the pluses are powerful: the orchestra's flair, the vivid colors and audible adrenalin. Even the most dedicated film buff should deepen their appreciation as Hitchkock's composers run the gamut.

– BBC Music Magazine

Hitchcock was the enabler of many hours of orchestral music that are part of the 20th century’s legacy. Herrmann’s scores for Vertigo and Psycho, and Franz Waxman’s for Rear Window, stand out. The Wagnerian Scène d’Amour, from Vertigo, comes over as one of the great slow movements.

– Sunday Times

Ján Cikker (1911–89) was one of the leading 20th c. Slovak composers, credited with no fewer than nine operas. This disc features several first recordings of his piano music, of which little is known even in his native Slovakia. The music sits downstream from Szymanowski and Janáček, like them blending folk influences with French impressionism echoes. As also with Szymanowski, some of the pieces evoke the composer’s fondness for the Tatras, the mountainous borderland between Poland and Slovakia.

These arrangements for string orchestra of works by Alban Berg take their cue from Berg himself: he arranged three of the six movements of the Lyric Suite for string orchestra; the Dutch composer Theo Verby arranged the other three. The CD includes an arrangement of Berg’s Piano Sonata for strings by Wijnand van Klaveren. Ernst Kovacic arranged Berg’s early works especially for this recording. The arrangements chart Berg’s development as a composer, from prentice pieces composed under the tutelage of Schoenberg to the rich, mature style of one of his masterpieces, the Lyric Suite, written to express an impassioned and illicit love. Ernst Kovacic is one of Austria’s best-known violinists as well as a conductor. Among the composers who have written works for him are Krenek, Holloway, Gruber and Schwertsik. Ernst Kovacic and the NRM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra’s previous Toccata release of music by Ernst Krenek (TOCC 0199), was received with universal enthusiasm, the reviewer for Fanfare writing: ‘This Toccata Classics CD is a model of fine production values…(and) magisterial performances…an absolute must for Krenek fanciers’.

REVIEW:

The Lyric Suite is played complete. It gains from the extra players, not only in obvious richness of sound, but in nuances of phrasing. The arrangements accomplish a broad range of expressive tonecolor, with nearly every conceivable string effect on display. In the trickier parts where there are several extremely chromatic legato lines playing against one another, they play accurately and in tune. The album is a curiosity for a limited audience, but they’ll be happy.

-- American Record Guide

Nikolai Peyko (1916–95) is a major Russian composer completely unknown in the west. He is another composer who wrote nine symphonies, and much other orchestral music besides, but fell foul of the Soviet regime and was sidelined. His piano music shares certain characteristics with both Shostakovich’s and Prokofiev’s, but sounds an individual tone nonetheless. This second and final CD in this complete recording of his piano music is the first time that any of this music has been heard recorded on a western label. Pianists Dmitry Korostelyov and where needed, Maria Dzhemesiuk perform.

Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918) founded the classical-music tradition in Estonia almost single-handedly, writing the first Estonian orchestral piece, the first Estonian string quartet, first Estonian piano concerto and the first Estonian oratorio, the monumental Des Jona Sendung, from which Ines Maidre has now transcribed for organ the blazingly powerful Sanctus. Although Tobias was himself an outstanding organist, he wrote little music for his own instrument and most of it is modest in scale, but its quirky craftsmanship reveals the hand of a master.

REVIEW:

Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918) is credited with founding the classical music tradition in Estonia, having written the first Estonian orchestral piece, piano concerto, piano sonata, oratorio, and string quartet. He studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakoff and then had a wide-ranging career in Tartu, Paris, Munich, Dresden, and finally as Professor of Theory at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he was drafted into the German army, serving as an interpreter. His health began to fail in 1916 and he was discharged, and died of pneumonia in October of 1918.

This program of his complete published organ works reveals a composer of well-crafted, pleasant liturgical “gebrauchsmusik” based on chorale tunes. It is all modest in scope, nothing lasting much over five minutes. It is unfortunate that he left nothing substantial for the organ, as he was considered an outstanding organist. The booklet contains notes on the composer and music as well as the specification of the 1913 Sauer organ (rebuilt in 1998) in the Dome Church (St Mary’s) in Tallinn, Estonia.

-- American Record Guide

Alexandre Tansman’s fundamental style is Stravinskyan Neo-Classicism animated by the dance-rhythms of his native Poland and energized by a masterly command of counterpoint. The substantial body of music he produced for his own instrument, the piano, has never been systematically examined in recordings. This first installment presents works he wrote soon after his 1919 arrival in Paris, the city that was to remain his home – except for the years of WW II, spent in American exile. Tansman’s music is a special area of academic study and musical exploration for the American pianist Danny Zelibor.

