Antonín Dvorák’s Cello Concerto is one of the absolute masterpieces of the genre, and every world-class cellist naturally takes it into his repertoire. This is also the case for Daniel Müller-Schott, who will be performing it in the great concert halls of Europe in 2014 and in the Lincoln Center in New York: thus in the very same city where Dvorák worked as conservatory director and where he wrote the concerto. Dvorák began his work in passionate, stormy mood, but completed it in lyrical, elegiac vein under the shadow of the illness and death of his sister-in-law Josefina, who had been his own first love. Müller-Schott’s new recording also includes several chamber music works and arrangements that offer insight as to how Dvorák gradually accustomed himself to the cello, up to the point when he composed his concerto in 1894-5. There is the catchy 'Rondo' that Dvorák wrote in 1892 for a chamber music tour, and 'Silent Woods', an arrangement made for the same tour, heard here in Dvorák’s own orchestral versions. Together with the pianist Robert Kulek, Müller-Schott has also recorded arrangements of the four Romantic Pieces op. 75 and of 'Songs my mother taught me' from the Gypsy Songs cycle. The latter is perfectly suited to the cello’s cantabile character and Daniel Müller-Schott’s interpretation.

One of Respighi’s masterpieces, Gli uccelli (The Birds) includes transcriptions of birdsong and music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in writing of evocative, captivating lyricism. Trittico botticelliano, an illustration of three paintings by Botticelli, employs dance rhythms, modal melodies and a variant of the medieval hymn Veni, Veni Emmanuel in deft, often sublime fashion. The Suite in G major, cast for strings and organ in the form of a Concerto grosso, is heard on this première recording in its original edition.

Greg Morris is Associate Organist of the Temple Church as well as conductor of the Collegium Musicum of London. In his former position as Assistant Director of Music at Blackburn he made well-received recordings for Lammas and Naxos (the organ music of Kenneth Leighton). His stated favourites include twentieth-century French and English organ music and we have both on this disc, the first recorded since the recent re-ordering of the Temple Church’s Harrison and Harrison instrument. Two of the pieces are litanies and two are chorals.

Dupré’s Cortège et Litanie was originally incidental music and then rearranged for several different media. Morris plays effectively, especially in the Litanie, one of the composer’s most dramatic creations. His performance is well-paced and brings out the contrast between the two main themes. In Alain’s Litanies Morris is on less firm ground - there is not as much contrast between themes as there is in the Dupré and not as much intensity overall. In Franck’s famous Chorale Morris’s conception is well thought out with especially fine playing in the middle section. This is accomplished without descending into the sentimentality that frequently hinders performances of this music. These qualities are also present in the reprise leading to the finale.

In his programme notes Morris tell us that he was anxious to record the Whitlock Organ Sonata for this first recording on the refurbished Temple Church organ, given the emotional contrasts of the piece and full exploitation of the capabilities of the English organ. With these factors and the music’s commanding range of thematic integration it seems more of an organ symphony than many works that bear that title. It is also a work with many lyrical and gentle moments and Morris is very aware of these in his overall approach and in the detail but not at the expense of the overall flow. This is especially true in his treatment of the second subject of the first movement as well as in the coda where he provides an excellent summing-up of the whole movement.

A major pitfall of the second-movement Canzona is its similarity to certain sections of its predecessor. Unfortunately Morris does not escape this trap but eventually recovers in the sections evocative of Whitlock’s admired Delius. The Scherzetto which follows is the Sonata’s supreme example of the afore-mentioned thematic integration, here combined with winning examples of Whitlock’s best popular style. Morris handles this movement expertly but never loses sight of its place in the overall work.

Whitlock’s Choral is immediately notable for its size. However its true importance lies in manipulation of formal structure to support the continuing development of its thematic material and that of the previous movements. Again Morris plays with full cognizance of these factors and is especially notable in the final pages where he conveys the scope of the work without resort to bombast.

