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Kusser: 2 Serenatas for the Dublin Court

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At the center of this recording is the Suite liturgique by Andre Jolivet, a French composer whose neglect is utterly unjustified. Christiane Karg interprets this sacred work in a ravishing and captivating manner. Stefan Schilli, solo oboist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, is the soloist of the other titles on this CD; his guests include Sebastian Klinger and Oliver Triendl.

In John Dowland’s both intimate and expressive songs it’s all about ‘speaking harmony’. This is what vocalist David Munderloh and lutenist Julian Behr, in their merging of voice with lute, attempt to impart as they search for the composer’s essence in this album of select songs from this Renaissance master, interspersed with a handful of instrumental lute solos. Currently residing in Basel, Switzerland, American tenor and former Chanticleer member David Munderloh's repertoire includes music of several musical eras, from medieval to 19th c. lieder as well as modern contemporary.

On their new recording ,,A late romantic Christmas Eve" the ensemble Le Quatuor Romantique plays the music like it might have been performed in the home of a large, middle-class family around 1900, particularly focusing on the exciting, colourful melodies, breaking pensive moments with cheerful episodes only to question them again, experiencing childlike delight as well as darker thoughts. And as Christmas is also a time for carolling and singing, Quatuor Romantique invited Elena Fink to interpret some of the enchanting as well as the rare Christmas carols which used to be at the heart of the late Romantic repertoire but which are often completely forgotten and disregarded today.

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The Best of Arsis Bells

MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde 1. Symphony No. 4 2. MOZART Symphony No. 38 3 • Bruno Walter, cond; 1 Kathleen Ferrier (alt); 1 Julius Patzak (ten); 2 Hilde Güden (sop); Vienna PO • ANDROMEDA 5041, mono (2 CDs: 139:50) Live: Vienna 1 05/17/1952, 2,3 11/06/1955


As I have previously provided fairly comprehensive discussions of Bruno Walter’s surviving performances of both Das Lied von der Erde (in 37:4) and the Symphony No. 4 (in 34:6), I can afford to be much briefer here. These discs are slightly remastered clones of releases originally issued by Andante ( Das Lied ) and DG (the two symphonies). The Mahler song cycle was part of a four-CD set devoted to Walter’s Mahler; it also featured the Mahler Fourth, but instead of the Mozart Symphony it included the three Mahler Lieder also sung by Güden on the same concert, whereas the DG single-disc release (as here) included the Mozart Symphony but omitted the songs. Except for the sound being remastered at a higher level and thus being more to the foreground—meaning simply that you can turn down the volume knob a notch here—the sound quality of the prior and present releases is identical. Unlike the elaborate Andante and DG issues, Andromeda provides no information other than the performers, track timings, and merely “1952–55” for the performance dates. However, both the Andante and DG releases are long out of print, and the rare used copy of either one that turns up on the Internet commands an exorbitant price, so one is grateful to Andromeda for making these performances available again, and at a very reasonable price to boot.


That is particularly the case because these are highly desirable items in the Walter discography. While this live Das Lied cannot match the concomitant Decca studio recording with the same forces for sheer sonic splendor, and has a flubbed entrance by Patzak at one point in the fifth song, the sound quality is still excellent and the performance has a sizzling electricity to it, with Patzak’s voice having noticeably more heft and amplitude. The Symphony No. 4 is one of Walter’s two greatest of his 12 surviving renditions of the work; it is rivaled only by the 1950 Vienna Philharmonic performance with Irmgard Seefried. While I very slightly prefer the 1950 performance as having a hair’s breadth more emotional intensity, and slightly prefer Seefried’s voice to Güden’s as a matter of subjective taste, this one has the superior recorded sound (again, very good for its time), and interpretively the two are virtually identical.


As for the Mozart, the “Prague” Symphony was long a Walter specialty, arguably the crown gem among his interpretations of the nine Mozart symphonies (Nos. 25, 28, 29, 35, 36, and 38–41) that the conductor kept in his active repertoire. Seven performances by him survive, four live and three studio:

12/18/1936	Vienna Philharmonic	(EMI/HMV, studio)
05/25/1954	Maggio Musicale Fiorentino	(Florence, live)
11/28/1954	New York Philharmonic	(New York, live)
12/06/1954	New York Philharmonic	(Columbia, studio)
05/05/1955	Orchestre National de la R. T. F.	(Paris, live)
11/06/1955	Vienna Philharmonic	(Vienna, live)
12/02/1959	Columbia Symphony Orchestra	(Columbia, studio)

For unknown reasons, the 1954 studio recording was not released until it appeared on CD in 1995 in Sony’s Bruno Walter Edition . (For anyone not aware of it, the entire 39-CD edition was reissued a year ago in a budget-priced LP-size boxed set; a far more convenient regular cube box edition, minus the new booklet essay in the LP-size version, can be had from Korea for about 50 percent more plus postage.) That was a crying shame, for it is a great performance, rivaled only by the live performances from New York in 1954 and this Vienna one from 1955. (The Vienna studio version and the live performances from Florence and Paris all suffer from inferior recorded sound and somewhat scrappy orchestral playing, while the 1959 stereo recording comes from Walter’s autumnal phase when his Mozart became somewhat ponderous.) If forced to live with only one version, I would go for the live 1954 New York version; its somewhat glassy and harsh (though vivid) recorded sound is more than compensated for by the absolutely electrifying energy of its first and third movements (the latter timing in at a blistering 3:48, including applause!) and exceptionally flowing middle movement. But that version is again long out of print and practically unobtainable; anyone who has either this Vienna outing or the New York studio version, both again in superior sound to that live New York performance, need not feel he is missing out on anything.


