Classical Music

The new collaboration between OehmsClassics and Christoph Spering with the Chorus Musicus Cologne and Das Neue Orchester also resulted in a new encounter with a veteran artist of our label: Thomas E. Bauer. Label director Dieter Oehms stated, briefly and succinctly, that he had never before in his life heard the cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen performed as urgently as in the interpretation of Bauer.

This is a Lohengrin sure to be welcomed by the true Wagnerian connoisseur. Offered complete for the first time on CD and re-mastered in 24bit/96kHz audio, Walhall’s Eternity Series brings to market a 1949 Moscow, USSR performance of the opera, sung in Russian. Evincing tremendous vocal power and voice control, Ivan Kozlovsky (1900-93), a lyric tenor then at his apex, heads the all-Russian cast; his performance ranks with those of the more familiar Wagnerian Lohengrins of the era, Melchior and Konya, in their respective primes. Samuil Samosud conducts the USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Peter Scott Lewis is based in San Francisco, and his deeply expressive music is much in demand across the world. Performed here by renowned artists, The Four Cycles collects his complete vocal music to date. Where the Heart Is Pure depicts the natural world around the Skagit River in Washington State where the poet Robert Sund, a close friend of the composer, made his home. Themes of light and love are embraced by the rich sonorities of a vocal quartet, while the Three Songs From Ish River examine the history of the Pacific Northwest.

WEBERN Ricercata from Bach’s “Musical Offering.” 5 2 Songs, op. 19. 4,6 5 Movements for String Orchestra. 6 2 Songs, op. 8. 1,5 5 Pieces for Orchestra, op. 10. 6 4 Songs, op. 13. 1,5 6 Songs, op. 14. 1,5 5 Sacred Songs, op. 15. 1,5 Das Augenlicht. 4,6 Variations for Orchestra. 5 Second Cantata 2,3,4,6 • Robert Craft, cond; Tony Arnold (sop); 1 Claire Booth (sop); 2 David Wilson-Johnson (bs); 3 Simon Joly Ch; 4 20th Century Classics Ens; 5 Philharmonia O 6 • NAXOS 8.557531 (79:32)


Craft was the first to record Webern’s “complete” works, back in the 1950s. His four- LP monaural Columbia album was a revelation—and a tribute to the commercial daring of Columbia’s Goddard Lieberson. Although there had been four or five earlier recordings of single Webern works, Craft’s set joined only one other Webern piece in the 1957 Schwann catalogs. It was to remain available for more than two decades, until succeeded by Boulez’s stereo remake in 1979, dubbed—at the last minute—Vol. 1 because a trove of previously unknown works had been discovered. While the stereo LPs were a great improvement, both for their sound quality and their performances, the latter were due to the singers and players more than to the conductor. Webern had gained respect—indeed, had become the guru of musical academia—and musicians were leaning how to perform his works. The learning curve continued well into the CD era; an appropriate punctuation being the 1992 appearance of a superb Webern disc by the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra (nla). Now everyone could play Webern (if not yet sing him), not just the avant-garde specialists. Listeners of my generation learned Webern from that first Craft set, and we are forever in his debt. If he could not then convince us of the music’s beauty, he drew our attention and piqued our interest.


The Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble is a group contracted for Craft’s recordings, its players handpicked by cellist Fred Sherry. Personnel listings for each piece show it to include the best of free-lance American musicians—I am almost afraid to name some, for fear of slighting equally superb colleagues: Charles Neidlich, William Purvis, Paul Neubauer, and Sherry are so well known that I don’t even need to list their instruments. Soprano Arnold, professor of voice at SUNY Buffalo, is a renowned new-music specialist; she sings Webern with glorious panache. These recordings were made during 2007 and 2008—the Philharmonia sessions at EMI’s Abbey Road Studio No. 1, the American ones at SUNY Purchase, New York, and at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. The solo songs (at SUNY) are clean and clear, but the chorus (at Abbey Road) is set in a reverberant acoustic that denies us the exact words, even with libretto in hand. As usual with Naxos, librettos are posted on the Internet, but the texts of Das Augenlicht and of the Second Cantata are missing.


