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

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.

This is an absolutely wonderful program. Of course Les Nuits d’été and Shéhérazade are old discmates, most famously on an outstanding disc featuring the late, great Régine Crespin. A dramatic soprano, Crespin’s voice was quite a bit larger than the comparative lightness and purity of Gens, but these songs aren’t Wagner, and each soloist does the music full justice in her own way. Especially in Les Nuits d’été, which isn’t really a song cycle, Gens and conductor John Axelrod team up to produce a performance that actually makes you forget that the work consists of two quick numbers enclosing four long, droopy ones. “Absence” and “Au Cimetière” seldom have sounded more flowing and purposeful.

Gens’ deft handling of the poetry also pays major dividends in the long first song of Shéhérazade, a travelogue that all too easily degenerates into a sort of impressionistic, French version of “I’ve Got A Little List”. Not here, with Gens conveying an unexaggerated feeling of wonderment, ably seconded by Axelrod’s colorful accompaniments. The brief concluding songs, “La flûte enchanté” and “L’indifférent”, are sexy but not smarmy, beautifully capturing Ravel’s delicately etched vocal lines. I can’t help but think, despite wonderful performances by non-French singers (Ely Ameling especially), how much it helps to have a native speaker take the part.

However, what makes this disc particularly desirable is the presence of Herminie, an early cantata by Berlioz that’s almost always passed over in favor of the more popular La mort de Cléopâtre. Herminie is not only a very enjoyable work in its own right, but it begins with a tune that’s nothing less than the “idée fixe” that later found a home in the Symphonie fantastique. The tune returns in the middle section of the aria “Arrête! Arrête! Cher Tancrède”, where it becomes an accompaniment to the vocal line (sound sample). As with everything on this program, the work is compellingly sung by Gens and conducted with conviction. The engineering is also excellent, with Gens’ voice captured with truly striking naturalism. Highest recommendation.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Also available on Blu-ray

Richard Strauss’s last stage work is an opera about opera as an art form, depicting the creation of a music drama in a wise and witty way. Which came first – words or music? That is the question that Strauss and his librettist Clemens Krauss address through the story of a Countess torn between a composer and a poet. “Renée Fleming is a world-class Countess, moving and intense … All around her there is luxury casting: Bo Skovhus as the Count, Michael Schade as Flamand, Markus Eiche as Olivier, Kurt Rydl as the theatre director La Roche, the wonderful Angelika Kirchschlager as Clairon – all strike exactly the right note, as do the singers in the smaller roles, turning this Capriccio into an event of the first importance.” (Der Kurier, Vienna)

Subtitles: G, E, F, Sp, Kor, Jap, Chin
Booklet: E, G, F
No. of Discs: 2
Run time: 166 MINS
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1

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REVIEW:

The greatest pleasure of the performance undoubtedly comes in the wonderful playing of the Staatsoper orchestra, the sweet, tender strings and the mellifluous horns in particular; and Christoph Eschenbach conducts a leisurely and loving account of Strauss's gorgeous score.

– MusicWeb International

This is one of those programs that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. David Aaron Carpenter plays a sensational viola, and he’s very capably accompanied by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Helsinki Philharmonic. This would be a very recommendable version of Harold in Italy on its own, even in a quite crowded field. The two central movements have plenty of character and color, and the concluding Orgy of Brigands lacks nothing in fire or excitement. However, there are two specific factors that make this release more than ordinarily interesting. First, Carpenter has restored Berlioz’s original viola part to the first statement of Harold’s main theme. This was presumably a concession to Paganini, who of course wanted a virtuoso piece. It’s no surprise that Paganini wasn’t impressed by this scant minute of barely audible arpeggiation, and that Berlioz replaced it with the more songful, canonic version that we all know and love, but it’s good to hear for a change. Second, and more importantly, Carpenter and Ashkenazy include the work the Paganini wrote for himself instead, and which presumably better represents what he really had in mind. The Sonata per la Gran Viola e Orchestra lasts about thirteen minutes. It consists of an introduction followed by a recitative, a cantabile, and a concluding theme and variations. It is tuneful, splashy, and effectively virtuosic. What stands out particularly, though, is not its obvious bel canto qualities, but the fact that Paganini calls the work a “sonata” in the first place. Many have wondered how he could have asked Berlioz to write a piece for viola at all, given the huge disparity between what Paganini expected and what Berlioz actually produced. We’ll never know exactly what discussions passed between the two men, save that it seems on his own evidence that Paganini was not looking for a typical concerto, but for “something else.” Well, that’s certainly what he got! Harold, of course, offers no opportunity for the soloist to display his virtuoso chops. He’s basically just along for the ride. So it’s good to be able to report that Carpenter isn’t fazed at all by Paganini’s typically ridiculous demands. The work constitutes a fabulous encore to Harold, while the disc-opening Overture to Béatrice et Bénédict makes this release a perfect program for continuous listening. The whole production is excellently engineered, especially when it comes to the tricky issue of balancing the soloist against the larger ensemble. It’s just great when a program is as smartly assembled as it is musically brilliant. -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Includes ov(s) by Joh Christoph Graupner. Ensemble: Nova Stravaganza. Conductor: Siegbert Rampe.
Includes work(s) by Joh Christoph Graupner. Ensemble: Nova Stravaganza. Conductor: Siegbert Rampe.

