The first release in a new partnership between Classical Opera and Signum Records begins with Mozart’s remarkable sacred singspiel Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, composed when he was just eleven. The music is full of tender beauty, dynamism and descriptive flair, and the young composer’s innate sense of understanding and sympathy for the human condition already shines through.

The story follows the efforts of The Spirit of Christianity (Andrew Kennedy) – aided by Divine Justice (Cora Burggraaf ) and Divine Mercy (Sarah Fox) – to win back the heart of a Lapsed Christian (Allan Clayton) as he lies fast asleep. In opposition to this however stands The Spirit of Worldliness (Sophie Bevan), who urges the Christian to forget what The Spirit shows him and to follow her pleasure-seeking philosophies. As Justice and Mercy withdraw to observe, The Spirit of Christianity seeks to win back the lapsed Christian, but will this lost soul be able to resist the temptations of indulgence and short-term satisfaction that Worldliness offers?

The second disc in this 2CD Set is an Enhanced CD, with an exclusive 10-minute feature on the making of the recording additional libretto and programme note translations. Full German to English translations included in the booklet.

Includes work(s) by Claudio Monteverdi. Ensembles: Rodolfus Choir, English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble. Conductor: Ralph Allwood.

Lullabies for Mila is dedicated to Alessio Bax’s daughter, Mila. The album begins with a moving dedication: “This album is not only a carefully curated playlist of soothing classics to calm a baby and perhaps make him or her fall asleep quicker. It is also a gift from parents to their children, with the hope that they will share music with their loved ones, not just to entertain them but also to enrich their lives.”; This disc compiles works from Bax’s past Signum albums, including performances with Southbank Sinfonia and Lucille Chung. It also contains a new recording of the Grieg’s Nocturne from his Lyric Pieces.; Alessio Bax is a celebrated and award-winning pianist. Gramophone says “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” and the Dallas Morning News calls it “an out of body experience.” He has performed as a soloist with over 100 orchestras.

The inimitable James Rhodes performs live in an intimate concert recorded live at the Arts Theatre, London.

RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin. Pavane pour une infante défunte. FAURÉ Pavane. POULENC Piano Concerto. IBERT Divertissement • Christopher Warren-Green, cond; London CO; Pascal Rogé (pn) • SIGNUM SIGCD211(66:09) Live: London 5/25/2008; 4/21/2010


This CD has been a happy surprise. I worried initially, as one does at the thought of a chamber orchestra undertaking orchestral repertoire, that the sense of scale might demand a listener’s indulgence at critical moments. Chamber orchestras can sometimes strain to project power, and in so doing give the impression of a larger orchestra thinly recorded. But the London Chamber Orchestra is a fairly large group of about 65. Here, if there is any criticism, it is that the Ravel and Fauré pieces, set down on a separate program, have been recorded almost too closely by the engineers. The venue is St. John’s, Smith Square, London, which is capable of a bit more air around the sound, as the Poulenc and Ibert works happily reveal.


But even so, the refinement and sense of scale immediately evident in Christopher Warren-Green’s performance of Tombeau make one forget any concerns. A little claustrophobia in the presence of death never hurts. Ravel composed two orchestral war works, La Valse, which speaks from the dark side of gaiety, and the four orchestral Couperin selections taken here from his piano suite. They are played beautifully. Le Tombeau de Couperin projects an alabaster moonlit dignity. It has always reminded me a bit of Henri Rousseau’s painting The Sleeping Gypsy, where, passing in the night, a lion bends over a sleeping human figure with something approaching metaphysical respect. And one could hardly ask more of the two pavanes than that they be solemn and flowing, as done here.


But my enthusiasm for these performances is only augmented when we come to the Poulenc Piano Concerto and the Ibert Divertissement. I’m immediately struck by how soft and appealing Pascal Rogé’s piano sounds in the acoustic environment. And the orchestral complement manages considerable warmth, while at the same time scaling down the blattyness that can sometimes infect the piece. Poulenc and Ibert are tricky composers to get right. Imagine a pair of French Leonard Bernsteins who don’t seem to know from one moment to the next when not to burst into “Officer Krupke” from West Side Story , and you have the essence of the problem. Find the wit, but deep-six the razzmatazz.


Happily, Christopher Warren-Green has their measure and keeps them within bounds. More importantly, he finds the sincerity in the music and you come away liking it. The slow movement of the Piano Concerto conveys a timeless sadness, and the quiet atmospherics in the Ibert are as enjoyable as the more motoric moments. Notes by Peter Quantrill, too, have a special and direct charm. You can’t really improve on his description of the Nocturne: “You can almost see Belmondo and rings of cigarette smoke through the light string haze”. Exactly. And of course, New York listeners familiar with WQXR will hear “Parade” and know it is time for lunch! Bon appétit!