One of the pleasures of any Craft release is reading his feisty, superbly informed, damn-the-torpedoes program notes. As usual, he insists that these performances are the only correct ones: “[W]e can blame the failure to understand this piece [the op. 30 Variations] on the ignoring of Webern’s admonition to follow his metronomic markings. The present recording is the first attempt to play the work at metronomic speed. Thus, the DGG [Abbado? Boulez?] trudges along at about 116 for the fast pulsation, as against the required 160, and continues at nearly the same 116 for the slow beat.” In addition to his chutzpah, Craft is usually right. Despite that statement, Craft’s Webern performances are generally softer and more listener-friendly than either Abbado’s sophisticated, highly polished renditions or Boulez’s careful but often stolid performances. Although dubbed the BBC Singers, Boulez’s chorus is also directed by Simon Joly; with the Webern œuvre now doubled, Boulez’s DG recordings fill six CDs and are currently distributed only in a complete set. For the op. 30 Variations , however, I recommend the vibrant, superbly recorded performance by Jac van Steen on a surround-sound SACD, MDG 901 1425.


FANFARE: James H. North

Throughout her career, internationally heralded harpist Yolanda Kondonassis has found herself fascinated by the luscious creations of French composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel: Intimate Masterpieces is a celebration of Kondonassis' longtime love of Ravel's music, and a celebration of the great roster of Oberlin Conservatory of Music talent that came together with her to record the album on campus in January 2013. 'This disc is especially meaningful because I was able to make it with such wonderful players and to celebrate the wealth of artistry and musical opportunity that lives at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music,' says Kondonassis.

The program offers familiar works as well as novelties for voice and organ, along with solo organ works ranging from Bach to Handel to Puccini to Nadia Boulanger, including the title cut, Gounod's "O Divine Redeemer." The powerful, sumptuously voiced American soprano Christine Brewer sings most radiantly. It's great to hear Paul Jacobs in Boulanger's richly chromatic, subtly intense 1912 work, Three Pieces for Organ.

– New York Times

An English Christmas from Westminster Choir College Recordings, is the perfect way to “ring in the holidays” with the joyous sounds of Christmas, the album’s arrangements of holiday favorites being performed on the world’s largest range of handbells. The Westminster Concert Bell Choir is considered to be America’s leading handbell ensemble. Hailed for its virtuosity, the Westminster Concert Bell Choir performs on the largest range of handbells in the world. The choir has appeared on Public Television’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and several holiday broadcasts of NBC’s Today show. Recent performances include joining Josh Groban to perform The Bells of New York for the national broadcast of the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, as well as having performed at Carnegie Hall twice during the Christmas season. Kathleen Ebling Shaw is in demand as a conductor and handbell clinician worldwide. She has conducted ensembles and led symposia throughout the US, Japan, England, Korea and Australia. - Naxos

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

In the year 1580, a young Luca Marenzio published his first collection of compositions: Primo libro de’ madrigali a cinque voci, to all a supreme master. Thanks to these works, Marenzio won a position of primacy among Italian composers, his fame soon reaching other European countries. In England, Marenzio’s works were highly admired. This CD contains an overview of the profane musical genres of the late ‘1500's, of which Marenzio and his contemporaries were the leading figures.

This release features Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, who studies as the Vienne Academy of Music and Dramatic Art with Hilde Rossel-Majdan and Erik Werba. Holzmair performs at venues and festivals around the world, as well as with other renowned artists such as pianist Imogen Cooper.

Soloists Teresa Wakim, Paula Murrihy, Thomas Cooley and Sumner Thompson joined Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society to record Mozart's Coronation Mass live at Boston's Symphony Hall earlier this year. Mozart's Mass in C major is one of his most popular and enduring works. Known as the 'Coronation Mass' – a nickname it acquired following a performance conducted by Antonio Salieri in 1791 in Prague at the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia – it includes the beautifully tender Agnus Dei. Alongside the Mass on this CD are Mozart's soprano solo Exsultate, jubilate, beautifully performed by Teresa Wakim, and Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 85, which was a favourite of Marie Antoinette, leading to the name 'La Reine', by which it is still known today.

