Among Stephen Dodgson’s portfolio of more than 250 works are chamber operas, of which Margaret Catchpole: Two Worlds Apart is a most striking example. It is based on the true story of a woman who was convicted of the then capital crime of horse stealing and transported to Australia, and Dodgson conveys the romance and drama of the story with characteristic lyricism and rhythmic energy. Words are paramount for Dodgson, and his setting is vivid, immediate and tonal, with some swaggering rustic moments amidst the precise characterization and idiomatic instrumental writing.

Dohnanyi: Konzertstuck for Cello / Cello Sonata / Ruralia Hu

Ernö Dohnányi's music slowly has been getting the discographic attention it deserves, and these exemplary readings of his marvelous Serenade for String Trio and Sextet happily join company with some other fine versions. By and large, these new renditions do not necessarily improve on the other prime modern choices--the Serenade offered by Domus on Virgin and the Sextet with Endymion Ensemble on ASV--but the warmly phrased and crisp playing by the members of Spectrum Concerts Berlin will certainly fuel competition in a decidedly uncrowded field.


Those who have yet to experience these miniature masterpieces are in for a treat. Both works admittedly recall Brahms in sonority and structure, but they stand on their own as wholly original works with myriad and often clever twists of character, from witty to sinister. For instance, note how Dohnányi conveys the entire sentiment of the Serenade in the neatly concise first movement, and how its fragmented march pops up momentarily at the end of the finale. The brilliantly conceived inner movements exhibit dramatic breadth in the tender Romance, the motoric Scherzo, and the beguiling variations of the Andante, whose veiled theme unfolds rather discretely. The musicians here are nothing less than committed, but hearing this made me want to reach for the legendary 1941 Heifetz-Primrose-Feuermann to recapture the idiomatic grace of one of the truly great recordings of its time.


The broad, muscular music of the Sextet also pays a debt to Brahms--it almost sounds like the Horn Trio and Piano Quintet in F minor mixed together and then sprinkled with more humor and a dash of additional verve. The first movement of the Sextet is almost symphonic in length and grandeur, propelled by sweeping themes and finishing with a knockout climax. Dohnányi finally liberates himself from Brahms and moves into 20th-century Vienna in the high-spirited finale, filled with off-kilter rhythmic vitality and irreverent little waltzes. Special mention should go to the excellent horn playing of Ron Schaaper, whose sensitive vibrato and immense glowing sound in the outer movements are glorious to hear.
--Michael Liebowitz, ClassicsToday.com

Dohnányi’s powerful Second Symphony was composed toward the end of the Second World War but its large canvas reflects not so much his wartime experience as his own artistic credo as a Romantic composer. +Of the symphony and its philosophy he wrote: “The goal is the end of the glorious fight. The goal is death; life is a struggle”, and in it he crafted a passionate monument to the Romanticism he espoused, heard here in its final revised version. +The two songs for baritone and orchestra have been very rarely heard, and were revived by Alexander Jiménez with the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra in 2013.

Ernő von Dohnányi had a long career as an important composer, pianist and teacher. Deeply indebted to the Germanic Romantic tradition, the works on this disc showcase his love of scintillating orchestral tone-colour—notably of brass, wind and percussion—and his fascination with Classical forms such as the variation. His Variations on a Nursery Song traverses several musical styles in a tour de force of good-humoured virtuosity, while the Symphonic Minutes and the Suite in F sharp minor cultivate a lush, romantic mood with characteristic dashes of suavity.

The opening theme of Ernö Dohnányi's Violin Concerto No. 1 (1915) sounds strikingly like something out of a Harry Potter film, creating the same kind of minor-key-mysterious atmosphere--that is until the solo violin enters with its agitated pronouncements. Often it sounds as if the violin were not at all pleased with this introductory mood and does its best to dispel it. But then the soothing second theme steals in, and the violin is at least temporarily calmed. Dohnányi's solo writing is stunning in its originality and virtuosity, yet violinist Michael Ludwig presents it with confidence, poise, and polish. The serene Andante ushers in a beguiling tranquil mood before the lively scherzo dances about. Dohnányi's theme and variations finale blatantly borrows from the same movement in Brahms' Symphony No. 1, but happily, Dohnányi's less pretentious finale is a lot more fun, even with the return of the first movement's darker theme.

