On her previous album “Bach & Contemporary Music“, that was released in 2014, Alexandra Sostmann demonstrated Bach‘s influence on modern composers. In her new recording, she traces the relationship between Chopin and Bach – with one particular aspect in mind. “All the works I have recorded are determined by dance forms, but stylized dances, of course, that were never intended as an invitation to dance, “says Sostmann. She has chosen ten Mazurkas by Chopin and placed them between two of Bach‘s French Suites, No. 3 in B minor BWV 814 and No. 5 in G major BWV 816. Alexandra Sostmann ranks among the select circle of musicians whose repertoire represents such an extraordinarily broad stylistic spectrum that ranges from Baroque to Modern. Effortlessly, fluently, she explores the intricately interwoven paths of musical history- in concert or on her albums. Her intelligent, sensitive interpretations of works from Bach to Xiaoyong Chen delight critics and the public alike.

Four years after a highly successful Bartok recording with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner here returns to the composer on SACD, with James Ehnes as solo violinist, and his Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. The central piece in this recording is the Concerto for Orchestra, the largest work that Bartok completed during the last five years of his life and described by the composer, in the program notes for its 1944 premiere, as ‘a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one.’ It is joined by the Dance Suite, the immediate predecessor, among Bartok’s few works for full orchestra without a soloist, of the Concerto for Orchestra, though by more than two decades; and by the violin Rhapsodies, the colorful folk influences of which are revealed by James Ehnes, a specialist in the repertoire, who already has recorded the complete sonatas as well as the concertos for violin and for viola to critical acclaim.

This is the first recording featuring the new chief conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Marc Soustrot. The Maestro has chosen a programme of French music by Bizet. It is a winning combination of an orchestra famous for its brilliant Delius recording and an idiomatic French conductor. These works by Bizet can hardly be bettered. And with sound to match, this is truly "magnifique"! Marc Soustrot is considered a specialist of French orchestral literature. He is also well-known for his deep involvement in contemporary music, which he has cultivated since the beginning of his career. He has been the chief conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire, the Beethoven Orchester Bonn and Het Brabants Orkest Eindhoven. He has been chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra since the 2011/12 season and has led the orchestra in concerts in Sweden as well as on international tours. In addition, he has just recently taken on the position as chief conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra from the 2015/16 season onwards. The Danish city of Aarhus has been named European Capital of Culture in 2017. "Marc Soustrot manages the great feat of making the orchestral music, which blossoms out of its own unique world under his hands, serve the singer's sphere." - Frankfurter Neue Presse

Note the three striking elements on this album, from the minute you press play. The first is the quality of the performances. These are top-level musicians bringing their same superlative artistry to Christmas favorites that they do to a Schubert quartet or Taverner score. The second is the sterling quality of the recording. If there is a sonic equivalent to sipping a hot toddy while curled up before a roaring fire, it is Sono Luminus’s peerless mixes and captures. Third–and in every way as essential as the previous two–this is a kaleidoscopic collection of styles and interpretations of beloved songs and carols that keeps one eager for the next number. With such a fetching variety of artists and approaches, you will find yourself going top-to-tail on this one. Simplicity is an underrated avenue when it comes to holiday releases, so the entries by Irina Muresanu & Matei Varga, Bruce Levingston, Kathryn Bates, and Skylark Vocal Ensemble are a breath of proverbial fresh air. Muresanu’s seductive playing is a glimpse into the golden age of violin technique–lush vibrato and delicious sentimentality, which infuses “White Christmas” with every bit of nostalgia one could hope for.

CONTENTS:

• Steve Nelson, Jack Rollins: Frosty the Snowman
• Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37b XII. December "Christmas"
• Berlin, I: White Christmas
• Marks, J: Holly Jolly Christmas
• Blake, H: Walking in the Air
• Cory Hills: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
• Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
• Guaraldi: Christmas Time Is Here (From "A Charlie Brown Christmas")
• trad: Joy to the World
• trad: Good King Wenceslas
• Martin, Hugh: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Gruber, F: Silent Night, H. 145

REVIEW:

This is a well-constructed program of solo piano music that valuably includes the premiere recording of Holst’s Brook Green Suite in Vally Lasker’s transcription and two pieces by Roderick Williams; one an original composition and the other his free transcription of John Ireland’s Sea Fever.

