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Bach: Goldberg Variations / Daniel-Ben Pienaar

Avie Records

$19.99 Oct 01, 2011

Expressive, atmospheric, intelligent performance.

I was highly impressed by and still very much relish my time spent with Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas on AV 2209. Fans of this set will find all of this promise further fulfilled in this Goldberg Variations, though as a reviewer it would have been an easier task to welcome slightly less well-trodden repertoire. Pienaar’s Bach is magnificent and, to a point, individual, but does it really stand out in such a crowded field?

Daniel-Ben Pienaar poses as many questions as he provides answers in his deeply considered and well written booklet notes for this release. He doesn’t point to specific influences with regard to his interpretations in this great keyboard work, but develops ideas on its place and time both in the present, as well as the alliances formed between the circumstantial and the timeless – qualities and values inherent in the music itself, and the ways in which these can be approached and adapted by players over time.

This is a probing intellectual interpretation which on occasion displays dazzling feats of speed, but which is more often a more introverted exploration of the piece. It is almost as if Pienaar is playing for his own satisfaction, and leaving it up to us to decide whether we want to listen and take the journey with him. The compact timing reflects brisk tempi at times, but the unhurried feel of the playing and a minimum of ornamentation also allows a highly selective observation of repeats to remain a credible choice. Pienaar doesn’t work much with ‘variation within variations’, so there is no sense we are being cheated out of colourful technical insights and improvisational touches by not hearing certain bars come around for a second time.

Comparisons can be made ad nauseam, but looking at another recent take on the Goldberg Variations by Nick van Bloss on the Nimbus Alliance label shows how personality shades identical music into fascinatingly different manifestations. Bloss is the more extrovert of the two, seeking wit in the music and cheekily expressing it with effects like an occasional extra octave wallop in the bass. This ‘vibe’ turns his performance into more of a public experience – no less well considered than Pienaar’s, but introducing Bach to the bustle and language of the street: the call of market traders and the revving of motors. Bloss’s Bach isn’t rough and ready, but is easily the more resistant to external knocks and blows, and in this way is more of a challenge to Glenn Gould’s 1955 Goldberg Variations, the recording which gave the work and its performer such a remarkable hit status at that time.

This is not to say Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s recording is weak-willed and softly undemonstrative, but there is a gentler side to his playing – perhaps also a side-effect of a rather rounded piano sound – which brings out the warmth in the heart of the music rather than its big venue street-cred. There is bounce and life where Bach demands it, in the first variation for instance, and this sets the pace for the first grouping of variations which concludes with a rousing Variatio 4. Extremes of speed are a feature of some variations, and Variatio 5 is the first such example, acting as little more than a prelude to Variatio 6. Pienaar’s sensitivity to Bach’s dance style is demonstrated in a Giga which barely touches the floor, so light is his touch on the keyboard. The second grouping of variations has its finale in a robust performance of the Variatio 10 Fughetta. Central to the next group is the expressive Variatio 13, in which the little inner rubati which Pienaar uses make the performance seem that much more reflective and yes, introverted. The sound appears almost to want to stay within the case of the piano, rather than broadcast to the last row of an invisible audience. This is not to say the playing is timid, but you could equally imagine this as a clavichord performance. Variatio 14 blows away the mood created in a horizontal shower of sparkling notes, again making it a sort of prelude to the gently eloquent lines of Variatio 15, which concludes another ‘block’ within Pienaar’s structuring of the piece.

The conjoining of variations is a feature of a slow, almost tentative sounding Variatio 20, which serves as a launching point for an arguable too swift and brutal Variatio 21, which goes at a speed too fast for our minds to keep up. The expressive highlights of Variatio 21, 22 and 25 are all done marvellously, though without extremes of slowness or attempts to seek too far beyond Bach’s notes beyond what is already so miraculous on the page. Pienaar does dive for pearls, but not in a disproportionate sense – no need for extra breathing apparatus, though the atmosphere is breathtaking. He writes of the ‘return home’ of the Quodlibet in the way that “the use of folk songs suggests quite literally a return to shared ancestral roots.” In this way the final repeat of the Aria is more of a coda and a release, the feeling of which is palpably expressed by Daniel Ben-Pienaar.

As a bonus to the Goldberg Variations we are given a continuous passacaglia version of the Fourteen Canons BWV 1087, which are based on the first eight bass notes of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations. I’ve been intrigued by these little gems for a while now, but while Pienaar’s more lively moments are good you have to get used to his overly straight opening and an occasional over-prominence of the bass line in places. If you want to discover these fascinating canons have a listen to the Hänssler Bach Edition Musikalisches Opfer CD 92.133 which, along with the canons BWV 1072-78 is the version which convinced me that J.S. Bach was one of the first minimalist composers, even to the point of momentarily confounding our reviewer. Pienaar’s programme concludes with a lovely prayer-like performance of Bist du bei mir from Bach’s Anna Magdalena Notebook, the source of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, or at least where it sees its first appearance in Bach’s manuscripts.

To conclude, this is a superbly expressive and atmospheric recording of the Goldberg Variations. One may not quite agree with the occasional extremes of tempo, but there is little doubting the jigsaw-puzzle accuracy and attention to detail with which Daniel-Ben Pienaar has formed his shaping of this masterpiece. Subsequent to my review of the Mozart sonatas I was contacted with regard to the piano sound, which one commentator found rather ‘harsh, full of reverb, somewhat lacking in definition’. I’m still quite happy with the sound quality of this, though I partially take the point about the reverb and definition. This Bach was recorded at the same location and the reverb is less by comparison; the instrument that touch closer to the microphones, something which can make all the difference. It’s perhaps not quite ‘demonstration’ piano sound with a little more mid-range bloom than makes for perfection, but is still very good.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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Bach: Goldberg Variations / Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Avie Records Oct 2011
CD
$19.99

Standards Plus One

Winter & Winter

$20.99 Jan 05, 2015

Featuring reinterpretations of famous jazz standards by artists like Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Charlie Haden, and his daughter Petra Haden on vocals, Paul Motian creates an audio film about scenes in New York City for closed eyes.