Violin Concerto No. 2 was completed more than three decades later in 1949, and right away the change in the composer's harmonic language shows in the dissonant opening violin cadenza. But far from being atonal or modernist, Dohnányi's work continues the tradition of consonant tonality, albeit a little stretched at the edges. This gives the music great expressive range, and the first movement surges with drama and emotion. As with the First concerto, this one also is in four movements, though they fit within the usual concerto duration (about 30 minutes--10 minutes shorter than No. 1). A charming intermezzo comes second, followed by a lovely and lyrical Adagio. The buoyant allegro finale brings the work to a happy conclusion. Again the violin writing is superb (wonderfully rendered by Ludwig), as is the accompaniment, fleshed out in the composer's robust and colorful orchestration, and beautifully performed by JoAnn Falletta and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Naxos' spacious recording has satisfying bloom, presence, and wide dynamic range. These are excellent pieces that ought to be in the modern performance repertory. If you don't know these works, you owe to yourself to hear this disc.

--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Renowned both as a guitarist and a composer, Carlo Domeniconi has written over 150 compositions, combining Eastern and Western elements in striking and individual ways. Sinbad, a Fairy Tale for Solo Guitar is a perfect example of his imaginative style and is one of the most remarkable works in the entire solo guitar repertoire, evoking the panoramic journey of the sailor and adventurer known from The Arabian Nights. The piece draws on diverse sources including Oriental-Persian scales, Arabic oud ornaments and extended techniques to chart, in three cycles, the Middle Eastern atmosphere through which Sinbad travels.

Carlo Domeniconi is a master of guitar composition. His fusion of Western and Eastern elements is a distinctive feature of his writing, and this album presents a body of work for the unusual combination of mandolin and guitar. The large-scale Durandarte charts a medieval knight’s wild journey through the countryside, which is accompanied by poignant love songs, elegies, and agitated cross-rhythms. In Tarantula precox he summons up a dervish-like dance; while in the kaleidoscopic moods of Zemrude the Orient and the Middle East merge dramatically. All but one of these works have been composed especially for the Mare Duo. The Mare Duo has inspired numerous composers to enrich the repertoire for their formation, including Carlo Domeniconi, Jaime Zenamon, Konstantin Vassiliev, Jürg Kindle, Frank Wallace, Thomas Allen LeVines, Lars Wüller, and many others. The Mare Duo is also interested in performing the classical repertoire for their formation as well as playing innovative transcriptions. Annika and Fabian have released several solo, duo and chamber music albums with labels such as Naxos, Schott Music and Gyre Records, and they have appeared on TV productions including MTV Unplugged.

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

Great fun! A new full-length ballet, especially one as tuneful as this, with an exciting story, is always a welcome addition to both the ballet repertoire and to recorded music.

José Luis Domínguez, who also conducts on this set, is a significant figure in Chilean music as a conductor. This ballet is his first large-scale symphonic work. It is little surprise that, like many conductor-composers, he has such a sure sense of orchestral balance and capability, something evident throughout this work.

The ballet tells a simple story – with plenty of action, set in California – of Joaquín Murieta, a nineteenth century brigand, perhaps the inspiration for Zorro. His origins are obscure, but he has been adopted as something of a folk hero in Chile from where he might have originated. Pablo Neruda wrote a play about him, later turned into an opera by Sergio Ortega. Those works end with a gruesome finale as Murieta is shot and beheaded.