Britten’s Holiday Diary seems to be receiving more recordings and concert performances of late. I last movements from it in a highlights disc from the Husum Festival. The nippy flurries of Early Morning Bathe are finely projected by Maria Marchant, who ensures that the Sailing movement is by no means plain, though after the squalls one returns to its elysian introduction. The big contrast between the showy Fun-Fair aand the subdued Night could hardly be more potent. Ronald Stevenson tended to be more-than-somewhat dismissive of the solo piano writing of some senior British composers. His Peter Grimes Fantasy, which follows with inexorable programmatic logic, is a fugue on two subjects and Britten approved of it according to the paragraph in the booklet that preserves Stevenson’s own introduction to the piece. It’s driving, powerful music, idiomatically laid out, as one would expect of the prolific executant-composer. Maria Marchant’s metronome is set to ‘action’ when it comes to John Ireland’s Ballade of London Nights, which she takes at a real lick—the fastest recording of it yet to be set down, I think. If I happen to prefer the more insinuating tempi of, say, John Lenehan, Alan Rowlands and Eric Parkin, it’s certainly bracing to hear Marchant’s take, if only the once.

Roderick Williams’s Sea Fever transcription opens like Rachmaninov and is vividly accomplished, whilst his own Goodwood by the Sea fits the program delightfully: richly colored, rhythmically vivid, wholly delightful. Kenneth Leighton’s Six Studies are knottier by far, a sequence of so called ‘Study-Variations’, composed in 1969. The color and astringency of the writing is always exciting, the ‘e secco’ instruction fully realized here in the second study, and the way that economy of means develops gravity in the Adagio a particularly revealing example of Leighton’s skill. The garrulous quality of the capricious fourth movement and the dramatic energy of the finale study reinforce the rewarding merits of this brief but intense cycle. Holst’s solo piano music aspires to little more than charm, though the folklorically inflected Toccata is thoroughly engaging: the Brook Green Suite is similarly effortlessly charming and Lasker’s transcription—she was his assistant and ex-pupil—is fresh-faced and effective.

It ends a well selected work list that will reward close listening. Robert Matthew-Walker’s notes are very readable, though he has to strain to make connections between the works from time to time. Fine recording quality.

-- MusicWeb International (Bruce McCollum)

This set of idiomatically lyrical, rhythmic, and colourful interpretations by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its Chief Conductor, Kirill Karabits, who appears on Chandos for the first time, marks the start of a new series dedicated to lesser-known composers from former Soviet Union countries. At the dawn of Karayev’s centenary, Kirill Karabits pays homage to the composer by exploring some of his best-known works: the Persian-inspired orchestral suite The Seven Beauties (later expanded into a full-length ballet), a movement from the ballet The Path of Thunder, the exuberant Don Quixote (drawing on music for a film), as well as the symphonic poem Leyla and Mejnun, after a poem which Byron called ‘the Romeo and Juliet of the East’.

Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra sometimes had a tense working relationship, especially during the period of their US tour in the autumn of 1955 and the beginning of their European one in January 1956. Yet, as these live broadcasts repeatedly demonstrate, that tension resulted in music-making of astonishing power, scorching intensity and unrivalled beauty. The tensions became a trend in Karajan’s later career, too. It happened with the Vienna Philharmonic at Salzburg in the mid-1960s, and it happened again towards the very end of his tenure with the Berlin Philharmonic, but rarely were the results as magical as those he achieved in the 1950s with the Philharmonia.

Karajan and Tchaikovsky have never struck me as particularly suited to one another (all of his studio recordings have, in one way or another, left me wondering if he really understood the music). And this really goes to the root of the Karajan problem for many listeners: There are two Karajans, one bound to the precisions of the recording studio, the other completely – and unidiomatically – improvising on the concert platform. I find many live Karajan performances to have such a deep sense of inner conflict it is almost impossible to take any one performance out of the context of what preceded it, and this is certainly true of the 1955 Tchaikovsky Fourth we have here. We do not have the Sibelius Fourth which came before it, but the turbulence, urgency, passion and drama of the Tchaikovsky are uncommonly vivid; it is a performance that is as much about the composer as it is about the conductor.

