No musician of our time is more closely associated with the Brahms piano concertos than Rudolf Buchbinder. The patrician Austrian pianist, who even possesses copies of the composer’s autograph scores and piano parts, stated that “it requires a whole lifetime to become intimate with Brahms’s sound world and achieve the maturity that gives you new freedom as a performer”. He represents the living proof of that assertion. Buchbinder’s interpretations are further claimed to be “a modern-day point of reference” to quote the leading American critic Jed Distler on his first recording of Brahms’s piano concertos in the late 1990s.Sony Classical releases the live recordings of Brahms’s two masterpieces for piano and orchestra – one from the composer’s firebrand youth, the other from his mellow maturity – which Buchbinder, approaching his 70th birthday, made with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by his dear friend and esteemed collaborator Zubin Mehta. Mehta, whose ties with Brahms’s adopted home of Vienna are nearly as deep as the soloist’s, has cited Brahms as one of the two composers (Richard Strauss being the other) whose works, more than any others, inspired him to become a conductor.In 2015, Buchbinder and Mehta united to perform Brahms’s piano concertos with the quintessential Brahmsian orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic. It was a veritable summit meeting of great interpreters of these concertos. The reviewer for Vienna’s Kurier wrote of these performances, “what Rudolf Buchbinder, the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta delivered at the Musikverein already deserves the accolade ‘milestone’. Here were a phenomenal piano virtuoso, a no less outstanding orchestra and a deeply knowledgeable conductor collaborating to perfection and producing an image of Brahms that does honour not only to Vienna.”

The vocal ensemble Quartonal earned high praise for its first album. “With the CD Another Way, Quartonal has produced an impressive debut with many poignant moments,” declared NDR. “The sound is wonderfully clean, meticulously balanced and round.” On its new CD, the group presents arrangements ranging from pop favourites like George Michael’s “Faith”, Chris Martin’s “Viva La Vida” and Mike Deighan’s “Les Champs-Elysées” to beautiful composed traditionals.

Dvorák's 14 string quartets stand as the finest and most imposing works in the medium after Beethoven (and until Shostakovich), though the early works certainly vary in quality. But from No. 4 onward, his achievement is mightily impressive and deserves far more attention from music lovers than it usually receives. As with the "Dumky" Piano Trio, the popularity of a single work (the "American" Quartet) has overwhelmed the others, and more's the pity.

How lovely, then, to see Arkivmusic.com issuing this two-disc "on demand" set as part of its larger program of Guarneri Quartet reissues. These are excellent performances, one and all. The group has the ability (similar to the great Czech ensembles) of being able to attack a phrase with sharp, clean rhythms without coarsening their tone or stiffening the phrase, and this is critical in Dvorák. Some examples include the opening theme of the "American" Quartet, or the "hunting" cadence melody at the end of the Thirteenth Quartet's first-movement exposition. The result is stylish, lively, and singing, just as it should be.

The Terzetto, for two violins and viola, also is a masterpiece of its type, astonishingly colorful (given the limited resources) and full of typically memorable melodic invention. Check out the scherzo, with its pizzicato and sul ponticello textures--marvelously realized here. The sonics are a bit dated in the sense that they tend to individualize the four players rather than helping them to blend into a cohesive ensemble, but that was very much the taste in the 1960s and early '70s when these recordings were made, and the ear quickly adjusts. A wonderful reissue for quartet lovers.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

By 1845, only two years before his death, Mendelssohn at 36 was an eminent 'establishment' figure—but one whose creative imagination no longer had its first freshness. I entirely agree with the American sleeve-note writer that the Quintet's crowning glory is its slow movement, "an elegaic Adagio in D minor, remarkable especially for the way Mendelssohn uses his small ensemble to suggest deep contrasts of light and shadow". And though the elves and sprites of the Scherzo, marked Andante scherzando, sound a little middle-aged in comparison with their nimbler cousins in the Octet and other earlier marvels, they are certainly not without charm. In the active flanking movements Mendelssohn's motivation seems impersonal, like a return to eighteenth-century delight in superlative craftsmanship per se. Here the Guarneris and Zukerman greatly help the composer with their urgent drive. Some of the tremolo down below emerges just a bit hard in the first movement, but their assualt on the finale's con fuoco counterpoint makes for an exciting finish. They find the grace for the Scherzo, and the expressive intensity for the Adagio.

