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Shostakovich: Prelude & Fugue, Fantastic Dances

Brilliant Classics

$14.99 Apr 30, 2026

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) composed two piano concertos that stand as strikingly different yet complementary reflections of his evolving musical and emotional world. The Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor, Op. 35 (1933), written for piano, trumpet, and string orchestra, is a work of youthful brilliance and wit. Shostakovich himself was the soloist at it's premiere, showcasing his virtuosity and sharp humor. The concerto brims with parody, irony, and stylistic playfulness-traits that would define much of his music. The first movement alternates between dramatic, driving passages and cheeky references to classical motifs. The second movement offers a surprisingly lyrical, melancholic interlude before the music veers back into high-spirited satire. The inclusion of the trumpet, often acting as a witty commentator or foil to the piano, adds to the concerto's sense of mischievous dialogue. Beneath the humor, however, lies an undercurrent of anxiety and intensity, reflecting Shostakovich's growing awareness of the political pressures surrounding Soviet artists in the 1930s. The Piano Concerto No.2 in F major, Op. 102 (1957), by contrast, is lighter, more transparent, and more optimistic. Written as a gift for his son Maxim's 19th birthday, it is among Shostakovich's most accessible works. The outer movements sparkle with energy and joy, evoking the vitality of youth, while the slow movement stands as one of the composer's most beautiful lyrical statements-a tender, introspective melody that has become a concert favorite. Although less satirical and complex than the First Concerto, the Second demonstrates Shostakovich's mastery of clear form, elegant orchestration, and emotional directness. Giuseppe Andaloro (Palermo, 1982) is one of the most acclaimed Italian pianists of his generation. Winner of prestigious international competitions-including the Ferruccio Busoni (Bolzano), London World, Sendai, Hong Kong, and Porto-he was awarded the Medal for Artistic Merit by the Italian Ministry of Culture in 2005. He has performed in some of the world's leading venues: Teatro alla Scala and Sala Verdi in Milan, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Konzerthaus Berlin, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Royal Festival Hall in London, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, Esplanade in Singapore, and Concert Hall in Hong Kong. He has appeared at renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, George Enescu Festival, Ravello Festival, and Beirut Al Bustan. As soloist, he has collaborated with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo), Philharmonische Camerata Berlin, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Hong Kong Philharmonic, under the direction of conductors like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gianandrea Noseda, and Andrew Parrott.

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Shostakovich: Prelude & Fugue, Fantastic Dances
Brilliant Classics Apr 2026
CD
$14.99

Mix & Match

Hummel: Piano Concertos / Shelley, London Mozart Players

Chandos

$21.99 Sep 01, 1997

This admirable recital forms a sequel to Stephen Hough's Gramophone Award-winning Chandos disc of the A minor and B minor Piano Concertos (4/87). And although the music is less enticing and substantial, the performances less exuberantly virtuosic and elegantly inflected, these are decorous rarities played with an assured brilliance and affection. Hummel's Mozartian rather than Chopinesque bias declares itself most obviously in his Op. 73 Concertino, though even here, at 315" for example, the figuration has a recognizably Hummelian froth and sparkle. Too charming to be vacuous, such surface brio has little in common with Mozart's depth and subtlety, and for music of greater romantic range and ambition we turn to the A flat Concerto (music briefly in Jorge Bolet's repertoire), with its fuller scoring and lavishly decorated solo part. Lovers of a finespun, operatic cantilena will warm to the central "Romanze" and find the final Rondo alla Spagniola, even when it outstays its welcome, more than a prophecy of Chopin's E minor Concerto.

The Gesellschafts Rondo (offered here in a premiere recording) commences in solemn Adagio vein before turning to a more typically bustling and ceremonious Vivace. It may be that Hummel "puffed, blew and perspired" when he played but he won the admiration of Chopin (a hard master to please and one who turned Hummel's animation to rare poetic advantage) and his sheer style is infectious when projected with such unfailing expertise by Howard Shelley in his dual role as pianist and conductor of the London Mozart Players. The recordings are exceptionally well balanced, the acoustic pleasingly spacious.

