The rediscovery of the music of the Edinburgh composer Charles O'Brien (1882-1968) continues with this third and final album of his orchestral music. The explicitly Scottish Ellangowan Overture contrasts splendid vistas with some wonderfully catchy tunes, in a manner reminiscent of the well-known overture Land of the Mountain and the Flood, by Hamish McCunn - O'Brien's teacher. The two suites show O'Brien skillfully combining a naturally symphonic voice with an unexpected sense of fun. The first two releases in this series were very well received. The reviewers for MusicWeb International described volume one as "beautifully played and paced, and finely recorded as well" and wrote of volume two "The booklet notes by Paul Mann are fascinating. His essay-length discussion of these works requires to b eread. The Latvian orchestra plays with enthusiasm and seem to have a definite flair for evoking the mists and sceneries of Scotland."

The rediscovery of the music of the Edinburgh composer Charles O'Brien (1882-1968) continues with this first recording of his chamber music. These two stately 'Sonatas for Pianoforte, Violin and 'Cello' (as O'Brien styled them), with echoes of both Brahms and Elgar, cover a wide range of moods, from broad and sweeping melody, via introspective lyricism, to elegant good humor. Two salon waltzes combine effortless charm with surprising depth of feeling to bring the album to a gentle close. Born in Moscow to a musical family, Yuri Kalnits became a pupil at the Central Music School in Moscow and later at the Gnessin Music School for Gifted Children. At the age of sixteen he began studying at the Royal College of Music in London with Itzhak Rashkovsky, winning several major college awards. Alexander Volpov started playing cello at an early age at the Yekaterinburg School for Musically Gifted Children and went on to train at the Rachmaninov Conservatoire in Rostov-on-Don and the Gnessin Institute in Moscow. Oleg Poliansky, began studying piano at the Lysenko Music School and has since been the prize-winner of several international competitions.

[Nikolai Tcherepnin]...student of Rimsky-Korsakov and teacher of Prokofiev, is revealed in all his pianistic glory in these fascinating first recordings, from the lushly romantic early "Three Pieces", with their tinges of Chopin and Rachmaninov, to a charmingly original set of tone poems based on children's alphabet sketches, which display just why his friends teasingly called him "Debussy Ravelovich".

- Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, [15 May 2011]

Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873–1945) – a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and teacher of Prokofiev – was a Russian-born composer and conductor, and the first of his family’s musical dynasty. His piano music reveals a diversity of influences: the Three Pieces (c. 1890) have echoes of Chopin and Rachmaninov; the Fourteen Sketches on Pictures from the Russian Alphabet (1908) are miniature tone-poems inspired by Alexander Benois’ beautifully illustrated alphabet book for children; [reproduced in the CD booklet] and The Fisherman and the Fish (c. 1914) is a vivid musical depiction of this Pushkin poem, complete with watery splashes!

- Toccata Classics

Pianist David Witten's international career has included numerous concert tours in Ireland, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Mexico, and South America. As the recipient of a 1990 Fulbright Scholar award, Witten spent five months teaching and concertizing throughout Brazil, and he is frequently invited back to give concerts and masterclasses.

MYSTERY VARIATIONS ON GIUSEPPE COLOMBI’S CHIACONA • Anssi Karttunen (vc) • TOCCATA 0171 (79:57)


COLOMBI Chiacona. KAIPAINEN Anything Goes. MATALON Polvo. REYNOLDS Colombi Daydream. COHEN Chaconne. TIENSUU Bleuelein. STUCKY Partite Sopra un Basso. SALONEN Sarabande per un Coyote. CAMPION Something to Go On. WALLIN Ciacconetta. ORTIZ Paloma. HEININEN Triple Antienne. HILLBORG Still and Flow. LERDAHL There and Back Again. PUUMALA Se Sillan. DUSAPIN 50 Notes in 3 Variations . HAKOLA Colombi Variation. DUN Chiacona After Colombi. NEIKRUG Tiny Colombi. YUASA Locus on Colombi’s Chiacona. WIGGLESWORTH Arietta. MATTHEWS Drammatico. SAARIAHO Dreaming Chaconne. FEDELE Preludio and Ciaccona. GLOBOKAR Idée Fixe. DAZZI Variation Sombre et Libre d’après Chiacona. TUOMELA Idulla. JOLAS A Fancy for Anssi. SRNKA A Variation. FRANCESCONI Anssimetry. LINDBERG Duello