Domínguez ignores that, instead creating a tale set during the Gold Rush, in which Murieta and his men come to the rescue of a town under threat from the villainous Galgos. There is no decapitation but rather the happy outcome of reunion with the beloved Teresa. Think of this as a blend between Robin Hood and The Magnificent Seven.

The comparison is apposite, as Domínguez is quite specific that his music is inspired by symphonic soundtracks of composers such as Korngold, Herrmann and Williams. That is a clue not only to its style, but also to his idea that it should work as a stand-alone piece. This recording is a must for anyone who enjoys the great film-scores: all the virtues of sweeping themes, varied instrumentation and memorable tunes are here.

Performances are committed and in the best Hollywood tradition, with good recorded quality.

If a great ballet company such as the Royal Ballet were to take this into their repertory, one could imagine it quickly becoming a popular hit, rather in the manner of Khachaturian’s Spartacus. A fine ballet conductor, like Barry Wordsworth, would relish this score.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Wilkinson)

Track Listing

Act I

Prologue [4.26]
The town’s people [3.53]
Teresa [7.12]
The Galgos’ Entrance (The imprisonment of the innocent) [3.17]
Joaquín Murieta’s entrance [3.20]
Teresa and Joaquín (pas de deux) [4.48]
Tresdedos [1.50]
Exit of the town’s people [1.30]
El Caballero Tramposo (The drunk variation) [2.04]
Murieta’s entrance (The freeing of the prisoners – The battle) [6.27]
Murieta and Tresdedos [3.25]
The leader of the Galgos interrogates the disguised Murieta [2.37]
The bustling town [2.04]
The women’s entrance (Variation) [4.40]
The leader of the Galgos flirts with one of the wives [6.07]
Interlude (Teresa’s Song) [3.48]
The town’s festivities and the Nobleman’s Spanish Dance [5.07]
The toast and the people’s dance [4.26]
The disguised Murieta’s intrusion [4.36]
Entrance of Murieta’s men and battle [6.15]
Teresa and Joaquín’s reunion (Pas de deux) [11.17]
Epilogue [2.31]

The five works that make up this recording were all inspired by Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quijote de la Mancha. Barbieri' incidental music was composed as part of the first official commemoration, in 1861, of the anniversary of Cervantes' death.

The Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo continues to present early works by Donizetti that have been unjustly neglected for decades. Alfredo il Grande, a love story that explores the defeat of the invading Danish army by the victorious Britons, was first performed in 1823 and was revived in this production two centuries later. Skilfully orchestrated, it features memorable arias for the hero Alfredo, and includes a superb concluding rondo for the heroine Amalia, as well as a radiant quintet. The opera is heard here in Edoardo Cavalli's 2021 critical edition. Gramophone called it 'a vocally accomplished performance' and 'a fine revival'.

Classical Music

Chiara e Serafina was the young Donizetti's first opera composed for La Scala in 1822. A tardy librettist and an incoherent plot resulted in the premiere being a fiasco but Donizetti's music is characterful with delightful duets, trios and ensembles. This 200th anniversary live recording from the 2022 Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo is performed on period instruments and conducted by Sesto Quatrini.

A collection of wholly agreeable music, stylishly written and elegantly performed. The emphasis is on charm, lyricism, and vivacity—something to serenade and divert the listener. Donizetti treats the soloists as vocalists; the music is always expressive. For the most part, this music is played in reconstructions and in others’ orchestrations. But all seems most sympathetically researched and, where necessary, edited and arranged. The Clarinet Concertino mixes pathos and good humor, and the hunting finale of the Oboe Concertino is ear catching. The work for English horn (cor anglais) was written for a now defunct instrument; the cor anglais sounds slightly uncomfortable here, despite the player’s best efforts, and is cast as a theme and variations, the theme reminds of one used by Schubert in his music for Rosamunde. Beginning the CD is a short fancy for woodwind nonet, rather Mozartian, and closing the program is the most operatic music here, written for the funeral of a violinist, and culminating in the manner of a Rossini overture, with a crescendo. If the music appeals, then this release can be regarded as a winner. The recording is excellent: airy, tangible, and well defined.