-- Gramophone [1/1995]

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Hummel: Piano Concertos / Shelley, London Mozart Players
Chandos Sep 1997
CD
$21.99

Mozart: Piano Concertos, Vol. 7 / Christian Zacharias, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra

MDG

SACD

$24.99 Oct 01, 2011

MOZART Piano Concertos: Nos. 6, 13, 16 • Christian Zacharias (pn, cond); Lausanne Co • MDG GOLD 1667 (SACD: 67:07)

This is Volume 7 in what is apparently going to be a complete set of the Mozart piano concertos by Christian Zacharias. I asked to review it because I was so impressed by his performances of the five Beethoven concertos with Armin Jordan conducting (Cascavelle 3118), in which Zacharias’s enlivened inflections of phrase and rhythmic acuity were combined with original and highly imaginative cadenzas that acted within the concertos like mini-fantasias.

I am not at all disappointed by his solo playing here, which is crisp yet lighter in tone than his Beethoven, which is wholly appropriate for Mozart. The problem, to me, is his conducting and the overall performance and sound quality of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Its playing is “soft” both in phrasing and attack, coming across almost as background or elevator music. This was the kind of Mozart sound in vogue during the late 1970s and early ’80s, before the historically informed crowd moved in to show us that such earlier conductors as Toscanini, Furtwängler, Doráti, and Markevitch had it right, that unlike Haydn, whose music sounds good at a slightly relaxed pace and with a wide dynamic range, Mozart tends toward sameness and boredom when given that approach. Mozart needs to be performed with a combination of emotional commitment and sharply etched contours, as in the performances of Harnoncourt, Norrington, Pinnock, and others. In the case of the piano concertos, one can scarcely imagine or achieve finer performances than those of the entire series recorded by fortepianist Jos van Immerseel and Anima Eterna on Canal Grande 8016.

Of course, there are listeners who are much in favor of this particular style of Mozart performance. I myself was one of them in the early 1980s, when I became a fan of Murray Perahia’s then-groundbreaking series of Mozart concertos. For them, then, this disc and its six other counterparts issued so far will make quite satisfying listening. The hybrid multichannel sound is warm and round, which again de-emphasizes the music’s edge.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Mozart: Piano Concertos, Vol. 7 / Christian Zacharias, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
MDG Oct 2011
SACD
$24.99

Violin Concertos
Profil Oct 2008
CD
$12.99

Mozart: Horn Concertos Nos. 1-4
Prospero Classical Apr 2024
CD
$23.99

Bach: Violin Concertos / Eschkenazy, Ogrintchouk, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra

PENTATONE

SACD

$21.99 Oct 30, 2012

Bulgarian violinist Vesko Eschkenazy is one of the very good guys of the classical music world and much loved in The Netherlands, from where I am currently writing my reviews. The team of performers brought together for this Pentatone recording is highly promising, with support from leading soloist Tjeerd Top in the Double Concerto, someone I remember from his time as a student at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk who now teaches there, as well as having increasing numbers of distinguished recordings under his belt, including more Bach from BIS.

There is very little to criticise here, and these are all very fine performances. The sound is pretty crisp supporting an historically informed approach with brisk tempi, a discretely balanced harpsichord helping things along and admirable transparency of texture and articulation. Perhaps the orchestral sound could be a little better defined, with the strings behind the soloists sounding a bit generalised even in SACD mode, but this is a minor point. Brisk tempi means we don’t have the same kind of profundity in the beautiful Largo, ma non tanto second movement of the Double Concerto, but we’ve moved on from the kinds of romantic atmosphere beloved of David and Igor Oistrakh. This is a kind of mixture between worlds, with fairly rich vibrato in the solo lines to go along with the early-music flavour of the general approach. Comparing with Monica Huggett and Alison Bury with Ton Koopman on the Erato label shows very similar timings but a far lighter, chamber-music sonority and a reluctance to play with legato lines. Tighter rhythms and a livelier sonic picture can be found on the BIS label, where Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan make a superb job of these concertos on BIS-CD-961, showing how the orchestra can play a more pro-active role while almost turning the soloists into consort members rather than giving them their more usual prominence.

So much of what will turn you on in such recordings is a question of taste, and to my ears there is nothing which offends in this Pentatone Bach recording. BWV 1043 doesn’t quite bring a tear to the eye as it can do with some versions, but I still like it a great deal. The solo violin concertos BWV 1041 and BWV 1042 move along decently, though the rhythms might have been a bit more bouncy in the outer movements. The first movement of BWV 1041 for instance, has an intensely narrative feel which Suzuki obtains in his BIS recording, but which is a touch soggy here - a sensation which comes from that rather generalised backing to the soloist. Timings are a little longer, but not in any extreme way. I love Eschkenazy’s restraint in the Andante of BWV 1041, and his gorgeously humane solo lines are ultimately the main selling point of this particular set.

