Bartók: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 - Webern: 4 Pieces for Vio

Beethoven: Piano Trios, Opp. 97 & 11

BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTO NO 5

That flute-loving/playing monarch, Frederick the Great (1712-86), inspired a considerable literature for flute by some fine composers of the post-Baroque era, and wrote a bit of it himself; several recordings take that repertoire as their focus. Bylsma's illuminating program sheds light on Frederick's nephew and successor, the cello-playing/loving Friedrich Wilhelm II (1744-97). In a sense, the final victory of cello over gamba can be attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm's personal preference as a player, to his hiring of great cellists and cellist-composers for his court, and to his encouragement for more prominent cello parts in the quartets of Mozart and Haydn. Friedrich's most important move in the evolution of the cello as a virtuoso solo instrument was his retention of the Duport brothers, virtuoso cellists, as court composers. Jean-Pierre (1741-1818) wrote a sonata for two cellos that, while conventionally Rococo/early-Classical from a musical standpoint, rises to heights of virtuosity more commonly found in isolated pockets of the early Baroque—the era of the gamba. Bylsma and Slowik are simply astounding in their rapid scales, arpeggios, string crossings, and other demonstrations of high velocity, all with ideal ensemble. The keyboard part for right hand alone is credited to Bylsma, but the notes are utterly silent as to what if anything Duport left out and what Bylsma did with it. This marvelous performance is the ideal way to begin the recital; once you've heard this you are prepared to go where Bylsma cares to lead you. The technical exercises by Jean-Louis Duport (1749-1819) are of a once-common sort: extreme technical display of one basic variety per piece for the "A" player; a simple harmonic line for "B," presumably the teacher. Bylsma flies around the fingerboard with the high metabolism rate of a small bird; ever so slight as music, true, but a rare opportunity for this cellist to really cut loose with pure flashiness.

Friedrich Wilhelm's "celebrity" court composer was Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), who evidently never stayed at the court itself, but who kept his patron well supplied with music focusing on the cello(s). This Sonata is typically elegant; Boccherini manages to provide plenty of traded-off virtuoso opportunities for Bylsma and Slowik without ever sounding frenetic.

Beethoven visited the court to play his op. 5 Cello Sonatas with J.-L. Duport; they were dedicated to an appreciative Friedrich Wilhelm, and there is some speculation in Slowik's notes that Beethoven meant to further please the Handel-loving monarch with his Variations on the famous tune from Judas Maccabaeus. Bylsma's tone and attack taken on a greater virility for Beethoven, and Hoogland's own virtuosity makes for impressive versions of these two works. Beethoven also performed the op. 5 Sonatas with Bernhard Romberg (1767-1841), whose own relationship to Friedrich Wilhelm is indirect; he never played for the King but did perform with J.-L. Duport. It is the cello virtuosity and important cello literature that Friedrich Wilhelm encouraged that explain why Romberg belongs on this disc; his Sonata is a fascinating mix of high virtuosity for cello—way beyond what Beethoven calls for in op. 5—and a musical power and expressive scope that identify Romberg as a musician of Beethoven's time and influence. The entertainment value in the music of the Duport brothers is one thing, but Romberg is a potential source of active repertoire. The Sonata is a real find; Bylsma and Hoogland play it in early-period Beethoven style.

-- David K. Nelson, FANFARE [1/1999]

Tracks:
1. PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY - VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP.35
2. MAX BRUCH - VIOLIN CONCERTO NO.1 IN G MINOR, OP.26

Canteloube: Chants d'Auvergne

SINFONIA DOMESTICA

GOULD PLAYS BACH: 6 PARTITAS

Bruno Walter was getting on in years when he made this classic recording of Barber's First Symphony, but it's the kind of piece that played to Walter's strengths--Romantic but with strongly Classical leanings--and it makes a curiously apt coupling to the two Strauss tone poems. Like the composer's own performances, Walter's are swift and light, which works wonderfully well in Don Juan, a bit less so in Death and Transfiguration, which could use more sheer intensity at the climaxes. Throughout, the playing is lively and comfortably at home in the music. The Dvorák encore is nice to have, but hardly necessary, and it's sonically inferior to the otherwise perfectly fine mono engineering in evidence elsewhere. Now available "on demand" from Arkivmusic.com, this is a disc of genuine historical significance for both Strauss and Barber collectors.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

