Joseph Lanner was the inventor of the formal Viennese waltz, elevating it from a peasant dance to a refined art form enjoyed by high society. While renowned in his day, Lanner seldom left Vienna and failed to acquire the same European fame as his more widely-travelled colleague and rival Johann Strauss I, but his music endures for its rich generic variety and lyrical, poetic style. These dances range from boisterous and ‘immoral’ gallopades to the spooky Geistermusik of the Hexentanz, and a late masterpiece Die Schonbrunner, given 21 encores at Lanner’s final concert and including melodies quoted by Stravinsky in his ballet Petrushka.

Review:

Naxos's sound engineers have done a first class job on this disc. Robert Letellier's booklet notes provide a welcome and expert introduction to a composer who will be little - if at all - known to many.

Naxos's competitive pricing always encourages taking a risk on unfamiliar material. In this case and after listening to nearly 70 minutes of Lanner's undemanding but nonetheless highly enjoyable music, most buyers will conclude that any risk had turned out to be well justified. Believe me, if you enjoy the music of Lanner’s era you will most certainly like his easy-going tunes. And if, like me, you do so enough that you play the disc more than a few times, I suspect you might even start whistling them too.

– MusicWeb International (Rob Maynard)

Inspired by the vast potential of the tonal foundation of music, at a time when many of his contemporaries were embracing the twelve tone ideology, the eminent German composer Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling produced a rich, varied and highly personal body of work.

Composed for the final concert of the Chopin bicentenary celebrations in Warsaw in 2010, Krzysztof Penderecki’s Powia?o na mnie morze snów… (A sea of dreams did breathe on me…) is an extended song cycle comparable in scale to the composer’s Eighth Symphony [Naxos 8.570450]. The individual songs, settings of both Romantic and contemporary Polish poetry grouped into larger movements, chart a progression from an almost impressionistic lightness to monumentality, the expressive tenor of the music ranging widely – nostalgic for loss, but also tense and impassioned. Antoni Wit, Polish conductor non-pareil and for over a decade the managing and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, is at the conductor’s podium leading the orchestra, chorus and soloists gathered together for this grandly-scaled, important project.

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REVIEW:

As one by now expects as a matter of course, conductor Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra provide letter-perfect renditions that also fully capture the spirit as well. While the difficulties of mastering the Polish language (not a particularly mellifluous one for singing) may prove a hindrance to this work entering the standard repertoire, on the basis of musical merits it fully deserves such placement; a stronger piece than the recent and uneven Symphony No. 8, for me this confirms Penderecki’s status as the world’s greatest living composer. Naxos provides excellent recorded sound, and Polish-English texts in the booklet rather than online. Urgently and emphatically recommended.

– Fanfare

DONIZETTI Roberto Devereux • Marcello Rota, cond; Dimitra Theodossiou (Elizabeth, Queen of England); Federica Bragaglia (Sara, Duchess of Nottingham); Massimiliano Pisapia (Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex); Luigi Albani (Lord Cecil); Andrew Schroeder (The Duke of Nottingham); Giorgio Valerio (Sir Walter Raleigh); Bergamo Musica Festival O & Ch • NAXOS 2.110232 (DVD: 134:14) Live: Bergamo 9/2006

Roberto Devereux is one of Donizetti’s most accomplished and engaging scores. A great success at its Naples premiere in 1837, it soon spread throughout Italy and Europe. Although the story has almost no connection with actual historical events, the libretto presented Donizetti with an uncomplicated story of well-developed scenes that obviously inspired the composer.

This DVD preserves a very good performance from the 2006 Bergamo Musica Festival. Dimitra Theodossiou portrays Elizabeth as the aged and imperious queen she was. She has the power to make the character believable and the softness for the lover who fears she has been rejected for a rival. She copes easily with the florid music in a range extending over two octaves; I was particularly impressed that the lowest notes in her role are sung as well as those above the staff.

Massimiliano Pisapia has a strong, ringing tenor voice that matches well the ardent lover he is portraying. As his secret love interest, Federica Bragaglia displays a soft-grained voice that sometimes is in danger of being overwhelmed by the chorus or orchestra, but she manages to hold her own and otherwise sings quiet well. She is also lovely to look at and does the best acting of the cast. Andrew Schroeder’s solid baritone is just what is needed for Nottingham. The minor roles are adequately cast or better.