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Standards Plus One
Winter & Winter Jan 2015
CD
$20.99

HEGGIE/MCNALLY: GREAT SCOTT

ERATO

$27.99 Jan 12, 2018

Life meets art Joyce DiDonato stars in a live world-premiere recording of an opera written for her: Great Scott by Jake Heggie In Great Scott, the Kansas-born mezzo-soprano, one of today's best-loved classical singers, creates a role conceived specifically with her in mind. The character she plays, Arden Scott, just happens to be an opera star, and she is the lynchpin of what Fred Plotkin of WQXR, the USA's leading classical music radio station, welcomed as a "deeply moving and musically brilliant work" that "should enter the standard repertory just as Heggie's two previous masterpieces - Dead Man WalkingandMoby-Dick - already have". Jake Heggie, who has been described as US opera's most successful composer, chose the celebrated playwright Terence McNally as his librettist for Great Scott. The two previously collaborated on the gripping Dead Man Walking, which has become something of a modern classic since it's premiere in 2000. Joyce DiDonato first performed it's central role, Sister Helen Prejean, at New York City Opera in 2002 and will do so again in concert stagings in London and Madrid in January/February 2018 coinciding with the album release of Great Scott.

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HEGGIE/MCNALLY: GREAT SCOTT
ERATO Jan 2018
CD
$27.99

GREAT OCCASIONS
MUSICAL CONCEPTS Apr 2011
CD
$11.49

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons / Bosgraaf, Ensemble Cordevento

Brilliant Classics

$13.99 Jan 28, 2014

Vivaldi's Four Seasons is one of the world's most popular and widely recorded collections of music, a set that instantly became an international hit after it was first published at part of the composer's Op.8 in 1725. No doubt it was its imitative directness -- extra musical occurrences/phenomena evoked in an extremely suggestive manner and even written into the score, such as 'the barking dog' or 'the drunkards' sleep' etc. -- that caused such as sensation in its time, effortlessly bridging the gap between the salons of the highborn and the alehouses of the lowly. Today nothing has changed: the concertos are performed both by great violin virtuosos and famous hard rockers; they are works that are constantly being presented in new guises through the re-imagining and re-working of the musical score.

Such is the standpoint adopted on this recording by Erik Bosgraaf, who has chosen here to adapt the violin part for recorder, explaining how 'the violin part can be played on the recorder with surprising ease, without many changes. In some ways it works even better than concertos Vivaldi wrote specifically for the recorder!' Years ago Bosgraaf performed The Four Seasons with a symphony orchestra; for the present album, however, he wanted to approach his ideal as closely as possible using Cordevento, a small baroque ensemble he founded himself, knowing all the musicians through and through. Bosgraaf's aim is to make the four legendary concertos sound as if they had been written for the recorder in the first place -- and the results are laudable, with the contrasts between the wind instrument and the accompanying strings revealing previously unheard stratifications and details. As the soloist himself puts it, 'Listen to Vivaldi with fresh ears and enjoy!'

Other information:
- Recorded 25--28 June 2013, Kruiskerk Burgum, The Netherlands.
- Erik Bosgraaf is considered one of the most innovative and versatile recorder players of his generation. His concerts are happenings, and offer fascinating combinations of classical and experimental music. His importance for the emancipation of the recorder (still often considered a stuffy and even childish instrument) is enormous.
- Bosgraaf's version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons (of course originally for violin and orchestra) is not a mere transcription for another instrument, but a recreation of a work of startling originality and power: listen to the furioso rendering of the Summer Storm!
- Bosgraaf's earlier recordings for Brilliant Classics have met with enthusiastic acclaim in the international press; this new album will strengthen his reputation as one of today's most fascinating out-of-the-box artists.
- Contains detailed notes in English, German and Dutch on the music and matters of interpretation.
- Contains the Four Seasons' sonnets.

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Vivaldi: The Four Seasons / Bosgraaf, Ensemble Cordevento
Brilliant Classics Jan 2014
CD
$13.99

ANTAGONIST

SOUND AS LANGUAGE

Vinyl

$28.99 May 01, 2026

Critically acclaimed American producer Tomu DJ (Pitchfork, Dazed, NPR++) debuts on sound as language with her fourth album, 'antagonist.' Recorded in the artist's Oakland, California home throughout 2025 using only a digital piano, her intention for the album was to "free myself from conventional notions of electronic music". This is perhaps seen clearly on standout tracks "loose interpretation" and "careful deliberation", which in their cinematic splendor evoke the beauty and thoughtfulness of classical music. Even so, 'antagonist' is "not intended to be like classical music, rather a stream of consciousness akin to spoken word poetry". It is easy to see what she means on tracks like "antagonist" and "dance" which weave familiar elements into personal narratives of loneliness, perseverance and redemption. Despite it's specific sonic palette, 'antagonist' fits right in with Tomu DJ's discography, continuing to build on the musical ecosystem she has thoughtfully tended to over the course of the last decade.