Classical Music

Classical Music

With it's enormous vocal, choral and orchestral forces, Mahler' Eighth Symphony, later to be dubbed 'ymphony of a Thousand', is one of the largest and longest symphonies in the active repertoire. Part One, inspired by the Whitsuntide Vesper hymn.

Triumphing over deafness and turbulent political times, Ludwig van Beethoven singlehandedly changed the course of music history, laying down the foundations for the Romantic era. His nine symphonies grew out of the forms established in the time of Mozart and Haydn, but show a remarkable evolution which embraces heroic grandeur in the Third Symphony, patriotism and innovation in the Fifth Symphony, countryside imagery and narrative in the Sixth Symphony, and choral inspiration in the Ninth Symphony, the "Ode to Joy" from which has become the Anthem for Europe.

Even Beethoven couldn’t entirely escape the influence of Mozart, and this lineage can be traced in the melodic grace to be found in the symphonies as well as the concertos. Imposing in their stature, the five Piano Concertos are filled with lively inventiveness as well as some of the most beautiful music ever to emerge from this genre. Beethoven’s single work in the popular symphonie concertante form is the "Triple" Concerto, but it is the distinctive nobility of the Violin Concerto which has seen it gain an unassailable position as one of the greatest works in the repertoire.

Beethoven considered music "a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy", with greatness of conception and painstaking craftsmanship his hallmarks. The Overtures are no exception in this, reflecting the drama and excitement of the theater and including the opening of his only opera Fidelio.

The Great Classics series from Naxos is the perfect introduction to myriad genres of classical music. Comprising both complete and compiled selections from the greatest works in the repertoire, the boxes are bursting with wonderful pieces of music, both recognizable and unfamiliar. The boxes take the listener on a thrilling tour of some of the world’s most dramatic musical media, encompassing music from six centuries and featuring sensational performers. All boxes come with a fascinating booklet with detailed information on the genre itself, chronological placement of each work, and a comprehensive study of the music. A fitting celebration of 25 years of superb music from Naxos, the world’s favorite classical label.

Hameenniemi, E.: Violin Concerto / Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2

The opening Trois danses cubaines by Alejandro Garc�a Caturla (1906-1940) is very much a typical example of Hispano-American musical culture, and would be right at home on a disc of music by Chavez, Villa-Lobos or Ginastera. Like Aaron Copland, he studied under Nadia Boulanger during a stay in Paris, and likewise seamlessly integrates old and new world techniques to great effect. Too bad he died so young. He was a lawyer by day, and it seems one of his clients was rather "disappointed" by his services. The following Preludio para Penthesilea by composer Carlos Fari�as (1934-2002) has, according to the liner notes, become a highly requested concert piece, and I can understand why. With it's constant barrage of multiple percussion instruments adding layer after layer of cross-rhythms and powerful forward momentum, it's hypnotic and almost ritualistic effect could certainly bring an audience to it's feet. A quick change of gears brings US to the beautifully exotic Preg�n y Danza by Enrique Gonz�lez M�ntici (1912-1974) whose opening pages bring to mind a sound reminescent of Miles Davis around his "Sketches of Spain" period. The aptly titled R�tmotiv, first performed in 2002 under the direction of it's composer Guido L�pez-Gavil�n del Rosario (b1944), is an orchestral tour-de-force as it introduces, overlaps and superimposes various rhythmic motifs and melodies to become a cornucopia of captivating sounds all assembled together by a craftsman. The final work on this CD, the deeply moving in Memoriam. A mi esposa Lillian Acosta by Alfredo Diez Nieto (b1918), once again demonstrates that grief is very much a universal human emotion and is expressed the same way regardless of nationality. It's the odd man out on this CD, simply because for that reason, it does not sound Cuban at all. It's a striking work, scored for strings alone, written to honor the loss of his wife in 2010. It's remarkable by it's simple gestures and yet clutching emotion, with closing notes to ponder over.