FANFARE: Steven Kruger

Internationally renowned soloist Lucille Chung performs a programme of virtuosic and beguiling works by Franz Liszt. One of the first female students of the iconic Russian pianist Lazar Berman at the Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy, Chung has won numerous awards for her performances of Liszt’s music, including the B minor Sonata that features on this programme – although Lucille describes in her introduction to the programme how Berman “... for a time doubted that a diminutive lady with hands spanning a 9th (although I can now stretch a 10th on a good day) would ever succeed in playing Liszt well ... Mr Berman came around.” Renowned for her “blazing gutsy performance[s]” (The Washington Post), Lucille Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, “combining vigour and suppleness with natural eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir).

Coupling powerful interpretations with path-breaking scholarship, the choir Contrapunctus presents music by the best-known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. Directed by Owen Rees, a specialist in music of the 16th and 17th centuries, the group presents imaginative programmes revealing previously undiscovered musical treasures and throwing new light on familiar works.

This recording explores the musical 'cries of the oppressed' from opposite ends of Europe, which include some of the most powerful works composed in England and Portugal during this period by Byrd, Tallis, de Monte and Cardoso. The highlight perhaps is the first recording of a newly reconstructed vocal work by Thomas Tallis, 'Libera nos'. This has long been thought to be an instrumental work, and has been recorded as such, but there's persuasive historical evidence for us to be confident that this is in fact a choral setting of the antiphon 'Libera nos', and it is performed here with the relevant text restored to the five vocal parts.

LET THE BRIGHT SERAPHIM • Christopher Monks, cond; Elin Manahan Thomas (sop); Crispian Steele-Perkins (tpt); Armonico Consort (period instruments) • SIGNUM SAGCD289 (59:07)

BACH Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51. A. SCARLATTI Su le sponde del Tebro. TELEMANN Trumpet Concerto in D. HANDEL Music for the Vauxhall Gardens: HWV 63, 14, 42, 20, 74. Water Music: Overture; Air; Hornpipe. Samson, HWV 57, “Let the Bright Seraphim”

When does an early-music ensemble go Pop? Or Mod for that matter? The answer may well be when it’s Armonico Consort, with its very eclectic and sometimes even bizarre (though they call it “original”) programming, which features themed concerts designed to attract new audiences to classical music. To read the description of their concerts so far, with rubrics such as “Too Hot to Handel,” “Naked Byrd,” or “Monteverdi’s Flying Circus,” one wonders whether this is a revamped branding in order to be hip, or if someone in Britain has gone off the reservation. Whatever one’s view of this sort of advertising, there is little doubt that they have made some impressive achievements, such as founding the AC Academy for interactive music education, which will no doubt assure a bright future for music in England, at least. This disc seems to take a more sedate view, using George Fredrick Handel’s famous aria from Samson as the title. Here, the ensemble under Christopher Monks partners with soprano Elin Manahan Thomas and trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins, both well-known superstars in the early-music world, to create a program of favorites.

The cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen is a tried and true soprano display piece, whose final Alleluia is a magnificent tour de force for both voice and clarion trumpet, especially since it follows on to the sedate cantus firmus colophon “Sei Lob und Preis” in typically Bachian cantata style. The Scarlatti cantata too is a favorite for sopranos seeking to outdo the great Farinelli, while every trumpeter worth anything has in his or her repertory the Telemann D-Major Trumpet Concerto, with its flashy runs and showy sequences. Where the program departs from the ordinary is with the so-called “Music for the Vauxhall Gardens,” a paean towards the popular outdoors venue in London during the 18th century, where summer concerts were given in a rather impressive pavilion. The five pieces include a sort of greatest hits parade compiled by Steele-Perkins after similar bits and pieces published in the 1740s by John Walsh, concluding with some works from the Water Music , once ascribed to Handel but now probably by one of his subordinates, John Grano (1692-1748), and of course the title aria. As a concert, it is recognizable, even perhaps a bit well worn, since almost all of the pieces have been recorded previously by people such as Steele-Perkins himself and Emma Kirkby.