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ANTAGONIST
SOUND AS LANGUAGE May 2026
Vinyl
$28.99

Mix & Match

Le Voyage imaginaire de Mozart au Japon

Enphases

$20.99 Oct 18, 2024

How can we live without Mozart's music? It has the power to change our lives and our view of the world. Mozart is a necessity. As children, we already listened to him, and this growing complicity lent itself particularly well to the game of dreaming. Who hasn't whispered to themselves, «What if...»? This is how we imagined Wolfgang travelling to Japan. This uchrony gave us the idea of combining our instruments with the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, and uniting the two piano quartets with transcriptions of overtures from his operas and pieces written specifically for this project by two great Japanese composers. This journey offers an open view of a Japan so little known in Mozart's time, thanks to five imaginary letters written by the erudite and facetious writer Richard Collasse, author of the Dictionnaire amoureux du Japon and novels set in Japan. Finally, this strange odyssey bears witness to Mozart's infinite source of inspiration for artistic creation, with illustrations by Setsuko Klossowska de Rola and those made by her late husband, the painter Balthus, for the sets of Cosi fan tutte in 1959. What if Mozart had gone to Japan? Let's read and listen.

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Le Voyage imaginaire de Mozart au Japon
Enphases Oct 2024
CD
$20.99

Bernstein, Gershwin & Copland / Judd, NOI Philharmonic

Naxos

$19.99 Apr 10, 2020

An American in Paris is one of Gershwin’s most vivacious works, an orchestral ballet saturated in homesickness and the blues. This recording, however, uses the new 2019 critical edition and offers Gershwin’s original orchestration, unheard for 75 years- leaner, more angular and transparent, it also employs the correct use of the iconic taxi horns, for a new sonic experience. The breezy vitality of Copland’s An Outdoor Overture is balanced by Bernstein’s Songfest- written to celebrate the Bicentennial Year in America, setting the verses of 13 of the country’s poets.

-----

REVIEW:

Songfest is in many ways a portrait of its composer in that the music is multi-faceted and ranges from the simple and lyrical to the flamboyant. Not every movement works as well for me on a level of subjective taste—I’m not a big fan of the tenor solo, ‘Zizi’s Lament’, for instance—but overall, the work is entertaining and full of life. The present performance is excellent with six fine singers expertly partnered by James Judd and his outstanding orchestra.

This new recording of An American in Paris has a particular allure in that it uses the new (2019) critical edition. The edition has been prepared by Mark Clague, the Editor-in-Chief of the George and Ira Gershwin Critical Edition. In an absorbing note in the booklet, he explains that there are two significant differences between this score and the version to which we’re accustomed. One concerns the use of saxophones. Gershwin specified no less than eight different saxes in his original orchestration, including a trio of soprano saxes. Unfortunately, well-meaning editorial work in the 1940s reduced the eight saxes to three—and even these were designated as optional. Here, the full octet is restored and, boy, do they make a difference at times! (Try the episode beginning at 7:23, where they’re smooching in the background. Even better, listen to them in the exuberant passage from 11:39.) The other changes concern the famous taxi horns. Gershwin was, apparently, very specific as to the pitches of the horns but an editorial misunderstanding after the composer’s death meant that the horns were notated at incorrect pitches. Now we can hear what Gershwin intended.

Copland’s An Outdoor Overture acts as a filler; it receives an alert and entertaining performance.

I’ve encountered the work of the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic on several previous Naxos CDs of American music. I’ve never been disappointed by their performances and this latest programme evidences the same professionalism, polish and commitment that I’ve heard before. James Judd guides them expertly through the music.

I enjoyed this disc very much. It’s especially recommendable for Songfest, not least because to the best of my knowledge it’s the only single-disc version currently available and it’s a work that is very well worth getting to know, especially in this fine performance.

– MusicWeb International

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Bernstein, Gershwin & Copland / Judd, NOI Philharmonic
Naxos Apr 2020
CD
$19.99

Aufschnaiter, Fischer, Reuter & Richter: Baroque Music in Prague / Klikar

Animal Music

$32.99 May 19, 2023

Recently discovered and to date unreleased recordings represent the last major project of Musica Antiqua Praha, which was during the fifteen years of its existence (1982–1997) the most eminent Czech early music ensemble focused above all on the performance of early and middle Baroque music. The album comprises compositions that were part of the archives of the Prague Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, recorded by Musica Antiqua in 1996 in a world premiere. The Order’s heritage includes more than three centuries of musical tradition, documented by a rarely preserved music archive. The album features music by four composers from the 17th and 18th century. Pavel Klikar, the founder and artistic director of Musica Antiqua Praha, is the major figure inextricably associated with the ensemble, whose inspirational leadership helped to create an important seedbed which brought forth a whole generation of early music performers. From among these recruited the founders and members of the new ensembles that originated in the Czech Republic during the 1990s, as well as number of foremost Czech vocalists, among them Anna Hlavenková, Irena Troupová, Magdalena Kožená and Michael Pospíšil. From the late 1980s, Musica Antiqua Praha was recognized as one of the top European ensembles specializing in historically-informed interpretation. It was recognized for its exceptionally broad repertoire and conceptual programmes, specific performance style and astonishing spiritual intensity. The ensemble was a regular guest at many prestigious festivals abroad (the UK, Belgium, Germany, France and Spain), where it met with great acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Musica Antiqua Praha released five albums during the 1990s. The release of this album thus symbolically reconfirms the lasting influence of this exceptional music ensemble that laid the basis of authentic interpretation of early music in modern Czechia.