Karajan struggled with Sibelius’s Fourth throughout his career (indeed, he rarely programmed the symphony), and the only live recording I have ever heard of him doing the work (in January 1978, released on Fachmann or, more readily available, on Palexa) is the most devastating and bleak performance imaginable (not unlike his remarkable Philharmonia studio recording of the work). Karajan drives the Philharmonia in the Tchaikovsky into quite dark territory – climaxes are more like moments of crisis, the instrumental narrative seems closer to a psychological confession, and though there is much beauty to the phrasing and playing, it is so taut and angular as if the music has been stitched together with razor wire. There are eruptions in this performance that are dazzling, and the virtuosity is just on the side of effortless. It is fluid, yet volcanic, without sounding mannered as Karajan sometimes could be under studio conditions. And the improvisation he manages is replicated by players who are given the space to phrase their notes with genuine character, though the interpretation is not for one moment stretched out or slow. One can certainly listen to this Tchaikovsky Fourth on its own terms, though given how radically different it is to any of his studio recordings, how much darker and more tragic it sounds, the bleakness of the unknown Sibelius hangs over Karajan’s performance of it like none other by this conductor, in my view. It is absolutely compelling, and shattering.

The Philharmonia were always exceptional in French music – and the Ravel which completes the first CD is ravishing. It is not just the precision of the playing which is so marvellous, it is the breath-taking quality of their dynamic range. The mezzo forte of the opening Prélude is beyond criticism, as are the gloriously muted strings of the Philharmonia. For a conductor who could sometimes seem passive and ambivalent about rhythm, the flamenco and Habanera are rather sensual, and the Feria is a joy.

The second CD of this set is given over to a Mozart concert from 6th February 1956, the last concert the Philharmonia gave with Karajan as part of their European Mozart bi-centenary tour. The ‘Haffner’ had opened the huge programme of three symphonies, which included the Tchaikovsky Fourth, back in July 1955, and here we have the work again, coupled with the great Clara Haskil in the K488 and Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’, a symphony which Karajan seemed to have abandoned in the studio during his late August 1953 recording sessions with the orchestra at Kingsway Hall (a Beethoven Fifth suffered a similar fate the same month). Karajan’s Mozart certainly could not be called HIP, though these Philharmonia performances are much less imposing than live recordings from either Berlin or Salzburg. This is not just because the sound of the Philharmonia is so much leaner, and more tensile; Karajan himself is much more flexible than he later became in Mozart. The K488 with Haskil, a pianist of extraordinary sensitivity, which in part was necessitated by her physical frailty, is intensely poetic – very different from the masculine, urbane recording that Karajan and the Philharmonia made with Gieseking in 1951. The two Mozart symphonies are both beautifully played, fleet enough with tempos to just escape sounding heavy.

These are important additions to Karajan’s Philharmonia discography, in more than tolerable sound. One sometimes has to remember that the Philharmonia Orchestra was principally founded to make recordings and concerts came a distant second. Karajan, it seems, only conducted the orchestra about a hundred times in concert (from 1948 to 1960) – less than twenty of those concerts being in London, and six at the Edinburgh Festival. The rest were conducted in Europe and the United States. Whilst a Don Juan, from Turin, and a Tallis Fantasia, from Naples, both from the October 1954 European tour exist, little else does. The Tchaikovsky we have here is stunning, the Haskil Mozart a minor miracle… but I do rather think one would have killed to get hold of a live Philharmonia/Karajan Sibelius Fourth too!

– MusicWeb International (Marc Bridle)

Composer and Latin Grammy-winning flautist Nestor Torres has inspired a generation of composers to write music that has made vivid contributions to the instrument’s repertoire. This album represents his first foray into classical recording and his own unique fusion of Caribbean virtuosity and classical training can be savored in his own composition, “Marta y Maria.” Tania Leon’s “del Caribe, soy!” encapsulates the pulsing rhythms, vibrant color and improvisatory elements that represent the key features of the album and contrasts beautifully with the seductive allure and expressive depth of Miguel del Aguila’s “Miami Flute Suite.”

Sergey Prokofiev’s final years were clouded by ill-health, and the Seventh Symphony was his last significant work, full of poignant nostalgia and restrained but deeply expressed emotion. The Love for Three Oranges consolidated Prokofiev’s reputation in the West in the 1920s, both this and the satirical tale of Lieutenant Kije producing two of his most popular suites. This is the final volume of the acclaimed cycle of Prokofiev’s Symphonies with the Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop.

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REVIEWS:

Alsop captures the lyrical aspects of the Seventh work really well. She also has the advantage of a superior recording in the acoustically friendlier Sala São Paulo. The orchestra is superb throughout, but special mention should be made of the woodwinds that have notable solos in the work.

