Classical Music

Classical Music

Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable worldwide successes in repertoire ranging from early baroque to present day, in opera, in concert and on disc. Nevertheless, the present recording is, as she writes in her introduction in the CD booklet, something of a début – her first recital disc of songs with piano. When choosing repertoire, she collaborated closely with her pianist, Joseph Middleton and together they chose settings of poems on a floral theme in Russian, English, French and German. The selected songs represent a great diversity, through their different musical styles and affects.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Ainola, the house that Jean Sibelius built in 1904 and lived in until his death in 1957, has become legendary among lovers of Nordic music. The house, now a museum, receives tens of thousands of visitors every summer – many from abroad. It has remained largely unchanged since Sibelius and his family lived in it, and among the museum’s most treasured objects is the Steinway grand piano presented to Sibelius on his 50th birthday. It is on this instrument that pianist and recognized Sibelius authority Folke Gräsbeck has recorded this tribute to the composer on his 150th anniversary.

Well into the previous century Sweden was largely a peasant society with folk music an integral part of daily life. There were work songs, narrative ballads and, obviously, music for dancing. Over the centuries a not always easy coexistence between religion and folk culture developed, with hymns being adapted to a folk-music aesthetic while popular traditions were given a Christian veneer. An example of the latter is the rich store of ‘Staffan ballads’, springing from a pre-Christian horse cult but given a new slant as its focus shifted to St. Stephen – the first Christian martyr. Gunnar Idenstam and S:t Jacobs Chamber Choir have performed their Folkjul concerts more or less every year since 2002. The concept stem from a rich interplay between ‘folk culture’ and ‘high culture’ and in Idenstam’s arrangements a newly composed halling or polska entwines itself round the old Christmas melodies. The first Folkjul album was released in 2007 – this time the choir and Idenstam are joined by violinist Sandra Marteleur and Ulrika Bodén, one of Sweden’s most well-established folk singers.

This disc celebrates the centenary of Jean Francaix, (1912-1997), as well as his music, written with the stated aim to 'give pleasure;. A precocious talent, praised by Ravel for his great gifts and curiosity, and astonishing Nadia Boulanger with his ability, Francaix wrote his first chamber work for winds, the Quartet, in 1933 at the age of 21, and completed his Quintet No.2 more than 50 years later - with a remarkably consistent style marked by lightness and wit. Francaix' works are favourites not only with audiences but also with the musicians themselves, enjoying the challenges of his virtuosic writing, his fleet way with rhythms and timbres and the conversational character of the interplay between individual parts. The highly regarded Bergen Woodwind Quintet, consisting of solo players from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, here perform four chamber works for winds which all share these characteristics - and do so with obvious pleasure. The versatile ensemble released its first disc on BIS in 1985, and has recorded chamber music by Carl Nielsen as well as by David Maslanka, to critical acclaim.

Still in his twenties, Pétur Sakari studied in his native Finland and in Paris and made his recording début at the age of 18. On his previous disc for BIS, he performed works by five French composers, receiving international acclaim with top marks in Diapason as well as on the Klassik-Heute website. For the present disc, Pétur has chosen to focus on César Franck, performing the composer’s Three Pieces and Three Chorales ‘pour grand orgue’ on an instrument perfectly suited to the repertoire. Completed in 1880, the great organ in the Sainte-Croix cathedral of Orléans is a major – and well-preserved – example of the art of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the same maker who had previously built Franck’s beloved organ in Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. (‘My new organ? It’s an orchestra!’ was Franck’s verdict.) Together the two gave the French organ tradition a new impetus with Franck laying the groundwork for a French symphonic organ style while Cavaillé-Coll constructed hundreds of organs capable of producing a sound that was full, homogeneous and modern. The Trois Pièces, which closes with the famous Pièce héroïque, were written for a Cavaillé-Coll instrument built for the 1878 World Fair in Paris. Twelve years later, and only weeks before his untimely death, Franck completed the Trois Chorals. The idea of writing organ chorales was inspired by Bach, but Franck composed them ‘with quite a different plan’: instead of traditional hymns they use an original, freely composed melody which is gradually revealed ‘with great imagination’, as Franck himself put it in a letter to his publisher. Both the Pieces and especially the Chorales have become central works in the repertoire of concert organists.

