Scarlatti’s single-movement sonatas or exercises are his greatest musical legacy. Largely designed for the Infanta, who became Queen of Spain in 1746, the music exists in a number of 18th-century manuscripts, some possibly bequeathed to the great Italian castrato Farinelli. Each of the sonatas in this volume exemplifies the limitless variety of Scarlatti’s imagination, from ‘crush’ notes and surprising pauses, through virtuosic moto perpetuos, bell evocations and busy counterpoint, to delicately restrained phrases and delightful syncopation.

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Czech-born composer Jaromír Weinberger, best known for his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper, was forced to flee to America in order to escape Nazi terror. Frühlingsstürme, staged in 1933 but soon closed down by the Nazi government, was the last operetta of the Weimar Republic. It is filled with cultural complexity, combining serious operatic style with light comedy, and presents a thrilling story involving a doomed love affair set against war between Japan and Russia. This lavish production is staged by the award-winning Australian director Barrie Kosky.

Erich Korngold was described as ‘arguably the most remarkable prodigy in history’, whose transition into artistic maturity was almost seamless. The successes of his youth continued with works such as the Piano Quintet, Op.15, in which the brilliant interplay of the instruments, songful expressiveness and dramatic power create a masterpiece of weight and sub-stance. The Suite, Op.23 is a highly virtuosic piece in which Korngold leads us on a monumental stroll through a gallery of European musical history, from Bach via Beethoven to the early 20th century. Spectrum Concerts Berlin has also recorded Korngold’s Piano Trio, Op.1 and String Sextet, Op.10 for Naxos.

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Beethoven started composing Leonore in January 1804. The subject – the release to freedom of an unjustly imprisoned man by his devoted wife – was part of the genre of ‘rescue operas’ which were very popular at the end of the 18th century. The premiere of Leonore, given before an uncomprehending audience at a time of political upheaval, was a failure and Beethoven responded by shortening the work from three acts to two, which was the version performed in 1806. After further revisions it was to emerge in 1814 as Fidelio. This performance is from Opera Lafayette’s Leonore Project which included a performance of Pierre Gaveaux’s Léonore, ou L’Amour conjugal (available on Naxos DVD 2.110591 and Blu-ray NBD0085V) – the opera on which Beethoven modelled his Leonore.

Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata has today become part of the cello repertoire but it was originally written for the arpeggione, a form of bowed guitar invented by the Viennese maker Johann Georg Staufer in 1823. With a unique ethereal sound, this instrument reveals the true beauty of Schubert’s initial conception. The Piano Trio No. 2 was performed at the Vienna Musikverein on the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death – its extremes of urgent drama and sublime bittersweet lyricism are characteristic of Schubert’s artistic surge during his final year.

Le Tombeau de Debussy: a fascinating compilation of works composed in 1920 by Bartók, Dukas, Falla, Goossens, Malipiero, Roussel, Satie and Schmitt as a tribute to Debussy who had died 2 years earlier, together with Ravel’s Duo for Violin and Cello and Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, each a memorial to Debussy in its own right.

REVIEWS:

The sound quality is ideal. It allows listeners to appreciate the subtle sonorities of each piece...[this is] an often beautiful and always interesting piece of musical archaeology.

This remarkable disc not only presents Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy but includes three spin-offs from that project...Debussy died on 25 March 1918. Two years later, Henry Prunières (1886-1942), the director of the French journal La Revue Musicale, commissioned a joint memorial volume for the composer. He approached the great and good of European music, and asked for a specially written contribution. Ten composers responded with short works that balanced a celebration of Debussy’s musical achievement with each contributor’s individual style. A glance at the track listings shows a wide range of age and aesthetic. Paul Dukas, 55 years old, was the senior contributor, whilst the Englishman Eugene Goossens, at 27, was the youngest. Most of them had made their names before the Great War; some were just about to become successful.

