Classical Music

This unique collaboration of some of early music's most esteemed artists performing with period instruments and featuring the beautiful young Brazilian countertenor, José Lemos, truly showcases the exquisite melodies and exciting dance pieces that define the Sephardic culture of early Spain.

Classical Music

Classical Music

PORTER Viola Concerto 1. Speed Etude 2. Duo for Viola and Harp 3. Suite for Viola Alone. Blues Lontains 2. Poem 2. Duo for Viola and Harpsichord 4. Duo for Violin and Viola 5 • Eliesha Nelson (va); John McLaughlin Williams ( 2 pn, 4 hpd, 5 vn, 1 cond); 3 Douglas Rioth (hp); 1 Northwest Sinfonia • DORIAN 90911 (73:47)


Mention Porter and the composer who usually leaps to mind is Cole, creator of the 1948 Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate . That Quincy Porter (1897–1966) comes to mind second, if at all, is a mystery, considering the pivotal role he played in helping to fashion a recognizably distinct American musical vernacular. Horatio Parker, who taught Charles Ives, was also one of Porter’s teachers at Yale. After earning two degrees there, Porter went to Paris for a year to study at d’Indy’s Schola Cantorum and then, on returning to the U.S., he continued his studies under Ernest Bloch. In 1928, under a Guggenheim fellowship, Porter returned to Paris, this time for three years to study with Nadia Boulanger, following in the footsteps of Aaron Copland. Two of the works on this disc, the Blues Lontains (1928) and the Suite for Viola Alone (1930), were written during his second stay in Paris. Back home again, Porter would bring much as an educator to the Cleveland Institute of Music, Vassar College, the New England Conservatory of Music, and his alma mater, Yale.


Porter’s primary instrument was violin—for his graduation exercise he wrote a violin concerto in the style of Brahms—though as must be obvious from the disc at hand, titled Complete Viola Works , he played viola as well and had a special fondness for it. In fact, his Viola Concerto on this disc is considered by many to be his crowning achievement. Among his other major works are two symphonies, nine string quartets, a harpsichord concerto, and the Concerto Concertante for two pianos and orchestra. Porter’s musical vocabulary is basically tonal, though he didn’t shy away from free chromaticism, dissonance, and rhythmic complexity. Essentially, his style is that of a postromantic/Impressionist in a mold not entirely unlike that of Howard Hanson, with whom he was friends, and Walter Piston.


The starring viola role here goes to Eliesha Nelson, a very talented player who, according to her biography, was born in North Pole, Alaska. From deepfreeze to the sauna, she went to Fort Lauderdale where she served as associate principal and acting principal viola of the Florida Philharmonic, which, through no fault of hers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May of 2003. Complaining that it was too hot for her there, Nelson left Florida in 2000 before the nasty bankruptcy business and landed a position playing in the Cleveland Orchestra, where she could freeze in the winter and her viola could come unglued in the summer from the humidity.


If Nelson is star of this show, John McLaughlin Williams is its master of all trades. He is conductor of the Northwest Sinfonia, a Seattle-based ensemble, which he leads through a gorgeous performance of Porter’s sumptuously scored Viola Concerto; sits at the piano for the Speed Etude, Blues Lontains , and Poem ; takes on the harpsichord in the Duo for Viola and Harpsichord; and plays violin in the Duo for Violin and Viola. His violin credentials are especially impressive. He served as concertmaster for the Virginia Symphony and as guest concertmaster for the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Bolshoi, Kirov, and American Ballet Theater orchestras.


The eight works on this disc span almost 30 years of Porter’s career, from the 1928 Blues Lontains written, as noted, by the 31-year-old composer in Paris, to the duos for viola and harp and for viola and harpsichord, both written in 1957. The concerto Speed Etude and Poem for viola and piano all date from 1948, and the Duo for Violin and Viola from 1954. Porter of course composed a not insignificant number of works before, after, and in between those heard here; they just weren’t for viola.


The Speed Etude , as its name suggests, is a breezy perpetual motion piece that runs the viola through its range from bottom to top with rapid scales and string-crossing arpeggios reminiscent of the cadenza in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.


Porter puts the harpsichord to use in his Duo for Viola and Harpsichord, in a manner quite different from the way Poulenc used it in his famous Concert champêtre . Porter’s piece is alternately dolorous and contrapuntally energetic in a way that I suspect takes its cue from Bach’s gamba sonatas—very beautiful.


The Duo for Viola and Harp avoids the French Impressionist clichés that so often attend works that pair one or two instruments with harp in an intimate setting. This doesn’t mean, though, that Porter escapes the Impressionist trap altogether; it’s just an Impressionism of a different stripe, one with strong overtones of the English pastoralists, but with a recurring rhythmic hoedown or fiddling episode that could only be American.


The concerto, as alluded to above, may be Porter’s masterpiece. Again, especially in the Largo first movement, an impression of idyllic English pastures and distant, blurred hills put me in mind of Vaughan Williams’s tone poem In the Fen Country . The mood is soon dispelled, however, by the busy, bouncy second movement, but it returns once more in the concluding Largo.


Eliesha Nelson performs every one of these works with exquisite artistry, drawing the kind of rich, dark tone from her viola that bathes the ears in a silky chocolate mousse. Once or twice, with my super-sensitivity to pitch, I do notice that occasionally on very high notes on the A string near the top of the fingerboard, unless Porter wrote quarter tones or even eighth tones, which I don’t think he did, Nelson’s intonation can be just the slightest bit off. But then I tend to hear such things when others don’t, so you can ignore what I just said. Besides, it passes so quickly, you probably won’t notice, and Nelson repays tenfold with such voluptuously alluring playing in music so beguiling that I’m inclined to extend a very warm welcome to this release and the strongest recommendation.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Classical Music

This set includes a blu-ray audio CD playable on blu-ray players only and a standard CD playable on all CD players.