Mystery Variations contains 30 different short works based on Giuseppe Colombi’s Chiacona. Colombi who lived from 1635 to 1694 replaced Giovanni Bononcini as maestro di cappella of the Modena Cathedral in Italy in 1678. The Chiacona is only one of an enormous number of pieces he wrote for various instruments, chamber groups, and orchestras. It is, however, said to be the oldest piece written for the cello. The music is part of a collection from the court of Francesco II of Este at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena. The idea for the Mystery Variations came from composer Kaija Saariaho and Muriel von Braun, the wife of cellist Anssi Karttunen, as a means of celebrating the cellist’s 50th birthday. They asked each of 30 composers to write a variation on the Chiacona . None of the composers knew who else had been asked and Karttunen promised to premiere music that he had not yet heard. Most of the variations range from just under two to just over three minutes long, so all of them fit on one disc. Few of these variations are truly melodic, most depend on texture, drama, percussion, and tonal color to excite the senses of the listener. Only one of the composers, Colin Matthews, uses electronics. Mark Neikrug and Magnus Lindberg use the letters of the cellist’s name as part of their variations. Some composers, such as Tan Dun, who was born in China and Pablo Ortiz from Argentina, make use of their native cultures while others, like Argentinian Martin Matalon and Texan Edmund Campion turn elsewhere. Matalon creates novel textures and far off sounds with a mute while Campion includes some aspects of Happy Birthday in his variation. Roger Reynolds’s Colombi Daydream , evokes an element of foreboding, while Jukka Tiensuu’s Bleuelein and Paavo Heininen’s Triple Antienne have plaintive, pleading qualities.


Composers like Steven Stucky, Kimmo Hakola, Joji Yuasa, Ivan Fedele, and Magnus Lindberg are fully aware of Karttunen’s virtuosity and have written works that show off some of his skills. Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Sarabande for a Coyote starts with the cello sounding a bit like a harp, before introducing some charming harmonies that expand the usual cello range. Rolf Wallin’s Ciacconetta has sliding arpeggios that resolve into an impressive dance. Lerdahl’s There and Back Again uses the dance to guide us from Colombi’s time forward to our own and back again. Anders Hillborg’s Still and Flow treats us to his seriously studied version of Bach. The in-your-face style of Veli-Mali Puumala’s… Se Sillan… is rather unique and it added a bit of spice to the mixture on this disc. Kartunnen follows it with Dusapin’s 50 Notes in 3 Variations, an inventive and intuitive work that resolves into a tone color-filled meditation. Also in the meditative mood, Ryan Wigglesworth’s Arietta offers more respite from the dramatic. Kaija Saariaho’s Dreaming Chaconne portrays a pastoral scene with her full-blooded sound vocabulary. In Idée Fixe, Vinko Globokar asks the cellist to sing and I found it a distraction. Gualtiero Dazzi’s Variation Sombre et Libre d’après Chiacona brings us a sweet and smooth melody played in the cello’s lowest notes. Idulla means germinating and Tapio Tuomela brings us a fantasy that includes tonal color and percussion. Betsy Jolas’s A Fancy for Anssi creates rivers of sound that broaden out to reflect fragments of Colombi’s theme. Miroslav Srnka, on the other hand, uses slides and double-stops to make us hunt for the theme while Luca Francesconi makes use of it openly but varies it in unexpected ways. The finale is Magnus Lindberg’s Duello , a dialogue between the Chiacona and music based on the cellist’s full name. It ends with a pleasing melody that leaves the listener feeling that the music was worthwhile hearing. The sound on this disc is excellent and I think many of our readers will find it interesting.


