Stravinsky's music for violin and piano was written for his duo with violinist Samuel Dushkin. Both the Suite Italienne and Divertimento are arrangements of ballet scores, each work in turn an alchemic transformation of Baroque and Romantic styles into Stravinsky's distinctive idiom. The enigmatic but unwaveringly expressive Duo Concertant was Stravinsky's only original work in this form. Huebl and Wait were acclaimed for their recording of Schnittke's complete Sonatas (8.570978). Mark Wait received two GRAMMY nominations for his disc of Elliott Carter's Piano Concerto (8.559151). Violinist Carolyn Huebl is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader, and has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Argentina and Canada, winning critical acclaim. Pianist Mark Wait is Dean and Professor at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. His recording of Elliott Carter's Piano Concerto (Naxos 8.559151) was nominated for a 2004 GRAMMY-« award for Best Classical Album and Best Instrumental Solo Performance with Orchestra.

Aaron Copland's suite from the ballet Appalachian Spring won him a Pulitzer Prize and global recognition. The famous Quaker song 'Simple Gifts' and the American ambience of this suite contrast with the more modernist Symphonic Ode, which conveys rugged grandeur through an uncompromising structural unity. Neglected since the late 1960s, Paul Creston's music was once amongst the most frequently performed of any American composer. His poetic Symphony No. 3 is an orchestral Life of Christ, movingly expressed through themes inspired by Gregorian chant.

The Places - the scenes shown are of the Benedictine Abbey and Church at Einsiedeln, in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. The monastery, in origin dating from the 10th century, was largely rebuilt in the 18th century to designs by Caspar Moosbrugger of Vorarlberg, a former lay brother in the community, and has long been an important centre of pilgrimage to the shrine of the Black Madonna, now in a black marble chapel built in the early 19th century. The impressive interior of the church contains frescos by Cosmas Damian Asam and stucco work by his brother Egid Quirin Asam. The Music - the tour is accompanied by the third and fourth of the four Orchestral Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach and a Concerto for oboe, violin and continuo by Antonio Vivaldi.

The so-called 'lost generation' of German composers includes many whose lives were shaped by events after 1933. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise buy CD music One such was Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, a composer of strong spiritual depth whose 1953 Violin Concerto was rooted in his wartime experiences. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise songs Ingeniously constructed, it subtly evokes the influence of Bach, without at all embracing neo-classicism. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise album for sale Its moving slow movement is followed by a finale that marries virtuosity with dance-like magnetism. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise CD music The Partita is much admired for its color and vitality, whilst the Polonaise is a lighter work, brimming with high spirits. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise buy CD music GRAMMY--winner conductor and composer Jose Serebrier is one of today's most recorded classical artists. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise songs He has received 39 GRAMMY- nominations in recent years. His First Symphony (8.559648) was premiered by Leopold Stokowski (who premiered several of his works) when Serebrier was 17, as a last-minute replacement for the then still unplayable Ives Fourth Symphony.

The Places - the Puppet Museum in Munich houses a remarkable display of puppets of all kinds, from string and hand puppets to the shadow puppets of China. Nuremberg, famous for it's toys, has a Toy Museum, with exhibits ranging from the earliest times to the more nearly contemporary. From this collection we see a doll's house, accurate in every detail, and some of the museum's mechanical toys, in working order. The Music - the tour is accompanied by a series of popular piano pieces, ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Saint-Sa++ns and Debussy. Mozart's Turkish March is followed by Beethoven's so-called Rage over a Lost Penny. Included is a Chopin Waltz, a Mendelssohn Song Without Words and Tchaikovsky's Chanson triste. The music ends with Liszt's piano transcription of the Danse macabre of Saint-Saens.

