Winner of the 2011 Israeli Ministry of Culture Outstanding Ensemble Award, the Israeli Chamber Project brings together some of today's most distinguished young Israeli musicians for chamber music concerts and educational and outreach programs both in Israel and abroad. A dynamic ensemble comprising of strings, winds, harp and piano, the Israeli Chamber Project has quickly made a name for itself through it's passionate musicianship and creative programming. In North America, the Israeli Chamber Project has appeared at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Morrison Artists Series in San Francisco, and has been featured on NPR's Performance Today.

Although these two masterpieces are of differing styles - the Schubert (1828) being a 4 movement sonata in the Viennese classical tradition and the Mussorgsky (1874) a sequence of 15 short sections in a deliberately Russian idiom that rejects western European influence, there are parallels between them. Neither was published until after their composer’s death, the sonata in 1838 and Pictures in 1931, though an edited version by Rimsky-Korsakov had appeared in 1886. Neither work received real appreciation and understanding until the 20th century. Daniel Hill comments: “My criteria for selecting repertoire to record was twofold: firstly, that I would be playing music for which I held a deep respect, passion and conviction; and secondly, that they were pieces for which I felt I may be able to do some justice. “Both works, though largely disparate in nature, represent a kind of journey: in the vivid experience of Mussorgsky’s Pictures, this is somewhat overtly so; Schubert, on the other hand, takes us into a profoundly intimate and, at times, transcendental realm. “My hope in making this disc is that I may have found some of that elusive and precious connection between interpreter and composition.”

WAGNER, S.: Bruder Lustig

Valerie Tryon, one of the most sensitive and poetic pianists around, turns in another lovely contribution to Naxos' ongoing cycle of Liszt's complete piano music. Her pianism is quite a different kettle of fish from Oxana Yablonskaya's, whose own Schubert/Liszt disc marks Volume 5 in this series. At first hearing, I felt Tryon's control of Liszt's textural complexities to be slightly soft-grained and lacking the last degree of suppleness and tonal solidity we expect in this repertoire. By the second and third listening, I began to appreciate the pianist's canny dynamic planning, as witness the unfolding drama of "Der Jäger" and "Die böse Farbe" from Die Schöne Müllerin, or the subtle, rippling accompaniment that gently envelops "Wohin?".


Similarly, Tryon bathes "Die Forelle"'s arpeggios in beautifully tinted shadings and takes trouble to clarify Liszt's pedal markings. Listen to how Tryon deftly keeps "Ave Maria"'s melody afloat against an accompaniment that keeps changing its textural stripes. Yes, "Erlkönig" can use a bit more clarity and cumulative power, with less heavy octaves in the left hand. But that's just one track out of 19, and what's good is quite wonderful. If you've a hankering for Schubert songs served up for solo piano as only Liszt could, you'll certainly warm to this disc.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Originally released in 2009. Directed by Laura Borello, Gregorio Zurla. Starring Veronique Mercier, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Gian Luca Pasolini. Artist: G. Bottesini, Title: Ero & Leandro, Genre: Classical & Opera, Music Video & Concerts, Sub-Genre: Classical - Classical Composers, Musicvideo - Music Video (Concert / Performance), Release Date: 1 January 2011, Starring: Veronique Mercier, Gian Luca Pasolini, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Directed By: Gregorio Zurla, Laura Borello customer review: "Ero and Leandro" is a tragic opera, composed by Giovanni Bottesini, premiered in Italy in1879 and staged an amazing 29 times before vanishing from the repertoire. It features three excellent singers: Veronique Mercier as Ero, tenor Gian Luca Pasolini as Leandro, and basso Roberto Scandiuzzi as the cruel tyrant Ariofarne. The Coro Claudio Monteverdi and the Orchestra Filarmonica del Piemonte provide a superb musical context for these three singers, whose arias are the sort of grand be canto that Verdi fans adore. In fact, Bottesini and Verdi were well acquainted; Bottesini conducted the premiere of Verdi's Aida, and the libretto for Ero & Leandro was written by another opera composer, Arrigo Boito."

