Classical Music

"She adds to the faultness suppleness of her vocal line a palette of emotions that go right to the mark. The staccati of her coloratura work together with her stunning messe di voce. Her interpretation is at once both tender and heroic, charming and threatening." - Patrick De Maria, La Marseillaise

1. En etsi valtaa loistoa (1)(4) 3:25
2. Kun joulu on (5)(6) 2:29
3. Joulun kellot (9)(10) 2:39
4. Maa on niin kaunis 2:43
5. Sylvian joululaulu (5)(6) 2:47
6. Kuului laulu enkelten 2:14
7. Adeste fideles (9)(10) 3:09
8. Jouluyö, juhlayö (5)(14) 4:13
9. Psallat scholarum concio 1:48
10. Heinillä härkien kaukalon (5)(6) 3.37
11. Me käymme joulun viettohon (5)(6) 2:11
12. Maria, Herran piikanen 1:49
13. Varpunen jouluaamuna (5)(6) 3:52
14. Arkihuolesi kaikki heitä (9)(10) 1:50
15. Joudu, satakiel’ 3:24
16. Mökit nukkuu lumiset (5)(6) 3:50
17. Oi, jouluyö (9)(10) 4:02
18. Ave maris stella 1:55
19. Ja neitsyt pikku poijuttansa (5)(6) 1:40
20. Katso, ihme taivainen 1:20
21. On hanget korkeat nietokset (9)(10) 2:28
22. Kun joulu valkeneepi 1:37
23. Taas kaikki kauniit muistot (5)(6) 2:25
24. Jouluna Jumala syntyi 1:50

[ 65:05 ]

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (1)
Jorma Hynninen, baritone !
Tapiola Choir !
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra (5)
Monica Groop, mezzosoprano !
Jyväskylä Sinfonia (9)
Raimo Sirkiä, tenor !
Vox Aurea !
Savonlinna Opera Festival Chorus !
Matti Salminen, bass !
Turku Castle Chamber Choir !
Sympaatti Youth Choir !

Jorma Panula, conductor (4)
Markus Lehtinen, conductor (6)
Pertti Pekkanen, conductor (10)
Kyösti Haatanen, conductor (14)

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 7

Includes work(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach.

REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, pp.257-58) - "...These songs are well-loved in Finland, and you'll know why when you hear them....Jorma Hynninen could sing the phone book and it would be gorgeous....He doesn't over-inflect; he always sounds natural..."

Classical Music

MUDGE Concertos: No. 1 in D; 1 No. 2 in B?; No. 3 in G; No. 4 in d; No. 5 in B?; No. 6 in F. 2 Non nobis, Domine 3,4,5 • Dominik Kiefer (vn, cond); Henry Moderlak (tpt); 1 Marc Meisel (org); 2 Michael Feyfar (ten); 3 Raitis Grigalis (bar); 4 González Arroniz (bs); 5 Capriccio Basel (period instruments) • TUDOR 7173 (75:41)


A graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, Reverend Richard Mudge (1718­–1763) was appointed curate of both Great and Little Packington in 1741. He may have been private chaplain to Lord Guernsey, who would later become the Earl of Aylesford. The family had significant musical connections, the best known being Handel’s friend and librettist, Charles Jennens. In 1750, Mudge obtained a position at St. Martin’s, Birmingham, where he became a popular preacher. In 1756, we find him in the post of rector at Bedworth, where he lived until his death. Even though Mudge’s liturgical career is well documented, there is almost nothing pertaining to his musical pursuits.


Two collections of Mudge’s music have recently been discovered; both seem to have their origins during his years in service to Lord Aylesford. Most of the material appears to be preliminary versions of this set of concertos, published in 1749. Concertos for strings were quite popular at the time, selling well in a market geared to the desires of talented amateur performers. While the solo parts require performers whose skills are well above the mean, many provincial music societies included collections such as this in their repertoire. The set is scored in seven parts: a concertino of two violins and cello and a ripieno of two violins, viola, bass, and basso continuo . The First Concerto adds a trumpet to the ripieno and the Sixth includes a solo organ part that is modeled along the lines of Handel’s organ concertos. The remaining concertos follow the slow-fast-slow-fast pattern found in the concertos of Corelli and Geminiani, indicating that Mudge may have spent some time studying works by those composers in Lord Aylesford’s collection.


The text of the three-part motet, Non nobis, Domine , comes from the opening of Psalm 113. The two melodic components­—by Belgian Phillip van Wilder and Englishman William Byrd—were quite popular with Jacobites who refused to attend services of the Church of England. It expressed their solidarity with the Stuart dynasty and their rejection of the reigning monarch. As a footnote of sorts, the first appearance in English of both the music and text was around 1620.