The Chorus and Orchestra were specially formed in 2006 to participate in the Bergamo Festival. There was a time, not so many years ago, when Italian orchestras were known for sloppy technique, but this is no longer true. Despite their ad hoc nature, both chorus and orchestra perform as if they are well-established, strongly disciplined ensembles. Much of the credit for this must go to the chorus master, Corrado Casati, and especially to conductor Marcello Rota. Rota provides excellent support to the singers, keeping the performance moving while allowing the singers to linger over a note or phrase when appropriate.

There is, however, one practice, which I wish Rota had not allowed. All four principals engage in an annoying practice in which they stop singing toward the end of a set piece so that they can prepare to belt out an unwritten high note or hold the last note of an aria or duet long past its written value in an obvious attempt to milk applause. This vanity at the expense of the music should be discouraged, but unfortunately it disfigures far too many live performances.

Rota does not perform the Overture, which was not written for the original Naples production but was added by Donizetti for the opera’s first performance in Paris in 1838. Otherwise, the opera appears to be performed complete. I qualify this statement because there are small differences between the Kalmas vocal score and the opera as performed; however, other performances I have heard contain similar differences, so I assume that the score as performed here is the result of modern scholarship.

The production is quite attractive and is, wonder of wonders, set in the correct historical context. There are a couple of miscalculations, however. The camera allows us to see what looks like a terrible makeup job on Andrew Schroeder. Stranger still is the portrayal of Elizabeth in the final scene of the opera. Previously, she had been shown as the familiar aged, bald Elizabeth with a flaming red wig, which nevertheless leaves the front of her scalp bald. In the final scene, in which Elizabeth is portrayed in a less-formal setting, she is shown without a wig but has suddenly developed a full head of grey hair where there was baldness before. Otherwise, David Walker, who was responsible for the sets and costumes, is to be commended for an excellent job. The performance is well miked, with the singers being easily audible from every part of the stage. Subtitles are available only in English and Italian.

FANFARE: Ron Salemi Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: Dolby Digital 2.0 / Dolby Surround 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 134 mins

Viva España And Mexico

With the advent of stereo recordings in the late 1950s, many important soloists, including Jascha Heifetz, began remaking many of their favorite compositions in stereo that they'd previously recorded only in mono. Between 1961-62, as heard on this Idis CD, Heifetz came back to the studio to re-make three of his most famous pieces he'd previously recorded in mono during the '40s and '50s: Bruch's Concerto no. 1 and the Scottish Fantasy, and Vieuxtemps's Concerto No 5. The CD concludes with Tchaikovsky's Serenade M�lancolique op. 26, in a mono recording from 1954.

Franz Berwald's four symphonies are becoming better known, but the shorter orchestral works hardly receive a mention, even though they are no less deserving. Though conservative in style (what can you expect from a composer born in 1796?), they belong to no particular "school" but have a distinctly Nordic quality thanks to Berwald's fresh feeling for harmony and attractive woodwind writing. This comes through quite clearly in Reminiscence of the Norwegian Mountains, a lovely pastoral portrait in tones, and in Elfenspiel. Wetlauf (Foot-Race), subtitled "Etude for String Orchestra", must rank among the more imaginative early works in the medium--but then all of this music is well worth hearing.


These performances under Petri Sakari, with the Gävle Symphony in very good form, are a touch slower in tempo (with the exception of Wetlauf, aptly enough) than the main competition, the spottily available versions under Ulf Björlin on EMI, but not significantly so, and they are much better recorded. More importantly, Sakari and the orchestra offer freshly sprung rhythms, so important in this music, and the woodwinds play with the necessary liveliness and character in the pieces for full orchestra. Patrik Hakansson also gives a worthy account as soloist in the charming Konzertstück for Bassoon and Orchestra. In short, if you already know and like the symphonies, this inexpensive disc offers an excellent way to fill out your Berwald collection. It's good stuff, plain and simple.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Disc 5 of this set is a bonus disc titled "Serebrier on Stokowski."

Reviews of the original recordings which make up this set.


