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SaleFischer: Music for Winds / Lindemann, Thomas, MTSU Wind Ensemble
Toccata · Oct 2021CD$20.99$10.49 -
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Schnittke: 3rd Symphony / Jurowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
PENTATONE · Feb 2015SACD$21.99 -
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Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde, An Orchestral Passion - Arranged By Henk De Vlieger / Jarvi, RSNO
Chandos · Feb 2011SACD$21.99 -
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Langgaard: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6 / Komsi, Oramo, Vienna Philharmonic
Dacapo Classical · Sep 2018SACD$16.99 -
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Van Veen: Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Audience, Flute Octet Blow Up
Brilliant Classics · Jul 2018CD$56.99
Un Bal: Dances for Harp solo / Christ
Horn Monologues / Wall
A longtime member of two of the world’s most renowned orchestras - The New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, hornist Howard Wall also performs and records with the All-Star Orchestra, and is an avid chamber music proponent. Among the 19 tracks in his solo album “Horn Monologues”, 10 are world-premiere recordings. This is a kaleidoscopic collection of eclectic styles and genres ranging from Charles Koechlin’s refined impressionism and Elliott Carter’s sophisticated modernism, to Phillip Ramey’s Bartokian reflections, Erika Raum’s virtuosic tone poem, Astor Piazzolla’s melancholic tango mood, David Amram’s blues dedicated to Thelonious Monk, the unabashedly jazzy tunes of Zsolt Nagy, the poetic inspirations of Georges Barboteu, the otherworldly mysticism of Alice Gomez, the profound emotion of Lev Kogan’s Kaddish prayer, the stunning beauty and unique rhythms of Bulgarian folk music and Venezuelan joropo.
E. W. Wolf: Selected Works for "Tangent Piano" (Clavier) / Fabri
On her latest release, Flora Fabri interprets the highly praised sonatas and a fantasy by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf on a "tangent grand". The ingenious invention of this grand piano for the time around 1770 is an intermediate form of clavichord, harpsichord and fortepiano. When a key is struck, a wooden stick with a leather head is struck against the string from below, and a second stick dampens the string again.
Wolf belongs not only among our classical and best composers in any subject, but is also original. More recognition seems hardly possible from the perspective of the Sturm und Drang: The introduction that Ernst Ludwig Gerber chooses in 1792 to his encyclopedia article on Ernst Wilhelm Wolf paints in a few words the picture of an original genius whose artistic uniqueness dominates a maximum of professional expertise. He was a pupil of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. In Gotha he became acquainted with the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Carl Heinrich Graun, which strongly influenced him. Above all, he appreciated the works of Bach, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. At the University of Jena he was mainly engaged in music, and he was given the direction of the Collegium musicum, which gave him the opportunity to perform his own compositions.
Fischer: Music for Winds / Lindemann, Thomas, MTSU Wind Ensemble
The four works for symphonic wind band composed by Peter Fischer – born in 1956, across the bay from San Francisco, in Martinez, California – are almost textbook examples of American eclecticism, mixing urban vibrancy with a sense of the timeless outdoors, bringing in flavors from jazz and rock and moving easily between vigorous dance-rhythms and sultry nightscapes. Dance, indeed, lies at the heart of most of this music, which gives the mambo, the tango, the tarantella and the waltz a new and spirited twist amid echoes of Stravinsky, Revueltas and Bernstein. In Fischer's Trumpet Concerto, soloist Jens Lindemann plays trumpet, cornet, and flügelhorn.
Tyrannide
Guitar Recital: Brouwer, Clerch, Del Puerto, Arango, De Lucia
Born in the Cuban capital of Havana, Alí Arango has won numerous awards including the prestigious Alhambra International Guitar Competition in 2014. Arango’s programme follows a tradition of eminent Spanish and Latin American performers who are also distinguished composers, musicians who live and breathe the idiom and style of their national instrument. These include Arango’s teachers and fellow Cubans Joaquín Clerch and Leo Brouwer, the latter acclaimed as one of today’s most innovative composers. This selection ranges from the spectacular Guajiras de Lucía by Paco de Lucía to Arango’s own lullaby to his daughter Lúa.