dup

At first glance, it may seem odd to couple Mahler's most exalted work with one that ranks among his most personal and tragic. Sony could have issued the symphony alone on a single disc, but chose not to for a very good reason: This is an excellent Kindertonlieder with both Lenny and Janet Baker at their absolute best. Dame Janet recorded this work earlier with Barbirolli, but here she's far more detailed in her phrasing and declamation of the text. Bernstein is also at his best - underling all of the dark, grim noises in the lower registers of the orchestra. As for the symphony, this was always considered a great performance, but had been criticized for its less than stellar sonic qualities at the climaxes (read: distortion). Sony has gone a long way towards remedying things by transferring the work at a lower level. As a result, the huge endings for both Parts I and II have much greater bloom and expanse than previously. Although Bernstein's vocalists are not as great as those in the Solti recording on an individual basis, they do work better as an ensemble -- witness the passage for the three penitent women in Part II. This is a triumph for all concerned. --Barry Guerrero, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

They're still talking about Bernstein's "Espansiva" in Denmark, and with good reason. While better known for his Mahler, Bernstein's advocacy of Nielsen arguably achieved just as much, alerting music lovers beyond Denmark of a composer of international stature. Not all of Bernstein's Nielsen was equally good. His Second and Fourth symphonies are nowhere near as fine as these two, which are stunning. The "Espansiva" has all of the openhearted warmth that Nielsen requires. Bernstein's tempo in the finale is a touch slow, but grand and celebratory. The sonics were good for their day, and they still sound well.

Bernstein's reading of the Fifth is also magnificent. For sheer excitement it has never been surpassed, particularly in the second movement, which is wildly uninhibited and urgent. In the first movement, outstanding work from the solo clarinet meets a pretty terrifying snare drum cadenza at the climax. Only the sonics, which relegate the timpani to the rear of--somewhere--let the show down a bit, but the drive and communicativeness of the music-making ultimately win the day. This is a great recording, plain and simple, now available "on demand" from Arkivmusic.com.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The four orchestral compositions by Hans Werner Henze which are assembled on this CD combine works from the time of his third opera "King Stag" of the middle of the 50s with e.g. "La selva incantata", in which Henze refers directly to that opera - an almost unique procedure in his list of works. A comprehensive interview (Peter Ruzicka with Hans Werner Henze) in the booklet describes that the score of "King Stag" marked something like a very important "attempt to free himself from the twelve-tone system", the dogmatic chains of the Darmstadt School.

If only the standard symphonic recordings of this music could boast sound this good! Actually, in "Pines" I still have a slight preference for the version recorded by the "President's Own" Marine Corps Band, but if you're looking for all three "Roman" tone poems, this stunningly recorded disc will be pretty hard to beat. The transcriptions, by Lawrence Odom, are amazingly faithful to Respighi's original concept, and you'll be surprised at how little you miss the presence of the strings. The soft, delicate passages ("The Pines of the Janiculum", or the outer sections of "Fountains") sound just fine here, though the very opening of "Festivals" lacks the slashing attack of the violins. Never mind.

The brass and winds of the U.S. Air Force Band play with a boldness and confidence that's breathtaking. Just listen to the trombones and other low brass in the "Trevi Fountain" (and to the way conductor Graham builds the section's climax). "The Pines Near a Catacomb" sounds even darker and more menacing than in the original, while the concluding sections of "Pines" and "Festivals" will blow you away, if your speakers can stand it.

It's also worth pointing out that Col. Lowell E. Graham's conducting is not just strong and forthright, but it's remarkably sensitive to balance and color, even in heavily scored passages. The very opening of "Pines" gives the harps a welcome prominence that they haven't enjoyed since Reiner's classic RCA recording. In short, even if you're not normally a collector of band music recordings, you might want to give this disc serious consideration. Great music-making, after all, speaks for itself.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Immerseel, Beths and Bylsma offer period-instrument versions of Schubert’s B flat and E flat Piano Trios. However, theirs is not the delicate, fine-grained sound of, say, the Castle Trio (Virgin). Immerseel plays a 19th-century fortepiano by Tröndlin of Leipzig, whose full, rounded tone inspires all three musicians to project these works with striking vigour and energy. I was disturbed by a lumpy pulse in the first movement of the B flat Trio, but otherwise the fresh vitality of the music-making on this disc gives an effective portrayal of Schubert’s expressive extremes. Bylsma phrases the yearning melodies in the slow movements of both trios affectionately, while the ensemble fragrantly evokes dance in the Scherzos and stirs intense passions in the music’s more violent outbursts.

