Cellist Phoebe Carrai performed with period-instrument ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln from 1983 to 1993, arguably the group's eclectic heyday. Carrai's spirit of adventure apparently hasn't waned in the meantime, given her curious and often unique interpretations of these familiar Bach suites. Her rendering of the opening Prelude of the First suite is inordinately broad and spacious, her subtle easing into the first note of each phrase giving the entire movement an inevitable flow and continuity. The fourth-movement Sarabande receives a similar slow, probing treatment akin to that of Jaap ter Linden (Harmonia Mundi). In contrast, Carrai's rendering of the Second suite's Courante is swift and expertly articulated, rivaling the speed and accuracy of Wispelwey (Channel) and Dieltiens (Accent) as well as modern-instrument virtuosos Navarra (Calliope) and Starker (Mercury).


At times Carrai's unconventional stylistic differences have a tendency to border on mannerism. For example, in the final Gigue of the Second suite, where Carrai's weighty, disproportionate emphasis on certain individual lines imbues the movement with an unusual lugubrious elegance, her forebearance also undermines the dance. Further, Carrai's occasional stresses on the introductory notes of the Fourth-suite Prelude simply sound bizarre. Likewise Carrai's uncharacteristically dreamy, evenly tempered renderings of the Sixth suite's two Gavottes (fast duple-meter folk dances) are among the slowest ever. Compared to my period-instrument reference performance by Anner Bylsma (Sony SEON), who sensibly completes this same movement in less than three minutes, Carrai's 4:37 is a bit of a stretch.


Avie's richly resonant sound complements Carrai's full-bodied performances. John Lutterman's informed notes are a joy to read. While not recommendable as a first choice among the many recordings of Bach's Suites, Carrai's highly personal and yes, distinguished performances nonetheless offer a genuine point of view--which is more than can be said for many less imaginative accounts that currently clutter the catalog.
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Ketèlbey: Cockney Suite - Jungle Drums (Ketèlbey) (1908-1940

Classical Music

Classical Music

Rediscovered works from a major figure of the early days of American music, excellently revived.

John Powell is one of those America composers who fits chronologically between the New England School (Chadwick, Parker, Beach) and the "classics" (Copland, Thompson, Harris). Although well-known in the mid-years of the century he has been mostly forgotten since then, partially because of his reactionary political and cultural views. Regardless of the latter he did produce some interesting music, which the soloist on this disc, Nicholas Ross, seems anxious to revive.

Powell spent a number of years in Europe touring as a pianist before the First World War but had started composing before this. This recording contains three of those early works, written almost simultaneously. They demonstrate Powell’s preoccupations with the American South, Anglo-Saxon folk music and the pianistic style of Liszt. As a composer Powell became well-known with In the South, the first section of which combines slightly salon-style music with American folksiness. However the degree of pianistic difficulty is amazing. Love Poem is a similar mixture, with a little ragtime thrown in. It could be described as gracious but not especially stimulating. The Negro Elegy is based on both black and Anglo-Saxon material and proves more substantial than its two predecessors. The Pioneer Dance is based on "The Arkansas Traveler" and the old tune "Soapsuds". It proves lively and inventive.

At the Fair explores different types of American music of the time and is somewhat simpler in style but more original in development than In the South. The first two sections especially show Powell developing as a composer. The third, Merry-go-round is slight, but Clowns is definitely the most original section of the suite with its mixture of blues and ragtime. The Snake-charmer contains a lot of charm but I couldn’t find the snakes. Powell’s handling of the three well-known folk-melodies in Banjo-picker again demonstrates his growing compositional ability, to be further demonstrated in the Sonata noble and its two companions, as well as his most famous work, the Rapsodie Negre of 1917.

Having heard the old LP recording of Powell’s Sonata teutonica I expected something rather heavy and bombastic from the Sonata noble. Nothing could be further from the truth. The first movement is simple in tone and almost Bachian in its purity. It suggests folk music without actually quoting any folk tunes. The theme of the second movement is even simpler with a very imaginative second variation and a third that is Schumannesque. The last two variations are the only instances of more conventional pianistic bravado. The third movement is a minuet that has some fascinating manipulation of the original material in its middle section. I would have to say that the last movement is the most interesting in the piece - the manipulation of the material is quite striking, accompanied by trills and repeated figures in the bass. The overall feeling is one of nostalgia, which seems to be Powell’s favorite emotion.