All around the world, critics cheered the SCO Wind Soloists’ previous album of Mozart Divertimenti: ‘superb in every way’ (Fanfare), ‘a joy from start to finish’ (Europadisc), ‘sparkles with joy and chuckles with good humor’ (BBC Radio 3 ‘Record Review’). Continuing to explore the Harmoniemusik repertoire, the Wind Soloists’ new recording features youthful, entertaining and brilliant music by a young man who took Vienna by storm in the 1790s: Ludwig van Beethoven. The underrated Octet is a technically challenging concert piece in the Mozart tradition, but with the flair and unpredictability of the young Beethoven. In the Sextet, Beethoven exploits the differing characteristics of each instrument to great effect with the SCO’s legendary interplay on full display. Another gem is the short but sweet Rondino, which is full of subtle details, exquisite melodies and exhilaratingly high-speed horn playing.

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Everything here comes from the composer's early years. The lively and light-hearted Sextet is crisply played, finding a happy balance between bucolic vigor and expressive delicacy.

– Gramophone

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: Andrea Gruber; Marco Berti; Alberto Mastromarino; Carlo Colombara; Ildiko Komlosi; Elisabetta Fiorillo; Roberto Bolle, Letizia Giuliani, primi ballerini; Orchestra, Chorus and Corps de ballet of"Arena di Verona"/Donato Renzetti; Live recording: June 17, 2005 AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: La GiocondaNTSC All Region; Doby Digital 5.1, DTS; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; 162 minsSubtitled in Italian, English, French, German & Japanese.

Also available on Blu-ray

This opera, which had fallen into oblivion, was revived in 1973 in the Dutch city of Zaanstad (the Saardam of the libretto) and staged at Bergamo’s Teatro Sociale as part of the Donizetti Festival in a new critical edition made for the Donizetti Foundation by Alberto Sonzogni. In the plot, the Tsar Peter the Great works incognito as a carpenter at the shipyard of Sardaam to acquire technical knowledge to carry back home. On the podium, the knowledgeable Roberto Rizzi Brignoli leads the orchestra of the Donizetti Opera, assisted by the internationally renowned cinema director Davide Ferrario. In the cast, Andrea Concetti (a successful artist who has sung throughout the world) is joined by singers who are emerging in the belcanto repertoire, such as Giorgio Caoduro, Juan Francisco Gatell, Irina Dubrovskaya and Aya Wakizono.

SOUSA Music for Wind Band, Vol. 7 • Keith Brion, cond; Martin Hinton (cnt); 1 Royal Artillery Band • NAXOS 8.559247 (57: 26)


America First. The Presidential Polonaise. The Rifle Regiment. Congress Hall. El capitan. Intaglio Waltzes. Golden Jubilee. The Bride Elect. Sounds from the Revivals. 1 The Charlatan. Sheridan’s Ride. The Black Horse Troop. The Naval Reserve


Keith Brion, one of the foremost authorities on the music of Sousa, has been building an extensive library of Sousa’s music for Naxos since 1998, beginning with the first release (“On Stage,” Fanfare 22:1), which first appeared on marco polo in 1997. This is planned to be the most comprehensive collection of Sousa assembled, currently consisting of these seven volumes of wind band music, in addition to an earlier three volumes of Sousa for orchestra. In terms of wind music alone, Brion has so far released 86 works: marches, suites, waltzes, and novelty numbers. The current largest collection is by the Detroit Concert Band, which recorded all 116 published marches on five CDs (Walking Frog 300). The U.S. Marine Band’s set of four CDs, available as “A Box of Sousa” on Altissimo 5571, has 56 works. In terms of performances, the Marine Band is probably my favorite, with the Naxos set a very close second. Both compare favorably with the best single-disc releases, including Junkin with the Dallas Wind Symphony (Reference Recordings 94), Fennell with the Eastman Wind Ensemble (Mercury 434300), Foley with the American Main Street Band (EMI 54130), and Keith Brion with his own New Sousa Band (Delos 102 or Walking Frog 217), which includes seven restorations of recordings conducted by Sousa himself. The relative completeness of the Detroit release recommends it, but the performances often lapse into the routine. Besides, the Naxos set will eventually include 20 additional marches and dozens of concert works.


This seventh volume is as good a place to start as any, as it continues the series pattern of presenting a satisfying mix of the familiar ( El capitan and The Black Horse Troop ) and the unfamiliar ( Congress Hall and The Naval Reserve ), of marches derived from Sousa’s stage works ( El capitan , again, The Bride Elect and The Charlatan ), of Strauss-inspired waltzes ( Intaglio Waltzes ), of historical scenarios à la Wellington’s Victory , complete with battle sounds, racing horse hooves, and cheering ( Sheridan’s Ride ), and novelty numbers like Sounds from the Revivals , an arrangement of late-19th-century hymns which may have been written for Offenbach’s orchestra when they appeared at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.