Cançons I Danses Catalanes
Catalan music comes from Catalonia, one of the most distinctive Spanish regions. This music has little in common with traditional Spanish folklore. +During the resurgence of the Catalan culture in the late 1800s, many outstanding composers and performers rose to fame, including Enric Granados, Ricard Vines, Alicia de Larrocha, and Pau Casals. This album is performed by guitarist Franz Halasz.
Cage: Works For Piano 7 / Margaret Leng Tan
Re-assembling the original artworks for "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" show (2005-06) at the Isamu Noguchi Museum in New York led to the tracking down of the Cage painting. Cage expert Margaret Leng Tan set about transcribing the music in the painting into a playable score which receives its premiere recording here.
Chess Pieces is from 1944, an emotional and creative year for Cage; besides echoes of Satie, Chess Pieces contains prophetic touches of minimalism and has features in common with his monumental piano piece, Four Walls, from the same year.
A renowned Cage interpreter, Ms. Tan worked closely with the composer from 1981 to 1992. Cage was particularly appreciative of her performances of his works for the prepared piano. This is Ms. Tan's long-awaited recording of Cage's prepared piano masterpiece, the Sonatas and Interludes of 1946-48.
Also included is the first recording of the only other musical score from "The Imagery of Chess" show, neo-classical composer Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade.
Also available as a surround sound DVD (MOD-DV158) with full performance videos of Chess Pieces and Chess Serenade, plus 2 documentaries: Mr. Cage's Prepared Piano (Ms. Tan takes an in-depth look at the prepared piano), and CAGE: Music/Art/Chess (a closeup look at Cage's and Rieti's pieces in the Noguchi Museum's "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" show).
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTARY VIDEOS:
* Mr. Cage's Prepared Piano: an insightful look at the history of the prepared piano narrated and performed by Ms. Tan, who also demonstrates how to (and not to) prepare a piano, and describes the preparations in detail both visually and sonically. She prepares and performs excerpts from Bacchanale, Cage's first prepared piano work, and Sonatas & Interludes.
* Cage and the Art of Chess: a visit to "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" exhibit at the Isamu Noguchi Museum with curator Larry List and Ms. Tan. Together they describe Cage's relationship to the show and examine the "Chess Pieces" painting in detail - they also discuss Rieti and his Chess Serenade. Mr. List explores a separate feature on Cage's wife, Xenia Cage, and her Chess Table (Xenia was an artist and also had a piece in the show) and sheds additional background on her life and work.
24-bit surround sound DTS and Dolby Digital surround.
Dedicated 24-bit stereo mix.
English, French, German and Spanish subtitles.
NOTE: Sonatas & Interludes is not accompanied by video.
R E V I E W S
"The seventh volume of John Cage's piano works -- or Volume 34 of the Complete John Cage Edition, if you prefer -- features a transcendent performance of the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948) meticulously rendered by avant-garde keyboardist extraordinaire, Margaret Leng Tan. Yet Volume 2 in this series features a 1994 recording of the same work, played by Philipp Vandre. For those aiming to collect the full series, this may be an annoyance, but others catching these CDs as they are released will surely appreciate having Tan's superb interpretation of the Sonatas and Interludes, with premiere recordings of Cage's long-lost Chess Pieces for piano (1944) and Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade (1944) as bonuses, rather than search for the older disc of the single work. But despite seeming redundant, this CD is clearly one to get: Tan is simply remarkable in the Sonatas and Interludes, giving a realization that is scrupulous in execution, deep in sonic dimensions, and luminous in color; and she offers what is actually a 'period performance,' since she plays a piano identical in its specifications to the small Steinway Cage originally prepared in the process of composition. The differences in sonorities between this album and others are immediately noticeable, especially in this recording's superior resonance and crystalline details; anyone who already knows this work will recognize that Tan's interpretation is truly Cagean in its poetic nuances and hypnotic power. So without disparaging other recordings for being less authoritative -- certainly, Tan holds a considerable advantage for having worked closely with Cage in his final years -- it is safe to say that fans of his most popular piano work will give this album full marks. Mode's sound quality is ideal, too, so this CD receives the highest recommendation. --- Blair Sanderson, allmusic.com, March 2006
In Search of Youkali - Songs of Kurt Weill
da lontano
Stravinsky: Piano Music
Granados: Piano Works / Xiayin Wang
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REVIEW:
Both books of Goyescas are essentially sensual and/or passionate love poems, something that she conveys with sensitivity and obvious affection.
