One feels a very special emotion listening to the [violin] when it is not accompanied by others, which often adds to the emotion produced by the music itself. Though limited in size, this repertoire has no lack of masterpieces to offer, from Bach to Bartok, by way of Paganini, Ysaye and Scarlatti. -Tedi Papavrami.

The three works in this programme reflect different aspects of Strauss's compositional life. The tone-poem MacBeth, written between 1888 and 1891, offers a grippingly taut narrative. The Dance of the Seven Veils from the 1905 opera Salome is one of it's most exciting and intoxicating moments. Towards the end of his life, facing the ruin wrought by World War II, Strauss took inspiration from Goethe and wrote Metamorphosen, one of the most moving of all twentieth-century works.

The first two volumes of this recording series focused on orchestral and chamber/piano music respectively, and the third volume was a recording of a live 50th birthday concert presented by the New Haven Symphony. This fourth volume has yet a different focus: music primarily featuring strings, and almost exclusively performed by young musicians. Thomas wrote: "If one were to shut one's eyes while listening to this CD, one should imagine a stage full of passionate young musicians. Two of these performances are even taken from live, unedited concert recordings (Juilliard and Tanglewood). Thus this disc as a whole celebrates the skill and dedication of youthful musicians who play with utter commitment and flair."

This new recording of Rachmaninoff’s early works offers a fascinating insight into the budding genius of the great Russian. A child prodigy at the piano Rachmaninoff was obviously drawn to his instrument when composing his first sketches and works. Pianistically challenging and bursting with melancholy and passion they are already vintage Rachmaninoff and form the foundation for his later masterworks. The recording contains several character pieces like a Song Without Words and a separate Prelude, the 3 Nocturnes and the recently discovered Suite in D minor, as well as the Morceaux de Salon Op. 10. Italian pianist Elisa Tomellini was schooled at the famous Imola Piano Academy, where her teachers included Franco Scala, Joaquin Achucarro and Alexander Lonquich. She followed masterclasses with Maurizio Pollini and Lazar Berman. She played in Washington Kennedy Center and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Her playing combines Italian charm and Slavic passion.

The most distinguished pianist of his generation, a brilliant pedagogue and a highly gifted composer, José Viana da Mota was a towering personality in the field of Portuguese music. Disapproving of ‘modernistic’ compositional trends he stopped composing around 1910 but not before he had written his Symphony ‘To the Homeland’, a brilliantly orchestrated paean to Portuguese prowess and discovery which makes use of Portuguese folk dances and songs. Based on the dramatic life and murder of the 14th-century noblewoman Inês de Castro, Viana da Mota’s Lisztian symphonic poem is an early work notable for its kaleidoscopic sections full of inspiring contrasts. This recording presents the complete orchestral works of Viana da Mota.

The ensemble Scaramuccia began in 2013, thanks to violinist Javier Lupiáñez's quest to rediscover the lesser-known baroque repertoire. Scaramuccia's purpose is to bring back to life the repertoire of which one could listen not only in the most refined circles, but also in the taverns and on the streets of the baroque past. Along with Vivaldi, this release features Prete Rosso's recently-rediscovered works. This recording is aiming to be part of the new history, featuring these recently discovered works.

Aaron Copland's suite from the ballet Appalachian Spring won him a Pulitzer Prize and global recognition. The famous Quaker song 'Simple Gifts' and the American ambience of this suite contrast with the more modernist Symphonic Ode, which conveys rugged grandeur through an uncompromising structural unity. Neglected since the late 1960s, Paul Creston's music was once amongst the most frequently performed of any American composer. His poetic Symphony No. 3 is an orchestral Life of Christ, movingly expressed through themes inspired by Gregorian chant.

Pierre Gallon and Matthieu Boutineau offer us an opportunity to rediscover Couperin's Concerts Royaux in a version for two harpsichords, a rare combination, yet one of which the composer to the Sun King was especially fond. Here is an interpretation at once brilliant and moving of these works full of tenderness, gaiety and invention, a veritable stylistic turning point between the twilight of the Grand Si�cle and the dawn of the Enlightenment.

The 2015 Munich concert year began at the end of January with two highlights: two performances of Bruckner's Sixth Symphony with Mariss Jansons conducting the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The live recording, previously reserved exclusively for subscribers to the orchestra, is now being released on album by BR-KLASSIK - an outstanding interpretation of one of the most important compositions in the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire.