Colin Anderson, FANFARE

Il diluvio universale ('The Great Flood') was premiered in Naples in 1830 but is better known in the much-revised version performed four years later in Genoa and Paris. The story, loosely drawn from the Bible, concerns Noah and his family, their conflicts, and the impending catastrophe of the flood. The opera offers a stream of attractive music, powerful choruses and refined harmonies, and represents a crucial stage in Donizetti's musical thought. This acclaimed 2023 Donizetti Festival performance, conducted by Riccardo Frizza, employs the original 1830 edition.

Donizetti's L'aio nell'imbarazzo ('The Embarrassed Tutor') is a melodramma giocoso in two acts, premiered to considerable acclaim in 1824. It's subject is the belated attempt by the elderly Marquis Giulio to keep his sons innocent of the ways of world and the comedy of errors that result. Two years later Donizetti drastically revised the opera, which duly appeared under the title Don Gregorio. This production uses the critical edition and restores the work, as far as possible, to Donizetti's original conception - including excised arias, and emphasising the composer's sparkling orchestration.

Written for the Opéra in Paris, Gaetano Donizetti’s La Favorite contains some of his most famous arias. This superb production from the Donizetti Opera Festival in his birthplace of Bergamo returns the work to its rarely heard 1840 French grand opera origins, and uses the critical edition by Rebecca Harris-Warrick which includes all of the original ballet music and the cabaletta of the duet between Léonor and Alphonse. Set in 14th-century Spain, the tragic story is of a pious novice (Fernand) who falls in love with a noble lady and abandons the cloister. He becomes a war hero and asks the King for her hand, later finding out to his horror that she is Léonor de Guzman, the King’s beloved mistress.

Acknowledged as a definitive model of Italian Romantic melodrama, Lucia di Lammermoor was one of Donizetti's greatest triumphs, and it's popularity led him to produce a French version for Parisian audiences. Lucie de Lammermoor became the 'other Lucia', with the opera's tragic tale of feuding families and doomed romance modified in a way that deepens the characters and makes it an even more brutal and emotional theatrical experience than the original. This new Lucie de Lammermoor made it's debut in 1839 with enormous success, becoming a cornerstone of French culture.

The composition of Maria Stuarda was fraught with complications. After the completion of Lucrezia Borgia in 1833 the librettist Felice Romani withdrew from further collaborations and Donizetti, who was already contracted for a production at San Carlo in Naples, more or less in panic engaged the amateur poet Giuseppe Bardari in Romani’s place. The music was composed during the summer of 1834 and in September the dress rehearsal took place. The following day, however, the King of Naples cancelled the performance of the opera on the grounds that ‘the presentation of operas and ballets of tragic arguments should always be prohibited’. Donizetti reworked his opera into Boundelmonte in less than a fortnight, the premiere took place on 14 October with the action moved from Tudor England to Renaissance Italy. It was not a success.

Donizetti didn’t want to give in, and after negotiations, carried out by his publisher Ricordi, Maria Stuarda was mounted at La Scala in December 1835. Again it was not a success at the premiere but was played half a dozen times each time with a better reception. Then the censors interfered and the work disappeared, even though it was played in the Italian provinces and also in Naples in 1865.

It took almost a century before it was unearthed and played at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in 1958 and also in Stuttgart a few years later. It was not until the St Pancras Festival in 1966 that it became established and since then it has been one of the more popular of Donizetti’s operas.

It is based on Schiller’s play but is pared down to more manageable dimensions, reducing the number of characters from twenty-one to six. The confrontation between the two queens has no historical reliability; it was Schiller’s invention.

