Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

On their third Genuin label CD, german hornsound present original compositions exclusively written for their formation, including one, Trygve Madsen’s “Sinfonia Concertante”, receiving its world premiere recording, with Leopold Mozart's “Jagdsinfonie” and Schumann's “Concert Piece for Four Horns” sounding as if tailored for the ensemble. Founded in 2009 by four former university students who all currently hold positions in professional orchestras, german hornsound’s repertoire comprises all epochs of music history including both original works and arrangements.

The GIA Composer's Collection seeks to bring together into one place the master works by some of the most respected Wind Symphony composers of all time. Stunningly performed by the North Texas Wind Symphony under the direction of Eugene Corporon, this series also includes extensive liner notes about the composers and their contributions to the Wind Band.

Includes work(s) by Gustav Holst. Ensemble: North Texas University Wind Ensemble. Conductor: Eugene Migliaro Corporon.

"Allow this CD to transport you right past the malls and into the season's sacred mystery."
—The Dallas Morning News (The Chants of Christmas)

"I adore well-executed choral music for the holidays, and Gloriae Dei Cantores certainly fills the bill. Sing Noel is an outstanding. . . moving release of intensely lovely seasonal music."
— Christmasreviews.com (Sing Noel)

"One of the finest crafted, best blended, and innately musical ensembles with which I have had the pleasure to work."
—Keith Lockhart, Conductor, Boston Pops

THE CHANTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT • Gloriae Dei Cantores women’s schola • GLORIAE DEI 057 (SACD: 51:30 Text and Translation)


As in their last two issues ( Fanfare 36:5), a schola of seven members of the choir based on Cape Cod have sung another collection of Gregorian chants, preparing the interpretations among themselves without a director. The Mass Propers of Pentecost (except the second alleluia verse) are supplemented by the Propers of the Vigil of Pentecost and a couple of communion chants that focus on the Holy Spirit. The program concludes with Dufay’s setting of Veni Creator Spiritus for three voices in an alternatim setting. The hymns that Dufay set for the Sistine choir are frequently recorded, but the only sizable collection came from Schola Hungarica (13:1). Dufay provides a climax to the series of chants. In the middle of the program is a brief reading of the Pentecost event as related in Acts. I was always impressed by chant recorded here under Richard J. Pugsley and Mary Berry, but this new approach worked out for the last three discs strikes me very favorably. It’s the difference in later music between a vocal ensemble under a director and one without a director, the latter creating the effect that characterizes chamber music in the classical repertory. I hope they give us more, especially if the thematic program or the liturgical event is worked out as well as these are. Nicely done.
—J.F. Weber, Fanfare

"It just so happens that three of the finest chant CDs have been released over the last year by Gloriae Dei Cantores: The Chants of Angels, The Chants of Mary, performed by the men of the ensemble, and The Chants of the Holy Spirit, performed by the women.... "
—Patrick Neas, Kansas City Star

"The renditions of this music have rarely been as perfectly presented as what the Schola accomplishes here. . . . its primary vision [is] a living and loving manifestation of these ancient chants as something that breathes life into a contemporary cultural setting. Technically they are immaculate, and one can hear the evident love and devotion in every breath taken in this astoundingly beautiful music."
—Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition

Classical Music

American Psalmody of the 20th Century - This release includes 23 works from the very best American 20th century composers, including Charles Loeffler, Virgil Thomson, Kent Newbury, Samuel Adler, Charles Ives, and more. This three disc set is a rich treasury of music, which presents a varied program, making this a legacy which will no doubt preserve the heritage of American sacred choral music. Gloriae Dei Cantores is an internationally recognized choir with more than forty members who range in age from seventeen to seventy. The group, directed by Richard K. Pugsley, is devoted to preserving great choral music from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries. Their singing is startlingly superb wonderfully warm, yet clear sonorities. They consistently deliver levels of emotional intensity and aching spirituality. This is some of the finest, most inspiring American choral singing you will hear this year. (American Record Guide)

"What a refreshing musical gift this is! Those familiar with the Gloriae Dei Cantores singers know what a sterling ensemble they are; they deliver all the goods here. Seagull Seven's jazzy arrangement of "Deck the Hall" really rocks! In these and all else, the singers exude joy and cheer through artful, infectious performances that are immaculate and engaging. The rich warmth of tone is balanced by vibrancy and energy. This is musical merriment that will bring great cheer at Christmas time–or any time!"
—James Hildreth, The American Organist