– Gramophone
Piano Music Of Rodion Shchedrin / Marina Lomazov
Two of Rodion Shchedrin's works are entitled Concerto cantabile and Concerto sotto voce. These two epithets - sotto voce and cantabile - can be applied to much of his output. He produced bright, brilliant pieces (like the justly famous Carmen-Suite ballet), or works full of daring, rough folk humor (like the popular Concerto for Orchestra Naughty Limericks). Still, the core of Shchedrin's music is dark-hued, philosophic, often religious, always thoughtful. The spiritual closeness to Bach is evident, and not only in the abundance of old-fashioned polyphony. Probably the most successful of the Soviet composers that emerged in the Fifties under the shadow of Shostakovich, Shchedrin is the one with his face turned to the past. Not technically: he knows and uses all the atonal - polytonal - dodecaphonic - aleatoric - you name it - brushes. His music rarely grips you from the first measure: it requires submergence and listening. But when you are in - you are in. And you can be sure that the experience won't leave you with disappointing emptiness: those simple, sparse, seemingly tuneless constructs are genuine, deep music. It is strange. It is Art.
More and more of Shchedrin's music is recorded in the West, but these are mostly concertos and choral works of the latest years. The more welcome is then the all-Shchedrin piano recital of pieces from his first creative period, presented so sympathetically by Marina Lomazov.
I can't say that I completely understand the logic of the Piano Sonata of 1962. The second and third movements hold very naturally together - the second is a dim, deep abyss, the third a devilish toccata, burning like black fire. Preceding these two goes a much lighter Allegro da Sonata, like an echo of Petrushka's Shrovetide Fair. It is attached, but does not seem to belong.
The ten preludes from The Polyphonic Notebook (1972, the latest composition on this disc) are very interesting and rewarding. I wish all 25 were recorded, but even the present torso is a wonderful sequence, full of delicacy and balance. This is one of Shchedrin's Bachianas. The texture is sparse - listen to the lower voices!
The earliest composition - Poem of 1954 - could be a page from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. The Humoresque, similarly, may evoke Prokofiev in his more angular self. Yet its voice is not derivative, and the piece is funny and memorable. A la Albéniz is a cold-smoke tango, with enough big pauses for glances, yes and nos, and other decisions. Together, these three miniatures show how multi-faced Shchedrin's muse can be.
The four pieces arranged from The Hump-backed Horse ballet bring to the front another big love of the composer: the Russian folk culture. The music is very sincere and innocent, which suits well the fairytale subject of the ballet.
Finally comes my favorite: Two Polyphonic Pieces. The Invention is hypnotic. As it is often with Shchedrin, you cannot pinpoint exactly where the “musical experience” is coming from. It's like plain pieces of mosaic summing up into a picture. Basso Ostinato is another virtuosic toccata, a veritable tour de force, completely enthralling. There are torrents of energy, like armies clashing in the night, order and chaos in search of a resolution.
Marina Lomazov is a perfect performer for this music. She never "overcooks" it; everything that needs to be dry stays dry. Yet there is all the required energy, and maybe even more. Lomazov plays with ultimate precision, but the result is not mechanical: it is human, personal and soulful, even in the most abstract constructs. There is this "transparent virtuosity" that does not expose itself glamorously, but works for the good of the music. And she does wonders with the rhythm. I wish she considered recording Prokofiev's Sonatas.