In this recital of Alnæs’ atmospheric songs, Eriksen, whose playing of Alnæs’ piano works can be heard on an earlier Toccata Classics CD, returns to his music in the company of Solvang, one of Norway’s best mezzos. This CD marks the 140th anniversary of Alnæs’ birth and the 80th of his death and includes a number of word premiere recordings.

REVIEW:

Solvang’s lyric soprano is attractive and colorful, and she is capable of floating some lovely pianos. Very rarely she pushes it too much and the tone turns hard, but this is a minor flaw in a disc of lovely singing. Eriksen is clearly as much of an Alnæs expert as we have today—having recorded a disc of piano pieces—and he and Solvang are on the same wavelength throughout. One could not ask for better performances. The recorded sound is a bit too “airy” for my tastes—but one gets used to it quickly enough. Very informative and high-quality program notes along with complete texts and translations round out the production.

-- Fanfare

The five composers featured on this new release, Olczak, Dziadek, Luczkowski, Dixa, and Czerniewicz, are all contemporary composers whose paths crossed in the city of Gdansk. Whether their connection was by choice or by chance, all of these composers link in some way to the city. The Chamber Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Gdansk, directed by Andrzej Kacprzak, rightfully perform these works. The ensemble’s youthful freshness combined with the conductor’s experience creates a powerful combination. Professor Krzysztof Langman founded the Academic Chamber Orchestra in 1999. The ensemble was created to enable the academic youth to perform with the most prominent concertmasters of famous Polish chamber ensembles.

Joanna Freszel, this project’s initiator and manager, set out with this album to present the potential and creativity of young Polish composers. In addition to work by Polish composers, this album is supplemented with texts either written by Polish poets such as Mariusz Jagiello and Maja Baczynska or a literary canon. Each of these compositions was written for various vocal or instrumental sets, from piano to sextet, to six vocalists. Of this project, Freszel writes, “I particularly wanted to break a stereotypical thinking about contemporary music as hermetic and overwhelmed by incomprehensible elements. I wished to show that music can be dreamlike, intriguing, nostalgic, and also witty.”

Judith Clurman conducts her acclaimed chorus, Essential Voices USA, in Holiday Harmonies: Sounds of Christmas, the ensemble’s third recording for Sono Luminus. This holiday disc includes premiere recordings of new vibrant arrangements of seasonal favorites and new works that were written for the disc by some of America’s finest composers. Mezzo Soprano Jamie Barton, Soprano Maureen McKay, Pianist Tedd Firth, and Harpist Stacey Shames are featured performers. Traditional repertoire includes: “Angels We Have Heard on High” (arr. David Chase), “O Holy Night” (arr. Ryan Nowlin), “Silent Night” (arr. Tedd Firth and Judith Clurman), “The Virgin’s Slumber Song” (Max Reger), and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (adaptation Judith Clurman). New works include: “Whispered and Revealed” (Nico Muhly), “Love Came Down” (Jennifer Higdon) and “Merry Christmas Wishing Well” (Gene and Lorraine Gilroy, arr. Michael Gilbertson).

Leoš Janácek is one of the composers who brought fame to Czech music worldwide, and his Glagolitic Mass, Sinfonietta and mature operas are regularly performed on prominent stages around the globe. Yet the composer's folk-based works have remained relatively little known, even though traditional songs pulsate in the very heart of his music, significantly forming his singular idiom, and serving as a source of inspiration without which Janácek's oeuvre simply cannot be imagined. Owing to the artist's collecting passion, today we can enjoy numerous lovely songs which have been preserved in both music scores and period audio recordings. The collections Moravian and Hukvaldy Folk Poetry in Songs contain the most beautiful of them all. Janácek left the songs in their pure form, afforded to them by the landscape and the people living in it, merely - and with the sensitivity of a precious painting restorer - furnishing them with congenial piano accompaniments. The landscape and the language of Janácek's Hukvaldy and Moravia have also been imprinted in the very souls of the artists who have recorded this album, focusing on the purity of folk songs, reflecting simple directness and enchanting poetics. The present recording is the fruit of their joint seeking and endeavor to get in touch with the candid and deeply symbolic world of the songs. Into the very heart of Janácek's singular musical universe

Classical Music

The Alla Turca fashion made its way into Turkish operas after the final siege of Vienna and the Turkish defeat. Since the early 17th century dozens of arias, operas, and instrumental works have been composed in this style. This project, Carneval Oriental, is inspired by these cultures, celebrating carnivals as it was most likely held in the 16th and 17th centuries. Images of caftans and turbans, Turkish drinks, and hookahs are brought to mind. The Pera Ensemble and L’arte del mondo teams up on this recording to bring us a quality performance of Baroque music from Italy and France laced with oriental spice.