"Here's a joyful and beautifully sung album of seasonal specialties ......this ensemble can claim many choral strengths, but their most remarkable attribute is their spiritual intensity and sincerity. Sound quality is beyond reproach; notes and texts are laid out in a colorful and festive booklet."
—Lindsay Koob, American Record Guide

"The choral artistry for which Gloriae Dei Cantores has become known can be heard in each selection. The ageless and profound wonder of Christmas comes alive with the singing of each word and the playing of each note."
—Wallace Cheatham, Christianity and the Arts

In addition to familiar seasonal music by Mendelssohn, Handel, Rutter, and others, Christmas at America’s First Cathedral features music from South Africa, Canada, and the United States, including the premiere recordings of seven new works by two of America’s most important African American composers, Dr. Rosephanye Powell and Dr. James Lee III. Dr. Lee’s motet, "A Clean Heart" is from a collection of four motets composed in 2009. The six selections by Dr. Powell comprise a suite called, Christmas Give, commissioned by Baltimore Choral Arts and given its world premiere December 1, 2009 at the Baltimore Basilica. - Gothic Records

"This may not be the best performance of Bruckner's Eighth, but it has become the one I most cherish, because it is the one that most cherishes the music. More than any other, it takes me where I want to go when I listen to Bruckner. If music so rich needs to be listened to as slowly as possible, well, with this recording, it can be."

-- Richard Lehnert, Stereophile

It is perhaps no coincidence that the duration of this performance runs to what will seem to many an extreme and etiolated 104 minutes. That would be unprecedented, were it not for the fact that the timings overall and for individual movements match almost exactly those of the recording made by Sergiu Celibidache with the Munich Philharmonic for EMI in 1993. I do not know if Celibidache was in any sense Rémy Ballot’s mentor, but Ballot certainly studied briefly under him in Paris in the 1990s and this recording suggests that he imbibed the precepts of that eccentric maestro.

Comparisons with other recordings are to some degree otiose, insofar as no other recording apart from Celibidache’s begins to approach the leisureliness of this one but the other recordings this most resembles include the two by Karajan, especially the earlier one from 1957, Giulini’s two recordings from 1984 with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic respectively, and Gunter Wand, also with the BPO in 2001. These are all massive, vertical interpretations aspiring to transcendence, as opposed to the fleeter, nimbler versions by such as Tennstedt, R?gner and even Furtwängler, using his own adaptation of the 1892 Haas edition.

Obviously the edition chosen has an impact on timings, too. Both Ballot and Celibidache employ the 1890 Nowak version yet even the slowest of the other recordings that use this same score is still over a quarter of an hour faster then theirs, while many are as much as half an hour shorter. Even those recordings which use either the most complete Nowak edition of the original 1887 score, or the somewhat longer edition of the 1890 score produced by Robert Haas, or even the elaborated version as recorded by Schaller, do not begin to approach Ballot for expansiveness. Nor is comparison with many excellent historical recordings, such as those by Knappertsbusch, very valid, as they invariably used the revised and heavily cut first performance version of 1892.

If this preamble sounds like a critical caveat to the consumer against trying this recording, I hasten to add that I am merely trying to establish its uniqueness and am in no sense implying that excuses have to be found for Ballot’s tempi - although a predisposition on the part of the listener to tolerate them would be an advantage. Ballot carries off his vision of this symphony triumphantly; the weight and dignity of this monumental account enhance my conviction that it is the greatest Romantic symphony in the canon.

Of the twenty or so different recordings with which I am familiar, five of the best are with the BPO and three with the VPO, suggesting that the presence of a first tier orchestra steeped in Brucknerian tradition is of paramount importance – yet the virtuosity of the Upper Austria Youth Orchestra rides a coach and horses through that notion. Their talent and technical prowess are phenomenal, and there are certainly no more blips or minor flubs than one would expect to hear in any live performance by a first rate professional band. The notes tell us that 130 musicians with an average age of seventeen took part in this performance, although only 96 are named; presumably there were more guest instrumentalists than are credited and they make a magnificent sound. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that despite their prowess, they cannot quite emulate the security of attack or the silky sheen that Karajan’s orchestras achieve, and despite the emphasis conductor Ballot’s places in the notes upon the importance of varying dynamics, nor is their ability to shade them quite so subtly responsive.

