Germaine Tailleferre is best known for being a member of the French circle of composers known as Les Six - the only woman in the group. Her stylish combination of neo-Classicism with a ready wit and energy can be compared to Poulenc and Milhaud. From the captivating Romance written while still a student, to her sparkling music for the 1937 Paris international exhibition, all of these pieces show Tailleferre as being very much at the heart of the contemporary French musical scene. This recording, described by the composer’s granddaughter as being ‘as though Tailleferre herself was performing these works’, is the first of three volumes presenting the complete piano music played by Nicolas Horvath.

REVIEW:

The Monaco-born Horvath’s discographical versatility lends itself to the chameleon Tailleferre: she switches from neoclassical to radical, tonal to bitonal, rhythmic and familiar to irregular and dissonant. Horvath is a great advocate.

-- The Guardian

"Nicolas Horvath, with precise playing and imaginative interpretation has made Glassworlds 2 an indispensable reference for the serious enthusiast as well as marking an important milestone in the evolution of the music of Philip Glass." -- Sequenza 21

Philip Glass has made an immense and stylistically wide-ranging contribution to piano repertoire. The Orphée Suite, a transcription of excerpts from the first opera in Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy, is one of his most distinctive piano pieces, blending virtuosity and melodic richness. In contrast, the hypnotic How Now is structurally influenced by Indian ragas and gamelan music, whilst Dreaming Awake contains one of the most powerful climaxes in all Glass’ works. Performed by Nicolas Horvath, a Scriabin Competition first prizewinner, this is the first release in the complete Glass solo piano edition which will include many premières.

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Reviews:

This disc is important because it demonstrates that Glass’s music works quite nicely alongside other composers of the past and alongside quite traditional approaches to performance generally.

– American Record Guide

Somehow, the objectivity of the sound of a piano suits the music of Philip Glass perfectly. Certainly that’s how it seems in Nicolas Horvath’s expert performances.

– International Piano

Johann Baptist Cramer made his name in London and Europe as one of the leading pianists of the day. His virtuoso skills at the keyboard can be heard in the florid and playful Variations on an Anglo-Caledonian Air and the ebullient Sonata, Op. 25, No. 2. Matteo Napoli is an honors graduate of the Giordano Conservatory (Foggia). Early in his career he captured worldwide attention winning many competitions, including First Prize in the International Liszt Competition at Lucca in 1986.

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900) was a singular composer for the 19th Century. He found inspiration in the music of Wagner and Schumann, but was also the founder of the Bach Society and championed works of older composers such as Schütz as well as a personal friend of Brahms. While attracted to the music of the Lutheran church, he was a devout, life-long Catholic.

Herzogenberg's oratorio "The Birth of Christ" was quite extraordinary for its time. Large-scale religious music was no longer fashionable, and even most "Masses" were written for the concert hall rather than the Church. Herzongenberg's Die Geburt Christi is scored for a large orchestra, choir, children's chorus, soloists and organ and deftly combines the countrapuntal textures of Bach with the late Romantic harmonic language of Brahms. The result is a serene and oddly moving score, achieving some of its most touching moments with the simplest of forces (a lovely setting of Jesu, Lieber Jesu Mein" for solo voice and cello is just one highlight).

Following his extraordinary, critically acclaimed recording of concertos by Martinu, Hindemith, and Honegger, the charismatic Johannes Moser returns with a stunning new release, featuring two of the most distinguished 20th century cello concertos. Both works were originally composed for the great Mstislav Rostropovich. Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 was premiered in October 1959, and is characterized by vitality, humor and virtuosity. Britten's "Symphony for Cello and Orchestra" op 68 was premiered in 1964, with Rostropovich once again as soloist. This new recording continues Moser's stunning exploration of 20th century cello concertos while at the same time building upon his masterful interpretations of cello sonatas by the same featured composers, Shostakovich and Britten.

Classical Music

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month for July 2022!

All in all Maria Bach left more than 400 works to posterity. Most (about 80%) are Lieder and choral works, followed by smaller-scale piano works; not unlike Edvard Grieg or Hugo Wolff, she was an expert in that field, though she did also compose three ballets, made up of small, orchestral piano pieces. Her most ambitious works then, are the few excursions she made into the realms of chamber music (solo cello sonata, cello sonata, piano quartet and quintet, string quintet and two string quartets), in which she ventured a confrontation with the traditions of the grand, established genres. On the present release, Oliver Triendl, Marina Grauman, Nina Karmon, Öykü Canpolat, and Alexander Hülshoff showcase Maria Bach’s chamber works, including the Piano Quintet “Wolga-Quintet”, the Cello Sonata, and the Suite for Cello Solo.