The three works on this recording bear witness to the changes that took place at the dawn of musical modernism. The reappraisal and reinterpretation of traditional musical genres and innovations led to new ways of organising and addressing the harmonic, melodic, timbral and rhythmic elements of music. Polish composer Karol Szymanowski developed a highly personal musical language that prioritises tone colour, an approach that is perfectly suited to the triptych Mythes, inspired by legends from ancient Greece. Here he developed a new mode of expression, a fusion of the violin and the piano into a single entity with the use of extended violin techniques. The Hungarian Bela Bartok assimilated Szymanowski's contribution and composed his two sonatas for violin and piano in quick succession at the beginning of the 1920s. These two works, as daring as they are demanding, skilfully blend the influence of contemporary composers such as Debussy and Schoenberg with elements of Central European folklore. Frank Peter Zimmermann, whose recent recording dedicated to Bartok's two Rhapsodies and Stravinsky's Violin Concerto (BIS-2657) has received international critical acclaim, performs these landmark works with pianist Dmytro Choni, his regular partner since 2023.

Sensing a special relationship between Arvo Pärt and J.S. Bach, Jörgen van Rijen on his first recording for BIS Records brings together music by the two composers. It’s a relationship which has several aspects. First, Pärt has readily admitted to his love for the work of Bach, referring to it in titles such as Collage über BACH, but also by using the motif BACH (B flat-A-C-B). In addition, both composers share a fascination for religion, while at the same time composing music that is almost mathematically constructed, possessing an underlying order that forms the basis of its timelessness. In collaboration with the composer, van Rijen has adapted four works by Pärt for the trombone, including the celebrated piece Fratres, which exists in numerous versions, as well as the two religiously themed An den Wassern zu Babel … and Vater unser. Pärt’s open-minded attitude to adaptations of his works is also something he has in common with Bach, who regularly reused his own compositions, rearranging them for new occasions. Bach also ‘borrowed’ from other composers, and the three concertos heard here are all arrangements for solo organ of works by Italian composers, which van Rijen in his turn has arranged for trombone and strings. Principal trombonist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Jörgen van Rijen is here supported by his colleagues in Camerata RCO.

Classical Music

The Finnish-American composer Alex Freeman has been described as being ‘as comfortable in the realm of the pop ballad as in that of the concert hall’ and yet his songs ‘are imbued with the craftsmanship and care one would expect of a composer of his formidable academic training, just as his concert works carry the emotional immediacy of popular music.’ Himself a choral singer, Alex Freeman has written a number of works for choir: music that aims to be sonorous and melodic, but is carefully crafted to avoid the clichés that can burden conventional tonality. Freeman’s requiem Under the arching heavens was commissioned by Nils Schweckendiek and the Helsinki Chamber Choir to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Finnish civil war. The work incorporates poems in Finnish, Swedish and English, reflecting both the specific reason for the commission and the universality of human suffering caused by war. In the non-liturgical texts chosen by Freeman, birds are a recurring image, as is that of a mother and child. The work ends with lines by Walt Whitman from a poem written in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Also included on the album is A Wilderness of Sea, another recent choral piece which draws on works by Shakespeare, and the poet’s images of the sea, and of mankind’s relationship with it.