The Baroque orchestra Capriccio Basel was founded in 1999, and their first decade has included concerts in France, Hungary, the United States, and appearances at several German festivals. Their collaborators include Andrew Parrott, Monica Huggett, and Gottfried von der Goltz. The orchestra’s Web site includes other releases, including one of concertos by William Hayes, which I hope to have in hand in the near future.


The music is not revelatory; it walks down a path that has been previously traveled by the likes of other Englishmen including John Stanley, Charles Avison, and John Hebden. But to Capriccio Basel, Mudge’s music is singular, and their beautifully manicured interpretations compel much admiration. Under the direction of Concert Master Dominik Kiefer, the orchestra and soloists exhibit a fine sense of elegance and generous vitality as well. Capriccio Basel displays a rare sense of dedication in this release; it is apparent at every turn by way of their meticulous attention to each and every detail, be it written or implied. Impeccable ensemble and precise intonation are the hallmarks of these praiseworthy sessions. These passionate and sympathetic interpretations have brought belated credit to this consistently charming music, music that has been awaiting rediscovery for far too long.


FANFARE: Michael Carter

Dmitri Hvorostovsky's fourth release on Ondine features a program of rarely recorded sonnets by Dmitri Shostakovich and Franz Liszt. Hvorostovsky is accompanied by his longtime duo partner, the Estonian pianist Ivari Ilja. Shostakovich's sonnets, considered one of the achievements of contemporary Russian vocal music, were composed as his health worsened and are filled with ruminations on mortality. Liszt's sonnets are based on love poems by the Italian Renaissance writer Petrarch. Both Hvorostovsky and Ilja brin great empathy to these compositions, matching the contemplative nature of both with quietly powerful and confident performances.

REVIEW:

Hvorostovsky offers searching readings of Shostakovich's rugged, jagged songs which are full of resignation and bittersweet regret, of loss and separation. There are few things finer than Hvorostovsky in full flight and Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnets allow him the chance to open up the Italianate warmth in his baritone, with impassioned accounts, especially of Sonnet 47.

– Gramophone

Helsinki Recital: Karita Mattila (Live)

Classical Music

• With this release Ondine presents two dramatic works by Dmitri Shostakovich, The Execution of Stepan Razin and the Zoya Suite, coupled with his Suite on Finnish Themes.
• The Execution of Stepan Razin, premiered in Moscow in 1964, got a mixed reception. The execution scene and the final, tragic vision is simply spine-chilling: Stepan Razin’s bloody head rolls to the ground and bursts out laughing at the Tsar. Capturing rich intonations and melodies of the text, the bass soloist and the chorus engage in a multi-layered dialogue of this very theatrical work.

Vocal Recital: Dilber - Folksongs from Spain, Finland and Ch

Classical Music

This is the second disc of songs with Sally Silver and Richard Bonynge appearing on SOMM. The collection of songs on this CD ranges across the whole of Massenet's career as a composer. This selection also includes duets and other settings for solo voice groupings, of which Massenet composed many.

"What an adventurous move it is for a record company to provide listeners with the opportunity to hear songs that have not been committed to disc time and time again." - IRR

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s (1873-1943) rarely heard, unfinished opera Monna Vanna was the only major score he took with him into exile in the USA after the 1917 revolution. + This new recording is based on Gennadi Belov’s new edition and conducted by an iconic artist and Russian music expert Vladimir Ashkenazy. The second part of this disc features Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski singing seven Rachmaninov songs (including the hauntingly beautiful Vocalise), accompanied on the piano by Mr. Ashkenazy.

Includes work(s) by Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner (Composer), Charles Gounod, Edvard Grieg, André Messager, Oskar Merikanto, Robert Schumann, Paul Vidal, Arthur Goring Thomas, Ruggero Leoncavallo. Soloist: Aino Ackté.

Classical Music

Like Telemann, Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) was a universal spirit and a highly original, independent composer, undeserving of his relative obscurity. This selection of his bass cantatas is free of baroque overloading, extreme figurations or colorations in the vocal part, and evidences his assimilation of musical innovations through to the end of his creative career. The bass baritone Klaus Mertens, holds a "prominent position among German singers in the field of early music." (klassik-heute).

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Recording information: München, Studio 1 des Bayerischen Rundfunks (05/13/2008-05/16/2008).

