Yiming Zhang continues his exploration of the piano music of Ge Gan-ru - 'China's first avant-garde composer' - in this second volume of the composer's works. This world premiere recording of 12 etudes for Extended Piano, written in close collaboration with pianist Yiming Zhang, explores a variety of prepared piano techniques that are evocative of Chinese instruments. Volume 1 can be heard on GP835.

A Lullaby Carol - Christmas at Christ Church

The fourth volume of this diverse and instructive series presents itself as a "group portrait with a lady". In this installment, Douglas Bostock and the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim continue their exploration of British string music history. Representing the "fairer sex" among her colleagues is Imogen Holst, daughter of the renowned composer of The Planets. Of all the composers featured, she employs the most advanced musical language. Nevertheless, they are all united by a shared artistic ethos: they creatively follow in the footsteps of the old masters, devising various ways to bridge the spirit of past centuries with their own time. This may take shape as variations or as a musical monument, but more often than not, it unfolds "en suite" - with refined taste and that distinctly British sense of conservatism.

Part of the Naxos label's The Music of Brazil series. This album of works for cello and violin by José Antônio de Almeida Prado is performed by violinist Emmanuele Baldini (concertmaster of the Sâo Paolo Symphony Orchestra) and prize-winning cellist Rafael Cesario. Includes four world premiere recordings. Sinfonia dos orixás (8.574411) and the First Piano Concerto (8.574225) are also available.

REVIEW:

In the series of recordings with works by the Brazilian composer Almeida Prado, the current installment is dedicated to his works for violin, cello, or both together.

Le Livre magique de Xangô (Shango’s magic book) was composed in his postmodern phase and is aesthetically characterized by Afro-Brazilian religiosity. In Das Cirandas, he weaves in folk tunes from various regions of Brazil. Almeida Prado dedicated the lively violin sonata to his violinist-daughter. The Four Seasons was a compulsory piece for the second Brazilian music competition in 1984. Each section is conceived as a study. The Capriccio for solo violin has a lyrical nature. For the cello, Praeambulum was inspired by Antonio Meneses as an introduction to Bach’s third cello suite.

The violinist Emmanuele Baldin gives Prado’s works an exciting mixture of charming folk and modern-sounding sections. As an accomplished instrumentalist and very familiar with Brazilian music, he finds the ways and means to model the character of the pieces and exude Brazilian flair. In the Violin Sonata, the Capriccio and the Four Seasons, he is able to demonstrate his skills as a soloist, which he does convincingly.

The cellist Rafael Cesario makes his solo appearance in Praeambulum, which he also performs successfully. In Das Cirandas and Le Livre magique de Xangô, he performs his parts alongside the violinist in an appealing and confident manner.

-- Pizzicato

Johann Christian Schickhardt Six Sonatas op. 22 Johann Christian Schickhardt was three years older than Johann Sebastian Bach, survived him by more than a decade and travelled all over - in contrast to his contemporary. Whether the fact that his surviving creations are characterised by wonderful suppleness and beauty of sound was due to his love of travel would be worth investigating. Indeed, his works were not only highly regarded by his high-class dedicatees. Schickhardt mastered the international vocabulary of the baroque, whose elements he combined easily to create works to "entertain the spirit" that have survived for centuries. And thanks to the excellent Ensemble Epoca Barocca, the old prejudice that two recorders are "worse" than one loses it's very last fundament.