The recording quality is very satisfactory. The liner-notes are not especially generous. Still there is enough information about the works, the composer and the performer. This disc gives a good overview of Shchedrin's directions in his earlier years, and the selections from the Polyphonic Notebook are a real teaser. It is a multi-character program, recital-like, with changing moods and styles, not a unified album. It is a great introduction to Shchedrin's piano music. It is also a great introduction to a very fine pianist, Marina Lomazov.
-- Oleg Ledeniov, MusicWeb International
Schnittke: 3rd Symphony / Jurowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Donizetti: L'ange de Nisida
Stravinsky: Music for Piano & Orchestra
Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde, An Orchestral Passion - Arranged By Henk De Vlieger / Jarvi, RSNO
Neeme Järvi is back conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the third of four albums featuring Henk de Vlieger's bold arrangements of operas by Wagner. Of the first album (CHSA 5060), Classic FM wrote: 'Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger builds a penetrating symphonic poem that reflects the dramatic depths of The Ring.' In Volume 3, De Vlieger turns to Wagner's tragic romantic opera Tristan und Isolde, which is here treated symphonically. The key themes of anticipation, longing, rapture, separation, hope, death, and transfiguration are expressed solely through orchestral forces. A particularly striking feature of the lovers' duet, a movement entitled 'Nachtgesang', is the conspicuous presence of the violin and the clarinet, which pick out the sung parts of the two lovers. The movement ends on an unresolved chord followed by a compelling caesura, which symbolises the painful realisation that it will never be possible for them to fulfil their great love. This disc also includes the overture to Wagner's Die Feen. This was the composer's first great romantic, although less well-known, opera. The overall style of the work, based on La donna serpente by Carlo Gozzi, owes its essentials to Beethoven, Marschner, and Weber - something that Wagner himself never hid in the least. However, the opera also displays clearly audible foreshadowings of the composer's later works, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, in particular. Wagner based Das Liebesverbot on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and included on this disc is the overture to the opera. It is perhaps the most Mediterranean-sounding of the composer's operas, something especially apparent in the brimming vitality of the overture in which the tone is set straight away by the sparkling contributions of castanets, triangle, and tambourine. Described as a 'große komische Oper', it was composed in 1834, and Wagner conducted the premiere at Magdeburg in 1836. The first performance poorly attended and involving a lead singer who forgot the words and had to improvise, the opera was a resounding flop and its second performance had to be cancelled after a fist-fight broke out backstage between the prima donna's husband and a leading tenor before the curtain had even risen. The opera was never performed again in Wagner's lifetime.
Taneyev: Complete String Quartets V 1 / Carpe Diem Quartet
Naxos continues to provide a tremendous service to international chamber music with an extensive variety of recordings. This year there have been several valuable Naxos sets that I have especially enjoyed: the string quartets of Schumann, Glazunov’s five novelettes and string quintet from the Fine Arts, Malcolm Arnold’s works for string quartet from the Maggini and his wind chamber music from East Winds not to mention three volumes of Arnold Bax’s violin and viola music.
Comprising members of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Carpe Diem are quartet-in-residence at the Conservatory of Music at Capital University. This disc is first volume of a projected complete cycle from the Carpe Diem of the Taneyev quartets.
In 1866 Russian-born Sergey Taneyev entered the Moscow Conservatory and later became a composition student of Tchaikovsky. He also received piano tuition from Nikolay Rubinstein and graduated with a gold medal for performance and composition. As a virtuoso pianist he was entrusted by Tchaikovsky with the premières of virtually all his scores for piano and orchestra. It seems that Taneyev was the only composer from his circle from whom Tchaikovsky sought critical appraisals of his scores. In 1881 he returned to the Moscow Conservatory to undertake teaching duties and in 1885 was appointed as Conservatory Director.