FANFARE: Maria Nockin

SKORYK The High Pass: Melody. Violin Sonatas: No. 1; No. 2. Hutsulian Triptych: Allegretto and Dance. Caprice for Solo Violin. Carpathian Rhapsody. Poem. Spanish Dance • Solomia Soroka (vn); Arthur Greene (pn) • TOCCATA 0137 (65:42)


Violinist Solomia Soroka, who has collaborated with the composer in performances of his works, herself wrote the booklet notes for Toccata’s collection of Miroslav Skoryk’s music for violin and piano, in which she’s joined for recital by pianist Arthur Greene. The notes trace the composer’s early years in Siberia, to which his family had been exiled, through his attempts to study musical composition in Ukraine, to his final work with Dmitri Kabalevsky. They also trace his affection for Hutsulian modes and the kolomyika , a dance of the same ethnicity (familiar from one of the most intoxicating of Béla Bartók’s duos for two violins).


The Melody (from 1981) recalls Skoryk’s work as a composer for movies, this being an adaptation from his first effort, The High Pass , which movie—and melody—Soroka relates, became “universally popular” in Ukraine. Firmly tonal and strongly evocative, it nevertheless sounds a bit edgy in Soroka’s performance, perhaps due to the strong but slightly abrasive quality of the tone she produces (still, her generally suave manner of performance hardly sounds unnuanced). The engineers have focused the spotlight on her, and she appears to dominate the piano in the recorded sound. The First Violin Sonata, from 1963, recalls the dark harmonic shimmer of Prokofiev’s work (Soroka relates that Skoryk wrote his doctoral dissertation on that composer’s modal practices). Passages crop up in the first movement (of three) that recall the earlier composer’s haunting Five Melodies , which Prokofiev himself arranged for violin and piano. In these moments, Soroka adopts a throaty manner that accentuates the music’s sultriness, a manner that continues, intensified, in the brief Largo. The finale thrusts and slashes in this performance, relieved by searingly intense expressivity.


If anything, the Allegretto and Dance from Hutsulian Triptych (1964) sound even more accessible; they come from another Ukrainian movie, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , and Soroka and Greene extract all the poignant lyricism and stormy drama, and gaiety, respectively, that the music and its program suggest. The four-odd-minute Caprice for Solo Violin (1978), according to Soroka, harks back to Paganini’s 21st Caprice, but it also bears some connection, in its combination of a declamatory slow opening section and a brilliantly animated concluding one, with Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo Caprice (with double-stopped tremolos and pizzicatos, although, of course, in a completely different style); Gustave Samazeuilh’s similar piece, Lamento et Moto perpetuo , also comes to mind.


The Carpathian Rhapsody (2004) and Poem (2006), the most recent items on the program, both began their lives, according to Soroka, as required repertoire for violin competitions. The first sounds forbidding, perhaps because Soroka makes it seem more difficult than ingratiating. Although the Poem opens more reflectively, and overall sounds less ethnic, it nevertheless contains its share of purely violinistic difficulties and probes further into the harmonic penumbra than any of the pieces that precede it on the program. The Second Violin Sonata (1990) explores differing styles, but Soroka points to the recurrence of material from Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata as a unifying element. The slow movement (the center one of three) makes a more consistent impression, centered on a single somber mood, captured by Soroka in a long-breathed melodic outpouring. The virtuosic finale recalls that of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto but also interweaves some lyrical jazzy elements. The Spanish Dance, from 1978, also began as incidental music, for The Stone Ruler . It’s heavier, darker, and more smoldering than Sarasate’s pieces, and could serve as a substitute for one of them on almost any program. According to Soroka, Bodhar Kotorovych, of the Kiev Conservatory, considered the original arrangement of this final movement from a suite for string orchestra to be technically too simple. Violinists should hear how Skoryk responded. In fact, violinists should hear the whole disc, as should those interested in relatively recent repertoire for the instrument. In fact, its workable performances, fascinating booklet, and clear recorded sound should appeal to almost anyone with the slightest interest in the violin.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Alexander Kniazev.