A mesmerising piano cycle by the master of Dutch minimalism. 'I write music like this not because I'm isolated,' Simeon Ten Holt once said. 'I'm isolated because I write music like this.' And yet, since his death in 2012, performances and recordings of his music have multiplied like one of his motivic cells, gathering energy and momentum to spread the reputation of a composer who took the rhythmic precepts of American minimalists such as Reich and Glass, and coloured them with a European-Romantic glow of harmony. Composed in 1995-97 for four pianos, Meandres is another monumental yet approachable piano cycle in the mould of his celebrated Canto Ostinato, more complex and more chromatic than the earlier cycle but sharing with it a hypnotic clarity and an improvisatory freedom which leaves a good deal of liberty to the performers. At first, there is no melody, in the usual sense of the word. However, over time, a pattern emerges like a puzzle taking shape before the listener. The title refers to the meandering course of rivers, which takes them to mountain slopes as well as lowlands. 'Because it is like a work in progress which never reaches closure,' remarks the composer, 'the meandering structure of the piece is quite demanding on the performers. It is the condensation of an inquiry into the very limits of time and space.' This recording of Meandres was made in 1999 by a team of Dutch pianists who had all worked with Ten Holt on his music, and accordingly it vibrates with disciplined authenticity. Sharp accents continually break and articulate the line and the restatement of the germinal motif, but it always loops back to a cadence which Robert Schumann would have recognised. Combining Baroque rigour with early-Romantic harmony and late-20th-century form, Meandres is both post-modern and timeless as an extension of piano literature.

Astor Piazzolla's Tango Suite, for two guitars, is one of the finest duo works in the repertoire, offering fireworks and percussive effects as well as exquisite melancholy. Yuri Liberzon has arranged the much-loved Oblivion for guitar, while Leo Brouwer's arrangement of La muerte del angel is full of vivacity and colour. Cinco piezas was Piazzolla's first work for classical guitar; the Tango-etudes, originally for flute, shows the guitar's range and versatility in Manuel Barrueco's arrangement. Tango No. 2 from Tango Suite will be pre-released as a digital single on 9.50323 on 30 August.

TO-N and Leon Botstein have helped rescue a growing list of works from oblivion, rediscoveries that bring us wonderful music we might never have encountered otherwise and remind us there is more to music history than the standard fare. This album unites three German-speaking Jewish composers, born within a few years of one another in the first decade of the 20th century. All three were lucky enough to escape the Holocaust and start anew after the traumatic interruption of the war years. Their works recorded here were all written during the 1940s: in Jerusalem, Bombay (Mumbai) and Mexico City, respectively. They show three young composers striving to find their own voices, while at the same time trying to adapt to their new environments.

This is the first of two volumes dedicated to works featuring violin and piano by Nikolay Tcherepnin and his son Alexander. Pianist Giorgio Koukl and violinist Klaidi Sahatci are joined by cellist Johann Sebastian Paetsch in the Trio Concertante and Piano Trio. All but one of the works in this collection are world premiere recordings including the recently discovered early Violin Sonata in C minor by Alexander Tcherepnin.

There Is Sweet Music is the idyllic title of the first AVIE release by the eight-voice Proteus Ensemble and their conductor Stephen Shellard, which surveys a selection of relatively rare part-songs by Sir Edward Elgar. Elgar maintained his dedication to composing part-songs throughout his life and imbued each of them with an inimitable character. Like the composer's celebrated "Enigma Variations", his part-songs bear an array of inspirations and dedicatees, including his wife Caroline Alice who penned the poem of the album's closer, "O Happy Eyes", shortly after she and Elgar were married. This early work became a companion to the song "Love," written eight years later and also dedicated to Caroline Alice. Elgar turned to famous poets and peers - Lord Byron for "Deep in my soul", Percy Bysshe Shelley for "O wild West Wind!", and Alfred Lord Tennyson whose poem "The Lotos-Eaters" provides the album's title track. English translations of Russian poems lend themselves to "Death on the Hills", "Love's Tempest" and "Serenade". Elgar frequently found inspiration in Italy, where he composed "Angelus', a song dedicated to his close friend Alice Stuart Wortley whom he called "Windflower" and whose spirit is enshrined in his Violin Concerto. Stephen Shellard's Elgarian epiphany began in 1990 when he joined Dr. Donald Hunt's choir at Worcester Cathedral as an Alto Lay Clerk. Dr. Hunt's inspired and devoted expertise in performances of works by Worcester's most famous musical son cast a life-long spell on Stephen that manifests itself in these beautiful performances with his Proteus Ensemble.