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Aufschnaiter, Fischer, Reuter & Richter: Baroque Music in Prague / Klikar
Animal Music May 2023
CD
$32.99

Neapolitan Cantatas

Brilliant Classics

$6.99 ~~$13.99~~ Save 50% Mar 15, 2019

The works in this collection attest to the high standard of music-making in Naples. The composers here recorded were at the forefront of the achievements of Neapolitan music in the first half of the 18th century, the golden age of music production in the southern Italian centre. And the Neapolitan style at this time was fashionable beyond the borders of Italy, as well. Among all the composers presented, only Mancini lived and worked almost all his life in Naples. The others spent their lives travelling or serving foreign courts. This programme exploits the felicitous pairing of the voice with flute, two instruments similarly tied to the expressivity of human breath. Throughout this programme a baroque transverse flute, or ‘traverso’, is used, either called for specifically or substituted for the recorder. When these pieces were written the two types of flute still existed alongside each other as equals, as they had done for centuries before the transverse variety began to dominate later in the 18th century. Use of the viola da gamba for the bass part also finds justification in Naples. While in Rome the instrument had almost completely disappeared by the first half of the 17th century, it endured in Naples and continued to be used. Several mid-18th-century viole da gamba, preserved to this day, in various sizes by luthiers from the Neapolitan Gaglian family attest to the much later persistence of this instrument in that area.

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Neapolitan Cantatas
Brilliant Classics Mar 2019
CD
~~$13.99~~ $6.99

Borenstein: Piano Works / Tra Nguyen

Grand Piano

$19.99 Sep 08, 2023

The music of Nimrod Borenstein (b. 1969) is becoming increasingly popular on concert stages worldwide and on record, with a series of high-profile commissions and performances in recent years. The two sets of Études featured on this album are inspired by the model of Chopin. Tra Nguyen is a British-Vietnamese pianist whose career has taken her to prestigious venues worldwide. Her six-volume edition of Raff’s piano music is available on Grand Piano (GP728X).

REVIEW:

Judging from this disc’s contents, Borenstein certainly knows how to write idiomatically and effectively for piano. His two books of Etudes address specific techniques, textures, styles, and moods.

I was especially taken with The Melancholic Mobile, the third piece from Reminiscences of Childhood. Here repeated phrases in the piano’s high register give way to rhythmic displacements that resemble phase shifting. Once the lower registers kick in, the music goes into scrambled Schumann mode, but eventually returns to the opening section’s simplicity. Likewise, high-register rhythmic juggling characterizes the disc’s closing Lullaby. My only quibble is that these piano works operate on similar and not very wide-ranging emotional levels, despite the composer’s unquestionable cleverness and facility.

Pianist Tra Nguyen seems to be an ideal advocate for this repertoire. She brings the three-dimensional textures to life through her masterful scaling of dynamics, astute ear for textural differentiation, and colorful pedaling. Pianists seeking technically challenging yet musically accessible contemporary repertoire that is both virtuosic and lyrical at the same time will want to check out Nimrod Borenstein, who enhances this excellently engineered disc with his own articulate and unpretentious annotations.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

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Borenstein: Piano Works / Tra Nguyen
Grand Piano Sep 2023
CD
$19.99

WORK OF ART

YBNL NATION

Vinyl

$32.26 May 15, 2026

Work of Art is not merely a sophomore album; it is a victory lap run with the precision of a master artist. Following the stratospheric global ascent of his debut, Mr. Money with the Vibe, Asake faced the kind of pressure that usually demands a pivot. Instead, he treated that intensity like clay, sculpting a project that feels at once more expansive in scale and more intimate in spirit. Released in 2023, the album serves as a definitive statement on Asake's sonic identity, deepening his signature fusion of Amapiano, Fuji-inspired percussion, and Afrobeats while moving with a newfound sense of deliberate poise. If his debut was a high-octane sprint to introduce his sound to the world, Work of Art is a confident stroll through his own creative museum. Anchored once again by the masterful production of Magicsticks, the album serves as the perfect architectural space for Asake's erratic, infectious flows. The record feels richly textured-brimming with pulsating log drums, soulful samples, and the specific, ecstatic chaos of Lagos nightlife. Asake successfully bridges the gap between traditional Yoruba heritage and the deep, percussive basslines of South African Amapiano, resulting in a sound that feels simultaneously ancestral and futuristic. The project thrives on a unique duality: it is introspective, yet undeniably club-ready. Tracks like "Amapiano," featuring Olamide, provide the anthemic energy his fans crave, while cuts like "Basquiat" showcase a lyrical swagger that frames his life as high art set to a relentless four-on-the-floor beat. By leaning into his "Mr. Money" persona with added vulnerability and a clearer focus on the craftsmanship of his vocal delivery, Asake avoids the dreaded sophomore slump entirely. He proves that he isn't just making pop songs; he is curating a moment. Ultimately, Work of Art captures the feeling of an artist standing at the peak of his powers, looking out at the landscape he has helped reshape, and confirming that, indeed, he belongs there. It is not about reinventing the wheel-it's about proving that the wheel he built is a masterpiece.

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WORK OF ART
YBNL NATION May 2026
Vinyl
$32.26

GREAT JAZZ STANDARDS (BLUE NOTE TONE POET SERIES)

BLUE NOTE RECORDS

Vinyl

$42.35 May 05, 2023

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in deluxe tip-on jacket. The brilliant arranger, composer, and pianist Gil Evans had already collaborated with Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool and Miles Ahead and made his own debut album Gil Evans & Ten for Prestige when he signed with World Pacific Records in 1958 and made the first of two albums for the label: New Bottle Old Wine with featured soloist Cannonball Adderley. The next year Evans was back in the studio to record the follow-up Great Jazz Standards with two different ensembles featuring the likes of trumpeter Johnny Coles, trombonists Curtis Fuller and Jimmy Cleveland, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Budd Johnson, guitarist Ray Crawford, drummer Elvin Jones, and others. As the title promises, the album presents a program of great jazz standards leading off with Bix Beiderbecke's "Davenport Blues," a showcase for Coles, before launching into a shimmering version of Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser" where Coles, Lacy, Fuller, and Evans all get the spotlight. A stunning presentation of Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf's "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" and a no-nonsense take on Clifford Brown's "Joy Spring" close out the first side. On the flipside, John Lewis' "Django" gets an impressionistic arrangement full of surprises, while a modernistic version of Don Redman's "Chant of the Weed" is a solo vehicle for Johnson's clarinet. The album culminates with a soaring performance of the Evans original "Theme," later known as "La Nevada." Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes.