All involved in the refurbishment of the Temple Church organ are to be congratulated, although there is the interesting fact, at least on this disc, that the organ now sounds better suited to English music than to French. Also praiseworthy is the recording quality of this disc which is clear and bright. Most of those who purchase this recording will do so for the Whitlock sonata, of which there are several other versions available including that of Philip Rushworth which I reviewed in 2012 (review) and John Scott (review). There is also one by Colm Carey and Volume 3 of Graham Barber’s set of the complete organ music (review). While I am still enthusiastic about Philip Rushworth’s version I happily endorse Greg Morris’ with equal enthusiasm due to the quality of the recording and his overall conception of the sonata.

– MusicWeb International (William Kreindler)

•These three early works of the French composer Maurice Emmanuel (1862–1938) show him emerging from under the influence of César Franck. The ambitious Violin Sonata is here receiving its first recording. The Greek Folktunes Suite attest to Emmanuel’s deep knowledge of Greek music. The texts of the song-cycle Musiques, here receiving only its second recording, are by the poet, geologist and historian Louis de Launay.

REVIEW:

The performances here are persuasive and committed. We of course don’t have any points of comparison, and I could perhaps imagine something even more successful with a violinist and a singer with more inherently beautiful timbres. But these are at a level that is more than serviceable, and they convey the essence of the music thoroughly. Pianist Killian is particularly strong. The recorded sound is very well balanced and natural in the violin-piano works, though I find just a bit too much air around the voice. But do not let that stand in your way. The helpful, informative notes and texts and translations round out what is a very important release of music that should be a wonderful discovery for most listeners.

-- Fanfare

This 2CD set presents a complete survey of Bartók's music for two pianos. The works and arrangements here all stem from Bartók's special artistic collaboration with his wife, the pianist Dittá Pásztory. From 1938, the couple began giving regular public concerts together, and this led the composer to write his version for two pianos of the Suite Op.4, an arrangement of seven of the pieces from Mikrokosmos, and the much-loved Sonata for two pianos and percussion.

The works included here are testimony to Bartók's skilful and remarkably versatile approach to piano-writing. In the Suite Op.4b, for example, Bartók radically revised the original orchestral score of the Suite Op.4 (one of his earliest works, and one of the first to bring to fruition the musical ideas that he explored after researching Hungarian music's rich folk heritage) to create a work that is so idiomatically pianistic that one would never guess it had originally been written for orchestra. By contrast, the transcription of the brilliantly colourful ballet score The Miraculous Mandarin brings the dramatic orchestration of this controversial work to life. The pieces from Mikrokosmos were originally studies for solo piano; in the two-piano arrangement Bartók transforms them into veritable virtuoso showpieces. The Sonata for two pianos and percussion is one of Bartók's most famous works and its striking rhythmic experimentation and consummate assimilation of folk influences mark the culmination of the composer's mature style. Bartók's complete works for two pianos are complemented here by György Ligeti's Three Pieces for two pianos; Ligeti was greatly influenced by Bartók's legacy and went on to become one of the most important Hungarian composers of the twentieth century.

These challenging works are performed by acclaimed pianists Matteo Fossi and Marco Gaggini, who formed a piano duo while studying together in Florence in 2004. Their pioneering 'Two Pianos Project' aims to extend the scope of the piano far beyond the confines of its traditional repertoire and has given rise to many warmly received recordings.

Other information:
- Recorded in January 2013 in Perugia, Italy.
- A Béla Bartók’s works for two pianos were inspired by the collaboration with his wife, pianist Ditta Pasztory, with whom he gave many concerts.
- The famous Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion (a masterpiece) is an original work, the other works are arrangements of his own orchestral works: the colourful early Suite Op.4, in which he uses many folk song elements which he collected during his years of field research in Hungry and Transylvania, the 7 Pieces from Mikrokosmos, originally study pieces for piano solo, and the brutal and exuberant ballet The Miraculous Mandarin. Bartók, himself one of the best pianists of his time, didn’t write mere “orchestral reductions for piano”, but extremely well-crafted and pianistic works, masterful in their own right, making use of the many pianistic innovations of Bartók the pianist/composer.
- Played with total command and conviction by the Italian duo Matteo Fossi and Marco Gaggini.
- As a “bonus” the duo plays Ligeti’s Three Pieces for Two Pianos, a tribute of one Hungarian master to another.
- Booklet includes detailed liner notes and biographies of the artists.