[Dukas'] La Plainte, au loin, du Faune (Lament from afar, of the faun) evokes Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. The music is dense and numinous, with some foretelling of his pupil Olivier Messiaen’s “harmonic complexities”. Here, the Faun truly does lament his creator, Debussy.

Manuel de Falla’s elegiac Homenaje was written for guitar. A lugubrious piece, it uses the habanera rhythm, and includes nods towards Debussy’s Iberia. It is a masterclass in subtle chords, scale, arpeggios and dynamics for this instrument. The composer subsequently made versions for piano solo and orchestra.

The longest work in Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy is Florent Schmitt’s À la mémoire de Claude Debussy: Et Pan, au fond des blés lunaires, s’accouda. The latter part of the title translates as “Pan leaned on his elbows deep in the Lunar wheat fields”. There is stylistic variety here; Romanticism, post-Wagnerism and Impressionism contribute to this memorable piece.

Gian Francesco Malipiero left Italy in 1913 to work in Paris. He was fascinated by Debussy’s music. His Hommage à Claude Debussy: Lento echoes the dead composer’s La Cathédrale engloutie (The Submerged Cathedral) with its archaic Gregorian chant “giving the impression of sovereign majesty and greatness”.

This is followed by the most modern-sounding piece in the collection. The Fragment from Symphonies of Wind Instruments is less than a 1½ minute long. This is a piano reduction of that work’s final choral. Naxos have included a complete recording of the orchestral version (23 woodwinds) [which] was derided at its premiere in London on 10 June 1921. We have learned a lot since then!

The only Englishman represented in the project was Eugene Goossens. His Hommage à Debussy, Op. 28 combines two sections: a dissonant Bergian prelude followed by a short impressionistic postlude. It is one of the loveliest pieces on this CD. Béla Bartók’s Sostenuto, rubato features a unison melody supported by shimmering chords which balances impressionism with an indigenous cradle song.

One of the recurring features of Claude Debussy’s music are references to Greek mythology. Albert Roussel’s L’accueil des muses (The Muses’ Welcome) is designed as a musical ascent of Mount Parnassus, the seat of Euterpe and her fellow goddesses. Much of this piece reflects grief, but towards the close there is a definite sense of optimism.

Compared to so much of his music, [Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello] is an acerbic piece that reflects his reaction to the First World War. The first movement was included in the memorial volume. The others were added in 1922. The liner notes explain: “the ultra-transparent writing for two melodic instruments corresponds with Debussy’s last works, and especially his late sonatas for violin and cello, where he gave up his trademark impressionistic multicoloured spectrum in favour of concentrated neo-Classical clarity.” The entire work is given a splendid performance here.

The pianist Tomer Lev was the driving force behind this realisation of Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy. He has provided exceptionally detailed liner notes: not only context but brief overviews of the composers, and an informed discussion about each piece. The usual biographies of the performers are included. The text is presented in English and French. Finally, it should be noted that Tomer Lev has rearranged the order of the pieces to that of the original score. In an essay for The Gramophone (December 2020), he wrote: “Le Tombeau is, to all practical purposes, well-nigh unperformable. Having not been given any precise criteria to write to, the composers had let their imaginations run free, and composed for a dizzying variety of instrumentations.” What has resulted from Lev’s realisation is an often beautiful and always interesting piece of musical archaeology. For me, the obvious diversity becomes a major strength rather than a dilemma.

-- MusicWeb International (John France)

Choral music holds a central position in Villa-Lobos’s catalogue of works, but among these famous pieces is a series of little-known transcriptions for a cappella choir taken from the standard classical repertoire. They were intended for a teachers’ chorus and for use in schools, and through astonishing alchemy they achieve a true ‘orchestration’ of largely piano originals, adding a fresh new repertoire for vocal ensembles. This album also includes the first ever recording of Villa-Lobos’s complete set of a cappella transcriptions from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.

REVIEW:

Unbelievable Villa-Lobos Choral Transcriptions

The Bottom Line: Don’t miss this disc! These transcriptions for unaccompanied choir of keyboard music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Villa-Lobos himself have to be heard to be believed. They are extraordinary. Check out the sound samples in the video and add this splendid Naxos release from the São Paulo Symphony Choir under Valentina Peleggi to your collection post haste.