For a long time, Anton Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony (along with his Second) was regarded as something of a ‘poor relation’ in his immense symphonic oeuvre, even though the composer himself had moodily referred to it as his "boldest". In view of its performance figures and recordings over the decades, this has now changed significantly, and the work has earned itself a permanent place in the repertoire. The Sixth Symphony forms part of the creative process of the two preceding symphonies, the "Romantic" Fourth (1874/1880) and the Fifth (1875), and is now seen as an important preliminary stage in Bruckner’s last great upsurge that followed the composition of the "Te Deum" and culminated in the sublime grandeur of his final symphonies, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth. Bruckner worked on his Sixth Symphony in A major (WAB 106) from September 24, 1879 to September 3, 1881. He was only able to hear the complete work at one orchestra rehearsal during his lifetime because only the two middle movements (Adagio and Scherzo) were publicly performed in the concert hall of the Vienna Musikverein on February 11, 1883. The first public performance of the symphony as a whole followed only on February 26, 1899 - two and a half years after the composer’s death. It was conducted by Gustav Mahler, who had, however, made changes to the score, presenting it in a radically shortened version.

REVIEW:

These are strong, exciting performances of symphonies that demand the sort of bold muscularity in their execution that these artists offer. In Alan Gilbert’s hands the First Symphony sounds extremely confident and wholly mature. It starts with a bang and the tension in the first movement never lets up. The playing of the New York Philharmonic throughout is fresh and unaffected, full of spirit and drive. Even the Andante flows purposefully forward, and contrasts nicely with the Allegro comodo that does duty for a scherzo–with its harmonic kinks so personal to Nielsen. The finale has the same “pedal to the metal” drive as the opening, bringing the performance to a rousing conclusion.

The performance of the “Inextinguishable” Fourth Symphony also features some really impressive energy and power. In the first movement the brass play with a precision and clarity that few other versions can match, and in the finale the dueling timpani compete with real bravura. The slow movement here reminds me of Shostakovich in its bleak intensity, and my only quibble with Gilbert’s interpretation concerns the symphony’s coda where, like most of his colleagues, Gilbert broadens the pace in the closing bars when Nielsen clearly wants to drive the music home in tempo. Gilbert does pull it off: with an orchestra that has the weight and strength of the New York Philharmonic the effect is convincing, but Gibson (on Chandos) remains unmatched here.

Dacapo’s engineering, as with the previous release in this series, is natural and very present. The woodwinds feel just slightly recessed in more fully scored sections, but I can attest that the music really does sound like this in actual performance with a large orchestra, and certainly nothing gets lost. More importantly, the engineers have captured the impression of a live performance, caught on the wing, and the audience is mercifully quiet. This is a very impressive release.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

It was in Rome, where he resided between 1707 and 1710, that the young Handel composed these three dazzling sacred works. The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor give us an extremely lively and colorful reading of these pieces in which the composer showcased his talent: allegiance to the forms of the past, total mastery of counterpoint and, already, a unique feeling for storytelling. Everything here announces musical genius.

The piano is a quite versatile instrument and essentially a percussion by itself; percussion is per se a universe of possibilities, at times a keyboard in itself. The invention on emission and interaction modes may generate variably dis-concerting situations – therefore exploring the instruments of the three pieces may help us to briefly outline the sound scenarios. The programme chosen by Beneventi and Rebaudengo summons a wide choice of instruments but somewhat coalesced in strong characterizations (metal - skin - wood). Composers and pieces offer a live and unexpected image of the “specialty” of this duo, and represent the tout-court compositional invention of France and Italy from the last decades. If we join the nationalities with the origins (Jewish-Moroccan and Greek for the French Ohana and Aperghis, and Lecce, Southern Italy, for Fedele), a nice geometrical figure can be drawn in the Mediterranean Sea; perhaps the eloquence and expansiveness of their musical pieces, so different from each other, are the result of this common background. In brief, the interpreters, once having conceived and recorded the album, have themselves composed a thoughtful and evocative piece.

The album is a musical and poetic rumination on the concept of truth. Beginning with an exercise in perception with Nicole Liz�e's short "Zeiss After Dark" which "evokes the cinematographic effect of the Zeiss lens, used to film intimate scenes lit only by candles." This is followed by artist Yao's poem "Strange Absurdities," a piece which challenges the listener to cultivate our common humanity. Humanity is at the core as the album continues with Shostakovich's Symphony No.9 from 1945. Shostakovich, whose very humanity was challenged by the oppressive authorities of his time, composed his Ninth Symphony in the final year of World War II. In the same year, on the other side of the world - a composer who had fled the Europe because of the war, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composed his Violin Concerto for Jascha Heifetz. The concept of truth, what was true for Shostakovich or Korngold, seems to be an issue of personal artistic integrity. The same is true with this world premiere recording of Philip Glass's Symphony No.13. Commissioned to honor the memory of journalist Peter Jennings, in a period of strife worldwide for journalist, Glass himself pushed back on the idea of music having the ability to express any definite ideas about truth. Glass's Thirteenth Symphony was composed in the period of 2020-22, largely during the period of lockdown according to what was happening with the worldwide pandemic. After a series of large-scale symphonic works, Glass's new symphony is one of his shortest at only 22 minutes and belies a calmness and reflection, in all three of it's movements.