Musically it is one of Donizetti’s best and points forward to Verdi, whose first opera was only four years away. Maybe the melodies are not as immediately memorable as, for instance, those in Lucia, but they are dramatically efficient and attractive in their own right. The quality of an opera can often be judged from the number of recordings, and next to Lucia, which is supreme, Maria Stuarda is among the contenders. Of the studio recordings one can choose between Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland and Edita Gruberova in the title role. There is also a live recording in English from the ENO with Janet Baker as Maria. The present set boasts no superstars but on the other hand there is an all-Italian cast, which lends authenticity.

Riccardo Frizza conducts a wholly idiomatic performance with sensible tempos. He is well assisted by the orchestra. The chorus is also good, though there are some over-vibrant sopranos that tend to stick out, but not to such a degree that their presence ruins the enjoyment. They are at their best in the chorus that opens the final scene of the opera: Vedeste? Vedemmo … Qual truce apparato (CD 2 tr. 9).

Laura Polverelli is a vibrant Elisabetta, dramatic, powerful and expressive and her opening aria Ah! Quando all’ara scorgemi and the following cabaletta Ah! Dal ciel discenda have a certain thrill, though she is sometimes a bit clumsy. The duet with Leicester, Era d’amor l’immagine that finishes act I, is one of the best numbers in the opera and it is sung with feeling and some elegance by both singers. Even better is the third act aria Quella vita. Roberto De Biasio takes some time to warm up, singing ably but not in a way that is particularly ingratiating in the first act. In the second act he is much more sensitive and in act III he is really very good. Maria, who doesn’t appear until act II, is sung by Maria Pia Piscitelli, who has a full, rounded voice which is nicely contrasted with Polverelli’s. O nube! Che lieve (CD 1 tr. 14) is very good but she sweeps the board in act III with Quando di luce rosea (CD 2 tr. 7). Simone Alberghini is a rather shaky Talbot, while Mario Cassi is a competent Cecil.

The recorded sound is very good and the balance between stage and pit realistic. There are inevitably some stage noises and applause. These have not been edited out but their presence contributes to the feeling of a real performance.

Of the two sets that I own I prefer the one with Beverly Sills (now available on Brilliant Classics 93963 at super-budget price), a set that also boasts the absolutely magnificent Eileen Farrell as Elisabetta and a fine Leicester, sung by Stuart Burrows. Sutherland on Decca is less expressive than Sills, and Huguette Tourangeau can’t compete in vocal opulence with Farrell. Pavarotti’s Leicester is brilliantly sung but Burrows is more stylish. The present set is attractive for the singing of the two prima donnas and the tenor and is the most idiomatically Italian of them all. At the usual give-away Naxos price it is well worth the investment.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

DONIZETTI Marino Faliero • Bruno Cinquegrani, cond; Giorgio Surian ( Marino Faliero ); Rachele Stanisci ( Elena ); Ivan Magri ( Fernando); Luca Grassi ( Israele ); Luca Dall’Amico ( Steno ); Domenico Menini ( Gondolier); Bergamo Music Fest Gaetano Donizetti O & Ch • NAXOS 8.660303-04 (2 CDs: 144:24) Live: Bergamo 2008


Composing the score for Marino Faliero was an important project for Gaetano Donizetti in late 1834 because for the first time he had received a commission to create a work for Parisian audiences. Paris in those years was the glamorous opera capital of the Western world; to work there meant the real possibility of great fame and much fatter purses. The commission had come from expatriate Gioachino Rossini’s Théâtre Italien, then a thriving Paris showcase for new Italian opera works in their original language. Because of previous commitments, Donizetti was forced to work on his score in Italy. When he finally arrived in Paris he was induced to make major revisions to what he had already written, whether at the behest of Rossini or because he felt the opera inadequate to please Parisian tastes in its original state, we do not know; perhaps some of both.


Donizetti’s new work was to be blessed with the participation of four of the best singers then performing, including soprano Giulia Grissi and tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, but also cursed with the ill fortune of appearing in the theater directly after I Puritani , the highly regarded new work of Vincenzo Bellini, both at the March 12, 1835, premiere in Paris and later that year at its London premiere with the same singers. Operagoers in both cities picked favorites, and I Puritani won out. The famous singing foursome was dubbed the “I Puritani Quartet,” not the “Faliero Quartet.”