Review

[Maria Bach's] music is infused with French and Russian elements and one can quite hear why it was so appealing to Roger-Ducasse who ensured that her 31-minute Piano Quintet was performed at the Paris Conservatoire when she visited Paris in 1930-31. Like all good music it’s clearly susceptible to strongly divergent interpretive stances. The Hänssler team is anchored by Oliver Treindl, who in my experience is probably one of the most hard-working and often recorded of players. He’s also an athletic figure who ensures forward-moving tempi.

The eminent cellist Paul Grümmer was a family friend and Bach was fortunate he liked her music and played the Cello Sonata frequently. It’s modestly structured – three movements and 19 minutes in this reading by Alexander Hülshoff and Treindl – and has a ripe Brahmsian rhapsodic feel, with a warmly curvaceous lyricism in the Romanze second movement. As with the Piano Quintet the finale is full of dextrous animation.

The final work in the disc is the Suite for cello, a crisp four-movement affair that looks back to Popper, as the notes indicate, rather than [J.S.] Bach. After a sonorous, chordal Praeludium come the registral leaps of an etude-like Scherzo, an expressive Air and then another of her favoured variations for a finale – including a Tango-like one – which call for supple bowing. It’s a deft work, all the more so in not honouring [J.S.] Bach’s legacy in any obvious fashion.

In terms of amplitude and density of sound this disc is an impressive one. The players sound firmly engaged in what must have been unfamiliar repertoire. They’ve been backed up by some classy notes. For overt expression, choose this[.]

Jonathan Woolf 

Dr. Albert Schelb writes: “As a composer, Josef Schelb incorporated the most important styles that had developed around the turn of the century into his early compositions, although most of these were destroyed in an air raid on Karlsruhe in 1942. After war, Schelb turned to impressionism, expressionism, atonality and finally also to twelve-tone composition, but without ever committing himself exclusively to any one of these styles. Self-taught, he combined them to develop a style all of his own, and followed, so to speak, his own rules of development. Throughout his life, his speciality was the polyphonic treatment of motifs and themes, which he handled strictly or playfully, as main elements or in episodes. His polyphony is never dry and academic, but rather is always paired with a dash of warming Romantic sensuality in sound. This even applies to his late orchestral music and Movimenti of the 1960s and 1970s, in which the themes are always twelve-tone expressionistic, but the harmony is also distinctly impressionistic.”

The cabaret singer Barbara Fasano releases a collection that features selection from the Great American songbook of classics as well as her covers of pop songs delivered with her recognizable purr that has won her fans worldwide.

This first reissue in 25 years of a classic Original Cast Recording is a must-have for discriminating lovers of musical theater. Written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (THE FANTASTICKS, 110 IN THE SHADE and I DO! I DO!), CELEBRATION was produced on Broadway in 1969 and is considered one of the most provocative and entertaining musicals of the decade. Says Jones (now 92 and still writing for the stage): “CELEBRATION, along with HAIR, was one of the 1960s shows that sought to reinvent our musical theater...The score is rich and varied, the premise interesting and the characters and scenes funny and touching. I’m so grateful to Harbinger Records for wanting to share it with at least three generations!” In this battle between the Old Year and the New, Jones & Schmidt mixed symbolic figures with then-current prototypes. “Thus the Old Man typifies all the misgivings that the youth culture of the time had about the previous generation,” says Jones. “The Young Boy is the ultimate flower child. The Narrator is a sixties dropout who’s into booze and drugs. And the Girl is a teenybopper dreaming of being a celebrity.” The package contains a 24-album booklet with extensive notes by author Tom Jones; memories from two original-cast members, Susan Watson and Michael Glenn-Smith; and many recently unearthed photos of the original production. The album has been remastered by multiple Grammy Award winner Alan Silverman.

Classical Music

In this album, his third for na�ve, Julien Martineau once again spotlights the mandolin: it's remarkable repertoire, nobility of character, and natural ability as a partner. Together with pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell, he has devised a programme truly Beethovenian in it's inventiveness, honeycombed with influences and associations. Beethoven wears the crown, with four youthful pieces he wrote for this unusual duo combination, and the Allegretto of his Symphony No. 7 in a transcription by Hans Sitt. Gathered round his throne are those inspired by him - his contemporary Hummel, Romantic virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, and two composers of today: Walter Murphy, whose pop music arrangement realized by Bruno Fontaine brings in contrabassist Yann Dubost and percussionist Jos� Fillatreau; while Corentin Apparailly responds to Beethoven's Letter to the Immortal Beloved in a work specially commissioned for this album. Revisiting Beethoven in the light of later works composed under his influence enables the perfectly matched team of Julien Martineau and Vanessa Benelli Mosell to create a truly audacious, exciting homage, full of dynamic revelations of the unpublished, the un-expected, and the unknown. 'This programme brings together a lot of repertoire that is extremely virtuosic, but not at all showy,' says Martineau. 'Here there's no way to hide be-hind mere technical brilliance: this recording is above all a chamber music disc, a dialogue of equal voices.'

The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) isn’t much remembered today, though a not inconsiderable number of recordings are making known his instrumental, vocal and, most significantly, his operatic works that, historically, carry the most weight and are his most significant contribution to music. Long before re-discovery however, came this 1960 Elisa, a two-act opéra comique that had its premiere in Paris in 1794, a time of much turmoil in that city. An all-Italian cast, conductor, orchestra and locale feature here, with Gabriela Tucci and Gianni Raimondi assuming the lead roles.

Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC, Roberto Sierra's Missa Latina "is remarkably organic in its expression: if it is music that sets out to be liked—perhaps loved—it is also a unified and, one suspects, deeply felt utterance of the heart...the Missa Latina will bring pleasure to a great many listeners. (Indeed, the ‘Sanctus’ could almost be turned into a pop song.)...I can't imagine anybody who starts listening to the Missa Latina wanting to turn it off before it is over."

- The Washington Post

This sixth Naxos American Classics album of the music of Richard Danielpour presents world premiere recordings of Richard Danielpours' last three string quartets. No. 7 includes the appearance in the finale of soprano Hila Plitmann. Each of these three quartets is informed by a particular theme: String Quartet No. 5, subtitled ‘In Search of La vita nuova,’ reflects Richard Danielpour’s relationship with Italy over the decades, conveying a sense of journey and discovery expressed in its ultimately elliptical trajectory. Concerned with the quartet as a metaphor for family, String Quartet No. 6 explores ideas of distance, time and ultimately, leave-taking. String Quartet No. 7, subtitled ‘Psalms of Solace,’ pursues the search for the Divine, successive movements taking intellect, the force of will, and romantic love as their subject before the appearance in the finale of a soprano voice.

GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty creates colorful musical portraits in this recording, featuring larger-than-life personalities drawn from 20th-century American culture. Tales of Hemingway is a dramatic cello concerto, evoking the turbulent life, adventures and literature of author Ernest Hemingway. American Gothic is a dynamic concerto for orchestra, reflecting on the creative world of Iowa artist Grant Wood. Once Upon a Castle is a virtuosic sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra, inspired by the rich history of the Hearst Castle, built lhigh upon the California Pacific coast by billionaire Randolph Hearst, the subject of Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane. Under the baton of Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero, the GRAMMY® Award-winning Nashville Symphony is joined by Zuill bailey, one of the leading cellists of his generation, and GRAMMY® Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs.

‘Lyla’ is Avishai Cohen’s first release with Razdaz Recordz. Piano legend Chick Corea appears as a special guest performing a duet with the leader. Avishai Cohen is an Israeli jazz double bassist, composer, singer, and arranger. He began playing the piano at 9 years old but changed to the bass guitar at the age of 14, inspired by bassist Jaco Pastorius. In 2002, Cohen founded his record label, Razdaz Recordz. "I've always been interested in several genres of music, including jazz, rock, pop, Latin and funk," says Cohen. "I'm always packed with ideas. I decided to start my own label because I'm involved in so many different projects." Cohen's signature sound is a blend of Middle Eastern, eastern European, and African-American musical idioms.

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

Over the last few years American composer George Tsontakis, winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, has crafted three distinctive and exciting additions to the contemporary concerto repertoire. Anasa, for clarinet and orchestra, combines elements of the Klezmer tradition with dance themes inspired by the lyra and lauto, traditional Cretan instruments. In True Colors the trumpet journeys in harmonically vivid, jazz-tinged directions, while Unforgettable balances the meditative with the playful, moving from ballad to phantasmagoria in a double concerto of drama and drive.

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release!