18th-century sonatas by a pair of musical brothers, in stylish historically informed performances from 1994. Very little music by the brothers Groneman is known in modern times beyond the pieces on this album, which have survived simply because of their popularity with flautists of their day. Pleasing both to hear and to play, these sonatas exert an additional fascination today for the insights they give into the taste and technique of the 18th-century flautist. Johannes Albertus Groneman (c.1708-1781) and Johannes Fredericus Groneman (1711-1778) were both probably born in Cologne, where their father was a military-band musician. Albertus developed his skill as a violinist beyond mere proficiency, and left to ply his trade as a jobbing musician in what is now the Netherlands. Having settled in Leiden around 1731, he wrote virtuosic pieces for violin and flute which proved popular enough to be published and republished in London and Paris. He performed throughout Holland, and then moved from Leiden to The Hague, where he was awarded a lucrative and coveted position as church organist. This career of steady accomplishment and gathering renown came to a sudden and tragic end in 1756 when he was committed to an asylum, where he lived out his days in penury. Meanwhile Fredericus is a much more shadowy figure to us: the three books of his flute sonatas listed in contemporary publishers' catalogues have disappeared, as have any details of his life and career. Of his gifts as a musician, there can be no doubt, to judge from the sonatas presented here, showing as they do an up-to-date knowledge of the latest musical trends set by masters such as Tartini and Geminiani, and yet display an expressive style entirely their own. Likewise, the two flute duets by Albertus Groneman demonstrate why his music proved to be so popular during his lifetime: they are in turn gracious, surprising, virtuosic and sweetly-singing, and display the full range of the flute's possibilities. Like Telemann's duets of the same period, they are full of fantasy and.wit and testify not only to the worthiness of their creator, but also to the taste of the 18th century flutist who loved them so well. Originally issued on the Dutch label NM Classics, this reissue restores a valuable window into the vibrant culture of chamber music in 18th-century Holland, performed by specialists in the field. - Johannes Albertus Groneman (baptized 1711-1778) and his brother Johannes Fredericus were born in Hamm (Germany) into a musical family. They enjoyed an education typical of musician's sons in the 18th century, learning from their father the trade, playing several instruments and instructed in composition, harmony and singing. Through his teacher Carl Rosier Albertus was introduced in the Netherlands, where he settled in Utrecht in 1729, later moving to Leiden. It is during this Leiden period that most of Groneman's music which survived, and indeed probably all of the music of this recording, was composed. Upon his arrival in the famous university town, Groneman was able to establish himself with ease in the highest social circles, enjoying the friendship and patronage of patricians and professors, while wealthy merchants and musicians of international repute became godparents to his children. He bought a Stradivarius violin and an especially beautiful harpsichord made by famous Flemish harpsichord maker Ruckers. He published virtuoso music for violin and flute which proved popular enough to be published and republished in London and Paris. - The Flute Sonatas consist of three movements, brilliant allegros framing a melancholy and moving andante full of bold harmonies. The style is gracious and sweetly-singing, displaying the full range of the flute's brilliant possibilities. - Performed by Jed Wentz, a pioneer in the performance practice of notably French Baroque music for his instrument. His many recordings for Brilliant Classics (J.S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach, Blavet, Couperin, Boismortier, Braun, Roman) have established him as one of the foremost interpreters in this field. - Recorded in 1994, a reissue from the NM Classics catalogue, the label for music from the Netherlands.

In September 1809, the Vienna Hofburg Theatre commissioned Ludwig van Beethoven to create new incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Egmont". The tragedy had premiered in Mainz on January 9, 1789. It calls for incidental music, but various attempts – some commissioned by the poet himself – had remained unfinished or were unsatisfactory. The music was required in several sections of the drama, however, and the Vienna production of "Egmont" was to include it. Beethoven set to work. He made good progress, because the subject suited him: the tragedy is set in Brussels, under threat from Spanish troops, and deals with resistance against oppression and foreign rule. The Viennese theatre premiere of "Egmont" on May 24, 1810 still had to make do without music, however – the score was only finally completed by the third performance. Beethoven's incidental music was premiered on June 15, 1810.