WEINBERG Solo Violin Sonata No. 1. Violin Sonatas: No. 1; No. 4. Sonatina • Yuri Kalnits (vn); Michael Csányi-Wills (pn) • TOCCATA 0007 (78:08)

Violinist Yuri Kalnits and Michael Csányi-Wills recorded their program of violin music by the Russian composer Mieczys?aw Weinberg in two sessions: August 26–30, 2008, at Champs Hill, Coldwaltham (Sonata No. 1, Sonata No. 4, and the Sonatina), and July 13–18, 2009, at Moviefonics Studio in West London (the solo sonata). This constitutes the first volume in what will apparently be a complete set of the composer’s violin sonatas. Toccata bills the recordings of the First Sonata and the solo sonata as recording premieres.

The program opens with the three-movement First Sonata, which, according to David Fanning’s notes, Weinberg composed in 1943 after settling in Moscow. The sonata’s opening passages combine firmly tonal lyricism with sardonic punctuation, and although the harmonies eventually cloud over and grow less securely centered, they remain within a tonal orbit; and although its lyricism gives way to both slashing and motoric passages, in the manner of Dmitri Shostakovich, who inspired Weinberg, its melodic patterns hardly seem to cultivate unbroken ground. Kalnits sounds ardent—almost romantic—in his tone production (though he strops a keen edge on the angular passages), not only in the opening Allegro but especially at the outset of the Adagietto second movement. The engineers have captured his tonal glow, especially in the lower registers (they seem to have placed Csányi-Wills’s piano a slight distance behind Kalnits’s violin). The duo move alertly back and forth between the finale’s alternate cheerfulness and vigor and bring the sonata to an imposing conclusion.

The five-movement Solo Violin Sonata, 24-odd minutes in duration (in this performance), from 1964, inhabits an entirely different universe, less centered tonally, more dissonant, and less flowing both rhythmically and melodically. Thrusting in its first movement in a manner similar to that of Béla Bartók’s Solo Violin Sonata, it takes no prisoners—and neither does Kalnits, who enters into its more dour spirit, cavorting among its thorns. In the second movement, which begins after what sounds like an inconclusive final passage in the first, he shrieks his way through the predominantly double-stopped textures and effectively contrasts the aggressive pizzicatos with the more playful and lyrical sections to which they give way. Kalnits forcefully hammers the dissonant double-stops and chords of the ensuing Lento until quieter passages bring the movement to a close. The Presto, which begins almost immediately, recalls the finale of Bartók’s Solo Violin Sonata thematically, but without its ethnic outbursts. In fact, the entire sonata sounds like an internationalized version of Bartók’s, carrying its harmonic implications even further and stretching the violinist’s technique even less mercifully. Kalnits possesses ample resources to follow wherever Weinberg leads.

The Fourth Violin Sonata, from 1947, returns listeners to fringes of the First Sonata’s tonal world, although this sonata sounds much darker in the duo’s searing reading of its first movement. They dispel this atmosphere in an irresistible burst of energy in the second movement’s first section, and follow its biting premise through the cadenza that leads to the solemn conclusion. The duo’s expressive intensity makes this sonata a spellbinding emotional journey of discovery for listeners, as it must have been for the performers. Violinist Stefan Kirpal and pianist Andreas Kirpal also took this journey, on cpo 777 456 (David Fanning wrote the booklet notes for both releases), exploring the first movement’s more reflective side—as, for example, in the dark, complex opening contrapuntal piano solo—but no more ardent in the eloquent violin solo, and just about as incisive and visceral in the Allegro sections of the second movement. The Kirpal duo takes 19:58 for the journey, while Kalnits and Csányi-Wills completes it in 13:44. But how much of the atmosphere Andreas Kirpal creates in the opening piano solo would you trade for any added excitement in what follows?

The Sonatina, which Fanning assigns to 1949 and describes as an attempt to respond to the Soviet criticism that engulfed Soviet composers at the time, sounds more straightforward in its first movement, in which Kalnits alternately soars and engages in muted, plaintive conversation with Csányi-Wills, especially at the end. Violinist and pianist continue to explore this haunted ambiance through the second movement’s opening section, while he and Csányi-Wills wax extroverted in the middle section, which begins almost with the abrupt discontinuity of a separate movement. In their reading of the finale they mix ferocity with vigorous burlesque.