Classical Music

The French organ tradition is one of the strongest and proudest in all of 20th-century music, to the point of forming a genre of its own. Standing on the shoulders of predecessors such as Franck and Widor and composing for instruments built in the glorious tradition of Cavaillé-Coll, a group of organist-composers created a number of works central to the organ literature; works which in spite of their great variety combine to form a highly characteristic repertoire. The young organist Pétur Sakari has gathered five such composers on his first disc for BIS, performing their music on the famous organ of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris. The five composers are all interconnected - Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne studied together (under Franck), Maurice Duruflé studied under Tournemire and was Vierne's assistant at Notre Dame, and Marcel Dupré counted Vierne (and Widor) among his teachers and himself taught Olivier Messiaen. And although Pétur Sakari hails from Finland, he is also to an extent part of this great tradition, as the student of Thierry Escaich and Vincent Warnier, successors of Duruflé and his wife Marie-Madeleine as organists of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Sakari's selection brings together key works such as the hugely taxing Prelude and Fugue in B major by Dupré, Vierne's fantasy on the Bells of Westminster and Messiaen's meditative and atmospheric Celestial Banquet. The opening work on the disc is Tournemire's powerful improvisation on the Easter plain-chant Victimae paschali laudes, recorded in 1930 and later transcribed by Duruflé, whose own monumental Suite closes the recital. Throughout, Pétur Sakari - at the age of only 21 - gives proof of a mastery of the organ and a musicianship which promise great things to come. *playing the great organ of the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Church, Paris

During the second half of the 19th century, a French school of trumpet playing was established, with French musicians and composers at the forefront of the instrument’s musical and technical development. As a result, it was entrusted with a more prominent role within the orchestra and soon also as a solo instrument. On the present disc, Håkan Hardenberger – who like so many other leading trumpet players studied in Paris – presents some of the fruits of this development: five important French works composed between 1944 and 1977. With the support of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Fabien Gabel – who incidentally began his career as a trumpet player – he opens the disc with Henri Tomasi’s Trumpet Concerto. Often performed and recorded, it here appears on album for the first time with its original, longer ending, reconstructed from a newly discovered manuscript. Another rarity is the version for trumpet and orchestra of Florent Schmitt’s Suite, a work which is more commonly heard with piano accompaniment. Rather more frequent in concert are André Jolivet’s Concerto and the Concertino in which Hardenberger is joined by his regular chamber music partner Roland Pöntinen as co-soloist. The most recent work on the disc is Onze Lieder by Betsy Jolas, a work which has a special resonance for both soloist and conductor as it was written for their trumpet teacher Pierre Thibaud.

HENRI TOMASI; ANDRE JOLIVET; REOBERT PLANEL; ALFRED DESENCLOS OLE EDVARD ANTONSEN, TRUMPET; SAO PAOLO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAOLGA KOPYLOVA, PIANO FRENCH TRUMPET CONCERTOS

The choice of works on this amply filled album, as well as the performances are the result of Lorenda Ramou’s research into the artistic environment of Nikos Skalkottas, in Berlin (1921–33) and in Athens (1933–49). The programme is organized as a triptych, focusing on three distinctive compositional styles. First, all surviving Berlin works for piano solo are presented in chronological order, showing how the young composer was reacting to the new and exciting jazz/dance music, but also to the people around him and to events in the musical world of Berlin in the 1920s. This is followed by Suites Nos 2, 3 and 4, a group of mature works composed at the beginning of World War II (1940–41). Closing the release, finally, is the dance suite The Gnomes, probably composed in 1939 and one of a group of piano scores for ballets with Greek subjects. Lorenda Ramou has previously released ‘The Land and the Sea of Greece’ – an album of precisely such scores by Skalkottas – which earned her praise from the reviewer in Gramophone: ‘Her playing is full of verve and alive to the delicacy of Skalkottas’s writing.’

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

A calendar filled with orchestral concerts and chamber recitals in many of the world’s most prestigious venues has given the clarinettist Martin Fröst ample opportunity to develop a wide range of encores, for every occasion. Known for the imaginatively themed concert programmes he devises with various musician friends, he has also explored a number of musical genres. These aspects of his artistry are both demonstrated on this constantly engaging disc, which includes immortal gems such as Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and Kreisler’s Liebeslied as well as pieces rather less usual in a classical context: Charlie Chaplin’s Smile and the klezmer traditional Let’s Be Happy rubbing shoulders with an improvisation over the Nat King Cole standard Nature Boy. Throughout the programme Fröst receives the expert support of the pianist Roland Pöntinen, a chamber music partner of long standing who has also been involved in devising many of the imaginative arrangements, for instance of Vittorio Monti’s Csárdás. Three other musical companions of Fröst’s make cameo appearances, with mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman joining the clarinet in the head-long flight of not one, but two bumble-bees. Torleif Thedéen’s cello sings a heartfelt Ave Maria above the gyrating accompaniment of Fröst’s clarinet, while Svante Henryson, also a cellist, plays in his own duo piece Off Pist, in which the clarinet and cello chase each other up and down alpine slopes. Martin Fröst’s spectacular career on disc began in 1995, with one of his first CD reviews, in In Tune Magazine, describing him as ‘A Swedish Clarinet Star’, and continuing ‘Fröst has everything – including genius’. More than 10 discs later his recording of Bernard Crusell’s three clarinet concertos caused the reviewer in French Classica-Répertoire to remark that ‘in every movement his playing hits upon the appropriate elegance, the perfect phrasing, the true colour, the required virtuosity, the necessary playfulness ... as he pursues his musical intentions all the way’ – a description that could equally well be applied to the present disc!.

Originally from northern California, Tyler Futrell is an eclectic Oslo-based composer. His music attempts to synthesise almost contradictory historical branches yet his goal remains to write coherent music combining intellectual interest and perceptual fascination. His influences include musique concrete instrumentale, sacred minimalism, late romanticism, spectral music, formalism, and contemporary choreography and theatre. Tyler Futrell's Stabat Mater immerses us in the rich history of this religious text. Preserving the melancholic beauty of the Stabat Mater settings composed over the last 600 years, Futrell exposes aspects that have previously been obscured and incorporates the concept of the glorification of suffering more generally, alluding to Samuel Barber's Adagio. A modern take on a sacred text, and music that raises such questions as 'why so beautiful?' and 'can we tolerate this beauty?' Two other works by Futrell are also included. Vuggesang - 'lullaby' in Norwegian - is a meditative piece directly linked to a quotation from Brahms's famous piece in the Stabat Mater. Brittle Fluid is also thematically and causally linked to the Stabat Mater. The title evokes a frozen waterfall, and the composer wanted to represent something both static and dynamic in which death is also present, inspired by Tarjei Vesaas's novel The Ice Palace.

The Passion of St. Thomas More is a chamber opera scored for three singers and four players (on English horn, guitar, Indian harmonium, and percussion). The plot, familiar to many from A Man For All Seasons, concerns Thomas More's refusal to countenance Henry VIII's divorce of Catherine of Aragon and sign a statement of support for the king's subsequent schism with Rome, for which "crime" he was beheaded. American composer Garrett Fischer (b. 1970) focuses on the moment of decision itself and its effect on three principal characters: More (who must follow his conscience knowing the penalty for refusal to renew his loyalty to the king); his daughter Margaret (who must come to accept her father's choice); and King Henry (forced to understand that his power to compel obedience is not absolute and that More has vanquished him spiritually). These singers also take on additional roles as "dark angels", figures that elucidate the spiritual consequences and implications of the decisions that the human characters make. There's also a role for a dancer, and a prelude and postlude consisting of a lovely traditional Norwegian poem that sets the stage by recalling the "old voices" of legendary times.


Fisher's work, haunting in its simplicity, consists largely of chant-like, at times highly ornamental vocal lines (think of Hildegard of Bingen with some occasional counterpoint added and delicate instrumental accompaniments), and might superficially call to mind the music of composers such as John Tavener, save for the fact that Fisher writes music whereas Tavener patently does not. There are no screaming countertenors, pseudo-apocalyptic visions, crude tonal analogs, or obscure, autobiographically motivated sectarian philosophies forced on listeners here.


Indeed, Fisher's laudable objective clearly has been to universalize the story through a ritualistic stylization that treats the music in the most traditional way possible: not as "representation" of some abstract concept or event, but as a means of elevating the expressive impact of the text. The libretto itself, by the composer, is as simple, eloquent, and direct as his setting of it, and finds room not only for its Norwegian prelude and postlude but also for a little Latin prayer and a touch of the poetry of William Carlos Williams (among other interesting things).


The result, while admittedly (and intentionally) slow moving and largely contemplative, is an extremely touching morality play about the consequences of choice, the need to be true to one's self and follow one's own conscience, and the struggle between temporal and spiritual values. The work stands pretty squarely in the tradition of Benjamin Britten's Church Parables, and above all Holst's Savitri. Even the choice of a soprano voice for the role of Thomas More has dual validity, first as a reinterpretation of an ancient tradition of male characters playing women (as in Japanese "Noh" plays or Britten's own Curlew River), and second in order to establish the musical opposition of More and his daughter on the one hand (both sopranos) and Henry VIII (a baritone) on the other.


This beautifully recorded performance features the composer on Indian harmonium, an amazingly expressive and creamy-toned Taina Karr on English horn (no quacking or honking here!), two more excellent players, and three absolutely superb singers--none really better than the others. They present the music with tremendous concentration and also wring a surprising amount of variety from Fisher's deliberately limited resources. Perhaps the most appealing thing about The Passion of St. Thomas More is the way it gently touches on spiritual matters without ever becoming preachy or pretentious, telling a human story with words and music that truly work well together. It succeeds most of all because Fisher never, ever, falls prey to the temptation to subordinate musical values for the sake of irrelevant, unmusical, philosophical point making, and that's a remarkable achievement all by itself.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

REVIEW:

Niels Gade was a musical conservative, very much of the Mendelssohn school, but he had a distinctive personality and...he knew how to make his music move. These symphonies have good tunes, almost no dead spots, and the Fifth, which has an important concertante part for solo piano, really is an entertaining and original piece by any standard.

At five discs for the price of two, this set is a steal. Neeme Järvi's versions of the eight symphonies are as fine as any available, certainly as good as Hogwood's excellent Chandos set which now costs several times as much. Niels Gade was a musical conservative, very much of the Mendelssohn school, but he had a distinctive personality and, more to the point, he knew how to make his music move. These symphonies have good tunes, almost no dead spots, and the Fifth, which has an important concertante part for solo piano, really is an entertaining and original piece by any standard. Järvi secures crisp, lively playing from the Stockholm Sinfonietta; there isn't a weak performance in the lot.

The Violin Concerto is also a fine, unaccountably neglected piece, very well played by Anton Kontra (of the eponymous quartet fame). Its central Andantino espressive really is a gem, but then the entire piece has a formal compactness and confidence typical of Gade. The Crusaders (featuring the Aarhus Symphony under Frans Rasmussen) is an hour-long cantata for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, and it makes a considerable bonus. Of course in today's world it's kind of hard to sympathize with the crusades, or with any piece in which Peter the Hermit is the good guy, but give Gade credit: he gets through the entire Armida/Rinaldo love story in 23 minutes, and it's the best part of the work. Enough talk: just get this box, and your Gade collection will be pretty much complete.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Starring The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Solveig Kringelborn, Swedish Radio Choir.

The arresting clarinet glissando at the start of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is probably the most famous opening in American music. It also serves as a symbol for an important current in 20th century music - that of merging popular genres and art music into something wholly new - and as such becomes even more significant through the fact that it wasn't even in the score when the composer first started rehearsals with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, before the première in 1924: this particular feature, oozing of smoky jazz clubs, was arrived at in collaboration with the clarinettist of the orchestra. At the time, Gershwin was was a mere 25 years old, but already a celebrated jazz pianist and songsmith, with a string of hits to his name. Due to a lack of time, he entrusted the orchestration to Ferde Grofé, the regular arranger of Whiteman's jazz band. The immediate success of the work created a demand for a version for symphony orchestra, however, and for a long time that was the one most usually heard in concert and on disc. On the present recording, Freddy Kempf and the conductor Andrew Litton - himself a noted soloist in Gershwin's works for piano and orchestra - have opted for the original orchestration, allowing the musicians of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra to revel in the role of a classic American big band. Following the première of Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin was commissioned to write a 'proper' piano concerto. He did so the following year, this time providing his own orchestration. Also highly successful with its original audience, Concerto in F employed the rhythms, melodic structures and bluesy harmonies of popular music, but its form is resolutely classical. Also included on the disc are Gershwin's two remaining works for piano and orchestra, the Second Rhapsody (here in his own, original orchestration) and the infectious Variations on 'I Got Rhythm'. The performers on this disc have previously collaborated in a highly acclaimed recording of works by Prokofiev - a disc shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2010. The reviewer in International Record Review found it 'an exciting performance, with soloist and conductor working as one' with 'wit as well as virtuosity in Kempf's playing' - qualities that are in rich evidence in this new release too.

Gity Razaz was born in Tehran, where she spent her formative years before moving to the United States in 2002. Razaz’s identity as an immigrant is integral to her artistic work, in terms both of the subject matter that attracts her and the musical structures she employs. The relationship between the grounded and the ephemeral inhabits much of her music: her choice of titles reveals a poetic sensibility, but her music is never purely cerebral. Instead it is often anchored by the visceral, as with the punchy rhythms and earthy colours of The Strange Highway for cello octet. That piece, which has given name to the album, takes its inspiration from a poem by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. Two other works on the disc also have extra-musical roots: Legend of Sigh is a retelling in music of an Azerbaijani folktale while Metamorphosis of Narcissus was inspired by the famous painting by Salvador Dalí. In both these works Razaz embraces electro-acoustic techniques as a means of enhancing her palette.

The five works on the disc were composed between 2007 and 2020, with the earliest piece being Duo for violin and piano. The latest work is Spellbound, a solo for viola inspired by the mournful sound quality of Persian instruments such as the ney and kamanche.

This lighthearted music is given wings by the flutist Mikael Helasvuo and guitarist Jukka Savijoki, both from Finland, in performances that were praised at the time of the original release – as three single discs – in for instance Classical Guitar, whose reviewer wrote, “Helasvuo and Savijoki achieve an ensemble that at times reaches near perfection … this is what good chamber music playing is all about.”

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Alexander Glazunov's Symphony No. 2 (completed in 1886, when the composer was 21) is distinguished by its quintessentially Russian thematic style, which like Borodin's juxtaposes "oriental" and "occidental" melodies. The Symphony's main theme, announced in a commanding unison statement at the first movement's opening, appears in all four movements in various guises, establishing the work's cyclic unity. Glazunov's motivic development technique stems directly from contemporary Russian practice (already he displays the mastery of orchestration and large forms that would characterize his later work), so any fan of 19th century Russian symphonic music will find much that is comfortably familiar here. However, even non-Russophiles will derive enjoyment from Glazunov's always ear-catching tunes, colorful orchestration, and dramatic sensibility (particularly in the outer movements). Tadaaki Otaka shows himself to be finely attuned to Glazunov's special sound-world and lavishes much care and affection on this music, leading the BBC Wales Orchestra in an enthusiastic and highly polished performance.


Glazunov's Mazurka in G major (1888) actually is a self-contained suite of dances (the dance suite was a popular form of the Russian National school) and points the way toward the imaginative and vibrant style of his later ballet scores. The orchestral fantasy From Darkness to Light was dedicated to Busoni, and it displays (in the darkness section) some surprisingly advanced harmonic devices (Glazunov reportedly had no sympathy for any modernist tendencies, at least later in his career). Out of this pushed-to-the-edge chromaticism emerge the pure tonal harmonies of light, as the work follows a rather obvious path of "transfiguration". Otaka and his forces are just as convincing in these two filler works, making the whole program quite enjoyable. BIS' vivid recording presents a naturally balanced sound picture with a wide dynamic range.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com