The music itself makes it clear that this commission was close to Beethoven's heart - it far exceeds the level of incidental music common at that time. That applies not only to the compositional demands but also to the relationship of the music to the drama. Eschewing mere illustration, Beethoven provided an interpretation and therefore an additional level of meaning. The well-known Egmont Overture, the most dramatically dense part of the incidental music, anticipates the action and introduces the characters. A clear reference to the drama is made in the ending, which corresponds exactly to the symphony of victory called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy. The finale - a clear reference to the drama - corresponds exactly to the “symphony of victory” called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy.

The first volume in this series of Erich J. Wolff’s complete songs introduces a composer of astonishing gifts, whose Romanticism is as daring as his formal sophistication. Wolff’s serene, lyrical and masterful songs are interpreted here by soprano Samantha Gaul, tenor Daniel Johanssen and pianist Klaus Simon. 2024 marks the 150th anniversary of Wolff’s birth.

With the world premiere recording of the environmental oratorio Earth Vigil, Grammy Award-winning choir Conspirare and conductor Craig Hella Johnson celebrate their long-time artistic relationship with composer Robert Kyr. Earth Vigil tells a tender and moving story of two characters and their dramatic journey amidst great challenges caused by the intensifying climate crisis. This extraordinary new work invites us to remember the wonder and beauty of the natural world and of our lives together on this planet. As it comes to a close, the final scene compels us forward with a profoundly hopeful and emboldening song. Soprano Awet Andemicael and baritone Stephen Lancaster give voice to the leading characters.

Versatile cellist Christoph Croisé indulges in his passion for romantic Russian repertoire, coming together with close collaborators violinist Andrey Baranov and pianist Alexander Panfilov for a recording of works by a young Rachmaninoff. All of the works on this album were written before 1917, the year that the composer left Russia in the wake of the Revolution, and eventually emigrated to the United States.

The prodigious Rachmaninoff wrote his single-movement Trio élégiaque in G minor in 1892, when he was just 18 years old. A year later, he put pen to paper to compose his second Trio élégiaque, in D minor, on the eve of the death of his friend and mentor Tchaikovsky, to whom he dedicated the work. Both trios are imbued with an air of nostalgia and melancholy that belie the composer’s youthfulness. Christoph and his colleagues offer as encores a selection of songs arranged for piano trio by Alexander Panfilov: “How Fair This Spot” and "Lilacs" from Rachmaninoff’s 12 Romances, Op. 21, part of a set written during his honeymoon; and "The Dream" and "Daisies" from his Op. 38 collection Six Romances (1916). The album ends appropriately with an arrangement of "Autumn Song" from Tchaikovsky’s solo piano work The Seasons.

Antonio Vivaldi's musical production for bassoon comprises no less than thirty-nine solo concertos. Within the musical landscape of it's time, this impressive musical legacy stands out like the silhouette of a mountain shrouded in mystery. If we consider that in Italy there is almost no evidence of the bassoon being used in the solo form after the 1680s, Vivaldi's contribution acquires a significance that is both extraordinary and enigmatic. When and for which events were his concertos composed and performed? And also, for which performers was such a vast, original and technically demanding production intended? It is not easy to find an answer to such questions. The composer's renewed interest in this instrument must have then derived from an encounter with a first-rate virtuoso, someone whose talent helped to stimulate the creation of an original repertoire, characterised by an extremely high technical and qualitative standard. These were definitely performers who were able to work in close contact with the composer over a sufficiently long period of time. Indeed, Vivaldi's writing was influenced and modelled on their technical skills, as testified by the eight concertos included in this recording.