– MusicWeb International

This is one of the most desirable Sevenths on disc. The Sao Paulo orchestra are in good shape, and continue with a display of their refined tonal quality through the remainder of the disc, the creamy double-bass solo at the opening of the Romance in the Kije Suite worthy of special mention. Commendable inner detail, but play the disc at a very high volume to bring it to life.

– David's Review Corner

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release



Composed during a period of social readjustment in post-war France, the First Cello Concerto marked Saint-Saens’ acceptance as a composer among the establishment, and has long been one of his most admired works. Recognition for the fiendishly technical Second Cello Concerto took longer, although its tranquil central movement contains one of the most sublime melodies Saint-Saens ever wrote. The supremely famous Le Cygne appears alongside the less well-known Bach-inspired Suite in D minor, and with the inclusion of the Romance this programme contains Saint-Saens’ complete works for cello and orchestra.

The period instrument ensemble, Arcanum, presents a beautiful program of works by Boismortier. The baroque ensemble Arcanum was born when Tony Boutte (tenor) and Colin St. Martin (traverso) were asked to put together a concert for the International Conference on the History of Alchemy and Chymistry, held in Philadelphia, PA during the summer of 2007. The concert focused on music that was in some way connected with alchemy, chemistry or magic. One meaning for the term “arcanum” is “a deep secret or mystery” which suited the theme of the event well. The concert was extremely well received, and the ensemble (made up of the two core members, plus harpsichord, cello, violin and viola) was encouraged to continue. Just two years later, Boutte and St. Martin found themselves in Coral Gables, FL where Boutte is now on the voice faculty of the Frost School of Music. (St. Martin is still on faculty at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD, but spends most of his time between performing jobs and Coral Gables.)

“For this recording, I use a modern setup: specifically a 1930 Carl Becker cello made in Chicago, and a modern bow. I admit that such a setup is quite far off from the sound world that Bach must have imagined when composing these suites. I have done my best, however, to balance this modern setup with a thorough understanding of Baroque stylistic principles, particularly in regard to sound production, bow strokes, vibrato, slurring, voicing, and ornaments. 

Australian cellist Richard Narroway has proven himself to be equally at home with repertoire both new and old. He has appeared as a soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony and the HanZhou Philharmonic Orchestra, and in recital on Chicago’s WFMT Dame Myra Hess Series and the Keys to the City Piano Festival at Chicago’s Symphony Center. In addition he has given performances in Australia, China, Germany, Canada and the United States, in prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center, Chicago Symphony Center, Preston Bradley Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

All the works on this recording were composed when Busoni was between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Full of charm and wit, they reveal his precocious absorption of earlier models- principally Bach, Mozart, Weber and Schumann- as well as exceptional technical finesse. Una festa di villagigio charts the day’s events of a village festival whilst Suite campestre, one of his most distinctive early compositions, possesses moments of inwardness that presage the mature works to come. Wolf Harden, who was born in Hamburg in 1962, is one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. He has enjoyed great success in the Trio Fontenay, an ensemble that he founded in 1980 and with which he has toured to all the world’s major music centres. Harden devotes himself not only to chamber music but, with the same success, to the solo piano repertoire. His concert tours have taken him to South America and India as well as to countries throughout Europe, and his special affinity with unusual repertoire is attested by numerous recordings. He was the first to record a complete version of Hans Pfitzner’s Piano Concerto and has recorded piano music by Erno Dohnanyi, Franz Lehar and Ferruccio Busoni.

Charles Widor’s musical life covered around 75 years of French cultural history. His organ symphonies helped to blow spectacular new life into an instrument that had become sorely neglected, and it was in salons such as that of the organ builder Cavaille-Coll that his chamber music was first welcomed with enthusiasm. Widor went on to work with leading players of his day, composing audition showpieces such as the Introduction et Rondo, the recently rediscovered and popular Serenade with its rich harmonium sonorities, and the Suite, Op. 34 that far transcends the salon genre in its character and range.