“The first thing to be said is that there is nothing in the symphony to remind one of Sibelius.” So opines Helena Tyrvainen in her notes on Uuno Klami’s First Symphony (1937-8), but for many listeners even the most casual acquaintance will suggest quite the contrary. Granted the form and structure of Klami’s work has little to do with any of Sibelius’s seven, even the First with which it shares an awareness of nineteenth-century Russian symphonism. Klami adopts a lyric, non-epic approach, closer in spirit to Melartin’s earlier symphonies, or even Madetoja. None the less, the language is reminiscent of Sibelius, even to the use of pulsing horn chords and pedals, and brought to my mind the minor tone-poems and incidental music, for instance the Dance Intermezzo or Swanwhite. That said, there are as many traces of Russian music (rather more dear to Klami’s heart), and in the finale a passage that would not be out of place in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

Klami was a noted exponent of neo-classicism, but you would scarcely know that from either the symphony or the later King Lear Overture (1944-5; the third piece Klami composed on this Shakespearean subject). I am not sure I would have guessed the subject from the music, which has a generally tragic-dramatic atmosphere. The performances and recording are both splendid; a valuable addition to the catalogue."

-- Gramophone [3/1996]

Oistrakh Collection, Vol. 7: String Quartets

Antonín Dvorák crowned his symphonic oeuvre with his Ninth Symphony. After its 1893 Carnegie Hall premiere, the symphony went on to acquire worldwide success, and remains one of the most frequently performed of all symphonic works. He opened the ears of musicians and audiences to Indian folklore and the melodic treasury of black Americans. While certain particularities were inspired by Indian music, the work’s themes are all original Dvorák creations. Here, as in the “American Suite”, Robin Ticciati and the Bamberger Symphoniker can be said to have rediscovered the “New World”.

Includes work(s) by Carl Michael Ziehrer. Ensemble: Razumovsky Sinfonia. Conductor: Christian Pollack.

Classical Music

Martín Palmeri's tango mass is inspired by his native Argentina's traditional tango and in particular by Astor Piazzolla's tango nuevo. Piazzolla developed a "new tango" intended no longer as dance music but for the concert stage; by incorporating contemporary forms and musical developments it gave rise to a complex genre of art music. The Misa a Buenos Aires premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba in 1996 demonstrates Palmeri's impressive and equally entertaining talent for integrating stylistic features of the tango into his compositions. The textual basis of the work is the classical Catholic Ordinary of the Mass as it has been set to music for centuries. The scoring for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, tango quartet, and string orchestra remains close to the authentic ensembles of the tango orchestras of Palmeri's native country. Here what is above all exciting is how imaginatively he employs the playing resources of the instruments. Typical techniques of the tango, this rhythmically emphatic dance in which the melody instruments are also used percussively to give impulses, play an important role here. The outstanding employment of the bandoneón, sometimes as a singing voice, then again as a rhythm instrument, here guarantees the preservation of the "tango soul." Melodic leading, harmony, and the rhythmic structures are also recognizable as tango stylistic means to non-experts. It is with great melodic imaginative richness that Palmeri blends the various tone colors of the tango with the various characteristics of the individual parts of the mass. The Gloria, premiered in 2014, a good eighteen years after the tango mass, is of somewhat greater complexity – both in compositional technique and in harmony – and leaves behind the pleasant tone of the mass. In all of its parts, however, here too the melodic and emotional expressive variety remains. Here European tradition and the tango are brought together in a finely crafted and compelling manner.

Yacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. After the fall of the Soviet regime his music has travelled the world to great acclaim. It is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice. This is one of a pair of related albums and contains a Symphony which is the third of his gigantic symphonic tetralogy “Symphony of the Way” - it was given its premiere by Mstislav Rostropovich to whose memory the disc is dedicated. The symphony is accompanied by another major work, Tristia II, a Fantasy for piano and orchestra with poems and prayers by Nikolai Gogol. The two conductors are among the cream of Russia’s younger generation, both amassing a very fine reputation in their own fields. Overall, this is a release of high importance in the symphonic repertoire (world premiere recordings).