The final D minor concerto BWV 1060, the one reconstructed from a C minor concerto for two harpsichords works well in this recording, with Ogrintchouk’s rich oboe tone mixing very nicely with the strings and Eschkenazy’s partnering solo, brought down a little in the balance to combine on an equal footing and keep a realistic balance with the orchestra.

To conclude, this is a highly desirable recording of the Bach violin concertos, but alas won’t become my all-time favourite. I enjoy the period sound and all of the solo playing, but the somewhat anonymous orchestral backing detracts a little from the overall effect. It’s a different prospect, but Masaaki Suzuki’s more inclusive ensemble is more satisfying to my ears, though admittedly fitting less into conventional expectations of the ‘concerto’ format. In the end, there is no real problem with this recording other than that there are so many others jostling for our attention. The SACD aspect is an attraction, but doesn’t solve that mildly beige orchestral tapestry which prevents me from making this a list of purely admiring superlatives.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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Bach: Violin Concertos / Eschkenazy, Ogrintchouk, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra
PENTATONE Oct 2012
SACD
$21.99

Mozart: Violin Concerto K 219 / Grumiaux, Morini, Milstein, Schneiderhan
Orfeo Aug 2006
CD
$26.99

In Concerto
Bongiovanni Jan 1993
CD
$18.99

Henselt & Bronsart: Piano Concertos / Paul Wee, Collins, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$21.99 May 31, 2024

After three solo recordings, virtuoso pianist Paul Wee brings us two forgotten concertos from the Romantic period with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michael Collins.

Premièred by Clara Schumann under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, Adolph von Henselt’s Concerto in F minor was eventually performed by the greatest virtuosos of the 19th and 20th centuries. It has, however, inexplicably disappeared from the repertoire despite its obvious qualities: soaring melodies and tender lyricism, colorful orchestration, dramatic intensity across its three movements and piano writing of astounding inventiveness and brilliance.

The familiarity between Henselt’s concerto and some of Sergei Rachmaninoff's works can be explained by the profound influence that the German composer exerted on the Russian. Hans von Bronsart’s Concerto in F sharp minor did not enjoy the same public acclaim, although it is rousing, intimate and electrifying in turns. The richness of its orchestration is matched by an uncommonly brilliant piano part that is a model of practical virtuosity. Breathing late-Romanticism, it requires a soloist to embrace its superheated Romantic language unashamedly if its passions are to take flight.

REVIEWS:

Paul Wee’s fingers dance with clarity and delight around the keyboard. He and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Collins, have an excellent rapport.

— BBC Music Magazine

There is no question that Wee and his cohorts do a tremendous job in bringing these works to life. Wee has warmth and a Romantic stain that encompasses steel along with the requisite limpid lyricism and sparkling decoration. In short, Wee is a pianist you need to hear, whatever the context.

— Limelight

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Henselt & Bronsart: Piano Concertos / Paul Wee, Collins, Swedish Chamber Orchestra
BIS May 2024
SACD
$21.99

C.P.E. Bach: Flute Concertos

Fuga Libera

$20.99 Feb 21, 2025

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was regarded as one of the greatest theoretical and practical musicians of his time even during his lifetime; arguably the most famous son of Johann Sebastian Bach, he broke new ground in the concerto genre between the Baroque and Classical periods. His flute concerti are not only technically exceptionally demanding but are particularly challenging "in the art of expression", to quote one of his contemporaries. In this new recording of C.P.E. Bach's flute concertos in A minor (Wq 166 / H. 431), G major (Wq 169 / H. 445) and D minor (Wq 22 / H. 425) the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt and Ariel Zuckermann (solo flute and conductor) invoke the zartliche Empfindungen, the tender sentiments that the composer considered essential in order to reveal new aspects of music.