I am certainly not familiar with all the 65 or so librettos Donizetti set or partially set to music; very few people are. I have heard and read enough of them, however, to know even though the story is based on a work by Lord Byron, Marino Faliero probably doesn’t rank in the top 20. The story is of Faliero, the 55th Doge of Venice, already the titular head of the citizen government of the 14th-century city-state. Feeling disrespected by the ruling Council of 40 for not pursuing stiffer penalties against his political enemies and others who are bandying his wife’s name about as an adulteress, Faliero joins a conspiracy against the ruling elite and declares himself Prince of Venice. The uprising fails and Faliero is imprisoned. To add insult to injury his wife, Elena, informs the Doge before his execution that the rumors are true, she has been unfaithful with his tenor nephew Fernando, who had been killed off in act II. The Doge is initially angry, but comes to a better state and forgives Fernando and his wife before going off to the block. The Dogaressa, bereft of both lover and husband, will hie to a nunnery. So, what’s not to like here? A cheating wife who precipitates the death of her young lover? A political leader not content with his own power who acts foolishly and treacherously on spurious reasoning? Who can’t get into that? Donizetti mitigates the infelicities of the libretto to some extent with very good, if not great, music. He does not match the level of inspiration Bellini achieves in I Puritani , but this work is not chopped liver, either.


The singing on this recording is generally quite good. The vocalists understand the need to ornament repeat passages, especially in Donizetti’s cabalettas, and do so with varying degrees of success. Young tenor Ivan Magri and young soprano Rachele Stanisci perform the best, although as Fernando, Magri is killed in act II, and Stanisci, as Elena, does not appear in act II at all. Magri can go a bit flat at times, but both voices handle the bel canto style and soar when necessary. Both hold the potential of good careers to come. Baritone Luca Grassi competently sings the substantial role of Israele, leader of the conspirators. The disappointment in the pack is the singing of Giorgio Surian as the Doge, Faliero. Surian has developed a wide vibrato; some would call it a flutter or incipient wobble. That makes him difficult to listen to for long and spoils some of the ensemble pieces as well. There is also very little separation in tonal quality between bass and baritone in their several numbers together. The partly student Bergamo Festival Donizetti Orchestra plays surprisingly well and supports the singers in excellent fashion under the baton of bel canto specialist Bruno Cinquegrani. The chorus is a bit ragged at times; it sounds like they need more rehearsal time.


To my knowledge, this Naxos CD release (and its DVD counterpart) is only the fifth recording of Marino Faliero. The modern-era revival in Bergamo in 1966 was captured live and issued on Melodram LPs with some locally known singers (I don’t believe this recording ever made it to CD). In 1977 a live production for RAI Turin featured possibly the best Faliero in bass, Cesare Siepi. He is accompanied by the well-sung Israele of Lucinio Montefusco, the Elena of Marisa Galvany, and the Fernando of Giuliano Cianella, the last two of which lack any clue about bel canto style. In addition, the tenor ducks high notes throughout and more than one number is transposed to a lower key. This set is still available in quite good mono sound on Myto and Bongiovanni. A 1999 release from Hungary on the Agora label, which I have not heard, apparently suffers from a badly inadequate tenor. There is a Hardy DVD filmed in Parma in 2002 with some major voices, including Rockwell Blake as Fernando, Mariella Devia as Elena, and Michele Pertusi as the Doge, which is arguably better than the current set, although it too has some problems. Devia is not really a bel canto type either, and by 1992 Blake’s voice was distinctly unlovely, although he still retained his excellent mastery of Donizetti style.