The music of the Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895–1968) is familiar in his home country but sorely neglected abroad. Lyatoshynsky’s songs are neglected even there: this anthology of his best romantsiy for low voice and piano contains many first recordings.
The songs meld intense Scriabinesque expressionism with elements of Ukrainian folksong in a language that embraces both the lyrical and the dramatic. His setting of Shelley’s Ozymandias, with its warning of the impermanence of power, was a brave act in the Soviet Union of 1924. The booklet contains full sung texts, with English translations by Russian-music expert Anthony Phillips, who also provides an extensive introduction to Lyatoshynsky.

REVIEW:

Ukrainian composer Boris Liatoshinsky (1895–1968) studied with Gliere at the Kiev Conservatory and then became a life-long member of that faculty. Death, melancholy, dread, and grief over unrequited love are the subjects of his chosen texts by mostly Ukrainian poets Ivan Bunin, Alexei Pleshcheyev, Leonid Pervomaiski, Maxim Rylsky, and Volodymyr Sosyura as well as Heine and Shelley. The mood of his songs is consistently somber.

The program of works from 1922 to 1951 is ordered mostly chronologically. His earliest compositions show an evident love of Schumann, Chopin, and Borodin; but the works heard here show a Scriabinesque expressionist style that reflects the cultural chaos following WW I and the Russian Revolution. His 1924 setting of Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ with its image of the impermanence of power shows his courage and conviction in the face of Socialist Realism as Stalin was consolidating his stranglehold over the Soviet Union.

The performances here are broodingly powerful. Savenko’s lyric bass is a good fit for these songs, written specifically for bass (or low voice). With smooth legato singing and well applied dynamics, his performance gives full expression to their mournful nature.

-- American Record Guide

Audience Prize-winner at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (2013), accomplished young English tenor Ben Johnson lends his dulcet tones to a programme featuring a bouquet of ballads from the British Isles. This song form enjoyed extraordinary popularity in private homes throughout the Victorian, Edwardian and Modern eras, inspiring generations of talented composers – men and women – to marry words and music in a delightful variety of styles.

Presenting the major singers of today and the stars of tomorrow, the Rosenblatt Recitals are London's only world-class season of opera recitals.

Following the success of the Mozart Mass in C minor last year, CORO is delighted to announce the release of its second recording with Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society. Celebrated soloists Elizabeth Watts, Phyllis Pancella, Andrew Kennedy and Eric Owens joined Harry and the Society to record Mozart's Requiem live at Boston's Symphony Hall earlier this year. Mozart's final moments are reflected through this masterpiece of drama, intensity and depth. The mysterious circumstances surrounding the Requiem's commission (delivered by a 'messenger in black' who refused to reveal the identity of the person who had sent him), and the fact it was left incomplete by a dying Mozart, have ensured a continued fascination with the work. Completed by Mozart's colleague Süssmayr in 1792, the Requiem is one of Mozart's most popular and enduring works and one of the most enigmatic pieces of music ever composed. The CD will also feature Mozart's Ave verum corpus and the first recording on period instruments of his concert aria Per questa bella mano for bass voice and solo double bass obligato--a piece famous for its fiendishly difficult double bass part, performed superbly on this recording by Robert Nairn. Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston's internationally acclaimed Handel and Haydn Society in 2008. Founded in 1815, the Society is the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the U.S. and has given the American premieres of major works by Handel, Bach and Haydn, has won a Grammy Award, and will celebrate its Bicentennial in 2015. "Onstage, Christophers has what it takes to inspire the Society's fine musicians." The Wall Street Journal "...a commanding and compelling reading of an important if often overlooked monument in Mozart's musical development." Gramophone on COR16084: Mass in C minor

Classical Music