GRAMMY-nominated Ronn McFarlane is joined by Mindy Rosenfeld to present this recording. Explained by Rosenfeld, it’s “about gathering some of our favorites, a musical feast. A wide cross section of styles… these timeless tunes from past centuries still touch us in ways words cannot, stirring our life energy.”

This set includes a blu-ray audio CD playable on blu-ray players only and a standard CD playable on all CD players.

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Even in a catalog crowded with world-class Debussy Préludes Book II cycles, Michael Lewin has a lot to offer. The intricate fingerwork in Nos. 1, 4, 8, 11 and 12 combine muted hues and blueprint clarity, while sustained neutral tones create haunting long lines throughout Nos. 2 and 10. The disc opens with pianist/transcriber Koji Attwood’s beautiful reworking of the song “Beau Soir,” followed by myriad short works. Although Lewin’s cut and dried Valse romantique and La Plus que lente may lack charm and sentiment to certain ears, L’isle joyeux and Etude pour les octaves release their pent-up tension to impressive effect.

– Jed Distler, Listen Magazine

Classical Music

No Baroque composer is more beloved than Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), and no contemporary ensemble brings to his music more joy than Musica Pacifica. Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin, and Judy Linsenberg, recorder, lead a stellar ensemble on oboe, cello, lute, and harpsichord, in performances of great elegance and flair. Full of elation and engaging vitality, this CD is a delight from start to finish. Priest, teacher, and composer, Vivaldi produced an enormous amount of music, including more than 500 sonatas. This program consists of sonatas and 'chamber' concertos, including one of his most famous works, 'La Notte' (The Night) RV 104.

This recording serves as a wonderful sound bite from Naples in the early 18th century, when it was a hotbed of far-reaching musical developments. Francesco Mancini's Concerti da camera, or chamber concertos, both register those developments and capture the excitement of that moment. They are, strictly speaking, neither solo concertos nor concerti grossi (which consist of several featured instruments against the backdrop of a larger string ensemble). Mancini drew freely from both types of concertos and also looked to opera and church music, and the resulting works show a wonderful mix of styles. The gracious slow movements owe a debt to Handel, while certain fast movements, such as the last movement of Sonata No. 10 in B-flat Major, anticipate the frothy textures of the comic operas of Pergolesi, Mancini's younger fellow Neapolitan. Featured in several of the concertos, the recorder is often given the most lyrical passages. Musica Pacifica's Judith Linsenberg breathes these melodies with a lovely, controlled tone, and is supported by a terrifically coordinated ensemble of musicians.

Georg Philipp Telemann was a consummate master of various national musical styles, from Italian to French to his own German, a point emphatically emphasized in this disc's liner notes. The program itself, however, seeks to highlight yet another dimension of Telemann's compositional universe--the Polish style. His affinity for and interest in this music was fostered by his exposure to Polish folk music and other idioms during time spent in service of the court of Count Erdmann II and as a result of extensive travels through the country. While this translates into specific dance movements in the suites and concertos presented on this disc, it also involves the use of certain instruments and unusual tunings--exemplified by the "rustic"-sounding flute pastorelle played with virtuoso flair by Matthias Maute in the opening E-flat suite. This piece is full of charming dances--including one of Telemann's loveliest Sarabandes and a Bourrée with clever echo effects between flute and strings.


Similarly, the Concerto for Traverso (a Baroque flute) and strings offers one colorful and captivating movement after another, beginning with a jaunty Moderato and concluding with an insistent, driving Vivace. The Concerto Polonoise for strings begins with the emphatically rhythmic traditional Polish dance and ends with a strangely herky-jerky Allegro. The final Suite for Recorder and strings opens with a typical French overture and follows with a delightful mix of French, Italian, and Polish movements. All the performers are in top form, exhibiting complete mastery and often dazzling virtuosity in passages that in lesser hands would have far milder impact. Of course, compared with flutist Chris Norman (one of Dorian's premier solo artists and a member of the Baltimore Consort) Maute's playing, exceptional as it is, can seem a bit rough around the edges, and the sound, from the famed Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, is just a bit too close for my ideal comfort level (especially with the penetrating flute and recorder). But these are very fussy murmurs about performances that speak strongly and convincingly of their eminent value as documents of these rarely explored pages of the Telemann canon.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Thoughts of home dominate much of the music Raffi Besalyan performs here. Rachmaninoff's B-Minor Prelude, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's painting 'The Return', was a constant companion in his exile, a favorite for his own recitals and a reminder of his years in Russia. Based in Moscow for much of his adult life, Arno Babajanian (1921-83) looked back to his native Armenia in music that mixed Rachmaninov and Chopinesque influences and Armenian folk idioms with the virtuosic pianism of the Russian school. Mr. Besalyan, an Armenian pianist based in the US, brings their music together in a program infused with warm memories, evocations of far off places, and reminders of earlier times. Raffi Besalyan made his formal New York debut in Carnegie Hall after winning the Artists Int'l Competition. He has established an international reputation as a magnetic and passionate recitalist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician. A keyboard phenomenon that needs to be heard by everyone interested in pianists and the piano. - Fanfare Magazine A formidable pianist with a commanding presence and rich interpretive gifts. - American Record Guide.

Recording information: Baker Estate, Pebble Beach, California.