REZNICEK Symphony No. 1, “Tragic.” 4 Songs of Prayer and Repentance 1 • Frank Beermann, cond; Marina Prudenskaja (mez); 1 Brandenburg St O Frankfurt • cpo 777 223 (68:50)


In some ways, Reznicek might be described as the poor man’s Richard Strauss. Cpo, which is engaged in a project to record Reznicek’s orchestral output, has already released the composer’s Second and Fifth Symphonies and two tone-poems, Schlemihl and Raskolnikoff , reviewed by Henry Fogel in 28:2. Schlemihl has been dismissed in some quarters as the effort of a jealous and bitter Reznicek to parody and deflate the puffed up ego of Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, schlemihl being Yiddish for an unlucky, incompetent boob upon whose head every manner of misfortune falls—in effect, the anti-hero to Strauss’s Übermensch . But the non-Jewish Reznicek, as Fogel pointed out, may have misconstrued the caustic connotation of the word, which imparts the flavor of not just a pitiable sad sack, but of a fool who invites bad luck and ridicule; for Reznicek’s trials and tribulations—the deaths of two children and his first wife—were real and indeed heartbreaking.


Like Brahms, who didn’t complete his First Symphony until he was 43, Reznicek was 41 in 1901 when he wrote his Symphony No. 1 in D Major. The original booklet essay written in German by Eckhardt van den Hoogen is, in translation at least, incomprehensible gibberish. I was unable to make heads or tails of its mishmash of arcane literary references and absurdist metaphors—“the Criminal Tango of the first movement and the Jesus Christ Superstar of the last movement”—not to mention the mental imagery of “pulling on the pigtails of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto,” and the depiction of Reznicek’s beard as a “foot muff” that put me off my dinner. From what I was able to glean, it seems that the only “tragedy” that led the composer to subtitle the work “Tragic” was a ride on a crowded city train in which a pretty young girl who caught Reznicek’s eye got up and offered the “old man” her seat.


So what does this “tragic” concoction sound like? Well, a bit like Strauss being badgered by Pauline to go to his room and compose something. Then, beginning at 12:08 in the first movement, a sequence that seems to mimic the development section in the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” makes a discomfiting appearance. Here comes a snippet of Schumann, there a scrap of Brahms, and everywhere the oddments and leftovers of Liszt. This symphony would be a piece of utter trash were it not for the twofold fact that it was obviously written by a master orchestral craftsman of the first order, and that it buys one entrance to a musical circus of clowns dressed up as Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Wagner, and Liszt somersaulting around the ring. I defy anyone to listen to Reznicek’s Symphony No. 1 and not laugh out loud as the parade of jesters passes by. If the piece had been written after Schlemihl instead of before it, a more appropriate subtitle might have been Schlamazel.


Having had my say on the Symphony, let me turn now to the Four Songs of Prayer and Repentance after words of the Holy Scriptures. Reznicek really ought not to be judged by his First Symphony, which has got to be either an aberration or some sort of off-color, politically incorrect joke. He was a serious composer with a quite significant catalog of works to his credit: five symphonies, a dozen operas, numerous orchestral and concerted compositions, at least five string quartets, two piano trios, and a considerable volume of solo piano and organ pieces. Very little of it has been recorded; and, except for the Donna Diana Overture, I’ve no recollection of hearing any of it performed live—which is a shame, because the Four Songs are gorgeous.


Written in 1913, long before Strauss said sayonara with his Four Last Songs , Reznicek’s songs take their cue from Brahms’s Four Serious Songs , though they are not nearly as reverential and austere. Where Brahms chose Biblical texts that reflect the fatalism of his last years—“for that which befalls man befalls beasts”—Reznicek selected verses from Ecclesiastes and The Book of Sirach that focus on comforting, acceptance, and the beauty that is to be found in wisdom—“The pipe and the psaltery make sweet melody, but a pleasant tongue is above them both.” Reznicek’s songs are supple and sensuous, but not sensual in that steamy, erotic way that many of Strauss’s songs are. The orchestral accompaniments caress the words with an angelic tenderness.


Marina Prudenskaja, who is identified as a mezzo-soprano, actually has more of a dark-hued contralto quality to her voice that reminded me a bit of Rita Gorr. She has the right timbre and range, I think, to be an ideal candidate for Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody.


Despite what you may have concluded from my opinion of the Symphony, this disc comes with a hearty endorsement, and not just for the Four Songs , which are lovely beyond description, but yes, for the Symphony, too, which is a laugh-a-minute Hooterville riot. Performances and recording are first-class.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Classical Music

Kinkel: An Imaginary Voyage Through Europe — 32 Songs

The expressive range and versatility of the wind ensemble is exemplified in this program from one of the world's leading ensembles of it's kind, which presents classics of the genre alongside new works. Wayne Oquin's Tower Ascending pulsates with urban power whilst Richard Lorenz explores a web of Latin American music. Michael Tilson Thomas distils old and new perspectives and James Mobberely offers affecting Words of Love. We also hear Copland's indelible Fanfare for the Common Man, Vaughan Williams's intricate Toccata Marziale and Stravinsky's brilliantly virtuosic Concerto.