ClassicsToday.com

These transcriptions for unaccompanied choir of keyboard music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Villa-Lobos himself have to be heard to be believed. They are extraordinary.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

CONTENTS:

• Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Book 2 (6), Op. 30, No. 3
  
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 8 in E♭ minor, BWV853
• Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15, No. 7 ‘Träumerei’
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1, No. 1 in C major, BWV846: Fugue
• Schubert: Schwanengesang, D957, No. 4: Ständchen
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 21 in B♭ major, BWV866: II. Fugue
• Chopin: Waltz No. 7 in C# minor, Op. 64 No. 2
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 22 in B♭ minor, BWV867: Prelude
• Rachmaninoff: Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 2 in C# Minor, Prélude
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 14 in F sharp major, BWV883: Prelude
• Massenet: Elégie
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 5 in D major, BWV 874: Fugue
• Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 'Pathetique': Adagio cantabile
• Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9 for chorus or string orchestra

“Passacaglia della Vita” – an homage to the facets of life: heartache, betrayal, seduction, impermanence, excitement, fun and laughter. At the center of the concept of the program is the eponymous song “Passacaglia della Vita” by Stefano Landi. While the stanzas depict a wide variety of life situations and repeatedly call for the enjoyment of life in accordance with the motto “Carpe diem,” the refrain repeats the rather admonishing “bisogna morire” – each of us dies. The reminder of death – or in a religious sense, the belief in redemption and life eternal – illustrates the finiteness of worldly joys and gives us a framework for life.

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Francesco Cavalli, a natural successor to Monteverdi, was the most famous and influential Italian opera composer during the mid-17th century. Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister to the king, commissioned Cavalli to create a Parisian spectacle to celebrate the wedding of the ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV and the Infanta of Spain. Ercole amante (‘Hercules in Love’) was the flattering subject chosen for this regal extravaganza combining larger-than-life characters with mythology, and genuine human emotions with natural and cosmic phenomena. The result is a sumptuous Baroque spectacle, conceived on a vast scale in this lavish production by directors Valerie Lesort and Christian Hecq.

Janácek’s final decade saw an almost unprecedented creative renewal during which he wrote some of his greatest works. Among them were his chamber music masterpieces, the two String Quartets. The first was inspired by Tolstoy’s novella The Kreutzer Sonata, a torrid tale of adultery and murder to which Janácek responded with music of increasingly frenzied passion. The second was subtitled Intimate Letters, a freely evolving work full of yearning and amorous defiance. originally cast for four violins, the two youthful Sonnets date from 1875 and balance the archaisms of the first with the lyricism of the second.

REVIEW:

The scores of the quartets are liberally sprinkled with changes of tempi and dynamics, and nowhere are those more important than when capturing the mood of the ‘story’ being told in the opening two movements of the First Quartet. Maybe recordings from Slovak quartets are the most successful in making those moments really startling, but the New Zealanders offer very well prepared performances, full of well judged nuances, and suitably suave when required in the Second Quartet. There they question, without resolution, the contents of the letters, with undiluted searing moments of pain. In summary, with the impeccable balance between instruments, and squeaky clean intonation, these are among my recommended performances on disc.

– David's Review corner (David Denton)

This carefully selected program by the multi award-winning Mare Duo presents some of the best original music written for mandolin and guitar, showing both instruments as equal chamber music partners in works both challenging and beautiful. The Duo’s surprising range and variety of timbre can be heard from Funk Pearson’s highly atmospheric Mountain Moor, and the intercultural sketches by Thomas Allen LeVines, to Guido Santórsola’s lyrical SonataNo.6.Ernst Krenek’s Suite is a late masterpiece that embraces virtuosity, intimacy and quirky wit, with a dramatic mini-opera as its finale, while Monk Feldman depicts an elusive ocean landscape in ThePaleBlueNorthernSky.