Nicholas Ross’s playing and advocacy are both to be applauded. He handles the entire range of emotional and technical expertise required by these works almost effortlessly. It is obvious that he finds Powell not only unjustly neglected, but possessing real qualities of originality. The sound quality on this disc is also commendable: much more life-like than many piano recordings that come my way. I assume from the excellent notes that Mr. Ross is planning another disc of Powell’s music and while I am not as convinced as he is regarding the composer’s stature, I will definitely be interested to hear such a disc, both from the point of view of the music and for the qualities Mr. Ross contributes.

-- William Kreindler, MusicWeb International

STRONG: Ondine / From a Notebook of Sketches, Suites 1-3

Classical Music

HANDEL: Italian Cantatas / Harpsichord Suite No. 5, HWV 430

MCKAY: Suite for Viola and Piano / My Tahoe Window / An Apri

Classical Music

Gershwin began work on An American in Paris in the spring of 1928 and it's premi�re by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter Damrosch took place later that year on 13 th December in Carnegie Hall (three years earlier in the same venue Damrosch had conducted the first performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F). In this hugely popular one-movement symphonic poem, whose colorful orchestration includes four saxophones and several taxi horns, the composer intended 'to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere'. The melancholic blues theme announced by the solo trumpet, suggesting a sudden bout of homesickness on the part of the protagonist, is one of the finest Gershwin wrote. Following the premi�re in Boston's Symphony Hall of his Second Rhapsody, conducted by Serge Koussevitsky on 29 th January 1932, Gershwin and several friends took a two-week holiday in Havana. The composer, fascinated by the small Cuban dance orchestras with their novel rhythms and unusual percussion instruments such as guiros, maracas, claves and bongos, was inspired to write the Cuban Overture. He orchestrated the work between 1 st and 9 th August 1932, completing it just a week before the first All-Gershwin Concert at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York, an open-air concert attended by some 18,000 people which was, according to the composer, 'the most exciting night I have ever had'. Cast in Gershwin's characteristic fast-slow-fast form, he wrote that he had 'endeavored to combine the Cuban rhythms with my original thematic material. The result is a symphonic overture which embodies the essence of Cuban dance'. Gershwin's magnum opus, the three-act opera Porgy and Bess, was written to a libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Based on Heyward's novel Porgy about life among the black inhabitants of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, the opera was started in late February 1934 and the seven hundred page full score was completed in September 1935. Heyward memorably described the idiosyncratic working methods of the Gershwin brothers, who 'would get at the piano, pound, wrangle, swear, burst into weird snatches of song, and eventually emerge with a polished lyric'. It numbers amongst it's classic songs 'Summertime', 'I Loves You, Porgy' and 'It Ain't Necessarily So'. The orchestral suite heard on this recording, the Symphonic Picture from Porgy and Bess arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, has become the standard version since it's premi�re in 1943, this despite the fact that Gershwin made his own arrangement in 1936. Evidently long forgotten about by the time Bennett made his arrangement, Gershwin's suite was retitled Catfish Row by Ira when it was rediscovered in 1958. The opera, a commercial and critical failure at the time, is now recognized as one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century American music.

COATES, E.: Calling All Workers / Springtime Suite (Coates)

Classical Music

This appealing collection brings together some well-known gems from the Vox catalogue in one enticing package. The Johanos/Dallas recordings of Ives' Holidays Symphony and Copland ballet suites (Billy the Kid and Rodeo) have long been admired for their idiomatic naturalness both of performance and sound. Elie Siegmeister's Western Suite fits right in, being a thoroughly Copland-esque bit of Americana, albeit more heavily orchestrated and less rhythmically lithe, and its issue on a single disc probably missed most collectors. Abravanel's performance catches the music's liveliness, while the playing as such remains a bit rough-and-ready. Lukas Foss leads a suitably grand recording of A Lincoln Portrait dating from 1970, ably narrated by Dennis Rooney, and Erich Kunzel provides the icing on the cake in the form of Morton Gould's American Salute (a.k.a. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home") and a selection of Sousa bonbons that goes beyond the usual marches to include a waltz, tango, polonaise, and foxtrot. A marvelous bargain by any measure.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This 5-CD VOX Box includes scintillating performances of the complete Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites, plus energetic renditions of selected violin and harpsichord concertos.