Tenor Charles Castronovo celebrates his first Delos solo album with an all Verdi programme which showcases the composer's spellbinding use of theatrical devices. Noble Renegades offers a collection of complete scenes from operas such as Don Carlos, Luisa Miller and I Lombardi which encompass the emotional arc the protagonists experience as the story unfolds, very much epitomizing Verdi's vision of opera as a true "operatic theater". This album shows Verdi's profound influence on Charles's career, featuring roles he has performed all over the world. He is accompanied by "the singer's dream collaborator" Constantine Orbelian and his Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished singers Kristin Sampson, Tomas Pavilionis and Tadas Girininkas, as well as the Kaunas State Choir join in.

Following the conventions of the Paris Opera, Giuseppe Verdi was also obliged to compose ballet music for the French premieres or first performances of his stage works. Between 1847 and 1894, he wrote a total of seven so-called divertissements, some extensive, for Jerusalem, Les v�pres siciliennes, Le trouvere, MacBeth, Don Carlos, Aida and Otello. With catchy melodies, lively, accentuated rhythms, descriptive sound effects and vivid gestures, but above all with incredibly colourful instrumentation, he succeeded in giving new impetus to the ballet music of his day. While the ballet music was generally omitted from productions of Verdi's operas for a long time - with the exception of Aida - it has recently been performed increasingly often and linked to the dramaturgy of the respective work. These beautiful, well-crafted pieces of music should no longer be withheld from the public. On the new double CD from BR-KLASSIK, the Munich Radio Orchestra and it's chief conductor Ivan Repusic present Verdi's complete ballet music. In 19th-century Italian operas, a ballet was not part of the composition but was performed either between the acts or after the opera performance - and was usually a work created by a ballet composer who had little or no connection to the operatic work in question. The strict convention at the Paris Opera, however, was that an extensive dance interlude had to be included as a divertissement in the third act of a grand opera. So if an Italian opera composer wanted to have his works performed in Paris (and who would not, given the international importance of that great opera house in Europe's leading musical metropolis), ballet music had to be provided as well. In the case of works originally written for the Paris Opera, the ballet was included in the French-language libretto from the outset, and ballet music also had to be newly added to all existing works as well. Italian opera composers such as Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi were hardly ever enthusiastic about this French preference for extensive dance interludes in the third act, but they had to bow to convention. Verdi's ballet music for Les v�pres siciliennes (Les quatre saisons - The Four Seasons) and Jerusalem was the most extensive he created. In the dance sequence composed for Le trouvere, which utilises musical material from the gypsy scenes, he created a close musical and dramaturgical link with the stage action. He composed extensive ballet music for MacBeth to illustrate the Hecate scenes of Shakespeare's drama. In the third act of Don Carlos, a Ballet de la Reine entitled La Peregrina is performed in Queen Elisabeth's gardens to celebrate the coronation anniversary of the Spanish King Philip the following day. And for the premiere of Aida in Cairo, there were no obligations regarding the design of the dance interludes, which is why Verdi probably came closest to his ideal of linking the dances as directly as possible to the opera's plot. His shortest ballet music, with oriental-sounding dances, was composed for Otello.

Michael Jary's "Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh'n" (“I know there will be a miracle one day”) and "Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" (“The World Won't End Because of This”), Theo Mackeben's "Du hast Glück bei den Frau'n, Bel Ami!" (“You’re lucky with the ladies, Bel Ami!”), Lothar Brühne's "Ich brech' die Herzen der stolzesten Frau'n" (“I break the hearts of the proudest women”), and Friedrich Schröder's "Ich tanze mit dir in den Himmel hinein" (“I’ll dance to heaven with you”) are just some of the sound film hits that are still popular today and that, if not already commissioned, were later perfidiously misused by the National Socialists for propaganda purposes. Terms such as "propaganda film" or "morale-boosting film" accompany the program presented on this album as the ugly downside of what were sometimes brilliant musical creations. The Münchner Rundfunkorchester, founded in 1952, has played individual titles from these films again and again in very different scorings and arrangements over the course of its 70-year history. This release was produced as a studio recording in October 2021, and all the sound film hits were played in their purely orchestral form - thus exposing the core of the individual compositions while allowing the necessary historical distance.