For anyone new to opera, the first question is often: where to start? The 'Best Loved' series offers an easy answer to that question with a perfect introduction to the wonderful, varied world of operatic music. Highlighting some of the best-loved arias ever written, the series provides a convenient introduction to opera's extensive variety of sounds and styles. Opera can be defined as drama told through music and, at the height of it's popularity, conventions arose in which certain voice types came to share features of the characters they represented. This series presents the main vocal categories (soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass) by dividing them across four albums. The 'Best Loved' Arias series aims to demonstrate why opera as an art form remains as relevant and entertaining today as it was at it's inception 400 years ago.

Acclaimed concert artist and laureate of numerous awards, Mabel Millán brings her stunning technique and remarkable musical expressiveness to this programme of some of the most spectacular and best-loved repertoire ever composed for the guitar. From the Andalusian rhythms and atmosphere of Turina and Malats, the Romantic expressiveness and national colors of Ponce and Mertz, to the lyrical beauty and dramatic virtuosity of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Capriccio diabolico, every aspect of the guitar’s refined delicacy and explosive dynamism is explored here to the full.

Both Anton Arensky and Sergey Taneyev belong to the generation of Russian composers who came to prominence at the end of the 19th century, midway between Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. With its expansive themes and wonderfully elegiac mood, Arensky’s Piano Trio No. 1 is dedicated to the memory of cellist Karl Davydov. The subtle use of counterpoint in Taneyev’s Piano Trio in D major reveals his expertise in combining earlier techniques with the emphatically Romantic style that both composers inherited from Tchaikovsky. These two masterpieces summarize the development of the piano trio genre in Russian music of the 19thcentury, and subsequently laid the foundations for its further evolution.

REVIEW:

These three Russian virtuosos present the two trios with equal conviction, summoning up different palettes of colours for some truly high-level music-making. In the Arensky, their natural, speech-like delivery of the melody and their flexible rubato tug irresistibly at the heartstrings. In the Taneyev, they play with great seriousness of purpose, and also rise to the occasion when the composer steps outside his normal boundaries in the ferocious Scherzo—perhaps a reflection of the violence that overtook Russia in the Revolution of 1905.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice;10/21)

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Mozart wrote La finta giardiniera in 1775 when he was 18 years old. It was his first staged buffo opera and centres on the lovers at the heart of the action, Sandrina – the pretend garden-girl of the title – and Belfiore. With few ensembles, Mozart channels his most intense and expressive music into arias which demonstrate a masterful ability to convey the full range of tenderness and passion. Originally staged at Glyndebourne in 2014 by Frederic Wake-Walker, this 2018 revival from La Scala is performed on period instruments with a strong cast and expertly conducted with exuberance and charm by Diego Fasolis.

Virtuoso duo Sándor Rigó and Christina Leeb-Grill have taken Jean Françaix’s description of his own work, ‘musique pour faire plaisir’, as the motto for this program. Dance styles and rhythms are at the heart of this repertoire, from the spectacular Brazileira with which Milhaud concludes his theatrical Scaramouche, through Piazzolla’s refinement of tradition in his Tango-Études, to the Brazilian rhythms showcased in Villa-Lobos’s Fantasia. Paquito D’Rivera adapted his Invitaciónal Danzón especially for this recording, providing Sándor Rigó with space to demonstrate his brilliance in improvisation.

Lord Berners’ early music was avant-garde in style earning the admiration of Stravinsky, and while it was soon to become more accessible, it never lost its distinctive style and flavor. The Triumph of Neptune is one of his major works and his most ambitious ballet score, commissioned by Diaghilev with choreography by Balanchine. A ballet-pantomime-harlequinade, its inconsequential plot features music as diverse as it is brilliantly inventive. L’uomo dai baffiisa delicious ballet for puppets with stripped-back instrumentation, and Philip Lane’s deft orchestrations of Valses bourgeoises and Polka offer ripe wit.