GERMANY



The Places
The city of Nuremberg owes its importance partly to its geographical position, which made it a significant centre for trade. In spite of considerable damage, its old medieval city, now restored, remains as a monument to its importance in the late Middle Ages. By the 16th-century Nuremberg had become a centre of trade and of artistic activity. In art it could boast the presence of Albrecht Dürer and in poetry Hans Sachs and the Guild of Mastersingers, later to be celebrated by Wagner.
The Music
The son of Leopold Mozart, the Deputy Kapellmeister at the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had grown up at the archiepiscopal court, to be employed there, like his father, in a childhood and early adolescence interrupted by long concert tours as an infant prodigy. He excelled as a pianist, but was also a proficient violinist, and two of the three Violin Sonatas included here date from years in which he tried briefly to escape from Salzburg and find employment elsewhere, with the third written in 1781, when he was first establishing himself in independence in Vienna, where he was to die ten years later.



Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 53 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Gerard Schwarz starts Daphnis et Chloé in a very slow tempo that suggests a funeral procession, but then takes the following Danse religieuse surprisingly quickly. Such extremes of tempo—he runs the concluding Bacchanale at such a blazing pace that you can hardly imagine ballet dancers being able to keep up—tends to draw attention more to the conductor than to the music. Still, Schwarz manages to conjure the enchanted atmosphere of the piece (especially in the more exotic passages) with great help from the Seattle Symphony, which plays marvelously—particularly the strings with their beguilingly silken tone.

Schwarz emphasizes the score’s refined textures, making the piece sound more like the 20th-century work that it is, rather than a backward glance at Rimsky-Korsakov (as others, mostly notably Gergiev, do). The recorded sound is splendid, easily capturing fine details in the wide dynamic range (even if the wind machine is less than ideally audible).

Following Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé with Hovhaness’ similarly Greek-themed Meditation on Orpheus is a clever bit of programming. It’s a beautiful and mesmerizing work that mixes the meditative and the rhapsodic in that quintessentially Hovhanessian manner. Schwarz and his orchestra offer a brilliantly realized and impeccably played performance. Not a disc to replace Munch or Boulez, but still a fine choice.

– Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

VENICE

The Places
A city built on an archipelago of 117 islets, Venice is remarkable in many ways. Unsullied by modern traffic, its buildings retain much of their historic character and something of the magic of the place is reflected in our tour which starts and ends with the lagoon, after visiting the islands of Burano, Murano, Torcello and San Michele.
The Music
Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his collection of twelve concertos, L’Estro Armonico (Harmonic Inspiration), published in Amsterdam in 1711.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 57 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W:
Of all the tourist traps I have managed to visit, from China’s Great Wall to Paris via Granada, Rome, Florence and many other venues, Venice is the one that really blew me away. As one of the great Italian city-states of the medieval period it could be said to vie with Florence as a major centre of art and culture in the Renaissance with affluent families supporting the arts as well as wars. Now capital of the Veneto region, it is located at the very head of the Adriatic 4 km from the mainland of Italy to which it is joined by a causeway. It comprises more than one hundred small islands traversed by canals, there is no road traffic. Between the city and the Adriatic are the lagoons, expanses of water sheltered from the open sea by sandbanks and by the longer island of the Lido, the beach resort of the city. The lagoons are divided into Laguna Viva and Laguna Morta, alive and dead, the latter only underwater during spring high tides.
 
In the Venice lagoons are found several of the major islands included in this musical journey. The start is in the city itself with views of the Grand Canal at dusk and then seen as a boat looks back at the mighty Campanile of St. Marks. On the island of San Michele is the earliest Renaissance church of Venice, dating from the 15th century. This is the cemetery island where the city buried their dead. For some time demand has exceeded supply of space, and bones are removed. Despite this, elegant marble and colourful floral tributes abound with the sight of snow on the ground to remind the viewer that it is cold around here in winter (CH.1). The booklet reminds us that among the more permanent of the graves are those of the great Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer Igor Stravinsky and the American poet Ezra Pound.
 
The music throughout this journey is taken from Vivaldi’s set of twelve concertos known as L'Estro Armonico, first published in 1711. Himself a violinist of ability, his music receives due string sonority and grace of phrasing by the instrumentalists of Capella Istropolitana under Josef Kopelman. There are serious attempts to match changes of tempi in the various movements to change of venue.
 