D’ALBERT Aschenputtel Suite. Overtures: Esther; Der Rubin; Die Abreise. Preludes: Die toten Augen; Gernot. Das Seejungfräulein 1 • Jun Märkl, cond; 1 Viktorija Kaminskaite (sop); MDR Leipzig RSO • NAXOS 8.573110 (75:11)

The extravagantly gifted pianist and composer Eugen d’Albert had one of those improbably full, cosmopolitan lives spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. Born to a family of French and Italian origin in 1864, the same year as Richard Strauss, he grew up in Scotland. Taking on German nationality as a young adult, d’Albert studied with Liszt, who called him “Albertus Magnus,” and had a significant association with Brahms. A leading pianist of his time, he later turned to composition and was a prominent figure in Berlin’s extraordinary musical flowering in the 1920s.

D’Albert’s style isn’t easily pinned down, since he adopted differing stylistic approaches in different works. All of his music that I have heard is very well crafted, and some of it is inspired. It tends to be lively, affirmative, and light, at times, more like Humperdinck (traditional) than Busoni (progressive), to mention two of his contemporaries. Harmonically, it’s usually less adventurous than that of Liszt or Strauss. One of d’Albert’s teaches was Arthur Sullivan, for whom he composed the Overture to Patience . The writing for female chorus in Tiefland reveals this unusual influence.

D’Albert composed 19 operas in all manner of genres, changing his style from work to work, as Mascagni also did, in the quest for popular success. He found it with Tiefland , which is sometimes called a German verismo work, and is still occasionally performed. (Recordings of the Jewish-themed Der Golem , and the brief domestic comedy Die Abreise , have been issued in recent years.) Musically, Tiefland is compelling, and in it, one hears that d’Albert’s text setting and writing for the voice are as confident as his orchestration. It’s a very satisfying work to listen to, and I can recommend the Janowski recording with Marton, Kollo, Weikl, and Moll.

There’s a lot of music in this collection, all of it unfamiliar, and some of it very impressive. D’Albert’s colorful, sumptuously orchestrated preludes and overtures aren’t brief, and not all of them make a strong individual impression, but two stand out. The overture to Grillparzer’s play Esther from 1888 resembles a fully developed symphonic movement, majestic, with contrastingly playful sections, and perhaps modeled on Brahms. The prelude and introduction to Die toten Augen (1916), a biblical tale, sounds completely different, an atmospheric combination of a Korngold movie score mixed together with La mer.

Das Seejungfräulein (The Mermaid), an extended scene for soprano and orchestra, after Hans Christian Andersen, was composed in 1897 for one of d’Albert’s six wives, the soprano Hermine Finck. (Another was the pianist Teresa Carreño.) This intensely chromatic, surging music certainly shows the influence of Wagner, but manages not to sound derivative. Though it maintains more traditional harmony, it reminds me a little of the soprano “songs” in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, and it’s the most impressive composition on the CD. In the strenuous vocal part that requires the power and range of an Isolde or Brünnhilde, the Lithuanian soprano Viktorija Kaminskaite has a warm, attractive voice, and a committed delivery, but she strains and loses tonal support on some sustained high notes.

Finally, the disc’s featured work, the 1924 Aschenputtel (Cinderella) Suite , after the Brothers Grimm, is a deftly scored set of five brief, programmatic dances. Keith Anderson’s notes don’t identify the suite as a ballet, but it would certainly lend itself to choreography. This tuneful, entrancing score is a masterpiece of its kind, and like Ravel in Ma mère l’oye —there’s a French feel to Aschenputtel —d’Albert had the gift of creating captivating, childlike music.

Jun Märkl leads lively, flexible performances, and the Leipzig Radio Symphony plays well, particularly in the Aschenputtel Suite , with its many solos. I highly recommend this disc for the chance to make the acquaintance of Die Seejungfräulein , although I hope that there will be future recordings of it with more technically assured singing, and especially Aschenputtel , a delightful find.