This set, then, features stellar performances of Mahler and Mozart masterpieces by the maestro who was during his lifetime arguably the greatest interpreter of both of those composers. As such, it commends itself to every serious collector of historic recordings; highest possible recommendation.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

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Arranged: Jeremy Barlow
Includes coranto(s) by Anonymous. Ensemble: Broadside Band. Conductor: Jeremy Barlow. Soloists: Jeremy Barlow, Alastair McLachlan, Rosemary Thorndycroft, George Weigand.

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There is an amazing abundance of great songs from Finland, Sweden and Norway. This album features a collection of these works, composed over a span ranging from the second half of the 19th century to 1960. Soprano Mimmi Fulmer has made a specialty of this repertoire.

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Soprano Kyoung Cho is a teacher and singer of international recognition. Music critics praised her performances as "Sublimely beautiful, transcendent, serene, dazzling, and heavenly". Dr. Cho holds degrees from Yonsei University, Manhattan School of Music, University of Memphis, Yale University and Israel International Vocal Institute.

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The most wonderful thing about Rautavaara's songs is that no matter what the technical basis of his compositional method, he understands that "song" means an evocative text set to a singable melody. You may not go away humming all of the tunes here, particularly in the brief, powerful, and oddly disturbing cycle God's Way (to poems by Bo Setterlind), but there's no questioning the fundamental rightness of Rautavaara's reaction to the words, or his ability to project his feelings into an expressive vocal line. That's not something to be taken for granted nowadays, when grateful and effective writing for the voice is no longer the basis of most composers' techniques, whether writing for people or for instruments.

The remaining four sets of songs on this disc all employ texts of the highest quality, by Shakespeare (in English, by the way), Rilke, and Finnish poet Aleksis Kivi. The Rilke settings are particularly moving, nowhere more so than The Lovers, whose third song, "Woman Loving", ought to be a recital classic by now. The three songs taken from the opera Aleksis Kivi also deserve to find a life of their own away from the larger work. They stand among the most hauntingly beautiful of Rautavaara's latest creations. Baritone Gabriel Suovanen sings all of this music with warm tone and great musical intelligence, and he couldn't be better accompanied than by Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic. Ideally balanced sound rounds out this most enticing picture of Rautavaara's generously lyrical art.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Madetoja, L.: Lieder (Complete), Vol. 1 - Opp. 2, 9, 16, 18,

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1. Tonttujen joulukuusi (*) 4:51
2. Jing Bells 3:45
3. Petteri Punakuono 2:07
4. Te lapsoset, lapsoset kiiruhtakaa 3:42
5. O Come All Ye Faithful 3:54
6. Kun joulu valkeneepi 1:37
7. Puer natus in Bethlehem 1:02
8. Jouluyö, juhlayö 3:01
9. Joulukranssi kuudella kielellä 8:58
10. Ding Dong! Merrily on High 2:34
11. We Wish You a Merry Christmas 3:11
12. Santa Lucia 4:03
13. O Tannenbaum 2:33
14. Kun joulupukki suukon sai 3:02
15. Joulupukki matkaan jo käy 2:39
16. White Christmas 2:42

[ 61:15 ]

Jorma Hynninen, baritone
Tapiola Choir
Raimo Sirkiä, tenor
Vox Aurea
Monica Groop, mezzosoprano
Sympaatti Youth Choir
Turku Castle Chamber Choir
Savonlinna Opera Festival Chorus
Kalevi Kiviniemi, organ
Matti Salminen, bass

It is possible that the reviewer who characterized Jón Leifs (1899-1968) as "a composer in no danger of being lost in the crowd once his music is heard" was thinking primarily of works such as Geysir (BIS-CD-830), Hekla (BIS-CD-1030) or Hafís (BIS-CD-1050) - works which contain some of the most astoundingly loud music ever recorded! If the present CD is less generous in terms of decibels or special effects such as the sound of Icelandic rock cascades, the music is still unmistakeably Jón Leifs. All but one of the works are for choir or solo voices and orchestra, and their subject matter is, as often with Leifs, either Iceland itself or the ancient myths of the country. Gróa's Spell and The Lay of Helgi the Hunding-slayer, for instance, are both based on texts from the Poetic Edda, while Landfall for male choir and orchestra was inspired by Leifs' first glimpse of land on his return to Iceland after the 2nd World War. Also included on this disc is the Iceland Cantata (from 1930), a work in seven movements for mixed choir and orchestra which Árni Heimir Ingólfsson, the expert on Jón Leifs, in his generously informative liner notes calls the composer's "first real masterpiece, and one of the high points of his entire career." A curiousity for those who follow our Leifs series is Spring Song, a short work which is strikingly - for Leifs - light-hearted and joyous. As surprising will be the orchestration in Viking's Answer (Víkingasvar).The only instrumental work on the disc, it is scored for a wind orchestra with four saxophones (the only time in Jón Leifs' music), violas and double basses! As on previous CDs in the series, it's the Iceland Symphony Orchestra which gives us this rare - three of the works are World Première Recordings - opportunity to hear the music of their great countryman. (The orchestra's latest offering, Baldr BIS-CD-1230/31, was termed an account of "enormous conviction" by the reviewer in BBC Music Magazine.)

Soprano Suzie LeBlanc sings the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop in 10 stunning settings by four Canadian composers, each of whom shines a new light on words that have exquisite clarity and finely-wrought observation. Suzie's voice has as many beautiful colors as the images she describes in Silken Water: The Elizabeth Bishop Suit; Sunday 4am; Sandpiper; a short, slow life; and Four Songs.

Alphons Diepenbrock continues to number among the best-known Dutch composers of the turn of the 20th century. Hans Christoph Begemann and Otto Tausk have recorded Diepenbrock’s most important baritone songs.

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