Following unparalleled success with recordings for orchestra and choir, including awards in recent years from both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, the Hall� and Sir Mark Elder present a compelling program of evocative and rarely-performed works. The performances of these works perfectly illustrate the renaissance that has been achieved at the Hall� under Sir Mark Elder, including from the two Hall� choirs. The recording also features acclaimed British baritone Roderick Williams, a soloist at the height of his powers, in repertoire that is perfectly suited to his lyrical, dramatic, and musical expertise.

Classical Music

The Carus Classics series feature outstanding CD productions from Carus’ past library of recordings. In the works introduced here, Schubert presents vocal chamber music as an independent genre. The male voice ensemble “Schubert hoch vier” – consisting of four internationally renowned Lied singers – together with Schubert specialist Thomas Seyboldt at the piano offered this unfortunately little regarded group of works with a masterful balance between ensemble spirit and soloistic expressivity.

AMERICAN SALUTE

Includes work(s) by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Ensemble: B. B. C. Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Leonard Slatkin. Soloists: Evelyn Glennie, Peter Erskine, Christian Lindberg, Timothy [horn] Brown, Michael Murray, Christopher Larkin, Andrew Antcliff.

This "on demand" reissue from Arkivmusic.com offers bright and bubbly performances of an odd but curiously apt coupling. Both works are neoclassical in style as well as rich in humor. Mata's performance of the Strauss has none of the usual Viennese "flagellated cream" (as Hoffnung put it). Rather, the playing is sharp-edged and the conducting rhythmically precise, particularly in the extended finale. Textures are extremely clear, and balances favor the winds and percussion. It's a very different take on the work, and one that offsets the all-strings Wirén Serenade quite well. Playing time is only a bit more than 50 minutes, and the early digital sonics aren't entirely free from glare, but this is a very enjoyable recording, yet another worthy memento of the late Eduardo Mata. I was very pleasantly surprised, and if the coupling suits, you will be too.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

York Bowen has a distinguished reputation as a composer and was considered to be one of Britain's finest pianists. In his day he was known as 'The English Rachmaninoff', and Saint-Saëns described him as 'the most remarkable of the young British composers'. The works of York Bowen tend to display a blend of romanticism and strong individuality, and although his influences include the likes of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky, his music is also strongly defined by textures and harmonies that are uniquely 'Bowen'. This recording presents the only two surviving symphonies by Bowen: Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2, which are performed here by the BBC Philharmonic under the exclusive Chandos artist Sir Andrew Davis. Symphony No. 1 was written in 1902 when Bowen was an eighteen-year-old composition student at the Royal Academy of Music. The work is laid out in only three movements (unusual for the time), and requires a relatively modest orchestra. It is a deeply impressive achievement - the beauty and lyricism of the second movement and its myriad of orchestral colourations, together with a unique and often surprising sense of well-being in the finale, demonstrate that here is a genuinely symphonic composer who was not content just to copy established models and appease his professors. At least one movement of this symphony was performed during Bowen's time at the academy, but this recording may well be the first time that the work has been performed in its entirety. When Bowen composed his Symphony No. 2 just seven years after completing his first, much had happened in the world of modern music, not least in instrumental terms with the acceptance of large orchestras as standard. As a result this work is much larger in scale than his first symphony, and performed with significantly larger instrumental forces too. The finale in particular is spectacular in the way it develops from the tiniest semi-tonal seed into a fiery and almost unstoppable flood of 'Bowen-esque' inventiveness. This symphony is the work of an assured composer who was completely certain in his music's sense of direction and in the positive and life-affirming nature of his compositions.

This CD is currently available as RCA Gold Seal 61414.

Includes march(es) by George Frideric Handel. Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Charles Groves. Soloist: E. Power Biggs.

V2: GEWANDHAUSORCHESTER LEIPZI

Classical Music

Classical Music

A delectable program. If you want to know what Bowles was all about, this CD is the one to have.