-- Gramophone [2/1980, reviewing the original LP release of the Mendelssohn Quintet]

R E V I E W S:

"Taut, intense, and beautifully shaped, the playing conveys the music’s drama, haunting lyricism, and bold originality. Hearing it, one is led to think that Leonard Bernstein committed a major omission when he said that “alone” among all composers, Beethoven had “a direct line to God.” The eerie tremolos of No. 15 here are stunningly otherworldly; the continuity and building tension of the second-movement variations in No. 14, compelling; the bold brashness of the opening of the “Quartettsatz,” intrusively arresting. And throughout all the performances, care with balances produces a welcome clarity of voicing that underscores Schubert’s harmonic daring."

FANFARE: Mortimer H. Frank

Lovely playing, as nearly always from these artists... The Quartettsatz was written four years before the A minor Quartet. There's certainly no lack of shivers and shudders here: indeed, you get the impression that the players were deliberately saving up all their disquiet for the key of C minor. The recording quality is very natural throughout.

-- Gramophone [2/1973, reviewing the original LP release of Quartets 12 and 14]

If you’re looking for an inexpensive single disc containing Saint-Saëns’ most popular orchestral works, then you can’t miss with this collection. I often wonder if Ormandy had not gone on to remake his core repertoire with RCA, in mostly duller performances and lousy sound, whether his reputation would be as low as it is at present. There’s some absolutely sensational music making on this disc, and to prove it I offer three sound samples for you to consider.

First, this is one of the great “Organ” Symphonies, not perhaps quite as exciting as Munch, but awfully close, with amazingly fine playing from the Philadelphians and astonishingly good sonics for the period (1962). E. Power Biggs is the excellent soloist, offering a rendition of the organ part that’s unusually well articulated rhythmically. Consider the opening of the finale: bold and quite striking in its firmly phrased, grand reprise of the symphony’s motto theme (first sound sample). Ormandy never matched this performance, and he re-recorded this symphony at least twice.

The symphony may be fine, but it’s the couplings that really close the deal. The Marche militaire française has plenty of swagger, and these versions of the Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila and the Danse macabre are simply the best available. Ormandy does a little light restoring of the former, and it matters not a bit–this performance just drips sex and couldn’t be more wildly uninhibited (second sound sample). As for the Danse, just listen to those Philadelphia violins sing out the main theme (third sound sample). It doesn’t get any better than that.

The Carnival of the Animals is no mere make-weight bonus. Heard in its chamber scoring, the performers make an impressive list: Philippe Entremont and Gaby Casadesus on pianos, Régis Pasquier and Yan-Pascal Tortelier on violins, Gérard Caussé on viola, and no less than the young Yo-Yo Ma on cello. Taken together, you have a perfect disc of Saint-Saëns favorites in performances as good or better than any available. And it’s all offered at budget price. Pure gold.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Warshauer’s music is shot through with and inspired by mystical and spiritual matters that span a love and respect for Mother Earth and the Jewish faith.

A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Meira Warshauer now lives in Columbia, South Carolina. She studied with William Thomas McKinley, Gordon Goodwin, Mario Davidovsky and Jacob Druckman.
 
This is not the first disc exclusively dedicated to her music. Streams in the Desert was an all-Warshauer CD of music for orchestra and chorus inspired by the Torah which appeared on the Albany label in 2007. There have been others.
 
Symphony No. 1 Living Breathing Earth is in four movements the first of which seethes with modernistic chaffing cicada noises and the rumbles of the jungle; the latter evocative of Villa-Lobos. By contrast the following movement (Tahuayo River at Night) has a great pervasive melodic calm. It’s a little like Mahler’s Adagietto meets Delius in a gentle drift downriver. The third movement has a chattering interplay of strings with butterflies and birds soaring above: Ravel’s Mère l’Oye blended with Villa-Lobos. The finale returns to a rangy melody but interpolates a gentle breathing pattern carried by the violins. Trumpets piercingly italicise the dramaturgy of the melody and drive the poignant message home amid flickers of wispy birdsong. The work serves as celebration and warning: a prayer for wisdom to heal our planet. The dedication is to the living breathing earth and her Creator.
 