The Naxos booklet contains an article about the opera, a synopsis keyed to the track listing, and short bios of key performers. An Italian-only libretto is available on the website. The stereo sound is excellent; the enthusiastic audience does not intrude on the performances. Marino Faliero is a pretty good opera still wanting a definitive recording. Those who want to see it might opt for the 2002 Hardy DVD or the Naxos release of the current set. This quite substantial and inexpensive CD edition can fill in quite well on the shelf while we wait and hope.


FANFARE: Bill White

Known primarily as a prolific opera composer, Gaetano Donizetti also wrote nearly 300 songs, which were destined for intimate gatherings of friends, professionals and wealthy amateurs. Though Donizetti was seemingly blase about his songs, they contain much of interest. Their melodic beauty and structural surety are invariably captivating, whether in ballades or canzonettas, theatrical ariettas, or poignant love laments. Setting poets from Pietro Metastasio to his contemporaries allowed Donizetti full rein to explore a wide variety of subject matter with wit, sentiment, long vocal lines, and quasi-orchestral piano accompaniment. A digital-only single of Lamento per la morte di V. Bellini is also available to stream and download (9.70399).

Gaetano Donizetti is renowned as a leading composer of the Italian romantic bel canto opera style during the first half of the 19th century. But in his earlier years and as a student of Simon Mayr his dramatic genius came to the fore in his settings of psalm texts for Vespers, a form then still popular in Italy both in secular and liturgical contexts. Donizetti's Vesper Psalms are characterized by beautifully shaped operatic melodies and colorful orchestration on a grand scale, creating moments of real rhetorical force- outstanding features of works that have lain undiscovered in manuscript form for two centuries.

Brothers Franz and Karl Doppler were both accomplished flautists. Their compositions, sometimes written together, reflect the tastes of the period, making great use of Hungarian themes.

Avner Dorman is a major compositional talent. Sure, we've heard plenty of Baroque-inspired pieces before, from the opening of Tippett's Second Symphony, tons of Martinu and Stravinsky, to Karl Jenkins' "Diamond Music" commercials. As this list suggests, the quality of such music ranges from superb (Tippett, Stravinsky, and Martinu) to junk (Jenkins). Happily, Dorman's pieces clearly stand closer to the former category rather than to the latter. He describes his style as a combination of Baroque, jazz, rock, and ethnic (Middle Eastern) influences, and that's exactly what it is, but happily his own personality is strong enough to absorb and synthesize these various elements into a convincing personal idiom.

As CT.com readers probably already know, I'm not generally a fan of concertos for silly solo instruments, whether these be percussion (Dorman has two of those), tuba (except for Vaughan Williams), contrabassoon (Aho-yecch!), double bass, or what have you. That said, I have to confess that Dorman's Mandolin and Piccolo concertos are terrific. The former finds more timbral variety in this recalcitrant instrument than you would ever believe possible, and it seems to have been conceived with its potential in mind so as to turn any limitations to maximum expressive advantage. Soloist Avi Avital wails away at his mandolin as if his life depended on it. The same observations apply to the Piccolo Concerto; sure, it's sprightly (it has to be), but soloist Mindy Kaufman has a wonderful tone, an amazing facility with flutter-tonguing, and Dorman's sensitive use of such modernistic devices (or "ethnic," depending on your frame reference) as pitch-bending imbues the piece with real poetry.

The Concerto Grosse takes Handel and Vivaldi as inspirations, but the slow-fast-slow form is quite unconventional, and the mixture of minimalist techniques, modernist tone clusters, and frankly melodic passages is exquisitely balanced for maximum variety and color. Dorman was only 19 when he wrote his Piano Concerto; it's the most conventional work on the disc, clearly neo-Baroque, but no less charming for that in soloist Eliran Avni's capable hands. The pianissimo conclusion reveals a composer of real sensitivity and wit. None of these pieces lasts longer than seventeen minutes, all bear repetition, and the Metropolitan Ensemble under Andrew Cyr sounds absolutely terrific no matter what Dorman asks them to do. This is really good stuff, a genuine discovery, beautifully played and excellently engineered. It will make you feel good about the future of contemporary Classical music.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