James Camner has reviewed three of the earlier releases in the series for Fanfare : Vol. 2, 25:5, Vol. 3, 27:3, and Vol. 4, 28:1. In each he has pointed out the essential rightness of Brion’s performances. I concur. They are not so fast as to make them overbearing or cheaply exciting, but rather taken at a comfortable march tempo that allows the music to unfold naturally. The Royal Artillery Band, formed before the American colonies declared independence, plays with style and verve. Those who have learned their Sousa with (or in) larger concert bands may initially be surprised by the somewhat smaller sound of this ensemble, but in fact, this is the instrumentation that Sousa used in his own touring band. Sousa-lovers will want the whole series. The uncertain risk little, at Naxos’s bargain prices, by diving in here.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

The Faust Symphony, first performed in Weimar in 1857, is one of Franz Liszt’s most significant compositions. For the recording of his transcription of this work for organ, Hansjorg Albrecht played the celebrated Klais organ in the Philharmonic Hall of the Gasteig, Munich.Hansjörg Albrecht, conductor, organist and harpsichordist, is Artistic Director of the Munich Bach Choir & Bach Orchestra (founded by the legendary Karl Richter). In addition to this role he regularly conducts the Bach Collegium Munich, the Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo Naples and the C.P.E.-Bach-Choir Hamburg. With these ensembles as well as in collaboration with guest orchestras he has developed new programmatic profiles and is regular guest at major music centres and European festivals. Concerts as organist have taken Hansjörg Albrecht to a number of great concert halls and cathedrals in Europe and Russia as well as to Japan and the USA. He also guested with renowned orchestras such as Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra New York.

Classical Music

Oct. 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique’s founding. 20 years after their acclaimed Beethoven Symphony recordings for DG, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the orchestra continue to revisit this repertoire. The Second’s life-affirming energy is at times romantically tender and at other times ferociously determined. Beethoven’s adventurous spirit can be heard in the Eighth, which is buoyant and energetic with a spirit of wit and playfulness. The album’s 28 pg. booklet contains original notes by BBC presenter and music journalist Stephen Johnson.

This recording, unlike the previous two albums, was made in the newly renovated Slovak Philharmonic Hall. Reflecting the bright and festive atmosphere of this hall, this performance changes the heavy impression of anguished "Destiny" which has prevailed until now. The progression of this symphony, starting with the first movement which inspires violent anxiety, to a reversal in the warm and friendly second movement, to the wrenching third movement, and finishing with the strong resoluteness of the fourth movement, is testimony to the lifetime of Beethoven. The two works of Johann Strauss let you enjoy the good old Vienna atmosphere, appropriate to the home of this orchestra. Without aggressive pressure, with a characteristic generous and spacious tempo, this performance dispels the stern image which tends to follow this work around.

CLAUDE FRANK 85th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION • Claude Frank (pn) • SONO LUMINUS DSL-92122 (2 CDs: 138:12)


SCHUMANN Arabeske. Fantasiestücke: Warum. Kinderszenen: Traümerei. MOZART Piano Sonata in C, K 330. Rondo in a, K 511. SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in B?, D 960. BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas Nos. 30–32


The big question attached to this release is, “Why now?” Many collectors will recognize Claude Frank’s name from the complete set of Beethoven sonatas he recorded in the 1970s, and which were released on RCA Victrola LPs. (These now are available on Music & Arts.) There have been a couple of other releases since then—Beethoven’s and Schubert’s works for violin and piano, recorded with his daughter, Pamela Frank—but for the most part, Claude Frank is a major pianist who has been ignored by the recording industry. In other words, the present release is welcome, and very satisfying, and when I look at how many CDs Lang Lang has made since the start of his career, the infrequency of Frank’s recordings makes me mad.


Recorded in New York’s American Academy for Arts and Letters in 2008 and 2009, this pair of discs captures Frank a little before his 85th birthday. (He was born in 1925.) Initially, I thought that these were going to be live performances. Apparently they are not, but Frank’s playing, both intimate and communicative, suggests the presence of an audience of one—that being you, dear listener. Frank’s frequent vocalises, in the manner of Glenn Gould, will not endear these readings to everyone. Somehow, they add to the intimacy of the music-making.