We are told that Tekeeyah is the first concerto ever written for shofar and orchestra; anyone know of any others?. Never less than sincerely ambitious this is Warshauer’s “call for an awakening to our true essence as human beings.” The shofar (which you may recall being used abstemiously in Elgar’s The Apostles) is the horn of a ram or other kosher animal. It is a call to humanity to rouse itself from “the slumber of complacency” and in this three movement work the music is also bound up in Jewish religious references. Here the soloist, with whom Warshauer collaborated during the writing process, plays the horn of an African antelope.
 
Tekeeyah has a similar stylistic glossary to that of the Symphony. Gentle consonant strings sigh in a starry glimmer amid impressionistically gauzy writing: part Messiaen and part Ravel. There are Delian harp scintillations, around the rolling growl and bray of the shofar. There’s a real bite to the solo writing in Breaking Walls (II). It’s very animated yet a soft glow is never far away. The finale sports a slipping-sighing sentimental melody. A touch here of RVW. Had he lived long enough not only might he have given us the Saxophone Concerto he seemed to promise but also a concerto for shofar. It’s almost odd that neither Hindemith nor Hovhaness were moved in that direction. In any event in this concluding movement we encounter a Milhaud-like chugging rumba: very positive and happy. The shofar brays in majesty at the end and the strings rise high with solo and string mass echoing each other in exalting pain. The trumpets again italicise the splendour.
 
The present Navona disc presents two recentish substantial works though not of epic duration. Warshauer’s music is shot through with and inspired by mystical and spiritual matters that span a love and respect for Mother Earth and the Jewish faith.
 

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

MENDELSSOHN: OCTET, STRING SYM

Continuum: Modern Orchestral Works

GUERNICA, 3 of Kaufman's orchestral works: The "Guernica" Piano Concerto, an anti-war piece; Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, "Kaddish," a work written in memory of the composer's parents; and "Seascape", which illustrates the calmness and turbulence of the sea.

Transits: Minimal to Mayhem, his fifth full Navona Records release, is an abridged sequence of five works from a set time and concrete place that maps composer Sergio Cervetti's creative progression over four decades of composing. The Concertino for piano, woodwinds and timpani (2013) is a rowdy and raucous array of South American rhythms tempered by a tender quote from Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. One of Cervetti's last minimalist works, Exiles (1980) begins with a slow piano rendition of a melodic theme from the Uruguayan patriotic song Mi Bandera, which is soon overwhelmed by electronic textures. In contrast, 1975's Guitar Music, (the bottom of the iceberg) is an early minimalist work for solo guitar that experiments with "restricted pitch-classes". The two works completing the album are based on the history and culture of the R�o de la Plata where Cervetti was born and raised. El R�o de los P�jaros Pintados (1979) seamlessly integrates the bandone�n with electronics. Candombe for Orchestra is the 1996 orchestration of Candombe for Harpsichord (1984), both works indebted to a Uruguayan national dance of African origin.

Jonathan Sheffer’s The Conference of the Birds is presented on this new release from Navona Records. Two versions of the work are recorded here: the first, with narrator Joyce DiDonato, and the second, without narrator. Performing this work is the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Sheffer.

Cunningham, M.: Colonnade

Renaud (1783) marked Sacchini's debut in Paris. Despite much criticism from the supporters of his rivals Gluck and Piccinni, Renaud was a success and Sacchini became the new favourite of Marie- Antoinette. Encouraged by the public who saw him as one of the finest composers of that time, he enriched the repertoire of the Paris Opéra with several masterpieces. Some of them were staged regularly for many years. Renaud was presented almost without interruption until 1799, and was revived in 1815. This recording has been made at the Arsenal of Metz in October 2012.

Victorin Joncières is the epitome of the Romantic artist who, throughout his life, relentlessly overcame the barriers that were set in his path. He never took the easy way out by composing commercial music; he never held an academic or official position. Dimitri, his masterpiece of 1876, reminds us that he was a contemporary of Gounod and also a champion of Wagner. This opera carries on the tradition (begun by Meyerbeer) of spectacular, monumental works. It takes the listener from a monastery near the River Don to a palace in Krakow, and to the castle of Wyksa, then Red Square in Moscow. At that time, Bayreuth, Orange and Béziers were about to turn opera into a popular art with mass appeal. + complete libretto in French and English

There’s not a single work here that will not captivate you with its breathtaking beauty.