Carl Czerny’s instructional exercises may be his lasting legacy but there remain numerous largely forgotten pieces that reveal important elements of his compositional range. The four Romantic Fantasies named after Sir Walter Scott’s famous Waverley novels are piano duets of epic breadth. In them Czerny ingeniously develops popular Scottish melodies, including the use of the ‘Scotch snap’, to generate a vivid programmatic quality that explores numerous genres. Scherzos, fugal passages, chorales and marches are all featured, and raise the music – full of beauty, virtuosity and unpredictability – to orchestral proportions.

REVIEW:

Though the majority of Czerny's more than 800 works were for solo piano, there were also works intended for use in public concerts, such as the four Romantic Fantasies for piano duet composed in 1832. Each is of sizeable proportions and based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, Czerny having been an avid reader. They used the stories that were recounted in Waverley, Guy Mannering, Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, and in his thematic material he appropriately used Scottish and English traditional melodies. Technically they are highly demanding, particularly in the many mercurial passages for the right hand of the ‘Primo’ pianist, and proved a very testing time for Pei-I Wang in Waverley. The second Fantasy, in a mood of quiet suspense, leads to the military atmosphere that opens Ivanhoe, and finally he cast Rob Roy as a weighty finale. Mid-way through the disc the North American-based duo exchange places, Samuel Gingher becoming the ‘Primo’, the young duo here offering World Premiere Recordings made in 2019. A discovery that has given me considerable pleasure.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Boris Giltburg is lauded worldwide as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter, with critics praising his impassioned approach to performance. This project to record all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas is a personal exploration for Giltburg, driven by curiosity and his profound respect for the composer. These exceptional performances received widespread critical acclaim upon their original digital release and this premiere release includes extended personal and informative booklet notes written by the pianist. From the vivid energy of the early sonatas, through the dark passions and enchanted lyricism of Beethoven’s middle period, to the awe-inspiring transcendence of the final sonatas – this cycle runs the full gamut of human emotion.

At home in repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Shostakovich, in recent years he has been increasingly recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninoff. He is recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos for Naxos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (RLPO) and Vasily Petrenko. In 2018 he won Best Soloist Recording (20th/21st century) at the inaugural Opus Klassik Awards for his Naxos recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto, coupled with the Études-Tableaux.

Past praise for previously released performances included in this set (digital video format only):

Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3, Nos. 8-11

In keeping with the character of both the Op 14 Sonatas, Giltburg’s approach is prevailingly lyrical. For me, the two standouts of the series thus far are Opp 13 and 22. I can think of no other performance of the Pathétique that imbues the Grave introduction with a greater sense of melancholy desolation. The bright, ingratiating Op 22 is also brimful of character, its narrative unfolding with a charming urgency.

– Gramophone

Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas, Vol. 8, Nos 27-29

These interpretations are enormously pleasurable and at times revelatory. Always clean and never showy, Giltburg’s pianism is ideally suited to late Beethoven, and his touch throughout is light and flexible. His Hammerklavier lacks fury at the outset but magnificently makes up for that in the closing fugue, where his easy control of the tumult of voices is impressive.

– BBC Music Magazine

Ronald Binge was one of the most highly respected and successful English composers of his generation. He played a significant role in creating the Mantovani sound, but his big breakthrough came with the Elizabethan Serenade, which became an international hit. The evocative moods and memorable melodies of his best works saw their regular use as themes for TV and radio, and the soothing tones of Sailing By are still in use today as the close-down music for BBC Radio 4.

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Rossini wrote L’equivoco stravagante (‘The Curious Misunderstanding’), his first full-length opera, when he was only 19 years old. As its title suggests, the plot of this dramma giocoso offers a panoply of absurdist stagecraft with one character being led to believe that the work’s heroine is in fact a castrato trying to avoid military service. Full of his trademark buffo humour, melodious and musically buoyant, the opera ran foul of the censors and was swiftly banned, which accounts for its rarity in performances and recordings. The new edition of the score used in this production corrects numerous previous errors.