REVIEW:

It is always surprising to be treated to first recordings written as far back as the 1920s and there are three on this disc. It was fascinating to hear them and to read the helpful notes. These highlight what to listen out for among which was an indication that there are echoes of Scriabin among others in Tansman’s experimental 7 Préludes and so there are. In fact that feeling often occurs when Tansman is at his most dreamy creating a state in which fantasy plays a strong role.

The works on this disc seem all the more impressive when one is reminded that they were written when the composer was in his twenties and had another fifty plus years of composition ahead of him. He never wasted any of those years, producing a huge volume of works. He was definitely one of those composers who ‘hit the ground running’ for these early works do not betray any struggle to find his style. His ensuing compositional life was more one of development and refinement.

I’ve always been impressed by Tansman’s works and this disc proves no exception. Danny Zelibor is obviously an enthusiast and can write authoritatively about the music he plays. He gives us compelling performances that will surely win over new fans for this thoroughly decent and principled human being and superlative composer. Toccata continues to shed new light on undeservedly obscure composers and deserve support and thanks from all music-lovers.

-- MusicWeb International

The Australian-British Sadie Harrison is no ordinary composer: she is also an archaeologist and a professional gardener. So it is hardly surprising that a fascination with historical artifacts and biological processes filters into her music. The instrumental miniatures on this recording are both slow and brutal, some of them mirroring ancient worlds and natural phenomena and others taking their starting point in the paintings of Brian Graham and Peter Sheppard Skærved, expressing visual and textural ideas in sound. All are first recordings.

REVIEW:

Australian-born and UK-based, Sadie Harrison took some time out from composition to work as an archaeologist and professional gardener, activities which nourish these new works, mostly written in the past four years. Her fascination with fragments, minutiae and painted miniatures has resulted in five groups of tiny pieces each lasting around three minutes or less. The shortest is 24 seconds! Gallery (Rooms I and II) for solo violin—19 musical glimpses to be played in any order—takes the paintings of the versatile violinist Peter Sheppard-Skaerved as a starting point. Hidden Ceremonies, for piano, explores prehistory as depicted through paintings by Brian Graham. Musical echoes, from Vaughan Williams to Stravinsky to Aghanistan and beyond, are woven into Harrison’s works, each glittering in their intensity.

-- The Guardian

A member of the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St Petersburg, Russia, Leo Zeitlin (1884–1930) was known almost exclusively for Eli Zion, a classic of Jewish art-music. Zeitlin died only seven years after emigrating to New York, still a young man, and his reputation languished until the recent discovery of a trunk full of scores brought his music back to light. This album attempts to remedy decades of neglect, especially for his charismatic Yiddish song-settings for voice, strings and piano, powerful declamations of spoken Yiddish and Russian poetry underscored by Romantic piano music, all of which points to a once popular but now forgotten genre. The Festival musicians of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival are the highest-caliber local professionals; players for the orchestral and chamber-music concerts include members of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and university faculty members. In its eleven seasons since its founding by cellist Aron Zelkowicz the PJMS has programmed over 130 pieces of classical chamber and orchestral music inspired by Jewish traditions. The recordings on this CD series represent a six-year project devoted to the St Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music and its affiliated Russian composers.

REVIEW:

The performances of Leo Zeitlin’s music are first-rate from start to finish, as is the recorded sound. The liner notes by Paula Eisenstein Baker (a key figure in the resurrection of the Zeitlin’s music) and Robert S. Nelson provide detailed information on the composer’s life and the featured works. Original language texts (Cyrillic script for Russian, and transliterations for the Yiddish poems) and English translations are provided for each of the songs. While the repertoire on this disc may have a less broad appeal than the Stutschewsky release, I think anyone at all curious to explore the work of Leo Zeitlin will not be disappointed.

-- Fanfare

Adolfo Fumagalli (1828–56), one of four musician brothers from Inzago, near Milan, made a name for himself across Europe as ‘the Paganini of the piano’, astonishing audiences with dazzling technique and acquiring a reputation for performances using his left hand alone. Fumagalli composed a large body of piano music – over 100 opus numbers – many being operatic fantasies and virtuosic studies of the type presented in this anniversary recital given in his home town. The CD also features several virtuoso studies from the set of 24 in Fumagalli’s École du pianiste modern, published in Paris in 1854.