This performance took place in the same location almost a year to the day after the Third Symphony was recorded live and subsequently released on Gramola label; I reviewed it here very favourably. The Ninth will follow later this year and the Sixth in 2016. The resonant acoustic of the Stiftsbasilika favours and even demands slower speeds if the articulation of faster passages is not be obscured by the reverberation. By all accounts, the recording engineers are better able to sift and clarify the sound than human ears listening live can process it; certainly there is no “sonic mush” here to trouble the listener. Inevitably, given the live location, this recording cannot match the transparency Karajan achieves in the studio but the sound remains rich and round, if slightly veiled. Coughing is minimal and there is no recurrence of the hum from the lighting which mildly marred the recording of the Third last year.

In many ways, the sum of this performance is greater than its parts: it clearly greatly impressed those present and remains mightily impressive as a recording per se and as a memento of what was evidently a great event, even if at individual points other interpreters are more effective – or simply different. Thus in the mighty, brooding opening, Karajan, Giulini and Furtwängler generate more tension, while Tennstedt or Maazel are more urgent and imploring, whereas Ballot tends to slow down marginally before the big moments such as the climaxes to the brass crescendos in order to emphasise and underline their impact. The Totenuhr, too, is especially chilling, dwindling spectrally into nothingness, its graduated dynamic beautifully judged.

Despite its length, there is absolutely no sense of dragging in the Scherzo and indeed some of the additional time is accounted for by Ballot sharing Thielemann’s attachment to making the pauses count, allowing the reverberation to fade and an expectant silence to prevail. The ostinato of falling fifths is superbly articulated. The distension of the Adagio represents the most daring of the risks Ballot takes with this music and but the results are heavenly. It is true that sometimes the young string-players do not “bow through” their phrases sufficiently to emulate the richness of tone their senior counterparts generate and the sustained phrases begin to fade and sag very slightly in comparison with the shaping of Wand or Karajan, but Ballot succeeds magnificently in creating a breathless hush, the descending octaves from the flutes hanging in the dusk like floating flares.

The finale is in many ways the most impressive movement of all. Ballot’s grip on phrasing, his exploitation of pauses and his meticulous care over dynamics results in a wholly satisfying melding of its four, disparate main themes into a coherent cosmic narrative. The din of the clashing cymbals in the final orchestral climax is overwhelming. Whatever your reservations regarding the arguable excesses of Ballot’s concept of this masterwork, this is a recording that every committed Brucknerian should hear.

A couple of pedantic niggles regarding the notes and their translation: Bruckner’s “Faszination für Zahlen” is rendered literally as his “fascination for numbers” when of course the correct preposition should be “with” if the sense intended is not to be reversed to mean that it is the numbers who are fascinated by Bruckner. Secondly, a critic is quoted as presumably favourably describing the Youth Orchestra as “[n]icht irgenwelche ästhetisch kaum erreichbaren Wiener, Berliner oder Münchner Philharmoniker”, which is translated into English as “not some aesthetically unapproachable Vienna, Berlin or Munich Philharmonic”. Apart from the fact that I cannot understand what is meant by the phrase in either language, “aesthetically unapproachable” sounds like a back-handed compliment, as does “scarcely accessible” – unless the sense is “irreproachable”.

-- Ralph Moore, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 98 and 103 come from his set of 12 "London" symphonies, written at the height of his mastery and celebrity. With these pieces, Haydn accomplishes the rare feat of writing works that are both intellectually demanding and perfectly delightful. The recordings of Thomas Fey and his musicians are highly praised around the world for their personal expression, and precision of execution as well as their innate ability to detect the internal characterization of each movement.

Fey’s interpretations of Haydn’s symphonies rank among the best in international critical acclaim. This 20th installment with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra balances historical performance practice while using modern strings and historical brass instruments.

With two world premiere recordings, this program highlights the Romantic and spiritual side of contemporary music from Russia and Eastern Europe. Galina Ustvolskaya's early Concerto expresses a vision of beauty and suffering in a tonal language quite unlike her later works. Giya Kancheli's Sio or "breeze" is notable for its striking use of silence, as well as modal tunes, bass drones and wide dynamic extremes derived from Georgian folk music. Silvestrov's devotional Hymn reflects his approach to music as "a song the world sings about itself".

A program of Serenades and Symphonies from Mozart's Salzburg period has been chosen for this latest henssler CLASSIC'S release. His Salzburg years being centered on orchestral music, this is, altogether, a delightful sampling of some of Mozart's most extrovert and joyous music!

Classical Music

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording