A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month for July 2022!

From Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra: “We are pleased to announce the release of another album, which we had the opportunity to co-create. This long awaited album was released by DUX and features two piano concertos by the outstanding Polish post-Romantic Zygmunt Stojowski, a student and friend of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It is our great pleasure to be able to remind listeners once again of such a valuable repertoire. We are certain that this new album will bring them much joy and satisfaction! However, this is not the first encounter with Stojowki’s music for the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra. In 2017, alongside pianist Jonathan Plowright and under the direction of Łukasz Borowicz, it recorded the impressive “Symphonic Rhapsody” for piano and orchestra (Warner Classics). The piano concertos included on the album were composed over a fairly long time interval (1891 and 1913). These compositions cleverly demonstrate the evolution of the composer’s style, as well as his loyalty to the late-Romantic idiom.”

Reviews

Zygmunt Stojowski was an out and out romanticist in a world that began to shy away from that style in the mid twentieth century...later in life he was to be the first Polish composer to have an entire concert devoted to his music by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Cast in three movements the Concerto [for Piano no. 1] is a wonderfully constructed work, bristling with difficulties but with some beautiful melodies and moments of high drama. The opening is enigmatic, just a low unharmonised melody in the cellos and double basses before the orchestra gradually joins in, first a horn then the oboe while tension mounts; the drama and pace is driven by an insistent timpani motif that repeats as the tempo increases. The soloist's entry is as dramatic as one could wish with two keyboard-spanning arpeggios before things relax down for the opening theme played by the soloist.

A review in the Musical Times in 1893 remarked that except in the hands of a great pianist it would stand but a poor chance. Thankfully the pianist in this performance, Marek Szlezer, is more than up to the challenge of the entire concerto[.]

The second Concerto, subtitled Prologue, scherzo and variations is just as appealing...it is Witold Wilczek who is the admirable soloist for the second Concerto. The orchestral contributions are as strong and the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra respond with enthusiasm and verve under the skilful baton of Marek Wroniszewski. [The] Romance of the first piano concerto is conducted by Zofia Guz[,] the orchestra's assistant conductor...she acquits herself well[.]

These two concertos are supreme examples of romantic pianism at its best and with such a wonderful fusion of high quality writing for both orchestra and soloist, great melodic invention and thrilling virtuosity they deserve to be much better known. A great disc.

--MusicWeb International (Rob Challinor)

The focus of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto for Così fan tutte is on female infidelity, two partner-swapping couples and a wager. Its enigmatic ambiguity and lightness of touch, its razor’s edge balance between irony and empathy, detachment and involvement, and on-stage reality and illusion is structured with perfect Classical symmetry. More than any other opera it explores the depths and darker impulses of the experience of love. This production by director Sven-Eric Bechtolf was given in Florence with a staging that ‘holds a balance between philosophy and humour’ (bachtrack.com).

Xiaogang Ye is one of China’s best-known contemporary composers whose work is acclaimed both in East Asia and the West for its colorful sonorities and lyrical expressiveness. Demonstrating Ye’s deep love for ancient Chinese poetry, Seven Episodes for Lin’an is a large-scale symphonic canvas that sets famous texts for the first time in contemporary history, weaving their eloquent imagery with intricate and timeless melodies. Twilight in Tibet evokes the landscape of the Himalayas, while the Tianjin Suite reflects the diversity of Tianjin, a city with a profound historical and cultural heritage, expressed through Ye’s signature combination of traditional and modern musical textures. This release features rising vocal stars Yuanming Song, Yijie Shi, and Songhu Liu alongside horn soloist Cong Gu.

Viktoria Kaunzner writes of her new release: “The release of this album was preceded by 15 years of study, analysis and performance of Medtner’s works for violin. Concerts, whether in Prague, as part of a Medtner lecture evening at the University of the Arts in Berlin, the inaugural gala of the Medtner Society in Seoul and more concerts in Paris. It was here that his music came before me for the first time in a magical moment with my guest family during my Erasmus studies: I shall never forget all the subtropical plants, the enormous library, paintings being created and films we saw together and how amidst all this I suddenly heard songs by Medtner. From that day on, a golden thread of sound wove its way into my memory and would not let me go. My fourth album entitled “EurAsian Gold”, which highlights the music of Medtner, was prepared in exclusive techno-acoustic conditions.“

Pietro Castrucci (1679-1752) was a student of Arcangelo Corelli. Moving to London in 1715 he became concertmaster of the newly-founded Royal Academy of Music opera house. He went on to be one of the first beneficiaries of the Royal Society of Musicians, and became a trendsetting composer. The works featured on this release are among his finest. These are wonderful, historically informed performances. The works on this release are performed by Gerald Elias, violin; Pamela Palmer-Jones, harpsichord; and Noriko Kishi, cello, this is the first complete recording in history of Castrucci’s inexplicably neglected Opus 1 sonatas, composed in 1718.

Sonya Yoncheva dedicates her new album to the music of Verdi and records some of the most important repertoire for the dramatic soprano. With Massimo Zanetti she has paired up with a conductor very versed in the music of Verdi. The album includes arias from beloved masterpieces such as Il trovatore, La forza del destino, Don Carlo and Otello but also earlier gems such as Stiffelio. Following a series of spectacular debuts at the world’s leading opera houses, soprano Sonya Yoncheva has been heralded as one of the most acclaimed and exciting performers of her generation. She has become a fixture on the most important stages of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin State Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Opéra de Paris. Her unforgettable portrayals of iconic roles have received tremendous acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Of her performances in La traviata at the Staatsoper Berlin, Die Welt proclaimed: "She is the finest Violetta since Maria Callas. The Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva is possibly the best Traviata in the world at present.” Sonya Yoncheva’s extensive repertoire includes jewels of the Baroque canon, as well as works by Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Puccini. Celebrated for her distinctly beautiful voice and exceptional dramatic presence, Sonya is equally at home on the concert and recital stage, having performed to critical acclaim in several cities including Paris, Dresden, Baden-Baden, and Prague.

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REVIEW:

She certainly has a go at just about everything, ranging from the delicacy of Desdemona’s ‘Ave Maria’, to the wilder grief of the Forza Leonora’s ‘Pace! Pace, mio Dio!’ Perhaps best are the musings of Amelia Boccanegra, which sit perfectly within the size and range of her voice. Massimo Zanetti’s conducting is spacious and supportive, and he makes much of the introductions to the Boccanegra and Don Carlo arias.

– Opera Now

Telemann's twelve Fantasias, TWV 40:2-13 hold endless fascination, not only for flutists, but for a variety of instrumentalists. These works represent a unique, thorough, and systematic exploration of writing for unaccompanied flute. Leonard Garrison brings these great works fully to life. Leonard Garrison is University Distinuished Professor of Flute and Associate Director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho, flutist in The Northwest Wind Quintet and The Scott\/Garrison Duo, and Principal Flutist of the Walla Walla Symphony. A recipient of an Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship, a Presidents Mid\-Career Award at the University of Idaho, and 2016 prizes as Instrumental Soloist and in Chamber Music from The American Prize, he is faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He has recorded eleven critically acclaimed albums for Albany Records, Capstone Records, and Centaur Records and been a soloist on National Public Radios Performance Today, winner of the 2003 Byron Hester Competition, concerto soloist on both flute and piccolo, and a frequent performer at National Flute Association conventions.

Includes work(s) by Kaikhosru Sorabji. Soloist: Michael Habermann.

The extant music for violin by Franz Schubert fits comfortably on two discs, and Ariadne Daskalakis released the first disc of her survey in 2019, to critical acclaim. The disc included works for violin and piano as well as three pieces with orchestral accompaniment, in performances described in The Strad as having ‘a litheness and shimmering delight that capture the music’s innate charm and dance-like vivacity with a beguiling sureness of touch.’ The second installment focuses on the chamber music with piano, and once again Daskalakis is joined by Paolo Giacometti, playing a fortepiano by Salvatore Lagrassa. The instrument, of the Viennese school, was built around 1815 and is thus almost exactly contemporary with the sonatas recorded here, the ones in D major and A minor dating from 1816 and the Sonata in A major from the following year. Schubert, who was around 20 years old at the time, had learned the violin from an early age, but the sonatas were probably intended for his older brother Ferdinand, who led the family string quartet in which Franz played the viola. The disc opens with a later work, however – the so-called Rondeau brilliant, from 1826. As the nickname indicates, the B minor Rondo is virtuosic, composed for Josef Slavík who before his early death was hailed as Paganini’s successor by the Viennese critics. In her liner notes, Ariadne Daskalakis describes the piece as ‘in turn dramatic, playful, gentle, seductive and wild’ and together with Paolo Giacometti she brings out each of these aspects.

It was when Delphine Constantin-Reznik took up the post as harpist in the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra that she first came across the name Anton Pratté, well-known in his lifetime as a harpist and composer. Her research into the music and activities of this forgotten master has now resulted in the very first recording of any of his numerous compositions for the harp. Anton Edvard Pratté was born in Bohemia into a family that ran a touring puppet theatre. He came to Sweden as an adolescent, and soon made a name for himself, performing music of his own as well as by others.

Pratté gave concerts across Sweden, as well as in Norway and Finland, and in the 1840s even went on an extensive tour of Europe, performing in Berlin (where members of the Prussian royal family were in the audience), Vienna and Prague. But much of his life was spent in the area around Norrköping where he taught the daughters of wealthy landowners and for a while conducted the local orchestra society – the forerunner of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra heard in the Grand Concert which opens the present disc. This is followed by two works for solo harp, both making use of traditional tunes from Sweden and Norway respectively.

This album of some of the 20th century's most captivating songs and standards are heard here in dazzling new arrangements by Richard Balcombe. With a perfect marriage of words and music, these classic songs have a timeless appeal. Whether written for movies, revues or musicals, or specifically for the most renowned singers of the day, all the greatest composers and lyricists of the time are represented in this outstanding new collection.