The release should provide a most auspicious introduction to Weinberg’s violin music, offering a chameleon-like variety that extends from the feral onslaught of the Solo Sonata to the profundities of the Fourth Sonata and to the outright melodiousness of the First. Strongly recommended for repertoire, performances, and recorded sound.

FANFARE: Robert Maxham

WEINBERG Children’s Songs. Beyond the Border of Past Days. Rocking the Child • Olga Kalugina (sop); Svetlana Nikolayeve (mez); Dmitri Korostelyov (pn) • TOCCATA 0078 (60:12 Text and Translation)


Mieczyslaw Weinberg (to use what has become the preferred spelling of a composer whose music is hard to find because of the various ways he is listed—Vainberg, Vaynberg, Weinberg) was born in Poland in 1919. He spent most of his life in the Soviet Union, and was a close friend and colleague of Shostakovich, whose influence on Weinberg was very strong.Weinberg had fled the Nazis in 1939, escaping from a horror that saw his parents and sister murdered, settling first in Minsk then hiding again from Nazis in Uzbekistan. In 1943, Shostakovich invited him to move to Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1996. Weinberg wrote 26 symphonies (one fewer than Miaskovsky!), 17 string quartets, other chamber works, a few hundred songs, sonatas and concertos for various instruments, seven operas, much incidental music for film and the theater, and much else. His music is finally being discovered by an enterprising record industry that has run out of room for more Beethoven or Mahler! If it is unlikely that Weinberg will enter the central canon in a way that Shostakovich has, it does seem as if he might occupy an important place on the periphery, perhaps similar to that now occupied by Nielsen.


It is easy to point to the Shostakovich influences on his music; one hears it in many of the songs that make up these three cycles (particularly Rocking the Child ). But he is not a carbon copy of Shostakovich, and certainly not a “poor man’s Shostakovich.” Weinberg has his own musical face, and the more of his music one hears, the more familiar it becomes. The Shostakovich relationship is handy as a tool for placing Weinberg, stylistically, to someone unfamiliar with his music. If you respond to the music of Shostakovich, you are very likely to find Weinberg attractive.


But there is a touch more restraint and straight-forward lyricism in Weinberg; he doesn’t always show the anguish, the pain that one hears in Shostakovich’s scores, nor does he demonstrate quite the same degree of sarcastic wit. Not that those qualities are not there (and there are some works, such as the Requiem, that sear with their pain), but they are perhaps just a bit less extreme in Weinberg. The Jewish influence on Weinberg’s music is strong—and although Shostakovich was influenced by klezmer and other Jewish musical traditions (just listen to the Piano Trio), it is a more integral and consistent part of Weinberg’s art, perhaps stemming in part from his roots as a pianist and conductor at a Warsaw Jewish theater. It is particularly present in the Children’s Songs and Rocking the Child , more subtle in Beyond the Border of Past Days.


The Children’s Songs, op. 13, are set to poems by Itzhol Lejb Perez; Beyond the Border of Past Days sets poems by Alexander Blok (Shostakovich’s Blok songs are among his finest); and Rocking the Child to poems of Gabriela Mistral. The Perez and Mistral poems are translated into Russian and set in that language. Thanks to Toccata Classics for providing Cyrillic and English texts (no transliteration, but that seems only a minor problem). Excellent notes by David Fanning round out the high production values.


The two singers are satisfying. Children’s Songs and Rocking the Child are for soprano, Beyond the Border of Past Days for mezzo. Both singers have a bit of what we like to call that Slavic edge, but it is not too severe. Both are masterful at shaping the music, and they and pianist Dmitri Korostelyov do not seem to be sight-reading the material at all. One feels that they are deeply into the music. Natural and well-balanced sound completes the picture. This disc is a major addition to the catalogue, introducing us to some deeply moving music.