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C.P.E. Bach: Flute Concertos
Fuga Libera Feb 2025
CD
$20.99

Cpe Bach: Harpsichord Concertos / Rémy, Les Amis De Philippe
CPO Nov 1999
CD
$18.99

LUTOSLAWSKI: Concerto for Orchestra / Musique funebre / Mi-p
Chandos Dec 1995
CD
$21.99

Beethoven: The Complete Early Variations / Commellato

Brilliant Classics

$21.99 Feb 23, 2018

An unrivalled compendium on disc of the Beethoven’s compositional laboratory, full of experiments that would be refined throughout his career to create the piano’s ‘New Testament’ of 32 sonatas. Under the title of ‘early variations’, Alessandro Commellato has brought together all those theme with variation sets for solo and four hands piano that were not included in the main catalogue of Beethoven's compositions. In fact not all of them are early: the imposing C minor 32 Variations WoO80 are the best-known work here, composed as late as 1806, and the sets on Rule Britannia and God save the King were written a year or two earlier, and perhaps not only for commercially expedient reasons, given Beethoven’s admiration for the British resistance to the proclamation of the French Empire. More common, however, are the variation sets where Beethoven was establishing his voice and refining his technique by exercising his imagination on melodies from popular marches and operas by Grétry, Paisiello and Mozart. The composer used these works to curry favour with patrons such as Prince Lichnowsky; even on occasion as dedicatory gifts in order to make amends for his notoriously obstreperous behaviour, such as the variations on a Dittersdorf arietta, ‘Es war einmal’ (Once upon a time) which he gave in the summer of 1792 to Eleonore von Breuning, daughter of Maria Helena, who had welcomed the young wayward artist into her home. Alessandro Commellato uses an 1823 fortepiano by Joseph Böhm, a Viennese piano-maker whose instruments were known to Beethoven, bestowing on this recording an unusual degree of authenticity. He is a specialist in historically informed performances of Viennese Classicism: previous discs for Brilliant Classics include music by Beethoven’s pupils such as the cello sonatas of Ferdinand Ries and piano concertos by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

-----

REVIEW:

Commellato’s choice of specific instruments for particular works is a personal one, and it is always well-considered. There are five different fortepianos heard here, each with its own unique sound, with the earliest having very distinctly harpsichord-like characteristics and the latest (dating to 1823) beginning to possess some of the range and tone of the more-familiar instruments created later in the 19th century. All in all, this is a fascinating foray into less-known Beethoven and into a form that the composer used in his piano music throughout his life, right through to the second and concluding movement of his final piano sonata.

– Infodad.com

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Beethoven: The Complete Early Variations / Commellato
Brilliant Classics Feb 2018
CD
$21.99

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 21 & 2 / Han, Freeman, Philharmonia Orchestra
Brilliant Classics Jan 2001
CD
$13.99

Cello Concertos
Kontrapunkt May 1997
CD
$22.99

MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS 19 & 2
Vox Aug 2011
CD
$19.99

American Classics - MacDowell: Piano Concertos / Prutsman

Naxos

$19.99 Jan 01, 2001

Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), an exact contemporary of Gustav Mahler, was widely considered the most important American composer of his day-a time when American music was based primarily on European models. Antonin Dvorák called on American composers to turn to indigenous sources, such as Negro spirituals and Indian tribal music, for inspiration. MacDowell flatly rejected this, commenting, What Negro melodies have to do with Americanism remains a mystery to me." Thus, in the Piano Concerto No. 1 we hear the comfortable old echoes of the Grieg A minor and, in the finale, Dvorák's own concerto. MacDowell's second concerto displays a noticeably higher degree of originality, though here too the European influence is clear, in this case Saint-Saëns. The dark and portentous opening creates a mood of anticipation before the piano enters to launch the drama of the first movement. The finale is brisk and exciting, with some wonderfully bravura piano writing, with which soloist Stephen Prutsman unreservedly flaunts his brilliant technique. He's just as fine in the brief Witches' Dance, which is rather tame and far less spooky than we have come to expect after the likes of Berlioz. The soothing sounds of MacDowell's gentle Romance for Cello and Orchestra close this interesting program. As on many other Naxos recordings, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (led here by Arthur Fagen) delivers performances of international caliber. Fine sound, too." - ClassicsToday.com (Victor Carr, Jr.), January 15, 2001

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American Classics - MacDowell: Piano Concertos / Prutsman
Naxos Jan 2001
CD
$19.99

Piano Concerto Op. 39
Kontrapunkt Jan 1990
CD
$22.99

5 Concertos Op. XIX

Urania Records

$21.99 Jun 06, 2025

Giordani's activity was indeed fashionable, having success both with operas and with instrumental music. The composition of these flute concertos dates back to an unspecified period of the 18th century, but their structure is unquestionably within the golden classical principles of the sonata form, allowing us to place them temporally between 1765 and 1775. The concertos offer the listener a realistic glimpse of the flute technique of the time that would soon see the Romantic Era blossom. In this recording, the instrument used is a copy of a mid-eighteenth-century C. Palanca, with a diapason of about 420 hz.