A Musical Journey: Norway, Finland

The Places
Scenes of Finland and its capital Helsinki, the interlinked islands of Suomenlinna, site of an ancient castle and fortifications, and the hills, valleys and fjords of Norway follow a journey through varied Nordic landscapes.

The Music
Finland found its musical identity largely through the work of Jean Sibelius, whose Violin Concerto is the principal work included here. Other works are by the Norwegian composers Johan Svendsen, Johan Halvorsen and Christian Sinding.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 59 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

WAGENSEIL Symphonies: in g, WV 418; in B?, WV 438; in C, WV 351; in G, WV 413; in B?, WV 441 • Michi Gaigg, cond; L’Orfeo Baroque O (period instruments) • cpo 999 450 (62:19)


WAGENSEIL Symphonies: in C, WV 361; in F, WV 398; in D, WV 374; in A, WV 432; in E, WV 393; in A, WV 421 • Johannes Goritzki, cond; Stuttgart CO • cpo 777 112 (54:24)


Who was the most popular symphonist of the 1760s? Franz Josef Haydn, of course. Manuscripts and published editions of his early symphonies have been found throughout Western and Central Europe, from Italy to Sweden, Britain to Russia, in monasteries, court libraries, and private collections. But who was the most popular symphonist of the 1750s? Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715–1777) lays claim to that honor, with over 300 copies of 57 symphonic works disseminated across Europe. It was just Wagenseil’s bad luck, and that of many of his contemporaries, that his fame faded rapidly after his death. Most people equate quality with the final flowering of a form, and have little regard for the ingenuity with which it is treated in an earlier age.


Yet Wagenseil was no lightweight. Fux praised him greatly at the outset of his career, while esteemed critics such as Burney and Schubart did so in later years. He became a renowned harpsichord composer and performer, a greatly loved teacher whose pupils included several leading figures in the following generation, and a disciple of Baroque giants such as Handel even as his own music followed changing public tastes. To Maria Theresa he was the favorite court composer who would improvise fugues on demand, and who was paid wages for his lessons to the royal family considerably in excess of his yearly salary. His symphonies and operas were performed regularly at Esterházy during Haydn’s time there as Kapellmeister—but then his works circulated widely to general appreciation. A copy of his Lessons for Harpsichord even turned up in Thomas Jefferson’s personally written 1783 catalog of his musical manuscripts.


As a symphonist, Wagenseil followed the old three-movement Italian model, only substituting fast sonata-form finales in most cases for a dance movement. Over time, his slow movements and finales became notably more substantial than those of his predecessors. The Andante from the Symphony in B? Major, WV 441, is an excellent example of his art, from the descending open chords of its introduction to the breadth of its thematic material, and the richness of its subsequent development. His opening movements and finales tended to build upon short-breathed phrases that avoided the clichéd through some distinctive feature: the irregular phrase lengths and sudden leaps that lead off the Symphony in E Major, WV 393, furnish one example. Another, at the beginning of the finale to the Symphony in G Minor, WV 418, features propulsive rhythms surging back and forth under a descending g?-D?-d-G figure: heady crack-of-doom stuff, contradicted by the galant material that immediately follows in the interests of balance, but all the more impressive for what Wagenseil achieves during their combined development. None of these works take longer than a quarter of an hour to perform, and a couple of the earliest are in reality five-minute overtures, but there isn’t a single one that lacks memorability.


Of the two performing ensembles thus far engaged for this series, I prefer the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. While enjoying the clarity and timbral diversity L’Orfeo achieves, their wiry string tone and occasionally faulty intonation are drawbacks. The Stuttgart musicians possess a darker, less varied tone, and under Goritzki’s direction are more flexible in their rhythms and phrasing within the bounds of currently acceptable historical practice. They’re recorded somewhat distantly, however, losing some of their instrumental color in the process, while L’Orfeo benefits from close miking. The liner notes to the second volume are good, but the essay accompanying the first volume is longer, more detailed, and goes some way to establishing at least a sense of the environment in which Wagenseil operated.