FANFARE: Henry Fogel

This series of recordings of Martinu’s early orchestral works has already brought more than its fair share of surprises. The two shorter works here are colourful and atmospheric tone-poems, pieces of real substance and major discoveries in their own right. But it is the 1922 symphonic triptych Vanishing Midnight (Míjející pulnoc in the original Czech) – here receiving its first recording – which will prove the real revelation. A big-hearted work of breathtaking opulence and striking confidence, Vanishing Midnight is as exquisitely lovely as it is powerful and dramatic – Martinu’s first true masterpiece. Ian Hobson, pianist and conductor, began his international career in 1981 when he won the Leeds International Piano Competition. He is in increasing demand as a conductor, particularly for performances in which he doubles as a pianist. he made his debut in this capacity in 1996 with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and also performs extensively as pianist-conductor with Sinfonia da Camera, a group he formed in 1984 and which quickly gained international recognition through its recordings.

The music that Bohuslav Martinu wrote before the height of his career remains largely unknown and unperformed. This release aims to shine a new light on the compositions written during Martinu’s late teens and twenties. This release presents the world premiere recording of Martinu’s one act ballet, Stin (The Shadow). Conductor and pianist Ian Hobson conducts the Sinfonia da Camera for this release. He is joined by soprano Dorota Szczepanska, violinist Anna Maria Staskiewicz, and pianist Agnieszka Kopacka.

Martinu’s pre-Paris output remains virtually unknown, unpublished, and unperformed. There is a lot of it, and Toccata Classics plans six discs devoted to the orchestral works, an exciting prospect as it should permit us to trace the development of one of the 20th century’s most interesting composers. Aside from the jazzy, 1929 Prélude en forme de scherzo, arranged by the composer from a short (ninety second) piano piece, all of the music here predates 1920. Two of the composer’s main inspirations, impressionism and Czech folk music, are clearly in evidence, but have yet to be welded together into his mature style.

The two impressionist pieces are Nocturno 1 and the untitled Orchestral Movement H90. It’s amazing what you can do with a piano, harp, and celeste in the orchestra, along with some yummy, vaguely mysterious harmony (sound clip). Simple forms, yearning English horn solos, and atmospheric string tremolos complete a pair of very pretty pictures. Village Feast is a short collection of folk dances for flute and strings, while the Little Dance Suite (1919) is anything but. Lasting more than 40 minutes, it is effectively a four-movement symphony in the “song and dance” folk style. It’s longer than any of Martinu’s later symphonies, and the music is wholly delightful. The biggest movement is the scherzo, in which the outer sections are scored for winds and percussion (second sound clip), the trio section for strings alone. It’s a major work; Martinu fans will rejoice.

The performances are very good indeed. Ian Hobson is a reliable and enthusiastic guide to this unknown repertoire, and the Sinfonia Varsovia plays with its usual expertise. The orchestra’s wind and string soloists are all top-notch, and the engineering is warm and well-balanced. This is going to be a series eminently worth following, one which promises many wonderful discoveries (like the ballet Istar). Stay tuned.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

These are all first recordings of these early orchestral works by Martinu. The notes indicate that, with the sole exception of the orchestral arrangement of the brief 1929 Prelude for piano, all of these works date from the period 1907-1919. Annotator Aleš Brezina (director of the Bohuslav Martinu Institute in Prague) states bluntly that, “Knowing well the original sources and the editorial difficulties they involve, I have to express my deep admiration for the detective and archaeological skills…of the editor of most of these scores, Michael Crump.” Crump’s own, longer notes which follow indicate that the “handful of musicologists” who have examined these scores considered them to be “incomplete, incompetent or downright unplayable” due to the manuscripts having been left in “a rather poor condition” requiring “a considerable amount of editorial intervention.” Thus this CD, a splendid beginning to the orchestral works of this composer, is the first in an intended series of six to be issued.