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5 Concertos Op. XIX
Urania Records Jun 2025
CD
$21.99

Bach's Horns

Prospero Classical

$25.99 Oct 17, 2025

In this programme, 'Solomon's Knot' is dedicated to the popular hunting cantata BWV 208. Solomon's horn players are also given plenty to do in the 1st Brandenburg Concerto and the F major Mass - the bridge from the sacred to the secular is easily bridged.

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Bach's Horns
Prospero Classical Oct 2025
CD
$25.99

Mix & Match

Bach: Harpsichord Concertos, Vol. 3 / Mortensen, Concerto Copenhagen

CPO

$36.99 Mar 11, 2016

This release is the third volume in cpo’s series of Bach’s harpsichord concertos. A particular highlight is the Triple Concerto in A minor for Harpsichord, Flute, Violin and Strings, which recalls the harpsichord role in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and brims with its own rhythmic and harmonic contrasts. The Concerto Copenhagen ensemble from Denmark rank as one of the world’s best orchestras performing on original instruments, and present a spirited interpretation of these works under and with their conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

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Bach: Harpsichord Concertos, Vol. 3 / Mortensen, Concerto Copenhagen
CPO Mar 2016
CD
$36.99

Clarinet Concertos

SOMM Recordings

$18.99 Jul 04, 2025

SOMM Recordings is pleased to release Clarinet Concertos, four works for solo clarinet and wind orchestra, including two world-premiere recordings. The soloist is the English clarinettist, Peter Cigleris, who enjoys a wide and varied career and is in great demand as a soloist and chamber musician. His burgeoning career as a clarinet soloist has taken him to Festivals in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. Recently, he was invited to perform in Gyor, Hungary for the European Clarinet Festival, which led to a special invitation from the Gyor Symphonic Band to record four hugely enjoyable concertos for clarinet and wind orchestra. These are conducted by Laszlo Marosi, the world's foremost authority on Hungarian wind music, and Ferenc Szabo, the founder of the Gyor Symphonic Band. This release opens with the premiere recording of Concerto Semplice for clarinet and wind orchestra by the prolific Hungarian composer Frigyes Hidas (1928-2007). The concerto is written in a direct, almost classical, tonal language that portrays the composer's belief in traditional forms and syntax. Cigleris has given premiere performances of a number of new works for the clarinet, and he played the first performance of Sonatina in One Movement by the award-winning British composer Simon Milton. So, when composing his Concerto for Clarinet and Band, Milton knew that he "could push what I felt was playable and turn it into a challenge, whilst also maintaining a lyrical and sweet sound to the clarinet part." SOMM presents the premiere recording here. The Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Orchestra, written in 2014 by American composer David Maslanka (1943-2017), is an imposing composition in two large movements: "Lamentation" and "Dance." He described these as relating to "old forms such as the toccata and fugue - a free improvisatory movement followed by a rhythmically energized and formally strict second movement." This collection closes with a Clarinet Concerto from 2010 by one of the leading Japanese composers of music for wind instruments, Satoshi Yagisawa (b.1975). The work has achieved great popularity and is considered a major contribution to the composer's "Concerto Series." It is written in the traditional three-movement concerto form, played attacca with linking cadenzas for the clarinet solo. Peter Cigleris's previous collaborations with SOMM include Eclogue - British Chamber Music (SOMMCD 0653) and a full disc of first recordings, Dedication: The Clarinet Chamber Music of Ruth Gipps (SOMMCD 0641). This includes Gripps's Clarinet Sonata, one of the finest such works by any British composer, for which she won the Cobbett Prize of the Society of Women Musicians. The Gramophone review praised Cigleris and accompanist Duncan Honeybourne as "ideal executants in an account I cannot see being bettered any time soon." This recording features the Eusebius Quartet, formed in 2016 out of a passion for the extraordinary music written for this instrumentation, and praised as "excellent" by The Sunday Times. Their debut CD for SOMM of the Korngold Piano Quintet & Quartet (SOMMCD 0642) received critical acclaim: "Wit and clarity abound in the Quartet's Viennese-sounding performances," The Strad; "The musicians seem to feel the music just as it is, complex on the surface, but direct and straight from the heart," BBC Music Magazine. Elgar and Faure met once at the time of the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony in 1908. Although Faure spoke no English and Elgar's French wasn't exactly conversational, it's fascinating to compare the musical language of their two quartets, both in the key of E minor, and written late in the composers' lives. Edward Elgar was a more than competent violinist, and he made several attempts throughout his career to write a string quartet. Finally, ill and depressed by war-time London in 1918, he completed his String Quartet, Op. 83. It is cast in three movements, the outer Allegro movements bookending one marked Piacevole (poco andante). This slow middle movement, which contains a quotation from Elgar's Chanson de Matin, was a favourite of Lady Elgar, who described it as "captured sunshine." It was played at her funeral in 1920. Gabriel Faure composed his only String Quartet, Op. 121 in 1924, shortly before his death at the age of 79. By this time, he had been totally deaf for some years, and the quartet suggests a mind driven within itself in a way that hints at Beethoven's Late String Quartets. This final work of Faure presents an extraordinary duality, which masks the romantic ideas of his earlier music with what the English composer and writer Robert Matthew-Walker calls "a soft steely twilight that at times appears almost menacing." As with Elgar's quartet, the central Andante movement particularly captures the imagination with it's musical colouration suggesting a world of half-lights.