After the cemetery island the journey continues to the still canal waters of Torcello and the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta (CH.2). Its elegant interior houses a timeless mosaic of Madonna and Child and also an extensive Last Judgement, both from the late twelfth century but having received restoration. The early twelfth century Church of Santa Fosca is only interesting as regards its octagonal shape
 
The island of Burano (CH.4), the home of the composer Galuppi, has a certain timelessness too, with its visually dated shops, colourful fishing boats and lace-making. However it is the visit to the glass-making factory on Murano, for which the island is famous, that will draw the eye and the stirrings of covetousness (CH.5). To see the production of such things of beauty and intricacy is a delight; to be able to afford to buy one, or even a few of them to adorn one's home would be pleasant indeed.
 
The journey concludes (CH.6) with a return to Venice itself, past the Arsenal (built 1104) and a brief view of the Academia Bridge and the backwater canals and warehouses. Venice is now a city of industry as well as Grand Palaces such as that of Francesco Da Mosta whose series of programmes for the BBC is now available on DVD (BBCDVD2145). The programmes may lack music, but make up for it in informed narrative and superb photography. The latter is normally a strength of this series but, made in winter as indicated by the snow scenes and leafless trees, a little too much depends on the atmosphere of half-light and that of the lagoon directional buoys.
 
-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International

The four English composers represented on this disc were all born within a generation, and were inspired by the pioneering violist Lionel Tertis. Bainton's 1922 Viola Sonata veers restlessly between autumnal song and militaristic intensity, possibly influenced by his wartime experiences. Theodore Holland's Suite in D is a theatrical, wide-ranging work full of ingenious themes, whilst York Bowen's Piece for Viola is brief but ardent. Bantock's Viola Sonata, by contrast, is a large-scale, powerful and rhapsodic statement full of profuse lyricism and romantic feeling. Since making her concerto debut with the Philharmonia in 1992, and as a recitalist at the Wigmore Hall in 1997, Sarah-Jane Bradley has established a distinguished international reputation as a soloist and chamber musician. She is a pioneer of new works and has given the premieres and recorded a number of new concertos for solo viola.

The expressive range and versatility of the wind ensemble is exemplified in this program from one of the world's leading ensembles of it's kind, which presents classics of the genre alongside new works. Wayne Oquin's Tower Ascending pulsates with urban power whilst Richard Lorenz explores a web of Latin American music. Michael Tilson Thomas distils old and new perspectives and James Mobberely offers affecting Words of Love. We also hear Copland's indelible Fanfare for the Common Man, Vaughan Williams's intricate Toccata Marziale and Stravinsky's brilliantly virtuosic Concerto.

An almost essential purchase for everyone interested in contemporary British music.

After the success of Peter Maxwell Davies's ten 'Naxos' Quartets commissioned by the label (see review of boxed set for details), here come the Symphonies, with the first five re-released by Naxos in 2012 so far.
 
Like the first two and the following two, this recording of Symphony no.3 originally appeared on the now subsumed Collins Classics label in the mid-Nineties (14162). Back then, it was the only work on the disc, the ink still wet on the score of Cross Lane Fair, which came out a year later on the same label (14602), coupled with the much shorter Fifth Symphony.
 
The Third is a sprawling, elemental work, as wind-swept and rain-lashed as Maxwell Davies's home on Orkney, although the tumultuous seascape is perhaps more abstractly represented than in the Second Symphony. Those who know the composer only through the simple, pretty piano piece Farewell to Stromness, or even his most popular orchestral piece, An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise, are in for a surprise!
 
The Malcolm Arnoldish pizzazz, wit and sound effects of An Orkney Wedding are more in evidence in the nine-section Cross Lane Fair, in which Maxwell Davies reanimates childhood fairground visits around his native Salford. Quite what Northumbrian smallpipes and Irish bodhrán players were doing in Salford is never explained, nor how he manages to recall so vividly the sounds and atmosphere of evenings from nearly sixty years previously, when by his own admission a lad of only four or five!
 