Whatever the problems involved in the transcription and/or completion of these orchestral scores, and I concede that they may indeed have been considerable, the end result is a stunning vindication of hard work plus an inspired interpreter. Readers of my writings will know that I am and have been for some time a huge fan of Ian Hobson, both as pianist (specifically in his long-ranging series of Chopin releases on Zephyr) and conductor. Despite a tendency to play everything in a fairly straightforward manner with very little in the way of rubato or other modifications to the musical line, Hobson’s deeply ingrained sensitivity as a performer comes through in everything he does. For those who like to make comparisons, I would say that to some extent Hobson is like David Zinman with greater sensitivity to detail and dynamics. This is not a criticism of Zinman, whose work I have often found to be quite valid in itself, but by and large I find Hobson’s work just that much more sensitive to musical feeling, and this CD is no exception.

A good example of Hobson’s excellence may be heard not only in the slow works here (the Orchestral movement or the Nocturno ) but also in the pieces that Martinu based on folk music, Posvícení or (Harvest Festival) and the Little Dance Suite. Here, despite his being British, Hobson does a fine job of capturing the unusual rhythms of Czech music, thus he is able to project its underlying folk nature without the feeling of the rhythm being slightly “off.” Perhaps in this case, however, Hobson had the understanding and feeling of the musicians as well, since the Sinfonia Varsovia is an Eastern European orchestra of some distinction, being an augmented version of the former Polish Chamber Orchestra. Moreover, I must give high praise to the engineers, Gabriela Blicharz and Lech Dudzik, who managed to capture exceptionally clear yet slightly ambient sound for the group.

This is certainly a fine collection of early Martinu works. Highly recommended to fans of the composer and/or conductor.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

LAVISTA String Quartets:

No. 1, “Diacronia”;

No. 2, “Reflejos de la noche”;

No. 3, “Música para mi vecino”;

No. 4, “Sinfonias”;

No. 5, “7 Invenciones”;

No. 6, “Suite en 5 partes” 

Cuarteto Latinoamericano • TOCCATA TOCC 0106 (75:27)

The influences on the work of Mario Lavista (b. 1943), Mexico's leading contemporary composer, range from mediaeval, religious and folk music to modernism. His music has a powerful sense of atmosphere and colour — the Second String Quartet, Reflejos de la noche, is played entirely on harmonics — and a vigorous rhythmic drive reminiscent of the quartet-writing of Shostakovich.

Cuarteto Latinoamericano, string quartet

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The playing of the Cuarteto Latinoamericano is accomplished, free yet tightly directed from start to finish. Indeed, the quartet was effectively the inspiration, the impetus certainly, for most of these quartets. The players seem to have the music in their blood. It would be hard to think of more persuasive accounts.
 
The booklet that comes with this CD is informative without feeling any need to rush, proselytise or over-advocate. That must be in keeping with what one senses is an aspect of Lavista's confident and generous personality. To be judged sui generis for sure, these six works are not only different enough one from another, but also amazingly creative enough to repay repeated hearings. As an indication of new directions for the medium, they make every sense. As beautiful works in their own right, they are superb.
 
-- Mark Sealey, MusicWeb International

•Malcolm Williamson (1931–2003), Master of the Queen’s Music from 1975-2003, was the first non-Britain to hold the post since its creation in the 17th century. A gifted pianist, organist and prolific composer, his music naturally includes a substantial number of organ works. His writing for organ is strikingly powerful in its originality and its eclectic mix of styles, ranging from lyrical introspection to fiery virtuosity. Two of the works on this CD are receiving their first recordings.

Includes work(s) by Ester Mägi. Ensemble: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Arvo Volmer.

Kate Loder was a child-prodigy pianist from a family of musicians in Bath, in southwest, England. Loder was one of the first students at the Royal Academy of Music in London and one of Britain's brightest young virtuosi. Unfortunately, Victorian prejudice thwarted a promising career - her well-to-do husband would not allow her to perform in public. Instead, as Lady Thomson, she became an important teacher and society hostess - and she continued to composer, including these two sets of virtuoso studies that sit downstream from Chopin and Schubert. Ian Hobson, pianist and conductor, began his international career in 1981 when he won the Leeds International Piano Competition. This marks the twelfth album that Hobson has recorded for Toccata Classics.