If you’ve seen the Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro”, you’ve seen and heard The Orchestra Now, the exceptional ensemble that appears in the movie’s Tanglewood Music Festival scene. The Orchestra Now (TON), a New York-based graduate-level training orchestra comprised of the most vibrant young musicians from around the globe, was founded by conductor, educator and music historian Leon Botstein, whose insatiable curiosity has resulted in rescuing countless musical works from oblivion. Their first recording for AVIE, “The Lost Generation”, brings together three German-speaking composers who were contemporaries of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, but whose music became supressed by historical events of the 20th century.

In November 2022, TON gave the US premiere of Hugo Kauder’s Symphony No. 1, a “splendid” work that “made a splash” (New York Classical Review). The largely self-taught Moravian-born composer had a distinguished career in Vienna until he was forced to flee the Nazis and arrived in New York in 1938. The first of Kauder’s five symphonies was dedicated to Alma Mahler. Whilst his musical language is rooted in the tradition of Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler, he forged an individual voice with his ease and flexibility of harmonic and metrical shifts.

German-born, Austrian composer Hans Erich Apostel studied with Schoenberg and Berg. His works incorporated his mentors’ expressionism and 12-tone methods in equal measure. The Nazis deemed Apostel’s music “degenerate”, but he lived out his life in Vienna until his death in 1972. His Variations on a theme by Haydn, performed frequently in the mid-20th century, is an homage to the second movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, the “Drum Roll, which itself comprises variations on a theme.

Adolf Busch, one of the most celebrated violinists and chamber musicians of the 20th century, was also a prolific composer. A staunch opponent of Nazism, he left his native Germany, arriving first in Switzerland and eventually the United States in 1939. A late Romantic compositional style imbues his Variations on an Original Theme, originally for piano four hands and presented to his wife as a Christmas present in 1944. Busch’s longtime chamber music partner and son-in-law, the pianist Rudolf Serkin, frequently performed the work with his son Peter, who made this orchestration of his grandfather’s composition, in a familial labor of love.

Eugene Zador's delightful concerto for the accordion - which he called an 'underprivileged' instrument - is tonal, but coloured by a communicative, contemporary vocabulary, and he finds glorious sonority and colour in the Suite for Brass Instruments. The evocative smaller pieces have been arranged by Mariusz Smolij, as has the characterful and wide-ranging Piano Quintet of 1933, all heard here in world premiere recordings.

As responses to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons go, the world-premiere of The Irish Four Seasons by Ailbhe McDonagh instantly ranks amongst the most evocative and ear-catching. Presented alongside the "Red Priest's" monumental opus, in the debut recording by leading Irish violinist Lynda O'Connor, McDonagh's The Irish Four Seasons resonates with a shrewd synthesis of Baroque style and Irish culture. O'Connor explains, "Irish and Baroque music are similar in many ways. The freedom to ornament, similarities in structure and the prominence of reinterpretation are apparent in both styles". O'Connor and McDonagh are frequently referred to as musical soulmates. In their most recent collaboration, they bring to bear Ireland's huge musical heritage. Arranged over four movements - Earrach (Spring), Samhradh (Summer), Fomhar (Autumn), and Geimhreadh (Winter) -The Irish Four Seasons introduces new Irish airs inspired by Vivaldi's memorable melodies, creating an exciting and emotive work that proudly takes it's place alongside the Baroque evergreen. Supported by her new, hand-picked ensemble Anamus under the baton of David Brophy, O'Connor brings these programmatic works - old and new alike - to palpable life.