Northumbrian smallpipes are like the archetypal Highland bagpipes but smaller, and kept inflated by an underarm bellows rather than a player's necessarily strong lungs. Their harmonica-like tone, as this recording demonstrates, is considerably softer than the bagpipes, and pitting them against an orchestra is an unlikely idea. Maxwell Davies certainly knows how to orchestrate effectively, and the smallpipes and bodhrán do their stuff when the tutti are subdued or even silent, as in the bodhrán solo in the section entitled 'The Juggler' - which, bizarrely, is met by score-directed human cheers and applause.
 
Sound quality in both recordings is very good, especially when their age is taken into consideration.
The booklet notes are detailed with regard to the works themselves, but there is no information at all about the two soloists, nor about the bodhrán or Northumbrian smallpipes - in the latter's case, there are variations of and idiosyncrasies associated with the basic instrument, and a note of enlargement would not have gone amiss.
 
The timing is generous, however, and the performances first-rate. In all, this is an almost essential purchase for everyone interested in contemporary British music.
 
-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

Mendelssohn wrote his Second Symphony or Lobgesang ('Hymn of Praise') in 1840, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of movable type. This symphony-cantata, as the composer termed it, is duly permeated with a rich and often jubilant spirit, and patterned after Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in it's solo vocal and large choral forces. The rich orchestral palette is supplemented by thrilling and expressive vocal writing, which includes solos and duets of great beauty, and culminates in a blazing fugal ending.

The wind ensemble repertory has a rich history and a vibrant contemporary presence. Donald Grantham, for example, evokes gospel music of the 1920s and '30s in Starry Crown, which draws on the earthy vitality of call-and-response sermons. Steven Bryant's Ecstatic Waters reaches forward to present a pulsating narrative of exuberance, contradiction and subtle dialogue. Gordon Jacob wrote two series of settings of Old Wine in New Bottles in which he took old English settings and clothed them in his zesty and witty colors. To end, we have the songful lyricism of Carter Penn's Hold This Boy and Listen. Stephen L. Gage has served as instrumental music coordinator, professor of conducting, and director of bands at Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music since 1993.

Themes of love and passion dominate these orchestral excerpts from Wagner's music dramas. The legend of Tannhauser contrasts the sensual allure of Venus with the ideals of courtly love and religious devotion. Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg pits an inspired but rash young singer against the traditions of the old masters in a song competition, with a beautiful girl as the prize. Tristan und Isolde, based on one of the world's great love stories, is considered Wagner's most revolutionary work, seamlessly blending themes of love and death into a shattering apotheosis. Gerard Schwarz's other selections of Wagner excerpts can be found on 8.572767 and 8.572768.

The Places: The tour starts in the formal gardens of the Palace of Versailles and moves on to the Cheóteau of Chantilly. In Paris Montmartre presents a simpler world, with scenes from the Canal Saint-Martin. The writer Rabelais is celebrated in Chinon, his birth-place, and there is a glimpse of Bluebeard's castle before we enter the traditional brasserie, La Cigale, in Nantes. In Paris again, the restaurant, the Train Bleu, celebrates an earlier age of luxury and from the historic railway stations of the capital we continue to P+¿re Lachaise Cemetery, before finally visiting the Place de la Concorde and the major sights of Paris. The Music: In 1809 Vienna was once again under attack from the forces of Napoleon. Most of the leading families, including the imperial family, had taken refuge elsewhere, the occasion of Beethoven's sonata Les Adieux. On 12th May the city surrendered, the French occupation bringing with it hardship for the Viennese people. In these circumstances Beethoven, now 39 and increasingly deaf, worked on the last of his five piano concertos, to be popularly known as the Emperor. It was probably completed in the following year and was given it's first performance in Leipzig in November, 1811.