Navona Records proudly presents 4 SEASONS FOR 3 PIANOS, a whirlwind transcription of Vivaldi’s masterful string concertos by Croatian pianist and composer Matej Meštrovic. Performing with Hakan A. Toker and Matija Dedic on three pianos (and accordion), Meštrovic thoroughly reimagines the four concertos, his work exceeding that of a normal transcription. The collection, in such a radical new form, becomes almost a whole new work. Despite this, Meštrovic’s version of this piece is, ironically, historically informed in its own way. Vivaldi’s Venice was part of a republic that spread from the Italian city, across Dalmatia (present-day Croatia), to the borders of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. Just as this Venice of the past was a crossroads of cultural influences, so is Meštrovic’s conception of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. He imbues his piece with flavors of the region, from Romani to Turkish culture. Meštrovic even sends Vivaldi farther into the future, bringing The Four Seasons into contact with Mozart’s Turkish interests—Mozart’s famous Sonata No. 16 in C even appears in an unexpected detour. Throughout the re-imagined work, the three performers leave their own distinct touches. In the slow movement of Summer, Meštrovic is front and center with a nostalgic waltz. Elsewhere, Toker improvises a whirlwind of virtuosic melody. Dedic transforms the slow movement of Winter into a jazzy meditation. Jazzy elements also surface in the transcription of the famous opening movement of Spring, transforming it into a wild, joyous romp through Vivaldi’s masterful music. Matej Meštrovic is an eclectic and versatile composer, having written a large body of works ranging from chamber and orchestral concert music to music for television, theatre, and film. Meštrovic’s albums include Zvuci Velebita, Eat Suite (which won a 2014 Independent Music award), and My Face Music Book (which won the 2016 Classical Album of the Year and Runner-Up Overall Album of the Year on SoloPiano.com). Meštrovic is one of the most prominent artists in his native Croatia, holding a City of Zagreb award. At age sixteen, he became the youngest composer ever to have a work performed at the Croatian Days Festival. For two consecutive years, he has presented a work for the opening ceremony of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, featuring orchestra, double choir, percussion ensemble, and over 200 dancers. Meštrovic is an active pianist. He was an early pioneer of Croatian New Age music, which involved a performance with harpist Georgia Kelly at the Zagreb Music Biennale. Recently, he performed in the opening ceremony of the European University Games in Zagreb. Meštrovic also arranges piano parts on the pianist Maksim Mrvica’s albums, and is an active director of documentaries and travel films. Hakan A. Toker is one of the world’s most prominent performers of Turkish music on the piano. He has performed in 27 countries, collaborating with groups as diverse as orchestras and jugglers. He has participated in jazz concerts, musical-comedy shows, and as instrumentalist in music for silent films. In 2013, he was given the “Our Living Treasures” award by the First Mersin Cultural Festival committee. Jazz pianist Matija Dedic has performed internationally with names such as Alvin Queen and Antonio Sanchez. In July 2002, he performed at France’s Montreux Jazz Festival. With the album Octopussy, he received “Best Author” and “Best Jazz Newcomer” awards from the Croatian Composers Society.

The McGill/McHale Trio, an international all-star ensemble of flute, clarinet, and piano, makes its recording debut with Portraits, featuring world-premiere recordings of new compositions and arrangements for this captivating combination of instruments. Trio flutist Demarre McGill, a Chicago native, has served as principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Dallas, Seattle, and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. His brother, Anthony McGill, is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic and former principal of the Met Orchestra. Michael McHale, one of Ireland's leading pianists, has performed as soloist with the Minnesota, Halle, Moscow, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras and all five of Ireland's major orchestras. The ''title track'', Valerie Coleman's Portraits of Langston is a six-movement suite inspired by Langston Hughe's poetry. Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali reads a Hughes poem before each movement. Chris Rogerson's ''A Fish Will Rise'' evokes rippling water and sparkling sunlight. Pianist McHale's arrangement of Rachmaninov's ''Vocalise'' splits the original vocal line between flute and clarinet, supported by Rachmaninov's original piano accompaniment. Paul Schoenfield's spirited ''Sonatina for Flute, Clarinet and Piano'' springs surprises on the Charleston, rag, and jig dance forms. Philip Hammond's ''The Lamentation of Owen O'Neil'' and McHale's arrangement of ''Parade'' channels the spirit and energy of electronic pop.

REVIEWS:

The Trio has masterfully blended the narrated and purely instrumental tracks of the recording. We also believe the three musicians succeed in unifying a wide array of contemporary compositions into a coherent program which has a great deal to offer the listener.

– AfriClassical

The concert is beautifully performed, from simple folk tunes to wistful Americana and from playful jazz to thunderous modernism. The McGill brothers boast stunningly clear and resonant woodwind timbres, exquisite balance and blend, sensitive phrasing, and expert technique; and McHale matches them with superb touch, voicing, pedal work, and musical instinct, including a good sense of when to go for broke.

– American Record Guide