-- BBC Music Magazine

CELEBRATION • Col. Lowell Graham, cond; United States Air Force Band • KLAVIER K11176 (66: 01)


COPLAND An Outdoor Overture. SCHUMAN New England Triptych. HOLST Hammersmith. BENNETT Suite of Old American Dances. CRESTON Celebration Overture


This collection of band repertoire staples benefits from performances that are never less than first-rate, captured in stunning sound. All were either originally composed for band or transcribed for the medium by the composer.


The two transcriptions—Aaron Copland’s An Outdoor Overture and William Schuman’s New England Triptych— are perhaps the least successful works on the program, especially when compared to their orchestral counterparts. This is especially true of Schuman’s three-movement suite based on Revolutionary War songs by William Billings, the band transcription of which is substantially inferior to its orchestral cousin. Schuman prepared the band version of the third movement, “Chester,” around the same time he composed the original work, altering and expanding the music until it essentially became a new piece. The resultant work, the brilliant Chester Overture, is more often than not performed as a freestanding, independent piece. Sadly, the other two movements of the triptych did not fare as well. For the band transcription of the first movement, “Be Glad Then, America,” Schuman added a good deal of gratuitous ornamentation, as well as additional percussion parts that can only be described as perfunctory. The mystery and ominous foreboding of the original introduction are completely absent here. This movement also suffers from thick, turgid textures, as does the second movement, “When Jesus Wept,” which was originally scored very transparently for strings with solo parts for oboe, bassoon, and tenor drum. In the band version, Schuman reassigned the oboe and bassoon solos to trumpet and euphonium. Why I don’t know, but as a result, the music’s poignancy and pathos are substantially diminished. There are also a couple of notational errors (actual wrong notes printed in the sheet music) in the solo euphonium part that are not corrected in this performance (though to be fair, they rarely are).


The remaining works are all band originals. Gustav Holst’s Hammersmith of 1930 was inspired by the composer’s evening walks along the Thames during which he not only absorbed the sounds of the river itself, but also the revelry and gaiety emanating from the numerous pubs and taverns along the river’s banks. A somber, dirge-like prelude, constructed over a brooding ground bass, gives way to a boisterous, rollicking scherzo, only to eventually return as the work’s solemn coda. Though considered to be something of a “sacred cow” in the band repertoire, I must admit that the work has always left me a bit cold. (Heresy, I know.) Robert Russell Bennett’s Suite of Old American Dances is exactly what the title describes, each of its five movements—“Cake Walk,” “Schottische,” “Western One-Step,” “Wallflower Waltz,” and “Rag”—perfectly evoking the simple nostalgia of bygone Americana. The program comes to an exhilarating conclusion with a rousing account of Paul Creston’s exuberant Celebration Overture , a masterly three-part work highlighted by a particularly lovely ballad as its central section.


These recordings, all of which are among the finest this music has ever received, were originally available only through official Department of the Air Force channels. First released in 1996, though only to schools, libraries, radio stations, and other “official” recipients, these superb performances are now available to the general public for the first time. As there are many other first-rate recordings from this source still in the vaults, we can only hope that this disc will be followed by many, many more.


FANFARE: Merlin Patterson

In an interview, the composer Sergej Newski remembered, "The voice was the ideal path for finding my own idiom. In the late 1990s I began to transfer expressive vocal sounds into syntactic systems that obstruct their expressivity. I set out to find the primordial element of the voice." This recording includes his works Blindenalphabet, Alles and J'etais d'accord performed by the Ensemble Mosaik and Arbeitsfle�che performed by the ensemble MusikFabrik.

This album draws on the original performance practices of Franz Schubert, as it is historically proven that the composer played the guitar and frequently accompanied his songs.; This album also features aus der Sammlung “Bardenklange” op. 13 by fellow composer Johann Kaspar Mertz.; These outstanding lieder are performed here by soprano Rosina Sonnenschmidt, baritone Thomas Pfeiffer, and guitarist Harald Knauss.

• The critically-acclaimed ensemble Mala Punica came into the limelight in the mid-1990's with a trilogy of illustrious, multi-award-winning discs on Arcana, which revolutionized the world of medieval music and performance practice: Ars subtilis Ytaliaca (A21), D’Amor ragionando (A22) and En attendant (A23). For the first time, all these milestone recordings are united in one set.

V7: COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN

Classical Music

Classical Music

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