This delectable program was originally issued by BMG back in 1996 to commemorate the 1995 visit to New York of expatriate Paul Bowles (1910-99) to New York after several decades of self-chosen exile in Morocco. It is now being rereleased, and apparently it was never reviewed in Fanfare, although a couple of other overlapping Bowles collections (on the Koch and Largo labels) were covered quite favorably in these pages at that time.

Of these three, this is the most orchestrally plentiful and probably the most authentic, because Jonathan Sheffer, founder and conductor of The Eos Orchestra of New York, has long been associated with Bowles's music and was the guiding light behind the week-long celebration of the composer that took place back in September 1995. In fact, several of the works on this disc were recorded shortly after being performed in Alice Tully Hall.

It is customary to contrast the relatively lighthearted character of Bowles's compositions (most of them written before he devoted all of his attentions to literature) with the rather grim and stark existentialism of his exotic culture-clash novels and short stories, for which he is more universally acclaimed. All this writer is prepared to observe on the matter is the likelihood that his music may have been unfairly underrated to the extent that his fiction has been overrated; in any case, suffice it to underline that listening to the music is a lot more fun than reading the books!

The Suite for Small Orchestra of 1932-33 is the earliest orchestral work of Bowles to be recorded, and its three brief movements (Pastorale, Havanaise, and Divertimento) are all that is left of a projected "symphony." Although the idiom is a bit more dissonant and jagged than the theater-based music he wrote in the 40s (Bowles made a reputation for his incidental scores and ballets), its understated amiability—and populist overtones—are typical of the kind of spare and deliberately unpretentious manner and deadpan humor he cultivated in later years. Although the example of Virgil Thomson is germane here, the actual music sounds like a panoptic fusion of folk idioms stretching from Mexico to Spain, with divagations to New York and Tangiers. Perhaps a blend of Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil and Copland's El salón Mexico with a Jean Françaix-like personality best situates its stylistic profile.

Pastorela is drawn from a 1947 ballet with a Hispanic setting similar to the "zarzuela" mini-opera The Wind Remains after Lorca (once available on an MGM LP but here heard in a new version prepared especially by Sheffer). This relatively ambitious work—which comprises a quick succession of songs, instrumental interludes, and underscoring—is somewhat more low-key when compared to Bowles's masterpiece, the utterly nonpareil Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra of 1946—47. This irrepressibly jaunty, jaundiced, yet at times delicately sentimental four-movement quarter-hour montage features the most wonderfully wacky juxtapositions and discontinuities while brilliantly exploiting the sonorities of a percussion-heavy chamber orchestra. The best way to describe its spirit is as a kind of "concerto-in-drag." This careful but carefree performance brings out more felicitous details than the helter-skelter premiere recording by the work's commissioners and dedicatees—Gold and Fizdale—on an ancient 10-inch Columbia LP (which should be reissued along with their several other Columbia recordings of two-piano works). The program closes with a set of six elusive but evocative songs to poems by Bowles, his wife, the novelist and playwright Jane Bowles, and a single mock-valentine by Gertrude Stein. These highly melodic and occasionally bluesy settings reveal a tenderly lyrical aspect of Bowles that compares favorably with Barber's great Hermit Songs and indicate that he would have been capable of writing a musical comedy in the popular American vein. They bring a comprehensive musical portrait to a perfect finish.

Excellent and dedicated performances and a top-drawer annotation by K. Robert Schwarz, plus full texts. If you want to know what Bowles was all about, this CD is the one to buy.

-- Paul A. Snook, FANFARE [9/2000]

This selection contains both DDD and ADD recordings.

My Recording of the Month, by a long way. The BBC Philharmonic sounds simply superb … Noseda conducts intelligently, sensitively, with full structural awareness of the dramatic trajectory.


Note that this is not part of the Chandos ‘Opera in English” series. This Aleko is sung in Russian. Rachmaninov’s early opera is remarkable, especially given its early date. The inspiration is free-flowing from the composer’s pen; the integrity of the Pushkin original is maintained.