This release is a re-issue of a 1992 recording, when Richard Hickox was serving as Associate Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Elgar wrote his Caractacus in 1898 for the Leeds Festival. The work shows his invention and orchestration skills, foreshadowing his most famous work, the Enigma Variations. A review by Gramophone asserted that “There can be nothing but praise for Richard Hickox’s fluent, sensitive direction and enthusiastic, full-blooded backcloth provided by the LSO… A typically ripe, wide-ranging Chandos recording into the bargain.”

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REVIEW:

Although the work itself is uneven, this 1992 recording is yet another classic recording from the late maestro, and well worth hearing when done as brilliantly as this.

– MusicWeb International

Now regarded as one of the most important composers of the second half of the twentieth century, Toru Takemitsu was the first Japanese composer to gain international status.

Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, composed for piano but best known via Maurice Ravel’s orchestrated edition, is here arranged for organ and trumpet. + Three encore tracks, two from Mussorgsky and one appropriately enough from Ravel (the poignant Pavane), complete this affair. + Joachim Enders has proven his versatility as an organist, harpsichordist and pianist in many solo recitals and chamber concerts. + Manfred Bockschweiger is first trumpet with the State Theatre in Darmstadt.

Conductor François-Xavier Roth leads the London Symphony Orchestra on the third album in the Panufnik Legacies series, which showcases new music by some of the most exciting young composers working in the UK today. All of the composers featured on this recording are alumni of the LSO Discovery Panufnik Composers Scheme, which offers six composers each year the opportunity to write for a world-class symphony orchestra, guided by renowned composer Colin Matthews.

The Panufnik Legacies III contains world premiere recordings of compositions by Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Ewan Campbell, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Donghoon Shin, Alex Roth, Matthew Sergeant, Patrick Giguère, Sasha Siem, Bethan Morgan-Williams, Michael Taplin, Benjamin Ashby and Joanna Lee.

This recording has been generously supported by The Boltini Trust. The LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme is generously supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust.

Only a little chamber music for flute by Beethoven has survived. He was not particularly fond of this instrument. However, he managed to pen an elegant, nimble Serenade, op. 25, which the Ardinghello Ensemble is now releasing along with a new rendering of the magnificent String Trio op. 3.

For the Ardinghello Ensemble Beethoven stands at the beginning of an epoch of special interest. The four instrumentalists performing with Karl Kaiser – all of them women – very undogmatically operate with insights provided by historical performance practice and set out in quest of the “Faraway Sound” of romanticism - while discovering unheard-of and never-expected material.

In this new series, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants invite us to follow the creative itinerary of J. S. Bach through the times and cities in which he lived. The first instalment introduces us to a young master who remained faithful to the north German tradition of the sacred concerto, but already displayed an intensely personal invention.

On this disc, Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to Dance and Symphonies Nos 1 and 2 are performed by the BBC Philharmonic under its Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena. Scottish bassonist Karen Geoghegan joins them as the soloist in the Bassoon Concerto

REVIEW:

We are told that Luis Carlos Figueroa is one of the senior and much esteemed figures in Colombian music. As such this disc is very welcome as to most intents and purposes it serve as an initiation into the man’s music. Given his dates we might perhaps have expected a thornier style but it is warm and welcoming. This is attractive music that is well worth your ear-time.

-- MusicWeb International

During the period of lockdown in 2020, tenor recipient of a BBT Fellowship in 2022, Alessandro Fisher and his wife spent many hours in their garden. A heightened awareness of the beauty of nature, the flowers in their garden and the changes to the garden as winter moved to spring, and then to summer formed the basis of this beautifully curated recital. All the songs are about flowers, the language of flowers, and flowers as a tokens of love. Above all, the album is about the way songs of the many composers on this album reference deep human emotions and the role of flowers in these emotions. Where words fail, the language of flowers and nature take over. Nature regenerates, life continues, though for some composers, the short-lived glory of flowers is also an allegory for loss, or indeed the transience of romantic love.

Classical Music

After Berg, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Stravinsky, Isabelle Faust now tackles Britten with Jakub Hrůša and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, revealing a little-known facet of the British composer. This concerto, highly personal in it's language, combines drama with humor, seriousness with satire, in music of overwhelming emotional depth. The program is completed by early chamber works.

Classical Music