The composer Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906–94) was something of a Portuguese Shostakovich: as a committed socialist, he faced repression from Portugal’s rightist military dictatorship; his works were banned and he was stripped of his official positions. Lopes-Graça responded in music, evolving a feisty, wiry Bartókian style that drew on Portuguese folk-music. This recording features Lopes-Graça’s own Bechstein piano, played by Olga Prats, who worked closely with him. Reviewing Vol. 1, Fanfare stated: “… the disc should be heard by 20th c. music lovers… a strong, individual voice”.

REVIEW:

Lopes-Graça’s First String Quartet won the Rainier III Composition Prize in 1965 and the composer then began to receive some of the public recognition he deserved. Eventually, some of his symphonic works were recorded. In the 1970s his writings were published and he was honored for his contributions to Portuguese culture. He composed a great many pieces during the last 20 years of his life, one of which is his Second String Quartet. The second movement contains a folk dance that extends into a rhythmic dialogue with dramatic overtones and a propulsive undercurrent. The third movement, “Cavatina,” is an aria with a long melodic line but without the cabaletta that would follow it in a bel canto opera. The finale includes material from the first movement as well as new music in a memorable whirl of interesting textures. This disc is a must for connoisseurs of 20th-century music and those who love unusual string quartets. I really enjoyed it and expect others so inclined will too.

-- Fanfare

Toccata Classics continues its exploration of the music of Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas (1905–2000) with this selection from his huge choral music output. It ranges in mood from the folk-like simplicity of the Missa Secunda in honorem Sanctae Margaritae and his bright carol settings via the astringency of some late a cappella pieces to the fresh and buoyant Christmas Cantata. This recording is also the first by the new London-based chamber choir Ascolta founded in 2015 by Peter Broadbent, one of Britain’s leading choral conductors, known for his consistent commitment to contemporary music.-- S

REVIEW:

Ferenc Farkas (1905–2000) was a beloved professor at the Budapest Academy of Music and a composer whose music had eluded me up to now. I am glad to make his acquaintance because he wrote classy, charming fare that doesn’t have to work overtime to make its points. Several of these works are accorded their first-ever recordings by Maestro Broadbent’s Ascolta Ensembles, and we are the better for their efforts.

Farkas’s 12-minute Mass is an affectionate, straightforward take on the liturgy. (I’d love to sing it someday.) The carols and ‘Ave Maris Stella’ are the true charmers of the set. The Emmaus Cantata after St Luke is made of sterner stuff and is also worth getting to know.

-- American Record Guide

This collection of Gabriel Fauré’s mélodies is the first recording to be conceived for a bass voice. It juxtaposes some of the composer’s best-loved songs with some of his lesser-known works. This recital program draws out connections of poets and poetic themes, some of which restore the composer’s own original groupings. This is also the first recording to be based on the new Peters Edition, which eliminates countless errors in older publications. The young American bass Jared Schwartz received the 2013 ‘People’s Choice’ Award in the American Traditions Vocal Competition.

REVIEW:

There are a total of 25 songs on this disc and each of them has been recorded with care and affection for the music of this wonderful French songwriter. Schwartz’s excellent new recording on Toccata gives us pristine sound; it is a recording that should be in the collection of everyone who loves French song.

-- Fanfare

The Danse macabre – the idea that Death comes for everyone regardless of status or importance – has fascinated musicians for centuries. In 2011, inspired by a vast 16th c. painting by Bernt Notke in St Nicholas Church in Tallinn, the English composer Gregory Rose (b. 1948) set the mediaeval German texts which sit below each panel, turning Notke’s terrifying vision into a bleak but grimly humorous ritual. The recording features the world-renowned Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. It was recorded in the very church that houses Notke’s paintings and is conducted by the composer.

REVIEW:

So, if one were interested in the now 21st-century oratorio, or musico-dramatic theater work, then one should well enjoy Rose’s efforts here. Having listened to the work numerous times over the course of a few weeks now, the music has grown on me and stayed in my memory, disturbing as it sometimes is. But in the weeks now leading up to the Christmas season, this music certainly makes one pause and think; and it makes for a vivid contrast to all the jingle bells and songs about St. Nick that one is now hearing all over. So for those paintings in St. Nicolas’s church, we can only be grateful now in numerous ways.

-- Fanfare

Born in 1934, the Czech jazz composer Milan Dvořák, no relation to his better-known classical composer namesake, has been active since the 1960s leading big bands and swing ensembles and remains active today. This is the debut recording of his 45 Jazz Piano Etudes which combine transcriptions of popular songs with classical influences and features the pianist Milan Franěk.