Kept in the shadows for many years his music is rapidly gaining a large group of enthusiasts. Taneyev champion, the eminent Russian pianist; conductor and composer Mikhail Pletnev, interviewed for The Independent in 2005, expressed the opinion that Taneyev was, “…the key figure in Russian musical history… He was the greatest polyphonist after Bach. And look who his pupils were: Rachmaninov and Scriabin, and Prokofiev who said he learned more about composing in one hour from Taneyev than from all his other tutors at the Moscow Conservatory.”
Taneyev is best remembered today as the composer of four symphonies and his second cantata At the Reading of a Psalm (1914-15). The cantata was his final work, completed just two years before the Russian Revolution, and is receiving significant advocacy from Pletnev. Very active in the field of chamber music, Taneyev composed over twenty scores in the genre, including, according to Grove Music Online nine string quartets between 1874-1911, plus two incomplete quartets; two string quintets (1901 and 1904); a piano quartet (1906) and a piano quintet (1911).
I can highly recommend a superb version of the Piano Quintet, Op. 30 (1911) and Piano Trio, Op. 22 from a stellar cast: Vadim Repin (violin), Ilya Gringolts (violin), Nobuko Imai (viola), Lynn Harrell (cello) and Mikhail Pletnev (piano). This was recorded in Vevey, Switzerland in 2003 and issued on Deutsche Grammophon 477 5419. Another Taneyev release to receive considerable acclaim is the live 2003 St. Petersburg, Russia recording of At the Reading of a Psalm. This is conducted by Pletnev and performed by the Russian National Orchestra, the St. Petersburg State Academy Capella Choir, the Boys Choir of the Glinka Choral College and soloists on PentaTone Classics Super Audio CD PTC 5186 038.
Taneyev’s wrote his five movement Quartet No. 1 in 1890, the year after resigning as Conservatory Director to concentrate more fully on his composing and counterpoint teaching. It seems that the score was actually Taneyev’s fifth string quartet but the first to be accorded an opus number.
In the extended opening movement Andante espressivo the Carpe Diems emphasise the dramatic, dark and restless aspects with the writing showing only brief glimpses of beauty. The lengthy Largo is mournful and affecting. This is not love music but more evocative of heartbreaking pain and sadness after the death of someone close. In the short, agitated and nervy Presto the music scampers from corner to corner. One welcomes a mood change in the Intermezzo which has a wistful and restful quality with not a care in the world. I especially enjoyed the high spirited and good natured playing in the fifth and concluding movement.
The Quartet No. 3 was written in 1886 and underwent revision in 1896; a time that marked the recent blossoming of Taneyev’s friendship with the eminent writer Leo Tolstoy. The score is cast in two movements with the huge final movement being a theme and eight variations. Lasting over seventeen minutes in performance the closing movement must be one of the longest in the genre of late-Romantic quartets.
Played with considerable assurance, the first movement Allegro has an unsettling and uncertain quality with fascinating writing that meanders from one idea to another. In the second movement Taneyev has selected a light and attractive Mozartean theme. I have attempted to identify each variation commencing from point 1:01 where a broken love affair must surely have been the motivation for the sorrowful first variation. The serious and melodic second variation follows at 2:57 and from 4:14 the players impress with the hectic and robust quality of the third variation. The fourth at 5:13 has the character of a folk dance; from 6:16 variation five is interpreted with tense undercurrents of sorrow through the general good humour. The brisk and rhythmic sixth variation at 9:17 contains an abundance of pizzicato. At 11:31 the slow and gentle variation seven offers a memorable and heartbreaking melody. In the dark and rich eighth and final variation at 14:49 the low strings dominate with confident and urgent playing.
The engineers are to be congratulated for the excellent sound quality. I found the booklet notes, comprising two short essays, to be adequate but the playing time of just over one hour seems ungenerous.
With assured playing and impressive unity from the Carpe Diem the disc is a valuable addition to Taneyev’s expanding discography. For those new to the rewarding and accessible sound-world of Taneyev this makes an excellent and inexpensive introduction to his chamber music.