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GREAT JAZZ STANDARDS (BLUE NOTE TONE POET SERIES)
BLUE NOTE RECORDS May 2023
Vinyl
$42.35

Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro / Mattei, Oelze, Grant Murphy, Cambreling

Opus Arte

DVD

$23.99 Oct 29, 2013

MOZART Le nozze di Figaro & • Sylvain Cambreling, cond; Peter Mattei (Count Almaviva); Lorenzo Regazzo (Figaro); Heidi Grant Murphy (Susanna); Christine Schäfer (Cherubino); Roland Bracht (Dr. Bartolo); Burkhard Ulrich (Don Basilio); Helene Schneiderman (Marcellina); Eberhard Francesco Lorenz (Don Curzio); Cassandra Berthon (Barbarina); Jürg Kienberger (Recitativist); Op National de Paris O & Ch • OPUS ARTE 6004 (2 DVDs: 250:00 + 59:43) Live: Paris 2006

& Bonus: A Day of Real Madness, documentary by Reiner E. Moritz

This splendid performance of Le nozze di Figaro was originally issued on DVD in 2006, and is here making its reappearance in Opus Arte’s “Essential Opera Collection.” As in the case of the Rigoletto from 2001, reviewed elsewhere, this designation is well deserved. Since this disc was fully reviewed by Christopher Williams in these pages when it was first released, I won’t retread the excellent detail of his review but only make some observations of my own.

First, the production by Christoph Marthaler is whimsical and truly funny. Back in the 1980s, I complained bitterly of Peter Sellars’s ridiculous updating and setting of this opera in a New York penthouse (like the Trump Tower) because so much of what was in the libretto—not only the stage directions, which for better or worse are very explicit because this was based on a play that had equally specific instructions, but also in the words of the recitatives and arias—was either ignored or completely contradicted by his almost consistently asinine setting. Marthaler has set nearly the entire opera in front of a marriage bureau, which has a certain relationship to the subtext of the opera (it is, after all, about marriage, fidelity, and whether or not one should ever marry for convenience or just for love), but even here there are moments, such as the riotous conclusion of act II or the final scene which is supposed to take place in the garden outside the Count’s abode, that just don’t work. Marthaler, in collaboration with conductor Cambreling, has come up with an amusing alternative to playing the secco recitatives on a harpsichord. They have invented a character called the “Recitativist,” a comedian-musician (Jürg Kienberger) who whimsically plays the recitative accompaniment on any number of instruments, including (at one point) a balloon with air escaping from it and, at another, by tooting on beer bottles that he drinks from to continually lower their pitch, sometimes humming along with them. This creates a very funny diversion to these otherwise dull moments, which is fortunate since Cambreling insisted on keeping all of them because they realized that this is where the real drama takes place, that the arias are just moments of reflection that stop the action.

As an overall production I much preferred David McVicar's contemporary staging given at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Here, the opera was updated to 1830s post-Revolution France where “the inexorable unraveling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss.” More to the point, the costumes are closer to the era of Beaumarchais’s play and the stage settings equally funny due to McVicar's sharp wit. The differences lie in the quality of the casts and of the recorded sound. In the Royal Opera video (Opus Arte 990), we are given strong vocal and acting performances by Erwin Schrott (Figaro), Miah Persson (Susanna), the Count (Gerald Finley), and Don Basilio (Philip Langridge). Dorothea Röschmann’s Countess is extremely well acted, but she doesn’t have the steadiest or most beautiful voice for the role, and the singing of our Cherubino (Rinat Shaham), Dr. Bartolo (Jonathan Veira), and Marcellina (Graciela Araya) is substandard. The recorded sound, however, is terrific, the microphone picking up orchestra and soloists with crisp, lifelike fidelity. In this Paris production, every single role from top to bottom is sung splendidly. Williams had a niggling complaint about the fact that Christine Schäfer, the Cherubino, is a soprano, and thus does not add variety to the ensembles but sounds a bit too much like the Susanna and Countess. This is true, but except for the very low notes in “Voi che sapete,” Schäfer sings and acts brilliantly, really looking like an adolescent, sex-drawn boy. My complaints about the cast here are small, mostly of baritone Regazzo as an almost consistently scowling, over-macho Figaro with a gorgeous voice but almost no inflection in his use of it, and of soprano Heidi Grant Murphy as Susanna, who sings beautifully but looks rather dowdy, something like Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote.

More to the point, the sound recording and mix by Radio France is not consistently clear. The microphones seem to be a little high or a bit away from both soloists and orchestra, with the result that everyone sounds a little reverberant most of the time. Once in a while, the principals walk right under the microphone—it seems to have been set up a little to stage left of center—and then sound marvelous, but at moments the sonics are a little off. This is a shame, as Cambreling conducts here a shade better than Antonio Pappano on the Royal Opera DVD, the differences being in the Countess’s two arias. Having played these pieces for a soprano friend of mine many years ago, I can assure you that they are written in cut time, 2/2, and so are not to be performed as slowly as they so often are. Pappano, then, conducts them in the conventional way which is wrong; Cambreling at a brisker pace which is right. Christiane Oelze cannot match Röschmann as an actress, thus her overall presentation (visual as well as aural) is not as strong, but strictly from a singing perspective Oelse’s voice is radiant and exquisite (I have previously described her as having a voice of pure crystal) whereas Röschmann’s is plain-sounding and a bit fluttery.