FANFARE: Paul Orgel

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Eugen D’Albert was a tremendously gifted musician, and even had he not been we would owe him respect for being married six times and inspiring his second wife, the also multiply married Venezuelan pianist Teresa Careño, to utter that immortal line, “Darling, your children and my children are quarreling with our children again!” Aside from multiple marriages, D’Albert composed multiple operas, nineteen at least, and the overtures and preludes contained on this disc are very enjoyable. They range from the moody prelude to Die toten Augen, to the the luscious The Ruby (his first opera), to the jolly comedy The Departure.

The Overture to Grillparzer’s Esther is actually a robust, early concert work, while the delightful Cinderella Suite has plenty of the requisite fairytale atmosphere. The Little Mermaid is a brilliant, post-Wagnerian scena for soprano and orchestra, and it’s quite beautifully sung by soprano Viktorija Kaminskaite. Her voice rides the orchestra effortlessly, while her tone remains consistently smooth and lovely throughout its range. Jun Märkl leads the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony with plenty of verve and a conviction often missing from his prior recordings of Debussy.

D’Albert’s style lacks the ultimate in individuality, but it’s unflaggingly attractive, and he clearly evolved from his Wagner/Liszt origins to something more contemporary, if not more personal. Anyway, the only way to find out is to listen, so let’s get to it.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Alexander Grechaninov (1864–1956), an eventual Russian exile following the Revolution, was a member of the second generation of nationalist composers – he was a student of both Rimsky-Korsakov and Taneyev – he never abandoned an essentially Russian lyricism. These attractive unknown viola works are as good as unknown: several remain unpublished, and two are in Elena Artanomova’s own viola transcriptions. The CD is released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Grechaninov’s birth this year.

REVIEW:

Primarily known for his orchestral music, Grechaninov also wrote a sheaf of chamber works. That for viola has remained obscure. His Op.161 Sonata for viola (or clarinet) is unpublished which accounts for much of its obscurity and this is its first recording. Its premiere was given by Elena Artamonova and Nicholas Walker in London only in 2013, the same year it was recorded. The premiere was given in December but the recording was made earlier in June. Couched in sonata-form, and written between 1935 and 1940 the work proves amiable, songful and engaging. There is a high quotient of charm in Grechaninov’s chamber music, and that is an element that figures prominently here. His penchant for vocal composition ensures that the melodies are at all times winningly warm, not least in the lyric effusions of the central Canzona movement. I hear hints of Spanish music in the finale though there is certainly a strain of Russian folklore buzzing merrily throughout, and some passages sound almost like Dvo?ák.

The Second Sonata was written in 1943 and is actually a clarinet sonata, whose dedicatee was the great Simeon Bellison. The arrangement for viola is the work of Elena Artamonova, who has taken her cue from the earlier viola sonata and has dealt persuasively with questions of articulation and register. The work sounds convincing in its new form. Once more there’s a fine balance between the instruments, and an uncluttered and jovial quality. Toccata has gone to the trouble of separately tracking each of the variations that mark the theme and variations, with coda, of the second movement of this bipartite work. Here Slavic folk affiliations are to the fore, and a vigorous and engaging variation for solo piano too. I was most taken by the third variation where the piano’s gruff enquiries are met by a pliant viola response. There’s a viola cadenza before the spirited and exciting toccata-like coda.

Early Morning is a cycle of ten pieces written in France in 1930 for cello (or violin) and piano. It has been arranged for viola by Sabine Stegmüller and this is its first recording in this guise. Primarily this is a work of instruction for children, adept and engaging teaching material with nice descriptive titles à la Schumann, two highlights of which are the pensive In the Twilight and the deliciously deft Burlesque. In modo antico is a suite written back in 1918 for violin and orchestra or piano. This arrangement is Artamonova’s. It opens with a somewhat showy cadenza but continues in a romantic vein rather more than anything too self-consciously modo antico, though the movements sport titles such as Sarabande, Gavotte – played with deliciously zesty lift here – and Jig. Finally there are the two Grechaninov transcriptions of songs by Debussy, first published in 1946, which would make excellent recital pieces. Once again these are premiere recordings.

These richly lyrical works, all pretty much unknown, receive highly persuasive and stylistically apt performances from Artamonova – who writes the excellent booklet notes – and Nicholas Walker. Well worth getting to know, in fact.

– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)

York Bowen was described by Saint-Saëns as ‘the most remarkable of the young British composers’. His 24 Preludes form a sequence of concise, richly expressive and directly communicative studies. The Berceuse, Op. 83 ranks amongst Bowen’s most intimate scores, while the sophisticated Suite Mignonne demands the most delicate of touches from the pianist.

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REVIEW:

The exquisite Berceuse and the Barcarolle from the Op 30 Suite could hardly be given more insinuatingly, and when you hear Ortiz in the ‘Moto perpetuo’ from the Suite mignonne you will marvel at such musical empathy, backed by an immaculate dexterity. A more endearing case for Bowen would be hard to imagine.

– Gramophone

Dresden was a music capital of European rank during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which means that this German city and baroque music have a common history. It was in Dresden that important composers and musicians of the time lived and worked. In 1991 graduates of the Dresden College of Music discovered their shared interest in this musical epoch and founded the Dresden Baroque Orchestra. Its members are committed to offering energetic interpretations on baroque instruments in keeping with the tenets of historical performance practice and to the rediscovery of forgotten works from the collection of the Dresden court chapel – top priorities for them that have also become their trademarks. “Considering the international significance of the Dresden court chapel during the first two thirds of the eighteenth century, it is particularly fortunate that a substantial part of the performed instrumental musical repertoire continues to be extant today in the form of approximately 1,800 music manuscripts. These music sources were catalogued after the Seven Years' War and deposited in Schranck No: II in the Catholic Court Chapel, where they were neglected for almost a century. It was first during the years around 1860 that this cabinet was rediscovered, and its contents have received increasing attention from researchers and musicians above all during recent decades. This collection contains numerous works by composers famous far and wide such as Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, and George Frideric Handel and by musicians known today only by name and from a few pieces of information pertaining to their lives. In accordance with the demands of ‘mixed taste,’ the most important genres of Italian and French instrumental music from this time – the overture suite, instrumental concerto, sinfonia, solo sonata, and trio sonata – are represented in individual forms and shapes.” (Dr. Gerhard Poppe).

• This seventh and last volume of the complete piano works of Giovanni Sgambati contains almost exclusively unpublished pieces, including his last notturno, the transcription for four hands of his first important symphonic work (the Sinfonia Festosa, played by Francesco Caramiello and Francesco Libetta), and an unpublished, brilliant piano transcription of Bach’s B Minor Suite, BWV 1067, that follows the great tradition of Liszt’s school."

Xiaogang Ye is regarded as one of today’s leading Chinese composers. The Macau Bride a colourful and evocative ballet based on a story from the 17th century in which Chinese sailor Chon Kou and Portuguese captain’s daughter Maria do Mar fall in love following a chance encounter in Belém. They set sail for Macau, survive a storm and an attack by pirates, and are finally reunited and married in Macau. The Four Poems of Lingnan from the classical literature of ancient Chinese dynasties.

" In 2014, Fuga Libera celebrates the 25th anniversary of the baroque orchestra Il Fondamento. Founded in Belgium by the oboist Paul Dombrecht - renowned for his interpretations of baroque music -, the ensemble has gained an international interpretation, cand opposing less-known works with masterpieces. This set of three recordings by Johann Heinrich Fasch, Albinoni, and Bach were all highly acclaimed by the international press (Diapason d’or, R10 Classica, Supersonic pizzicato…)!"

"Klemperer’s debut with the KRSO took place on 8 February 1954 with Mozart’s Symphony No.29, a conductor favourite. Following the successful debut, he was invited back later that month to conduct Beethoven’s First Symphony. The broadcast of the Bach Suite No. 3, another conductor favourite, followed in October 1955, almost a year after he recorded Bach’s four Orchestral Suites with the Philharmonia. These WDR broadcasts, of very high technical quality, have never been issued before."

Classical Music

"• Russian-born composer and conductor Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873–1945) was Rimsky-Korsakov student and Prokofiev's teacher.
• This CD provides an overview of his ninety-plus songs, which cover a wide range of styles.
• The early ones are in a late-Romantic idiom; the Japanese Lyrics of 1923 display oriental colours; and the Oceanic Suite (1917–23), which sets a series of incantations by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont, are modern evocations of primitive ritual."