-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International
Langgaard: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6 / Komsi, Oramo, Vienna Philharmonic

Rued Langgaard (1893–1952) was a major Danish late-Romantic composer who did not gain recognition in his mother country. His greatest successes took place in Germany and Austria, where his Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 were met with considerable acclaim. Back home, he never received that kind of backing and praise. He died a careworn and despairing individual. On this recording with one of the world’s leading orchestras, the tradition-conscious Vienna Philharmonic, one is therefore able to hear Langgaard's music 'return home' to a central European musical culture. At the same time things were going swimmingly for his colleague Jacob Gade (1879–1963) whose ‘Tango Jalousie’ has become the absolutely most frequently played piece of Danish music for almost a century. The two pieces are juxtaposed here to create a delightful programme.
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REVIEW:
Oramo and the Vienna Philharmonic [take] on two contrasted works by Rued Langgaard that illuminate this composer in all his stylistic diversity and recklessness. Such an idiom should be in this orchestra’s blood and the VPO do not disappoint – whether in the lyrically effulgent initial movement, with its discreetly modified sonata form, or the lithe finale. A mandatory purchase for its interpretative insights, committed playing and tangibly realistic sound.
– Gramophone
American Classics - Piston: The Incredible Flutist, Etc
Listeners new to Piston's music would do well to audition this disc, as it includes a nice cross-section of the composer's output, from his first published work (Suite for Orchestra) to his last (Concerto for String Quartet). In between and opening this disc is the delightful ballet suite to The Incredible Flutist, a piece that features a slithering tango, a lusty Spanish waltz, and a spirited Circus March that concludes with a barking dog (a real one named Nori!). This quirky work--a sort of cross between Petrushka and Parade--alone belies the academic patina that has plagued Piston's name for decades. The fact that he wrote the leading textbook on orchestration should lead more people to think that maybe he actually knew something about it.
The dynamic Suite will excite anybody who loves Bartók, full as it is with resounding canonic brass fanfares, pounding percussion (watch out for the bass drum in the third movement), and chattering strings. Piston also had a flair for elegiac melodies, as evidenced by his soulful English horn writing (a bit aridly played and closely miked in this performance) in the Fantasy for English horn, harp, & strings, and by the slow, calmer parts for string quartet in the Concerto (especially the quixotic concluding viola solo).
Piston's orchestral expertise finds expression in the superbly crafted choral works that close this disc, works that are as buoyant as they are mysterious--and unforgettable. Of course, there are other superlative performances of these individual works (Bernstein's Incredible Flutist on Sony), but Schwarz's surveys remain essential listening for both lovers and newcomers to this great American composer.
--Michael Liebowitz, ClassicsToday.com
KITANO NOIR
Van Veen: Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Audience, Flute Octet Blow Up
Jeroen van Veen has won international success with albums of Satie, Part, Glass and Riley. These are only some of the most significant composers whose work he has recorded for Brilliant Classics in building a library on record of minimalist piano music. Simplicity, repetition and appealing melody are the qualities shared by all the composers who subscribe to this aesthetic, and they underlie van Veen’s own compositions. Although subtitled Volume 2, this is the third album to focus exclusively on the pianist as composer. Books 1 and 2 of his Minimal Piano Preludes were reissued in 2016, and won high praise from MusicWeb International. Further preludes feature in a release of his piano music, and this sequel takes us up to Minimal Prelude No.60, a ‘tango for organ’. “All my music is about time and space,” says van Veen. “The duration of music is an essential part of the concept in my music. The concept of music, specifically my minimal oriented music, only can exist in time. The slow progression, building of the material, the motifs and the search for new sounds is audible in this [album].” All the works featured here were composed between 2010 and 2018. Continuum is a concertante work for piano and flute octet. Incanto is another album-length piece, entirely composed in an unusual 11/8 time signature. Ripalmania is written for six pianos, a scoring which creates an entrancing effect. In Velvet Piano van Veen explores the timbral possibilities of pianos prepared with objects after the style of John Cage, though without the American composer’s aim of disconcerting the listener. The final portion of the release is a celebration of minimalist jazz, in which the border between composition and improvisation almost vanishes.