The result is something that purists might find redundant, though the performances themselves are quite good. Thomas has a nice, vibrant voice that blends well with the period instruments, and the Consort is both in tune and has some nice phrasing in these warhorses, which is the mark of absolute professionalism. Steele-Perkins performs ably for his part, with just enough variability to be able to discern the valveless quality of his natural trumpet, performing the various virtuoso parts with agility and alacrity. My hesitancy in the face of such a performance is that most who are knowledgeable of the period will not find these renditions out of the ordinary, even though they are expert. Moreover, the program itself will only appeal to a certain audience since many listeners will already have equally expert recordings of entire pieces at hand, though perhaps not all on one disc. Still, if one is just beginning to explore either the world of the Baroque, or even classical music at all, this should have some appeal.

FANFARE: Bertil van Boer

Tenebrae and Nigel Short present this new release of compositions by Alexander L’Estrange. Alexander L’Estrange is one of Britain’s most popular and most frequently performed living choral composers. “One gorgeous piece after another… this is an album I will return to again and again; I recommend it warmly to all lovers of choral music.” (John Rutter)

Orlande de Lassus, Europe's most famous musician during his lifetime, created nothing finer than the Lagrime di San Pietro, a collection of twenty spiritual madrigals and one motet for seven voices; A cycle of intense reflections on the sorrows of St Peter following his denial of Christ, it was assembled shortly before the composer's death in 1594 and dedicated to Pope Clement VIII. Into this collection Lassus pours every dramatic nuance and piece of harmonic invention he could possibly muster, hurling the listener through the stages of Peter's rage, remorse and resignation, and concluding with a motet which presents Christ's response to the world. Gallicantus (Latin for 'song of the rooster') add to their already impressive catalogue of works on Signum with this new recording. Their previous release The Word Unspoken: Sacred Music by William Byrd and Philippe de Monte was picked as one of the best discs 2012 by BBC Radio 3 CD Review.

The King's Singers present a disc of some of their best and most requested repertoire. We are all shaped, perhaps unconsciously, by the landscape and time in which we live. This evocative and spiritual programme, which contains five King's Singers commissions, explores the links between human life and its surroundings through the differing personal languages of poets and composers.

REVIEW:

Kodály’s Missa Brevis had its premiere in the cloakroom of the opera house in war-torn Budapest in 1945, with gunshots sounding in the streets outside. Poulenc’s Mass in G was written in 1937, when the composer was rediscovering his heavily scented religious faith: “I like an austerity that smells of orange blossom or jasmine,” he said, which could be a description of this work. These two contrasting masses and Janácek’s Lord’s Prayer (Ot?e náš) are sung with characteristic “European” ripeness of tone and precision by the choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, with Joseph Wicks and Glen Dempsey (organ) and Anne Denholm (harp). Excellent notes, too, from Richard Bratby and director Andrew Nethsingha. Another worthwhile disc from this top collegiate choir.

– Guardian (UK)

"Both singers respond magnificently to Korngold's testing vocal lines" BBC Music Magazine Erich Korngold is perhaps best known as the pioneering émigré composer whose grand orchestral scores defined the sound of film during the golden age of Hollywood. As well as this though, his output for voice in the form of Lieder and Song highlighted the strong bond that Korngold forever held with his homeland and the city of Vienna, a place inextricably linked to the High-Romantic style that Korngold so ably perfected. This collection of songs and lieder are beautifully performed by Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) and William Dazeley (baritone), accompanied by renowned pianist and broadcaster Iain Burnside.

Winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, 1998 Pulitzer Prize, and 2011 Nemmers Award, Aaron Jay Kernis is one of America’s most honored composers. His music appears prominently on concert programs worldwide, and he has been commissioned by America’s preeminent performing organizations and artists, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco, Toronto, and Melbourne (AU) Symphonies. The Viola Concerto – composed for the soloist Paul Neubauer – was in its first instance inspired and informed by the viola music of Robert and Clara Schumann, but takes on a number of other influences. Taking the performers own interest in folk music as an influence too, the final movement A Song My Mother Taught Me is based on the well-known Yiddish song Tumbalalaika. Dreamsongs also follows folk influences, following inspiration from sources including aboriginal ‘dreamsongs’ and the West African djembe drum. A virtuosic work, it was developed in collaboration with the cellist Joshua Roman who features as soloist in this recording. Conductor Rebecca Miller leads the Royal Northern Sinfonia in the final work Concerto with Echoes, inspired by the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto.

The BBC Singers continue their critically lauded and award- nominated series of composer-led recordings with a new disc of works by Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir.

Recorded in the unique acoustic of the Temple Church, London, the BBC Singers are joined by the church’s choristers and the contemporary music ensemble Endymion, in a retrospective of Weir’s works drawn from a 25-year period.