Between 1841 and 1843 Schumann wrote some of his greatest chamber works, among them the Piano Quartet and the Piano Quintet, both in E flat major. Written in an astonishing five-day period, the Quintet displays both the heroic and the lyric impulses in his music, boldness contrasting with songful tenderness, and march themes with lyricism. The Piano Quartet also exudes such qualities, not least in the ravishing slow movement, and the masterful breadth of Schumann's expression. The four Meñrchenerzahlungen are happy, energetic pieces. Winning high praise from the American press, pianist Xiayin Wang has toured with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in St Petersburg itself, as well as in the United States. Founded in Chicago in 1946, and based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century.

Debussy completed his two books of Preludes in 1910 and 1913 respectively, and they contain some of his most visionary and poetic writing for piano. There are evocations of calm seascapes, delicate wind tracery, and snow-covered landscapes. Some moments are steeped in antiquity, such as La cathedrale engloutie, others in expressive portraiture, as in La fille aux cheveux de lin. There is even a cake-walk. The Preludes are performed here in the subtle and colouristic orchestrations of muchadmired Slovak-born composer Peter Breiner. Throughout it's history, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has played an important part in Scotland's musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Jun Merkl has appeared as a guest conductor with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, NHK Symphony, Tonhalle Zurich, and the Munich, Oslo and Czech Philharmonics among others, and at the Met, Covent Garden, Vienna State and Dresden Semper Operas.

The orchestra used by Peter Maxwell Davies for his Fourth Symphony is of Classical period proportions, but this relatively compact framework belies a richness of ideas and sonorities. With it's starting point in the tone poem Chat Moss, the single-movement Fifth Symphony utilizes a more varied orchestral palette than it's predecessor, with a large percussion section often in evidence. Both works are performed here by the orchestras for which they were written. The First Symphony can be heard on 8.572348, the Second Symphony on 8.572349, and the Third Symphony on 8.572350. Universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has made a significant contribution to musical history through his wide-ranging and prolific output. He lives in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, where he writes most of his music.

The Places - the places visited are on the coast of Southern France, from Frejus and Cannes to Marseille. They include the Cheóteau of King Renein Tarascon and the famous island Cheóteau d'If, where the fictional Edmond Dantes was held prisoner in the Count of Monte Cristo. There is particular attention given to the flat marshland of the Camargue, with it's wild horses and it's associated festivities in Arles. The Music - the music that accompanies the tour is all by French composers, from Saint-Saens and Offenbach to Debussy and Ravel. Included are Gabriel Faures evocative Berceuse, Sicilienne and Pavane, and Ravel's nostalgic Pavane sur une infante defunte. The tour starts in cheerful mood with Chabrier's Marche Joyeuse.

The Bavarian-born composer Simon Mayr spent his compositional life in Italy, spreading the influence of Viennese classicism whilst himself being influenced by prevailing Italian models. His cantata Arianna in Nasso (Ariadne on Naxos) was written for the leading soprano Isabella Colbran, who was later to marry Rossini. Her virtuosity inspired Mayr, and his cantata is a stirring example of vivid nature writing, refined pathos, and joyous celebration. Franz Hauk and the Simon Mayr Chorus and Ensemble are the world's leading Mayr exponents and their recordings have received the highest critical acclaim.

The scenes shown all breathe an air of peace and tranquility. Starting with an evening landscape in Bohemia we move to a lake in the Tyrol to the Museo Vela with it's gesso figures Bavarian craftsmen fashioning glass and the Corniche near Cannes in the South of France. Other scenes include the ancient Chapel of St Sixtus at Eygalieres the Church of St Jakob at Tramin night in Madrid and a nocturnal view of Seville the whole culminating in the great Basilica of St Mark in Venice.

Muzio Clementi was revered as 'the father of the pianoforte'. He was a virtuoso composer and teacher whose publishing and piano manufacturing made him hugely wealthy. Gradus ad Parnassum in three volumes and completed by 1826 consists of 100 incredibly demanding exercises designed to lead to musical and technical perfection. It remains one of the great compendiums in musical history. Prize-winning pianist Alessandro Marangoni continues his critically acclaimed survey in this third of four volumes.