What makes Marthaler’s conception work is his zany, Marx Brothers-style sense of humor, which (thankfully) is tasteful and never overdone. In brief, this is a great singing and conducting performance set to a clever but not always convincing stage production. An opera like Rossini’s La pietra del paragone benefits from this kind of surreal zaniness because it isn’t really a stage plot that one takes the least bit seriously, but Beaumarchais’s comedy of manners, though requiring some good slapstick moments, needs a bit more structure in order to make sense of it. Therefore I recommend this DVD for its many good points while still preferring the Royal Opera version as a visual representation of the work.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro / Mattei, Oelze, Grant Murphy, Cambreling
Opus Arte Oct 2013
DVD
$23.99

Beethoven: Septett Op. 20; Sextett Op. 71
Tudor Jun 2011
SACD
$21.99

FIGHT ON!

YELLOW DOG RECORDS

$16.21 Apr 17, 2026

Three of today's deepest, most decorated acoustic blues masters reunite to summon ancestral spirits with songs both long remembered and newly created. Even as they step back in time, Guy Davis, Corey Harris and Alvin Youngblood Hart-who met at the 1996 Chicago Blues Festival and won ardent acclaim for their first True Blues project in 2013-prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that African American blues remains as vital and vibrant as ever. Recorded separately in Virginia, Mississippi and New York, these soul-stirring performances include a Jimmy Strother banjo song migrated to Piedmont-style guitar (Harris's "Fight On"), an inspired reworking of Elizabeth Cotten's "Shake Sugaree," reimagined as if Blind Willie McTell were playing the guitar (Davis's "Everything I Got Is Done In Pawn"), and the first Charley Patton song that Hart ever learned, "Screamin' and Hollerin'." Even the original compositions here are steeped in history, albeit personal history. Harris wrote "What's That I Smell?" with his time spent in New Orleans in mind-specifically, his nights playing in a joint called The Funky Butt. Davis laments the necessity of a life on the road, away from family, in the disarmingly confessional "See Me When You Can." And Hart drew inspiration from another great bluesman, his friend Henry Townsend (who died in 2006 at the age of 96), to write "If the Blues Was Money," which he performs here on a Sears Silvertone-branded 1950s Kay flat-top guitar. Raw, heartfelt and sounding absolutely nothing like a dusty museum piece, Fight On!: True Blues Vol. 2 is a loving celebration of shared music and friendship, a long-dreamed-about project that now, countless tours and conversations later finally arrives.

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FIGHT ON!
YELLOW DOG RECORDS Apr 2026
CD
$16.21

Mix & Match

Khachaturian & Rautavaara: Flute Concertos

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Jul 08, 2016

Flutist Sharon Bezaly has dazzled listeners and critics all over the globe, even being called “God’s gift to the flute.” With almost 40 releases to her name, her wide-ranging discography includes both standard repertoire and selections written specifically for her. This release is owed to two fellow world-class flutists, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Gunilla von Bahr. Rampal was the flutist who arranged Aram Khachaturian’s virtuosic violin concerto for the flute, at the suggestion of the composer. “Dances with the Winds,” Einojuhani Rautavaara’s 1974 composition, is dedicated to Gunilla von Bahr. Rautavaara’s “Dances with the Winds,” is an interesting addition, as the first and last movements are scored for bass flute, while the second movement is written for piccolo, and the third for alto flute. In a later revision, the composer replaced the bass flute with the alto. Bezaly includes both versions on this recording.

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Khachaturian & Rautavaara: Flute Concertos
BIS Jul 2016
SACD
$21.99

Christ Be Near

GIA

$18.99 Jan 01, 2009

Marty Haugen has joined with composer colleagues Fr. Michael Joncas and Tony Alonso to produce a new collection of 13 songs for worship. The music reflects a wide diversity of musical forms and styles, from the classical “Lauda Sion” (Joncas) to the beautiful “In the Arms of God” (Alonso) to the call-and-response “God Is Still Speaking” (Haugen). Psalm settings, communion songs, and songs for specific feasts (e.g., Ash Wednesday, Easter Vigil) with texts by Susan Briehl, Mary Louise Bringle, Delores Dufner OSB, John Fennelly, Alan Hommerding, and James Quinn SJ ensure that there is music here to enhance any community repertoire.

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Christ Be Near
GIA Jan 2009
CD
$18.99

Soulima Stravinsky plays Stravinsky

Nimbus

$23.99 Feb 06, 2026

Soulima Stravinsky was the third child of Igor and Yekaterina Stravinsky. His career in music encompassed performing as a recitalist and concerto soloist, particularly noted for interpretations of his father's music, musicology, education, and composition. Soulima's performing career was slowly expanded with achievements as a transcriber, editor, author, and composer, although in the later endeavour his work was inevitably overshadowed by his father's towering reputation. Soulima had a particular gift for composing music for children. He made two visits to the Nimbus Studios, in 1975 to record these performances of his father's music, and in 1977 to record his own music for children. This is the first release of these fine performances, fascinating not least for their specific historic significance. © Adrian Farmer

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Soulima Stravinsky plays Stravinsky
Nimbus Feb 2026
CD
$23.99

Mix & Match

Resonant Relations
Cantaloupe Music Jun 2011
CD
$18.99

A Baroque Christmas / Collegium Aureum

RCA

$17.99 Nov 06, 2007

The famous pastoral music in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and in Handel’s Messiah are central parts of a development which spans two hundred years, from about the second half of the seventeenth century until well into the nineteenth. Connoisseurs and experts still disagree on whether the stimulus came from the secular pastoral music of the Renaissance, or whether the Shepherds In Adoration provided the initial inspiration for the composers.