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Clarinet Concertos
SOMM Recordings Jul 2025
CD
$18.99

FLUTE CONCERTOS

ALTO

$11.01 May 02, 2017

Stintonfinds plenty of interest in the music and interprets it with spirit and virtuosity. Her phrases are well thought-out and articulati on clear and effective. The beautifully written and emotionally charged finale of the D minor Concerto comes over well... crisp, responsive orchestral playing, well-chosen tempos and clean, incisive ensemble. I thoroughly enjoyed this playing of some wonderfully inventive music... helpful background notes (Gramophone)

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FLUTE CONCERTOS
ALTO May 2017
CD
$11.01

Shostakovich, D.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2
Delos Jan 2006
CD
$18.99

Clarinet Concerto, “Landscapes with Blues” / Pacific Rim / Gradus / The Rose of the Winds

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 01, 2003

The most recent and longest of the works heard here quite possibly makes the longest musical journey as well. The Clarinet Concerto (2001), subtitled Landscape with Blues, was commissioned by the IRIS Chamber Orchestra for Richard Stoltzman. In offering the commission, the orchestra's Executive Director, Albert Pertalion, asked for a work that might reflect in some way on the heritage of Mississippi Delta Blues. As the composer notes fondly, "he even took me on a whirlwind tour of blues country to get a feel for the birthplace of one of America's greatest musical traditions. From that trip, I took away an indelible sense of the countryside, the heat and humidity, the purple martens chasing mosquitoes at twilight". But in it's realization, the piece goes much farther afield than that. It starts in the West African nations of Senegal and The Gambia, or "Senegambia" as they are sometimes known, with their great musical story-telling tradition known as griot singing, audibly one of the roots of American blues. These audible links are heard in their repetitive accompaniment patterns and rhythmically free, declamatory vocal melodies that tend to begin high then work themselves down to a lower register. Here, Hartke casts the clarinet solo as the griot, with the woodwinds engaging in a sort of call and response chorus, all built over a repeated five-note bass line. The second movement, entitled Delta Nights recalls Hartke's impressions of the Delta, but just as importantly owes much to the novel, Train Whistle Guitar, by Albert Murray, about his boyhood in a small African-American community near the Delta during the heyday of the great itinerant bluesmen. Hartke writes: "In Delta Nights, the soloist evokes a blues harmonica wailing away in the night, and even the structure of the movement is loosely related to a series of blues choruses. Moreover, some of the soloist's turns of phrase are derived from the opening motive of Cool Drink of Water Blues by Tommy Johnson, one of my favorite bluesmen. But the predominant influence here was Murray's recollection of the excitement which fired his boyhood imagination, hearing the distant sound of blues music drifting across the fields from juke joints that he was too young to visit." The final movement, Philamayork, takes it's title from Albert Murray, a compound word he uses to denote the nearly mythical cities of the North, where blues had gone and become a hard-driving urban music. Here Hartke's own New York roots are most apparent, and the movement unfolds almost like a nightclub dance-set, starting with a blues, then a faster dance number, a slow torchy ballad and some travelling music at the finish.

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Clarinet Concerto, “Landscapes with Blues” / Pacific Rim / Gradus / The Rose of the Winds
Naxos Sep 2003
CD
$19.99