Terry Riley’s name will always be associated with his breakthrough work In C, but his influence on modern music has stretched far beyond minimalism. Both of the works on this recording reveal Riley’s spirit of exploration and his close collaboration with remarkable musicians. Commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, The Palmian Chord Ryddle is a kind of musical autobiography in which electric violin pioneer Tracy Silverman’s “one-man string quartet” sets the pace for the sparse, translucent orchestration. At The Royal Majestic is another recent example of Riley’s work with a symphony orchestra and a virtuosic soloist, in this case organist Todd Wilson. Its title refers to “the mighty Wurlitzer housed in grand movie palaces,” and the music draws on a wide variety of genres including gospel, ragtime, Baroque chorales, and boogie.

REVIEW:

The late career of Terry Riley has received less attention than that of Philip Glass or even Steve Reich. The resurgent Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero makes a good case here that such neglect is misguided. The Palmian Chord Ryddle (2011) is an eclectic, playful eight-movement work for electric violin and orchestra, but steering mostly clear of highly extended techniques. Even stronger is At The Royal Majestic, an homage to the golden age of the theater organ. Engineering kudos for clarity in an extremely diverse set of materials. Highly recommended.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)

Only now are we fully aware of the true immensity of Vivaldi’s concerto repertoire. The violin is by no means the only instrument he favored: the place of the bassoon in his work catalogue is remarkable for its size and stylistic homogeneity, as well as for his solistic treatment of an instrument previously confined to the continuo. Seven new concertos here join the twenty-six already recorded in the first four volumes of the Vivaldi Edition, an anthology Sergio Azzolini embarked on in 2009 with L’Aura Soave, and now builds on with L’Onda Armonica.

Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), an exact contemporary of Gustav Mahler, was widely considered the most important American composer of his day-a time when American music was based primarily on European models. Antonin Dvorák called on American composers to turn to indigenous sources, such as Negro spirituals and Indian tribal music, for inspiration. MacDowell flatly rejected this, commenting, What Negro melodies have to do with Americanism remains a mystery to me." Thus, in the Piano Concerto No. 1 we hear the comfortable old echoes of the Grieg A minor and, in the finale, Dvorák's own concerto. MacDowell's second concerto displays a noticeably higher degree of originality, though here too the European influence is clear, in this case Saint-Saëns. The dark and portentous opening creates a mood of anticipation before the piano enters to launch the drama of the first movement. The finale is brisk and exciting, with some wonderfully bravura piano writing, with which soloist Stephen Prutsman unreservedly flaunts his brilliant technique. He's just as fine in the brief Witches' Dance, which is rather tame and far less spooky than we have come to expect after the likes of Berlioz. The soothing sounds of MacDowell's gentle Romance for Cello and Orchestra close this interesting program. As on many other Naxos recordings, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (led here by Arthur Fagen) delivers performances of international caliber. Fine sound, too." - ClassicsToday.com (Victor Carr, Jr.), January 15, 2001

REVIEW:

It's remarkable that this classic Christmas opera hasn't received more recordings, but one reason may be its relatively short length (45-50 minutes) and the fact that it's more about the story and its quickly-paced dramatic aspects than the singing--Menotti focuses primarily on dialogue and less on stand-alone arias (this was written for television after all!). But the ensemble nature of the score, the sensitively wrought interaction of the sympathetically drawn characters, the humor, and the poignant relationship of the poor, crippled shepherd boy and his mother, are what give the work its charm and make it so affecting. Not that there aren't many clever and catchy, very pleasing tunes and a couple of fine ensemble numbers and choruses. Menotti's music is just enough and just the right blend of old and newer style.

Although the original 1951 television production conducted by Thomas Schippers (RCA) retains a dramatic edge over this excellent and very welcome newcomer--not to mention a vocally more solid cast--conductor Alastair Willis and his colleagues present a fully satisfying performance that has the advantage of first-rate, modern sound.

My only criticisms concern the acting--there could be a little more use of dramatic pauses and inflective touches, especially at the shocking moment when Amahl discovers he can walk, or in the scene when the Page discovers the Mother and the gold, which here lack the full measure of dramatic force exemplified by Schippers' cast. However, we mostly enjoy the easy interaction of the characters, such as the very effective, poignant moment when the Mother discovers the Kings at the door, or in Amahl's engaging banter with the Kings. The chorus is also fine, as is the orchestra, whose particular colors and instrumental balances are so important to the proper effect of the performance. Ultimately this is a production of this classic work that will hold up to many years of repeat hearings--and it's a pleasure to have it in a recording that obviously relishes and successfully captures the ambience of its chamber-opera character.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Naxos have come a long way in three decades. Their product is no longer as cheap as chips, but they have few rivals when it comes to yearly volumes or breadth of repertoire. I’m particularly grateful for some of their long-running series, especially those devoted to Americana and music for wind band. I’ve reviewed a fair few albums from both strands, a number of which contain world premieres or works otherwise unknown to me. At the same time, I’ve noticed a general improvement in recording quality, with some newer releases sounding as good as those offered by premium-price labels.