Each volume in the "Portraits" series is devoted to a French composer who has now largely been forgotten; it presents a panorama of his works, performed by many artists from various backgrounds. Torn between France and Germany during his lifetime as a result of the turbulent political situation in his native Lorraine, Theodore Gouvy was recognized by neither nation after his death. The music of this composer, inspired by the passionate style of Mendelssohn, magnified by the nobility of French academicism, is nevertheless of great importance. This CD-book presents a significant selection of his works - for the most part never heard before - along with biographical information, excerpts from letters, and articles discussing the composer's style and personality.

REVIEW:

For most of the works on these three discs these are first recordings. As far as I can tell, only the Piano Trio No. 4 in a performance by Voces Intimae on Challenge Classics, and the Sinfonietta in a performance by Jacques Mercier and the German Radio Philharmonic on CPO, have previously appeared on disc; and that’s my segue into describing this very special and very elaborate collection.

I’m not going to give a detailed description of each of the works on these three CDs, other than to say there’s not a single one of them that will not captivate you with its breathtaking beauty. The Fantaisie Pastorale for violin and orchestra is styled in somewhat similar vein to some of Saint-Saëns’s lesser-known violin pieces. It’s tunefully rural in that easygoing sort of French folksong-y way that characterizes Bizet’s L’Arlésienne music, and it’s sweetly, even chirpily played by soloist Tedi Papavrami.

Gouvy composed La Religieuse, translated in the notes as “The Nun,” in 1875, shortly after completing two of his liturgically-based works, the Requiem and a Stabat Mater. Curiously, though, the text to La Religieuse is rather at odds with its title, for it’s described as a secular cantata after a poem by Charles Hubert Millevoye, and it was written for famed mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. If the woman portrayed in these verses is indeed a nun, she needs to be doing some serious penance, for she seems to be pining away and longing for death over some lost lover. Listening to this gloriously beautiful extended dramatic setting for mezzo and orchestra, it’s hard to understand why Gouvy wasn’t successful in his two attempts at an opera. Clémentine Margaine is magnificent.

One wonders if Gouvy didn’t have Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words in mind when he composed his Sérénades for solo piano. The keyboard figurations and flourishes are closer to Chopin than they are to Mendelssohn, but the melodies are pure song. I’m probably guilty of overusing the words “beautiful” and “gorgeous” in my reviews, but I don’t know what other adjectives to summon for a description of these brief salon gems, so winsomely and winningly played by pianist Emmanuelle Swiercz.

With his Byron-based Le Giaour, Schiller-based Jeanne d’Arc, and non-literary-based Festival overtures, Gouvy proves himself a master of the concert overture/tone poem/orchestral fantasy genre on a par with Berlioz, Dvořák, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky.

Gouvy’s chamber works—represented here by two string quartets and a piano trio—range in content and style from somewhere between Haydn to Spohr, Onslow, Conradin Kreutzer, and Mendelssohn, with one composer conspicuous by his absence: There’s not a trace of Beethoven.

If you’ve heretofore been hesitant to sample the music of Théodore Gouvy, I’d strongly encourage you to acquire this collection, which allows you to familiarize yourself with his music in a number of distinct genres. The performances are all really good, the recordings excellent, and the lavishly appointed book they come in a conversation piece unto itself

-- Fanfare

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture - Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter

Rudolf Firkusny

PROKOFIEV: Divertissement / Symphony-Concerto in E minor / S

REQUIEM / TE DEUM

ORGELN IN SACHSEN 4

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams" - The Snow M

Gunning: Symphony No. 5 - String Quartet No. 1

SYMPHONY NO.9

The tour starts in Northern Italy, in Ravenna, once the capital of the Roman Emperor Honorius, who moved there from Milan with his court in C.E. 402. The place is famous for it's mosaics. The tour also takes US to Faenza, famous for it's majolica ware, known as faience, and to the great Basilica of San Marco in Venice and it's Carnival. The music for this tour of Italy is by Mozart and includes his two Flute Concertos, written for a patron during a visit to Mannheim in 1777-78.