"Stokowski's Bach transcriptions have received a great deal of attention on disc lately, but this is one of the very few recordings that has the genuine flavor that Stoki himself brought to them. The obvious first question is: How do these versions compare to the "originals"? Can they be as good? The answer, quite simply, is "Yes, they can." Serebrier doesn't try to duplicate every gesture that Stokowski made. That would be impossible in any case, given the wide range of tempos and other variations among his own numerous recordings of these pieces...Aside from Bach, Serebrier includes Stokowski's own Two Ancient Liturgical Melodies, a sexy conflation of Veni Creator Spiritus and Veni Emmanuel, as well as the Handel and Purcell items. Dido's Lament sounds particularly dark and tragic in this performance. It's clear that the Bournemouth Symphony is having a great time reproducing these ultra-rich, Golden Age sonorities. The engineering supports the interpretations particularly well, giving the strings the necessary sheen and allowing the climaxes to expand hugely. This new release is an unqualified triumph." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

“José Serebrier brings to his recordings of Stokowski transcriptions the same voluptuous orchestral sheen that the old wizard himself managed on his own numerous recordings of this repertoire. However, Serebrier also has the advantage of superb modern sonics to back him up, making these productions eloquent tributes to a beloved friend and mentor, as well as perfectly valid and compelling interpretations in their own right.” -- David Hurwitz, Classics Online

"It would be hard to imagine a more sumptuous disc. Stokowski, in these 'symphonic syntheses,' enhances Wagner's already opulent orchestration with shrewdly added instrumental lines and with the vocal parts usually given to the strings. Then at times he thins the orchestration down for more transparent textures. José Serebrier conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in thrilling performances, passionate in a genuinely Stokowskian manner and treated to orchestral sound of demonstration quality." -- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

"José Serebrier deploys an imaginative mix of the great man himself with other early masters. Outstanding items among the latter include Palestrina's Adoramus Te, Byrd's Pavane and Galliard, and a really yummy (but never too droopy) Boccherini Minuet. Stokowski was not really a brilliant orchestrator in terms of timbral variety, but he was a very characteristic one. Key to any successful new recording of his arrangements is string sonority, that special, luminous sheen, especially in soft passages. Serebrier understands this, as others who worked with Stokowski do not." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

"Further icing on the cake: the two lovely Tchaikovsky transcriptions (the Humoresque will be familiar to knowledgeable listeners from its use in Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss), and Stokowski's own Traditional Slavic Christmas Music, a setting where once again Serebrier shows himself able to conjure a truly authentic "Stokowski sound". Mind you, these aren't mere imitations. Serebrier's flexible approach to tempo and willingness to inject a jolt of extra electricity make something quite special out of the climaxes in A Night on Bare Mountain, and it's very clear that the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is having as much fun playing this music as you will have listening to it. The engineering stands among the best from this source as well. Spectacular, sensational, skirting the boundaries of "good taste"--this is the real deal." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

These four Naxos American Classics releases selected for this Americana collection... focus on some of the defining moments of that history. First... a panorama of works inspired by Abraham Lincoln in defnitive performances conducted by Leonard Slatkin... Then Hannibal Lokumbe's rousing tribute to Rosa Parks... features the Detroit Symphony and the combined singers of two of Michigan's most venerable choruses. Next, Peter Boyer's dramatic account of the arrival of immigrants to Ellis Island in the early 20th century is narrated by an all-star cast including Eli Wallch and Olympia Dukakis. Finally, the first ever complete recordings of two film scores by Virgil Thomson for 1930s documentaries detailing the plight of rural Americans priot to the New Deal... " - Frank J. Oteri, NewMusicBox. Com

The album is a continuous journey through a landscape constantly changing. Along the way, your ears will encounter simplicity, fragility, ferocity, sensitivity and a special sense of greatness in the smallest of details. From beautiful ballads of stormy moods to swinging jazz - everything beautifully executed by Margrete Grarup’s unique and expressive voice. Each track has an identity of its own - still, they all come together and make a whole. Walk with Me includes new, wondrous takes on classics such as “Georgia on My Mind”, “Strange Fruit” and “My Funny Valentine” along with some of the musician’s own compositions which in combination creates a soulfully meditative and with every turn delightfully unknown journey to be experienced. Margrete Grarup is an educated soloist from Nordjysk Musikkonservatorium and knows how to balance the power of her voice with delicate nuances and a certain humility.

JAPANESE ORCHESTRAL FAVOURITES

Volume 4 of the continuing Naxos series "English String Miniatures" brings more excellent performances of music that's uniformly attractive and easy on the ear, most of it more familiar than in previous installments. The strings of the Northern Sinfonia under David Lloyd-Jones give every indication that they're enjoying themselves, with alert ensemble, flawless tuning, and the same persuasive care over fine detailing that's been a key attribute of earlier issues. The Delius Aquarelles, for instance, yield the fullest range of expressivity and dynamic contrasts, and there's superb playing in Holst's Moorside Suite, with a neat, witty scherzo and a briskly energetic march enclosing Lloyd-Jones' exquisitely managed account of the central Nocturne. The two Frank Bridge pieces, especially the Scherzo Phantastick, delineate the virtuosity and skill of the Northern Sinfonia, but the less well known pieces also receive sympathetic performances. Peter Hope's Momentum Suite, so-called for its accelerating finale, and the English Suite by Paul Lewis are highlights, but this is a finely played and agreeably recorded program throughout.--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

As soon as the first track of this interesting compilation CD begins, it is clear that it will give much enjoyment. Carlo Martelli's five-minute long Persiflage has a dramatic opening gesture, and then maintains the interest it has created. The Naxos recording is bold and direct, and contributes fully to the effect created by the excellent strings of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

The best known composers featured on this enterprising programme are Finzi and Holst. The two Finzi items both represent the more lyrical side of his style, whereas Holst's delightful Brook Green Suite has three short movements organised in the traditional fast-slow-fast design. David Lloyd-Jones plays the central Air very much at a flowing tempo, thereby missing some of its poetry, and his outer movements are on the fast side too. But this remains an engaging performance if it does not erase memories of Imogen Holst's recording for Lyrita with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Haydn Wood has enjoyed something of a resurgence with the greater interest in light music which has developed during the last ten years. And quite right too, for his infectiously rhythmic 18th Century Scherzo makes an immediate and pleasing impression. Equally enjoyable is another five-minute miniature, William Blezard's Duetto, which is in fact a tuneful canon introduced by a skilfully placed passage of pizzicato. This offers a particularly interesting balance between technique and inspiration.

The central Lento espressivo movement of Bruce Montgomery's charming Concertino is given the full treatment by Lloyd-Jones and his players, to winning effect, while the finale is appropriately energetic. For me, however, the highlight of the programme is the Sinfonia Concertante by Michael Hurd, in which Robert Gibbs is the accomplished violin soloist. Again there are three movements, and again there is a beautifully lyrical movement at the centre.

-- Terry Barfoot, MusicWeb International

And Rob Barnett writes

It's all over in just over an hour but in that time you are swept along from one compass point to another.

The spirited innocent intoxication of Martelli's Persiflage makes me all the more impatient for the release of the Dinemec CD of the Martelli Second Symphony. Persiflage (banter) gambols along in carefree fifties confidence - a touch of Wirén here and a splosh of Coates there: brilliant silvery playing. The two Finzi pieces have been done elsewhere with more inwardness and poise but you will be glad of the repose they offer. Holst's Brook Green is hurried along in the Prelude and Dance faster than Imogen Holst ever did in the Lyrita but the Air is very well spun. The Blezard with its escalator pizzicato and serenade jewellery is just as strong as the Martelli. This probes and strains at the boundaries of tonality.

Anything by Michael Hurd is worth you ear-time. I recently welcomed his glorious Oboe Concerto on ASV and this 10 minute pocket violin concerto in all but name spins that same skein of regret and grace that flows from the Atterburg Third Suite; the highest praise. The Haydn Wood is like a skilled and well-turned chip off the Prokofiev Classical block. Montgomery is a name usually unrecognised among the British music fraternity. Film music enthusiasts will know him for his music to the early salvos from the 'Carry On' crew. He also wrote detective fiction as Edmund Crispin. There is an excellent article on him by Phil Scowcroft. His Concertino for string orchestra is Bliss-like (Music for Strings - strong resemblances) with a modicum of Rawsthorne's severity thrown in and a touch of etiolated Delius in the lento espressivo. It is the single most substantial piece on the disc.

Hearing the whole recital I rather wish Naxos had gone the whole hog and given us more Martelli, Blezard, Montgomery and Hurd. These are the works which make this a thoroughly recommendable anthology. Roll on volumes 4 and 5.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

PIANO CONCERTO 4 BALLADES

Based on Oscar Wilde’s impassioned text Le Ballade de la Geôle de Reading, Jacques Ibert’s first symphonic work astonished and impressed audiences with its dark atmospheres of anguished madness and terror. The Trois Pièces de Ballet portray society guests with colorful music-hall wit, contrasting with the impressionistic symphonic poem Féerique and the horrors of war expressed in Chant de Folie, while the Suite Élisabéthaine introduces ancient styles to enhance Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

TURINA: Sinfonia sevillana / Danzas fantasticas / Ritmos

U.S. Army officer John J. Pershing (1860-1948) was the only living person to rise to the highest Army rank ever held: General of the Armies. + He was also founding father of The U.S. Army Band in 1922. + A commemoration to this great man and his role with the U.S. Army Band, "Pershing's Own" contains many fantastic songs including Summon the Heroes, Close Harmony and Dance of the Jesters. + The Army Band is widely noted for its immense talent and stellar showmanship.

The Places: The musical tour of Spain starts at the present capital, Madrid, the principal city of Castile. From Madrid it is not too far to the plains of La Mancha, a region always remembered for it's association with the great hero of Miguel Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, whose windmills, mistaken by him for giants, form a characteristic element in the landscape. The varied history of Spain is seen in the city of Cordoba, once capital of a Moorish kingdom, and the gardens of the Alcazar of the Christian Kings. The Music: The music chosen for the tour of Spain may be characteristically Spanish in it's rhythms and turns of melody, but is all the work of foreigners, two of the composers, Chabrier and Massenet, French, and two of them, Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian. For France, geographically adjacent to Spain, there was an obvious connection with Spain, which continued to exercise a certain fascination over it's neighbor. Russian composers in the 19th century embarked on the creation of a new national music, but at the same time drew on remoter countries for inspiration, whether on the different regions of the vast Russian Empire or still further afield.

A Musical Journey - Norway

The Places
The legendary Norwegian figure Peer Gynt is widely known through Henrik Ibsen’s play that follows Peer’s unscrupulous adventures, a work that enjoys still further fame through the incidental music written for it by Edvard Grieg. Parts of the Norwegian countryside are identified with some of Peer Gynt’s adventures.

The Music
Greig collaborated with the greatest of Norwegian dramatists, Henrik Ibsen, in his music for the play Peer Gynt, from which he drew two orchestral suites. Grieg also worked with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, providing incidental music for the historical play Sigurd Jorsalfar.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 54 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The tour starts with views of Catherine the Great's Palace at Tsarskoe Selo and leads eventually to the resort of Pavlovsk, after scenes from Ukraine. The music is taken from two of Rachmaninov's four piano concertos. The Second Concerto is among the most popular in romantic repertoire, while the Third Concerto is among the most challenging.

EVENING IN PARIS (AN)

Written in 1944, Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony is one of his greatest and most complete symphonic statements. At it's premiere he himself called it "a symphony of the grandeur of the human spirit". The first movement couples considerable strength with unexpected yet highly characteristic twists of melody. After a violent scherzo followed by a slow movement of sustained lyricism, with a fiercely dramatic middle section, the finale blazes with barely suppressed passion. The Year 1941 is another wartime work, a symphonic suite written in response to the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Marin Alsop has been Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, a relationship now extended to 2015. Currently Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, since 1992 she has also been Music Director of California's prizewinning Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

2014 2 X vinyl LP pressing release by Korean-American composer, vocalist, sonic surrealist Bora Yoon. Designed as an architectural journey through the chambers of the subconscious, each track on the album illuminates a different sonic space, which excavates the memories, insights, and intersections in which our greatest diamonds and demons are held. Sunken Cathedral traces death, life, rebirth and the cyclical/recombinant nature of the universe; the alchemical moment of transmutation where one medium becomes another.

The composer wrote the libretto for his opera "Antigone" himself. In it, he not only refers to Sophocles’ "Antigone", but also to other classical material such as "Oedipus At Colonus" by the same tragedian, Aeschylus’ "Seven Against Thebes" and "The Phonician Women" by Eurpipides. Short summary: In a pantomimic prologue, Oedipus’ son Eteocles seizes the throne and the royal insignia while his brother Polynices is out of the country. In the first scene, Oedipus leaves the city with his daughter Antigone, though not without criticizing the Thebans’ policy of self-betraying submission. In the second scene, Eteocles appears, in preparation for battle against his brother who has besieged Thebes. Jocasta, mother of both, desperately attempts to pacify the brothers and allay her worst fears. Her efforts fail, the brothers kill each other, and Jocasta commits suicide. In the next scene, Creon accedes to the throne whilst Antigone mourns deeply. Creon orders a state funeral for Eteocles. Polynices, however, is to be left unburied, exposed to animals and decomposition. Whosoever ignores this order risks the death penalty. When Antigone breaks the law and attempts to bury her brother, she is arrested and condemned according to Creon’s inhumane orders. Haemon, who is Creon’s son and engaged to Antigone, tries in vain to change his father’s mind. In the final scene, the couple sing to love "invincible in battle", united in death.

Classical Music