In the generous booklet that accompanies this release, Frank discusses his lengthy studies with Artur Schnabel. (Frank studied with him between 1941 and 1951, but there was a break after he was drafted into the United States Army during World War II.) Frank’s repertory has much in common with Schnabel’s, and his playing resembles his teacher’s in several ways as well. Above all, effect for effect’s sake is rejected. Frank’s playing is not flashy, but it goes right to the music’s core like an arrow seeking the bull’s-eye. One way in which it differs from Schnabel’s is in Frank’s occasional use of a technique in which the left hand slightly anticipates the right. (This can be clearly heard in the middle movement, the Allegro molto, of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31.) I know this drives some listeners crazy, and if you are one of them, consider yourself warned. Frank doesn’t do it often enough to make it a mannerism, though. In the sequence of repeated G-Major chords that ushers in that final section, Frank (I think through a combination of pedaling and touch) creates a sonority I have never heard coming from a piano. A little later, in the final fugal section, Frank realizes Beethoven’s odd rhythmic dislocations with greater clarity than I have heard from any other pianist. In the three Beethoven sonatas, Frank does not suffer in comparison to his younger self, and the engineering is better, too.


The other performances are terrific as well. In Schubert’s sonata, Frank captures a quality that I consider essential to much of the composer’s later work, that being the song of a bird who sings still more beautifully even as he perceives that a cat is about to pounce on him. A similar quality pervades the Mozart Rondo in A Minor. Mozart’s Sonata in C is unaffected—it is neither fragile Dresden china nor a jolly rugby scrum. The Schumann miniatures are warm but not overly sentimental. Frank understands that romantic music does not mean “anything goes.” Above all, in all of these works, including the Beethoven, Frank lets the music speak for itself. Like the finest pianists at work today (Perahia, Lupu, Schiff, etc.), his personality supports the music and does not compete with it.


The musicianship on these discs stands up to anything else in front of the public at this time. Piano mavens whose heads are not turned by mere virtuosity should acquire this release immediately, if they have not done so already!


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle


These 2008/09 recordings were made in anticipation of Claude Frank's 85th birthday on December 24, 2010, and testify to the veteran pianist's seasoned musicianship and remarkably intact technique. Frank always has played Schubert's final sonata supremely well, and you can forgive the occasionally uneven phrase or split note in light of the pianist's warm tone and intelligently shaped long lines, especially in the first-movement development section and throughout the slow movement. Frank's moderate tempo for the Scherzo allows the music its lilting, delicate due, while the finale boasts genuine cumulative urgency and a driving coda that ought to keep younger pianists humble.

The Mozart C major K. 330 sonata sports characterful grace, wit, and spot-on timing. Frank's bracing and direct treatment of the Mozart A minor Rondo demonstrates how to convey expressive niceties through color and nuance rather than by monkeying around with tempo. Likewise, the Schumann short pieces elicit eloquent, tellingly proportioned artistry.

By and large Frank plays the last three Beethoven sonatas with greater deliberation and lyricism than in his relatively faster RCA studio versions from nearly four decades earlier. The incisive punch and accentuation of yore has given way to more songful phrasing and room to breathe, although Frank's dynamic range ventures less toward Beethoven's extremes. This is a memorable release showcasing Claude Frank in authoritative performances of the music he loves best.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Tchaikovsky has dedicated some of his finest music to the violin, but this new album expands the instrument’s repertoire even further. Inspired by greats such as Sarasate, Heifetz, Kreisler and Joachim, violinist Guy Braunstein reanimates a tradition of violin and orchestra rhapsodies with new arrangements of famous excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Swan Lake. Together with the extraordinary Violin Concerto, Valse Scherzo and Sérénade mélancolique, they constitute a collection of glittering Tchaikovsky Treasures. On this first PENTATONE album, Braunstein plays with the renowned BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by maestro Kirill Karabits. Violinist Guy Braunstein was born in Tel Aviv and studied under the guidance of Chaim Taub and later in New York with Glenn Dicterow and Pinchas Zuckerman. He started performing as an international soloist and a chamber musician at a young age and has since performed with many of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors. His chamber music collaborations have included projects with Issac Stern, András Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Maurizio Pollini, Yefim Bronfman, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Mitsuko Uchida and Angelika Kirschlager to name a few. He was the youngest person ever to be appointed concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2000, a position he held for twelve years before leaving to pursue his solo career.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

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Philippe Herreweghe has earned a reputation as a Baroque music specialist, yet his range stretches from the Renaissance to contemporary music. On this release he leads the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in the dramatic and eloquent Great C Major Symphony of Franz Schubert.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