In the 19th century, the first violin section in Dutch orchestras often contained amateur players. In fact, even the "orchestra associations" in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam were not composed entirely of professional musicians, with a significant number of members being amateurs. This mixed line-up of musicians and a strong leaning towards German and French composers had a profound effect on the choice of repertoire, and a marked preference developed for programmes containing a large number of short and contrasting pieces. This explains the success of the overture, a genre that included both the compressed piece of orchestral foreplay to an opera as well as independent pieces. Dutch overtures differ from those of foreign origin in that they tend generally to be mild in tone and lacking in theatricality. The orchestra often has a transparent sound quality, the major sources of inspiration being Weber, Mendelssohn and Boieldieu. Two fine examples are the two overtures on this album by Johannes van Bree (1801-1857). His output features four independent orchestral overtures, including this one in B minor. Van Bree also composed a number of operas, including Le Bandit, whose overture contains obvious influences from Weber's overtures. On the other hand, the overture in B minor is closer to the French opera overtures of Cherubini and Boieldieu. Johannes Verhulst (1816-1891) was a friend of Robert and Clara Schumann and his music was acclaimed by Mendelssohn. Judging by his overture to Vondel's play Gijsbrecht van Aemstel he had listened carefully to Mendelssohn's 'Hebrides' overture. A series of robust brass chords in a punctuated rhythm also recalls a passage from Schumann's First Symphony. When Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941) embarked on his career, the music of his German contemporaries still played an important role in symphonic concerts, and German influence in Wagenaar's music pervades his entire symphonic oeuvre, which includes a number of overtures. Frithjof's Meerfahrt (Op.5) is Wagenaar's first orchestral work, written around 1884. The later Concert Overture Op.11 'Fruhlingsgewalt' seems to have been highly coloured by the idyllic nature paintings of Mendelssohn and is striking in it's enormous contrasts in tempo and instrumentation. Even more than Wagenaar, Jan van Gilse (1881-1944) was a product of the conservative faction in German music in the decade around 1900. Shortly before the turn of the century he studied at the conservatory in Cologne under Franz Wullner, also Willem Mengelberg's teacher ten years earlier. Van Gilse's Concert Overture in C minor was written at the end of his conservatory studies. The music begins in a minor key and ends in the major, developing, in Beethovian terms, from darkness to the light. Despite episodes of turbulence in his music, it always displays an often suppressed but sometimes overt longing for liberation and fulfilment. Other information: - Recorded August 1996, August 1997, June 1998, Hilversum, Netherlands - Trilingual Booklet in English, German and Dutch contains liner notes by Emanuel Overbeeke - A highly enjoyable selection of orchestral Overtures by Dutch composers from the Romantic Era. - Presented are Overtures by Johannes van Bree, Johan Wagenaar, Johannes Verhulst and Jan van Gilse. Their works are inspired by the great examples of romantic overtures by Mendelssohn, Von Weber and Schumann: strong thematic characterization, passionate feelings, tone painting and brilliant orchestration: a feast of orchestral virtuosity! - Played by the Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Jac van Steen, a champion of neglected orchestral music of the 19th century. - Reissue from the NM Classics catalogue, the label for Music from the Netherlands.

Celebrating the sesquicentenary of Charles Ives’ birth, New England-based pianist and Ives scholar nonpareil Donald Berman releases a recording of the composer’s “Concord Sonata” using his own newly prepared edition which reveals fresh insights into the iconic work. Berman’s immersion into Ives’ sound world began under the tutelage of pianist John Kirkpatrick who gave the New York premiere of the “Concord Sonata” in 1939. Throughout many years of study and reflection, Berman discovered numerous notes and alterations that Ives made within the Concord’s manuscript pages, each one “a step toward realising his vision for a three-dimensional auditory experience.” Berman concluded that the first movement of the Concord, as Ives imagined it, is quite different than today’s commonly accepted version; his new edition includes two pages worth of material, masterfully recorded here for the first time.

The album opens with the elegiac “The St. Gaudens (Black March)”, referring to the eponymous sculpture in the Boston Common that depicts the Massachusetts 54th, the first Union army regiment of African American soldiers, that is known widely in its orchestral version as the first movement of Ives’ Three Places in New England.

Carlo Albanesi was an Italian composer-pianist who moved to London in 1882. He balanced a career as a piano soloist with that of professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Acclaimed pianist Julia Severus continues her survey of works by this unjustly forgotten composer-pianist. World premiere recordings. Volume 1 can be heard on GP924.