The BBC Philharmonic sounds simply superb in the opening Prelude, delivering the themes of fate and jealousy with equal amounts of foreboding and lyricism. The recording helps – superbly focused, believably balanced and with just the right amount of space. The orchestra is superbly captured throughout, a vital facet of any recording of this piece given the dances that permeate the score. The Women’s Dance is superbly characterful - the BBC Philharmonic’s wind section excels. The Men’s Dance contains more contrasts, all relished by the forces here.

The opening chorus of gypsies makes plain reference to Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. The chorus throughout - and it plays an integral part in the work’s unfolding - is magnificent. The Teatro Regio, Turin chorus makes a lovely, rounded sound and still sounds believably Russian.

The Russian text is given in Cyrillic only in the booklet, which might pose problems for some. At least there are translations in English, French and German and track points are frequent.

Luxury casting comes in the form of the experienced Gennadi Bezzubenkov as the Old Gypsy, full of Russian melancholy as he reminisces (track 3). The oboe’s supporting comments seem echt-Russian rather than Mancunian. The Old Gypsy Woman, who appears towards the end of the opera, is similarly convincing (Nadezhda Vasilieva).

The title role is taken by baritone Sergey Murzaev, strong and virile of voice. Aleko’s Cavatina (track 10) is powerfully delivered, a clear arioso narration until Aleko utters the magic name of “Zemfira”. The aftermath of his Cavatina (after the lines “Zemfira is unfaithful! Zemfira has grown cold!”) is a magical Intermezzo, during which the moon disappears and daybreak begins onstage. His vocal acting in the finale, when he awakes to find Zemfira and the Young Gypsy together, is excellent, right up to the moment he stabs the Young Gypsy.

As Zemfira, Svetla Vassileva is pure and yet passionate. Her big number is the Lullaby (track 9), preceded by the tender duet with the Young Gypsy - the ardent tenor Evgeny Akimov. Only his later off-stage aria, “Look how beneath the distant vault of Heaven …” disappoints, lacking the last iota of conviction. Again, the BBC Philharmonic performs a sterling service in setting up the atmosphere, here in the pointed phrasing. Vassileva sings beautifully, moulding her responses to the text perfectly.

Noseda conducts intelligently, sensitively, with full structural awareness of the dramatic trajectory. We clearly hear the Tchaikovskian influences in the orchestral writing, particularly in the yearning string phrases.

Rob Barnett rightly praised the Järvi DG recording on this site some eight years ago. I would love to hear the Svetlanov (only part of a six-disc set, alas). I remember a Proms performance of Aleko some years ago now which featured the magnificent Elena Prokina – perhaps it is too much to wish that she were part of the Chandos cast. Whatever, there is no doubt that this performance stands firmly on its own two feet.

My Recording of the Month, by a long way.

-- Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International

This new release, the fourth volume of the Alwyn film music series, has been long anticipated. This series began seventeen years ago with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Richard Hickox, and continued with Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic, who released volumes 2 and 3 in 2001 and 2005. Rumon Gamba also got involved in other series, exploring the music of d’Indy, Rozsa, and British composers of the twentieth century, as in two volumes of Overtures from the British Isles. This latest album brings new recordings of music from the prolific decades of the 40s and 50s, during which Alwyn scored a number of famous films. These scores show to perfection Alwyn’s supreme skill in providing music totally attuned to the subject matter, which ranges from the dramatic to the exotic, from comedy to the factual. Much of the music recorded here had to be reconstructed by Philip Lane from the soundtracks, as written scores had not survived.