Franz Liszt inherited strong religious convictions from his father, and the influence of sacred narratives can be found throughout his compositions. Drawn from the so-called Tasso Sketchbook, the Préludes etHarmonies poétiques et religieuses were composed after the end of Liszt’s relationship with Marie d’Agoult, and include the passionately turbulent Langueur? Descriptive titles characterize many of the brief Album-Leaves, while the legend of St François de Paule marchant sur les flots depicts the saint crossing the Straits of Messina using his cloak as a sail after being refused passage by a boatman. Liszt’s famous Harmonies poétiques et religieuses has been visited in other volumes in this edition, but this is not to be confused with the Préludes et Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, which is a set of eight pieces also associated with the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine, but entirely distinct in character and content. Including fragments, this is a further collection of Liszt rarities that offers fascinating pre-echoes of later masterpieces, exploring the composer’s wider responses to religious themes, Romantic poetry and the intensity of his own circumstances.

Infusion Baroque draws new audiences to early music through a truly captivating concert experience, deftly combining seasoned musicianship with theatrical elements. Described as “dynamic and alive” (Early Music America) with “polish, energy, and finely-honed style… merrily breaking established traditions” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), the four women of Infusion Baroque enthrall audiences across North America with their creative and interactive programming. Their debut album 1747: C.P.E. Bach was released in 2017 and reached #3 on iTunes Canada Classical chart. Infusion Baroque's second album is the debut recording of six rare quintets by Georg Anton Kreüsser. Joyful and elegant, these pieces for flute, violin, viola, cello, and basso continuo feature the instruments engaged in a lively musical conversation that are sure to delight and charm listeners.

REVIEW:

Armida brings out the best in Cecilia Bartoli as a performer. Her tone is ravishingly beautiful when it needs to be - you need go no further than her first aria, a gorgeous prayer for Rinaldo, to find evidence of that - but when she is required to turn on the vocal fireworks, as for Armida’s great aria of fury in Act 2, she does so with thrilling precision and passion. She is at her finest in the final act when Armida’s power is on the wane, heartbreaking in the great aria Ah, non ferir, then spitting fury as she goes off to exact her revenge.

Patricia Petibon gives Bartoli a real run for her money as the second lady. The voice is of a very different quality to Bartoli’s - sweeter and more innocent, less knowing - but it is every bit as delicious, from the gently winsome quality of her first aria to the intentionally strident and very impressive hysterics of her aria at the beginning of Act 2. She also makes a most beguiling nymph in the third act.

When Bartoli and Prégardien come together, however, things improve enormously, and their Act 1 duet, when he tries to convince her of his faithfulness, is a real treat, both beautiful in its opening section and then exhilarating in its coloratura. Markus Schäfer gives a very attractive turn as Clotarco and Scot Weir’s Ubaldo is fine. Oliver Widmer’s Idreno is not pleasant, though, sounding disagreeably unfocused in his opening aria with little improvement later.

I’m not normally a fan of Harnoncourt in music of this period - I find his Mozart infuriating - and generally I find Concentus Musicus Wien to be so abrasive as to be devoid of pleasure in much of their playing. However, I actually found their style to be pretty effective here. It is a martial opera, after all, and the harsh edge on the brass, as well as in some of the other orchestral tuttis, helps to evoke the atmosphere of war. The string playing doesn’t always sound thin and pinched, either, and they are the finest thing about the scene in Act 2 where Rinaldo’s indecision is invested with the intensity of a mad scene.

Harnoncourt does occasionally pull the tempo around a bit, as though he can’t quite help himself, but he still shapes the work with conviction, and it’s worth remembering that this was a rather neglected opera when this performance took place, so he probably felt the need to inject a certain something into his interpretation so as to make contemporary audiences sit up and take notice that little bit more. I can turn a blind eye to most of it if it means being reacquainted with Haydn’s music in such a successful way. The corking Trio that ends the second act is completely thrilling, bringing out the finest dramatic instincts of the singers, orchestra and conductor.

Both CDs are ingeniously packaged in a single case and the booklet contains an interesting essay by David Wyn Jones. At a price like this there is no need to hesitate.

– MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson)

China’s rich and diverse musical heritage has been recorded and documented in a stunning, original collection. With twenty albums in the pipeline, this is a highly specialized series with the appeal of perhaps being the closest thing to the ‘complete works’ of traditional Chinese music. Each album features a different region of the vast territory; an historical snapshot of China’s heritage. Due to the cultural privacy China mandates, these are in fact rare, musical gems. Folk songs from the Tujia and Sui peoples of Hubei and Guizhou Province. This album features ‘inserting chant’ songs and south songs of Changyang by the Tujia peoples, and various ancient songs of the Sui. All played on traditional instruments such as mouth organs, bronze drums, gongs and suona, as well as the popular dongdong kui (bamboo clarinet), that dates back thousands of years. This is volume seventeen of a twenty album series, exploring China’s rich and diverse musical heritage.