"Avner Dorman, a 31-year-old Israeli composer who lives in New York, clearly believes that the language of the early 20th century — essentially tonal but ripping free of tonality; within shouting distance of Romanticism but not under its shadow — can still be useful. Though the piano works here are accessible and inviting, describing Mr. Dorman as conservative wouldn't be quite right. These works draw on the energy and spikiness of Prokofiev and Bartok in textures interwoven with moves borrowed from rock, jazz and Middle Eastern folk music...Eliran Avni plays these works with an assurance and flexibility that make them sound as if they had been in his repertory forever. He has the ironclad technique that Mr. Dorman's writing demands, but there is ample suppleness in his playing as well, a quality that makes the slow, quiet movements as arresting as the fiery ones."
- Allan Kozinn, NEW YORK TIMES

Antoine Dornel' imaginative and dynamic compositional style was perfectly suited to the lively and ever-changing musical environment of Paris in the first decades of the eighteenth century.

DORNEL Suites, op. 1: No. 1 in a; No. 2 in A; No. 3 in 3; No. 4 in D; No. 5 in G; No. 6 in e • Musica Barocca (period instruments) • NAXOS 8.570826 (69:06)


We know very little about the life of Louis-Antoine Dornel, who lived from 1680 until approximately 1756 or 1757 (Naxos’s tray liner gives an incorrect date of 1765 but gets it right in the insert notes). He had appointments as organist at Ste Madeleine-en-la-Cité in Paris and the abbey of Ste Geneviève, as well as music master of the Académie Française, where he was required to write an annual motet for the feast of St Louis. His motets received praise in the Mercure de France , but none of them have survived.


The six works recorded here were published as Dornel’s op. 1, entitled Livre de symphonies contenant six suittes en trio pour les flutes, violins, hautbois, & c. avec Sonate en Quatuor . Each starts with either a prelude or a two-movement overture followed by four, five, or six dance movements. Dornel’s relative obscurity compared with his more-recorded late Baroque contemporaries apparently has nothing to do with his ability as a composer. The music here is inventive and enjoyable. However, I did find it better to listen to these works in a couple of sessions rather than straight through.


Part of the reason for this “ear fatigue” can, I think, be attributed to the interpretation. Musica Barocca’s playing is not at fault; the performances are excellent. But I question the decision to entrust the two solo lines to voice flute, a type of alto recorder. Although the score mentions flutes, violins, or oboes, there is, of course, no reason why interpreters cannot choose other solo instruments. But I found the voice flute to be a bit overwhelming after listening to a couple of these works, and would have welcomed some variety. Also, judging from scores I downloaded from the Internet, it appears that some of these works had to be transposed to be played by the voice flutes; the insert notes make no mention of this fact.


The recording does not include the Sonate en quatuor that was published as part of op. 1; there was not enough room on the disc for it. However, the Sonate can be found on a disc entitled “The Sultan and the Phoenix” on Signum, which includes works by seven other French Baroque composers. This is the first complete recording of the six suittes en trio ; I find only one of the suites available elsewhere on a Glossa recording. The music is worth getting to know, and the recording will provide enjoyment. But there is room for another recording using different solo instruments and with all works recorded in their original keys.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

One of the great Elizabethan masters of the lute also was the period's most celebrated composer for the instrument. Four centuries later, a fellow Englishman-Nigel North-became the leading interpreter of Dowland's beautiful, melancholy creations. This set begins with the Fantasies (or Fancyes), which match melody with improvisation. Next come the pavans including the most famous of it's time, the Lachrimae Pavan. Disc three explores the principal dances of the era: pavans, galliards and almains. Go from My Window; Walsingham, and more dances and songs complete this tribute to the English Orpheus!

DOWLAND: Consort Music and Songs

DOWLAND: Flow My Tears and Other Lute Songs