KONZERTE FOR HORN & ORCHESTER

Weber and Brahms Clarinet Quintets

The special interest here is the ''world premiere recording'' of Schumann's first Piano Quartet in C minor, completed in March, 1829, when he was still only 18. Though his Leipzig piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck, and other discerning music-loving friends found much in the work to praise after a domestic performance by Schumann and some fellow-students, he himself lost faith in it and the score remained unpublished until the Schumann scholar, Wolfgang Boetticher, prepared a performing edition in 1979. The gem of the four movements is the nimble Minuetto, with a trio (its leading theme reappears in the fourth of his Op. 4 Intermezzos for solo piano) subsequently picked out by him as the moment when he first recognized himself as a ''romantic... departing from the former musical style''. The tenderly spun Andante is winning too, and even though the Beethoven-cum-Schubert-inspired faster flanking movements (the last dominated by an obsessively reiterated dotted rhythm) need—and I think in this performance receive—some pruning, both have an irresistible youthful elan. Andre Previn and his three colleagues cannot be over-praised for coming to the Quartet's rescue with such immediacy and warmth of sympathy.

Though never enjoying the popularity of the Piano Quintet, the E flat Piano Quartet, written some 13 years after the C minor work, has rarely lacked dedicated protagonists. These players hold their own with them all, especially the very lively pianist with his keen ear for textural clarity.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [5/1993]

Classical Music

Richard Stoltzman's continuing exploration of the clarinet repertoire has yielded some uniquely enjoyable concerto recordings for RCA, of which the current issue is just the latest example. The disc opens with Lutoslawski's Dance Preludes, a brilliant and lively work of highly varied moods and styles ranging from somber chant to frenzied dancing. Stoltzman sounds as comfortable in each of these witty preludes as he would playing Mozart or Gershwin.


Nielsen's concerto always has been a formidable challenge for clarinetists, and, through its discursive one-movement form, for the listener as well. Happily, Stoltzman's pointed shaping of the musical material aids in the recognition of the various melodic lines, while his freewheeling virtuosity consistently commands attention. Still, Olle Schill's stunningly recorded daredevil performance on BIS remains the Nielsen concerto of choice.


Probably the most interesting item on the program is Kent Kennan's recasting of Prokofiev's Flute Sonata as a concerto for clarinet and orchestra. Kennan succeeds admirably in approximating a real Prokofiev orchestral sound and his arrangement sheds new light on the work's subtle beauties. Indeed the finale, with its judicious use of timpani, seems to improve upon the original. Stoltzman certainly sounds convinced, and you can appreciate in his performance that sense of satisfaction at discovering a new classic. Lawrence Leighton Smith and the Warsaw Philharmonic provide handsomely played and truly collaborative accompaniments. RCA's recording is rather flat in perspective, but allows all of Stoltzman's infectious playing to be clearly heard. A desirable disc, and not just for clarinet fans.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto; Concerto for Flute and Harp

Rachmaninoff Plays Chopin

RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3. Caprice bohémien. Prince Rostislav • Gianandrea Noseda, cond; BBC PO • CHANDOS 10677 (73:50)


Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony, composed in 1935–36, has never gained the same traction as the Second or The Isle of the Dead , both composed some years before his departure from Russia in 1917; it is neither as lush as the Second—how could it be?—nor as muscular as the Symphonic Dances , his next, and last, composition. Aside from the difficulty Rachmaninoff had composing in exile, which has been well documented, I believe the Third Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto, both “problem” pieces, stand in similar relation to the Symphonic Dances and the Paganini Rhapsody , respectively: Just as the Fourth Concerto shows Rachmaninoff working out the difficulties of adapting to a familiar genre the leaner-textured and more harmonically bold style of his later solo piano works, so does the Third Symphony; and, in each case, the work that follows demonstrates his masterly solution to the problem. In other words, while the Third Symphony is a not-quite-comfortable juxtaposition of past and present in Rachmaninoff’s musical language, the Symphonic Dances expresses the complete assurance of his new style or manner, much in the same way an émigré writer’s second novel in his new country would exhibit greater security in its use of the new language.