In short, both volumes can be recommended, though I suggest listening to Gaigg/L’Orfeo before buying to see if your reaction to their sound differs significantly from mine. The music, in any case, is excellent throughout. Two thumbs up to cpo—and here’s to expectations of a third volume, soon.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

The kind of ‘popular’, socially functional dance music which is quite prominent in the work of, say, Haydn and Mozart plays a less central role – for all kind of obvious reasons – in the output of Beethoven. But such music does exist, and here is a fine, richly enjoyable anthology of it.

The twelve German Dances (WoO 8) were written for the annual masked ball of the Pension Society of Viennese Painters, held on 14th November, 1795. The society had a tradition of commissioned distinguished composers to write new music for the ball – Beethoven’s predecessors included Haydn and Dittersdorf. The young Beethoven’s contribution is, by his standards, rather slight in nature, but the dances have real charm and are not without a degree of sophistication. No.6, for example, employs some unexpected accents over a pseudo-rustic drone in a manner that is quite engaging. No.5 has some pleasant writing for the clarinets; no.10 makes entertaining use of the piccolo and of the triangle and tambourine in a kind of alla turca idiom. No.12 has a surprising coda, with a solo for posthorn, before a rather grand conclusion – so grand, indeed, that it must surely have taken the dancers by surprise!

The six minuets (WoO 9) belong to the same period, but are for strings alone (supplemented here by a harp). They are simple pieces, pleasantly melodic and largely unambitious in execution. In no.3 the alternations between pizzicato and arco are attractive; in no.5 the triplet accompaniment by the second violins has a particular grace.

Beethoven’s 12 contredanses (kontretänze) (WoO 14) were again written for the ballrooms of Vienna, a few years after the earlier sets of dances. They are lively and politely brilliant. In some of them one seems to detect touches that belong to Beethoven rather than just to the genre in which he was writing. It is certainly interesting to note that the seventh and the 11th dances share material with Beethoven’s ballet music The Creatures of Prometheus; the seventh is also echoed in the final movement of the Eroica.

The final set of dances on this CD belongs to a later period. The eleven ‘Mödlinger’ dances were, it seems likely, written in the wooded suburb of Vienna which bears that name, in 1819. That, we should remind ourselves, is the year of the Hammerklavier sonata and of the commencement of the Ninth symphony. These, in short, are the work of a fully mature Beethoven. Beethoven had real financial problems at this time, so it may well be that these dances were written for primarily commercial reasons; but it would, I think, be wrong to imagine that Beethoven didn’t take their composition at all ‘seriously’. Certainly they are far more sophisticated than the dances considered so far. They explore a range of forms – there are four waltzes, five minuets and two ländlers. There is a genial smile to all of the music; there are plenty of sparkling passages as, quite without condescension, Beethoven writes wonderfully accessible music. But it is also music that gets better at second and third hearings. These are delightful, small-scale masterpieces, in their own way just as worthy of attention as the far greater works that Beethoven wrote at much the same time.

The performances of L’Orfeo Barockorchester, playing on period instruments and directed by Michi Gaigg, are exemplary. The sense of scale is perfectly judged, distinctions of tempo and rhythm are clear but unexaggerated; the sound of the winds is particularly well-blended and the strings play with zestfully clear articulation. The sense is of an orchestra that sounds as though it is enjoying its work and is eager to share its own pleasure. One doesn’t often get the chance to hear these dances – and one certainly doesn’t often get the chance to hear them played so well, with both energy and sensitivity.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

The embodiment of the most serious and most sacred artistic will of our time,' said Thomas Mann after the premiere of the Symphony No. 8 to Gustav Mahler. The impressive Mahler Symphony cycle from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra continues, with a new recording of the Seventh and it's famous 'Night Music' movements. 'The Germans and their conductor Jonathan Nott are proving to be a dream team for Mahler, so we've been eager to hear the latest installment.' - David Nice, BBC Music Magazine.

Also available on Blu-ray

The city of Dresden and the Staatskapelle Dresden have a special relation to Richard Strauss. Many of his compositions had their world premiere in Dresden and the composer dedicated his Alpine Symphony to its orchestra. The program on this DVD, led by Christian Thielemann, includes Strauss’s aforementioned Alpine Symphony as well as his Four Last Songs and Wolfgang Rihm’s Ernster Gesang, sung by soprano Anja Harteros, as well as the German premiere of the last completed Strauss song "Mallows" in an orchestral version, arranged specifically for Dresden by Mr. Rihm.