"The orchestra is fine, its brass smooth, clean, deeply sonorous...the Pentatone SACD recording is clear and solid with exceptional dynamic range, and clean as a whistle...Janowski knows his Bruckner as well as anyone around." - American Record Guide

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Born in Mexico, Jorge Federico Osorio began his musical studies at the age of five with his mother. He studied at the conservatories of Mexico, Paris and Moscow and his teachers have included Jacob Milstein and Wilhelm Kempff, among others. Maximiano Valdes is Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain and as of September, 2002, Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile. He was born in Santiago and began his studies in piano and violin at the Conservatory of Music there and continued at the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome where he took courses in composition and conducting. Completing his diploma in piano, he decided to concentrate entirely on conducting and enrolled in the conducting classes of Franco Ferrara in Bologna, Siena and Venice and also worked with Sergiu Celibadache in Stuttgart and Paris.

Music for Ballet Lovers

Classical Music

Classical Music

The world-renowned Brentano String Quartet presents the Franz Schubert String Quintet with guest Michael Kannen. Recorded in concerts at Amherst College the energy of the live performance is evident in this stunning recording of Schubert's masterpiece.

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI: Marianna Pizzolato; Marco Vinco; Maxim Mironov; Bruno De Simone;Barbara Bargnesi; Jose Maria Lo Monaco; Alex Esposito; Prague Chamber Choir/Lubomir Malt; Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/Donato Renzetti; David Fo, director, set and costume designer; L GIOACCHINO ROSSINI: Italiana in Algeri, Dramma giocoso in two acts.NTSC All Region; LPCM 2.0; Dolby Digital 5.1; Color; 16/9; 150 mins; Subtitled in Italian, English, German & French.

Also available on Blu-ray

Based on a play by Carlo Goldoni, Rossini’s La Gazzetta revolves around a man who strangely tries to find a husband for his daughter by placing an ad in the newspaper. The Opera Royal de Wallonie closed its 2014 season with this opera buffa. This production was directed by Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera, and includes for the first time a Rossini quintet, which was discovered in 2012 and has been given its rightful place in Act One. Subtitles are available for this production in Italian, English, French, Germany, Japan, and Korea.

VERDI; GIORDANO; MEYERBEER; PUCCINI; MASSENET; DI CAPUA; CARILLO; DE CURTIS; TOSTI: Franco Corelli, tenor; NHK Orchestra/Alberto Ventura; Live: Tokyo, August 11, 1971NTSC All Region; Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; Aprox. 60 mins; Subtitled in Italian, English, French, Germa FRANCO CORELLI - THE 1971 TOKYO CONCERT.

Federico Sacchi; Patrizia Ciofi; Danilo Formaggia; Nicola Amodio
The Bratislava Chamber Chorus
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia/Luciano Acocella, conductor
Denis Krief, director

NTSC All Regions
DTS 5.1; PCM Stereo 2.0
Color Picture: 16:9 widescreen
Duration: 136 minutes
Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Japanese

WORLD PREMIERE DVD RECORDING

This is the version of I Capuleti e i Montecchi made for La Scala, where it was first staged on 26th December 1830, featuring two female voices in the roles of Romeo and Juliet. This opera is usually performed with a tenor as Romeo, but at La Scala Bellini found a different singing troupe which obliged him to cast not the en travesti warrior of Rossinian manner (like Tancredi, Arsace, Malcolm) but a wholly female Romeo, ardent and authoritative yet at the same time languid, sensual and soft. The choice of this Capuleti at the 2005 Martina Franca Festival was also dictated by the availability of Patrizia Ciofi. This great specialist of romantic belcanto had never been offered the role of Giulietta in Capuleti, a role, which is absolutely ideal for her vocal talents.

PARSIFAL

NABUCCO

Lesser known than Mozart and Verdi's Requiem, Donizetti's Messa di Requiem in D minor for the death of Vincenzo Bellini is infused with a deeply felt spirituality, that reveals the feelings of sincere admiration and friendship that he had towards the Sicilian composer, who died prematurely in 1835 in France, where the two were in tour with old and new operas rearranged for the local audience. Unfortunately Donizetti himself did not live long enough to hear his work performed, and the Messa was to be premiered only in 1870 in Bergamo, in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Donizetti is now buried. This release was recorded in that same location and the whole cast received very positive reviews, especially tenor Juan Francisco Gatell that sung the famous Ingemisco aria with an excellent use of mezzevoci and coloratura.