Over the years I’ve found the recordings of the Third by the Philadelphia Orchestra, for which the symphony was written, generally satisfying: the composer’s own, supple 1939 version, and those by Eugene Ormandy, first a taut version on a mono LP and then a somewhat more luxuriant one in stereo. (The Dutoit recording for Decca is more problematic; see my review in Fanfare 35:1.) This new version by Gianandrea Noseda, however, demands consideration. For starters, the BBC Philharmonic sounds terrific; the strings are rich and full, as they must be in this work, and the many wind solos are superb. The statement of the first movement’s second theme near the end, by flute and clarinet two octaves apart, is meltingly beautiful. The ensemble in the tricky scherzo section of the second movement is dead-on. This may well be Britain’s finest orchestra these days.


Then there’s the contribution of Noseda himself. He’s a veteran Rachmaninoff conductor by now, having recorded all three symphonies and all three operas for Chandos; of the major works, only the Symphonic Dances and the choral-orchestral music remain. Fanfare’s critics have had mixed reactions to his previous Rachmaninoff recordings, but I find this one a real winner: Like the composer’s own version, tempos are flexible but never arbitrary, instead seeming to react to the music’s ebb and flow; climaxes are dynamic (and with Chandos’s sound, they can pack a wallop) but never exaggerated. Noseda takes the first-movement exposition repeat, now standard practice, but something neither Rachmaninoff (on 78s) nor Ormandy did.


The symphony, sensibly placed last on the disc, is complemented by two early works. The Caprice bohémien is a sonic showpiece, again with particularly beautiful wind solos. Noseda handles the gradual but relentless increase in speed in the latter portion nicely, making for a big finish. Prince Rostislav , from Rachmaninoff’s incredibly fruitful year of 1891—he was 18 years old!—is long on atmosphere if short on memorable thematic material; it owes a debt to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko.


This is a first-rate recording. If, like me, you could use a well-wrought Rachmaninoff Third with the exposition repeat and in excellent modern sound, you need look no further.


FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan


------

There was once a trend among critics to downplay Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 3 likely stemming from mixed reviews at the work's premiere but beginning in the late 1970s the symphony has been re-evaluated several times and is today often recognized as an assured and thoroughly exciting Russian orchestral work, with appealing themes and a structure every bit as strong as the popular Symphonic Dances. In fact the dance rhythms of the Symphony's energetic finale are much akin to those in the Symphonic Dances as is the colorful orchestration. The work was written for Rachmaninov's favorite orchestra, the Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski.

The album contains two other rarely heard works. The symphonic poem Prince Rostislav wherein the youthful composer shows the influence of his composition teacher Rimsky-Korsakov and, as with Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works, is graced with eloquent, folk-like melody. Despite these appealing elements, the piece is overshadowed by Rachmaninov's later masterpieces. An even more rarely heard work is the Capriccio bohémien, which is luminously orchestrated and inspired by similar musical moments within the composer's opera Aleko.

Gianandrea Noseda continues this Chandos Rachmaninov series with excellent, well-recorded performances by the BBC Philharmonic who seem to be enjoying themselves within this passionate, fiery, luxurious music.

- Greg La Traille, ArkivMusic.com

Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas possessed one of the most original and vital musical voices of the 20th century. He also led a wild life. Brilliant and quarrelsome, he was active in revolutionary politics, feuded with fellow artists such as Carlos Chavez and managed to write a substantial body of work in only ten years before his death from acute alcoholism at the age of forty.
The music is dynamic, fierce and colorful, influenced by Stravinsky and Bartók, modernist and imbued with folkloric flavor, though without actual quotation. Like the muralist Diego Rivera, Revueltas created a kind of mock-primitive, epic Mexico in his music, passionate and boldly etched (his best known work, the tone poem 'Sensemaya' is often referred to as a Mexican 'Rite of Spring.) This is an amazingly generous collection, including chamber works and film scores, the quasi-symphonic 'La Noche de los mayas' and not one but two versions of 'Sensemaya,' the bonus being the spirited (if rhythmically errant) debut recording made by Leopold Stokowski in 1947.