The American Classics project is probably the one I value most, not least for its ability to surprise and stimulate. And just as Naxos’s technical standards have risen, so too has the quality of ensembles and conductors featured. This pleasing state of play is epitomised by a very recent Michael Daugherty album, Trail of Tears: three brand-new concertos, one with the peerless percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, music and musicians well served by fine sonics. As it happens, that release introduced me to the conductor David Alan Miller, who also directs this mixed programme of 20th- and 21st-century works by Carl Ruggles, Steven Stucky and John Harbison.

Ruggles’ Sun-Treader, which takes its title from Robert Browning’s poem, Pauline, is a technically rigorous construct that’s also very accessible. Although the piece was premiered in Paris in 1932, it had to wait another 34 years for its first US performance, with Jean Martinon and the Boston Symphony. And while the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic isn’t exactly a household name – it’s an ad hoc band, drawn from members of the National Orchestral Institute each June – they are highly accomplished players, for whom this music holds no terrors.

Full, firm, and remarkably forensic, Miller’s Sun-Treader is more detailed and, yes, more colourful than Tilson Thomas’s. Producer-engineer Phil Rowlands’ spacious, recording certainly helps to ‘open up’ a work that can seem impenetrable at times. All of which adds up to a thoughtful, exploratory performance that’s very different from MTT’s more urgent, intensely dramatic one. The latter still sounds pretty impressive – the visceral timps a special treat – but I daresay an up-to-date remaster, similar to that provided for the recent BD-A of William Steinberg’s Planets and Zarathustra, would improve things even more. Top-notch accounts of Charles Ives’s Three Places in New England and Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 2 complete this bona-fide classic.

Steven Stucky’s second Concerto for Orchestra, premiered by the LA Philharmonic in 2004, received the Pulitzer Prize for music a year later. In his liner-notes, Robert Lintott says the piece is ‘rife with musical puzzles’, although I doubt most listeners will be aware of the composer’s compositional tricks and tributes. More apparent is Stucky’s homage to the genre – Bartók’s seminal concerto springs to mind – with soloists and various instrumental groups (‘combos’) allowed to strut their stuff. I can well imagine performers relishing both the good writing and the composer’s seemingly boundless good nature.

That’s certainly the case here, with Miller a sure and steady guide; indeed, he takes us on a fascinating trip, pointing out so much of interest along the way. What a tumble of tantalising ideas and sonorities, and how superbly rendered they are in this fine recording. Also, singly and severally, the players respond to this clever and compelling score with a zeal that most composers can only dream of. And as much as I admire Lan Shui, his performance lacks the chutzpah that makes Miller’s seem so rum and rakish. That said, the sound is refined, the playing light and luminous. The all-Stucky programme, which includes Dame Evelyn in Spirit Voices, is attractive, too.

The headline act is the Harbison symphony, commissioned by the Seattle SO for their centennial celebrations in 2004. In five movements – but not composed in that order – the work’s opening Fanfare reminds me of Leonard Bernstein in St Vitus mode. What exhilarating music this is, and how joyfully executed. The gnarly Intermezzo, with its gently shimmering gong in the background, is similarly engaging. The central Scherzo is catchy – goodness, there’s a lot going on here – and the Threnody has something of late Mahler about it. That said, Harbison’s ‘voice’ is very much his own, the Finale gaunt but not emaciated. Pinpoint playing and a strong pulse predominate.

This is a riveting work, delivered with deftness and dynamism, and I commend it to those looking for a way into the composer’s symphonic output. And given the impassioned authority of this performance, I’m tempted to forgo comparisons.

So often in comparative reviews I sign off with comments like: ‘This newcomer is pretty good, but…’. I’m happy to report that, with the possible exception of Miller’s still excellent Sun-Treader, there’s nothing to criticise here. Yes, Naxos really have come a long way since 1987. And that goes for this series, too; it just gets better – and becomes more valuable – with each new instalment.

Thoroughly modern Miller; plenty more, please.

– MusicWeb International (Dan Morgan )

Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing brings to life the striking works of six contemporary composers in this Navona Records release, with performances that are unique and awe-inspiring. The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir. Many of its over seventy commissioned premieres address social, environmental, and political issues.