Arcangelo Corelli’s (1653—1713) Christmas Concerto is the oldest of the works. His concerto op. VI No. 8 fatto per la notte di Natale appeared in 1714 a year after the master’s death, in Amsterdam. It undoubtedly belongs to the last period of Corelli’s work and is among his most famous — not only by virtue of its festive Christmas spirit, but more specifically because it constitutes one of the most impressive and accomplished examples of the Concerto grosso. The balanced beauty of the many movements of the ecclesiastical work is in happy concordance, as can be felt in the depth of the sentiment, the vigour of expression, the enchanting sounds of the strings, the supreme virtuosity of the arrangement of the solo parts, and the classical harmony. The Pastorale exhibits in its unique perfection the combined stylistic features of pastoral music: the swaying Sicilian rhythm, the tender, peaceful interval of the thirds and the imitation of the bagpipe’s drone. As J. N. Forkel understands it, Corelli in composing this work had a vision of the Angel on High over Bethlehem. Whatever the case may be, one readily agrees with Einstein who called this Pastorale "the musical companion-piece to Sandro Boticelli’s Nativity".

Johann Christoph Pez (1664—1716) was a contemporary of Corelli. Despite his studies in Rome, his whole professional life was spent in South and West Germany, in Munich, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf. Pez underlines the festive and pastoral character of his Concerto through the treble parts which are intended for the two flutes. He acquires a delightful textural contrast by his masterly juxtaposition of violin with two viols or violas.

Two of the movements are designated as Pastorale; the others (with the exception of the Chaconne) are called Aria by the composer, who thus freely concedes a secular and in parts popular character. Francesco Manfredini‘s (ca. 1680—1748) opus III appeared in Bologna in 1718, where the composer had finished his apprenticeship under Torelli. Manfredini too designated his three-movement Concerto fatto per la notte di Natale,that is, for performance at the Christmas Mass. The transition from the Concerto grosso to the purely instrumental concerto can be traced in this work. In some sections the two solo violins have to master tasks which can be attributed to a solo violin in a violin concerto. In style too, this late Baroque composition foreshadows a possible future gallantry and sensitivity of expression, without meanwhile sacrificing the gravity and elevation of an authentic sonata da chiesa to the sweetness and pleasance of the sound.

Giuseppe Tartini’s life (1692 1770) reads rather like a novel. Throughout his life he was very closely connected with the Franciscans; his teacher was the famous Bohemian master, Cernohorsky, a Franciscan monk from Prague who lived a long time in Assisi. It seems almost inconceivable that the same master who envisaged “the devil’s trill” in a hell-like vision, could also have composed simple Franciscan church music. In this three-movement symphony for strings, the transition from Rococo to true Classicism can already be noted.

Carl de Nys

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A Baroque Christmas / Collegium Aureum
RCA Nov 2007
CD
$17.99

Monteverdi Edition

Brilliant Classics

$43.97 ~~$87.99~~ Save 50% Nov 17, 2023

This substantial set dedicated to the vocal music of Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) features the great cycle undertaken (to date) by Krijn Koetsveld and the singers of Le Nuove Musiche: all nine books of madrigals, the music in Monteverdi collections such as the Selva Morale e Spirituale (1641), the posthumous Messa a quattro voci ed salmi (1650), and the individual works by Monteverdi compiled in the collections of others, the so-called Fragments. To this is joined the cycle of operas directed by Sergio Vartolo and sung by casts of Italian early music specialists, including the first recording of the five-act version of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria.

These thoroughly researched, historically informed interpretations demonstrate Monteverdi’s pioneering and transformative role in the emergence and development of staged, dramatic vocal music. Also featured are the grand Vespers – sacred music in the Gregorian plainchant tradition but on an operatic scale – in a fantastic recording with fine Italian soloists and authentic period instruments including the early brass of La Pifarescha. Federico Bardazzi and Ensemble Felice make scrupulous interpretative decisions about the order of movements, interpolating the choral motets within the prescribed sequence of psalms to great effect. Finally, there are Monteverdi’s youthful three-part canzonettas, written when the composer was 17. They are rather simpler than the madrigals, both to sing and to appreciate, but their musical worth is amply demonstrated by the largely female voices of Armoniosoincanto joined by a mixed period-instrument ensemble of flutes, violas, theorbo and harpsichord. They impart just the right light-hearted mood and dramatic impact to the playful, folkloric secular strophic poetry.

CONTENTS:

Monteverdi: Il primo libro de madrigali, 1587
Monteverdi: Il secondo libro de madrigali, 1590
Monteverdi: Il terzo libro de madrigali, 1592
Monteverdi: Il quarto libro de madrigali, 1603
Monteverdi: Il quinto libro de madrigali, 1605
Monteverdi: Il sesto libro de madrigali, 1614
Monteverdi: Il settimo libro de madrigali, 1619 'Concerto'
Monteverdi: Il ottavo libro de madrigali, 1638 'Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi'
Monteverdi: Il nono libro de madrigali, 1651
Monteverdi: O ciechi il tanto affaticar, SV 252
Monteverdi: Voi ch'ascoltate
Monteverdi: È questa vita un lampo
Monteverdi: Spuntava il dì, SV 255
Monteverdi: Chi vol che m’innamori
Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi III alla francese, SV267
Monteverdi: Gloria a 7, SV 258
Monteverdi: Crucifixus, SV 259
Monteverdi: Pianto della Madonna 'Iam moriar, mi fili' (sopra il Lamento dell'Arianna), SV 288
Monteverdi: Et resurrexit, a quattro
Monteverdi: Et iterum
Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum in sancta Eius
Monteverdi: Salve Regina, SV 285
Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum
Monteverdi: Beatus vir (from Selva Morale e Spirituali)
Monteverdi: Sanctorum meritis (Primo)
Monteverdi: Dixit [Dominus] Primo
Monteverdi: Ab aeternum, SV 262
Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi Domine, SV266
Monteverdi: Memento Domine David
Monteverdi: Laudate pueri Primo
Monteverdi: Salve Regina, SV 284
Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum omnes gentes II
Monteverdi: Magnificat Primo
Monteverdi: Gloria (1641)
Monteverdi: Dixit Dominus secondo a8 SV 192
Monteverdi: Deus tuorum militum sors et corona
Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi, Domine
Monteverdi: Iste confessor
Monteverdi: Beatus vir (second setting)
Monteverdi: Ut queant laxis, hymnus sancti Joannis
Monteverdi: Laudate pueri (Secondo)
Monteverdi: Deus tuorum militum sors et corona
Monteverdi: Credidi propter quod locutus sum, SV 275
Monteverdi: Jubilet a voce sola in dialogo
Monteverdi: Magnificat (Secondo)
Monteverdi: Salve Regina
Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum
Monteverdi: Canzonette
Monteverdi: Vespro della beata Vergine (1610)
Monteverdi: Cantate Domino
Monteverdi: O beatae viae
Monteverdi: Currite populi
Monteverdi: Ego flos campi
Monteverdi: Venite, venite
Monteverdi: Christe, adoramus te
Monteverdi: O quam pulchra es
Monteverdi: Salve Regina
Monteverdi: Fuge, anima mea
Monteverdi: Sancta Maria
Monteverdi: Domine, ne il furore
Monteverdi: Ego dormio
Monteverdi: Ecce sacrum paratum
Monteverdi: Salve Regina
Monteverdi: O bone Jesu, o piissime Jesu
Monteverdi: En gratulemur hodie, SV 302
Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
Monteverdi: Adoramus te, Christe
Monteverdi: Messa a 4 voci da Cappella (1650)
Monteverdi: Dixit [Dominus] Primo
Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi, Domine
Monteverdi: Nisi Dominus a 6, SV201
Monteverdi: Laudate pueri
Monteverdi: Laetatus sum
Monteverdi: Lauda Jerusalem a 3, SV202
Monteverdi: Beatus vir (from Selva Morale e Spirituali)
Monteverdi: Magnificat Primo
Monteverdi: Missa 'In illo tempore' (1610)
Monteverdi: Dixit Dominus II
Monteverdi: Confitebor tibi Domine II, SV194
Monteverdi: Nisi Dominus a 6, SV201
Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum, SV197a
Monteverdi: Laetatus sum
Monteverdi: Laetaniae della Beata Vergine a 6 voci
Monteverdi: Lauda Jerusalem a 5, SV203
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea

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Monteverdi Edition
Brilliant Classics Nov 2023
CD
~~$87.99~~ $43.97

Ludford: Missa Inclina Cor Meum; Mason: Ave Fuit Prima Salus / Blue Heron

Blue Heron Renaissance Choir

$21.99 Oct 01, 2013

MASON Ave fuit prima salus. ANON Cunctipotens genitor. LUDFORD Missa Inclina cor meum • Scott Metcalfe, cond; Blue Heron • BLUE HERON 1004 (59:58 Text and Translation)

Philip Heseltine (better known his compositional pseudonym of Peter Warlock) once lamented that all the music of England’s Golden Age that still existed had been found, and that there was no more to uncover, or transcribe. But this was towards the end of his short life, while in deep depression. In the more than 80 years that have passed since that time, much additional music has been brought to light. Some of it, too, that was previously damaged to the point where performance was thought impossible, has been painstakingly reconstructed.

This is the case with a subset of the Peterhouse partbooks compiled in a relatively short time, probably in the early 1540s, following Henry VIII’s famous Dissolution of the Monasteries. The king’s death in 1547 led to a series of rulers and policies that set the nation careening across the religious spectrum, with various levels of tolerance towards such delights as sacred choral music. At some point, whether through neglect or deliberate sabotage, the tenor book vanished, and was never recovered. Portions of the treble book also went missing. What made this particular loss severe is that of the 72 pieces included in the Henrician group of partbooks, 39 are unica , while another 12 exist elsewhere only in incomplete versions.

The reconstruction of individual pieces has become the lifework of musicologist Nick Sandon. It’s his editions we hear on this album, with a new version of the missing tenor part in the Mass, and both treble and tenor in the antiphon. These are world premieres of both works in two respects, then—not only first recordings, but also part of a series of first performances since the mid-17th century, at the latest.

John Mason is by far the least-known of the composers on this release, and the only reason we know his music at all is because of four works in these partbooks. The Ave fuit prima salus isn’t based on a cantus firmus . Its interest lies in the brilliant yet subtle variations the composer works on each of his 17 verses that conclude with “Ave Maria.” Mason is a past master at varying textures through the number and color of active parts, but the emphasis tends for the most part towards the contemplative side of the emotional scale, as is appropriate. Sandon is quoted in the liner notes as finding the text “as undistinguished as literature as it is pedestrian in theology,” but it is all turned to gold by the composer.

The Missa Inclina cor meum is the second of two by Ludford that come down to us solely from the Peterhouse partbooks. (The other, Missa Regnum mundi , was recorded on Blue Heron 1003, and reviewed in Fanfare 36:1.) As its cantus firmus is not associated with any specific feast day, Metcalfe has chosen not to include plainchant Propers. The custom of the day in England was to omit writing a through-composed Kyrie, and replace it with a plainsong-based textual trope—which is exactly what we get here with Cunctipotens genitor , instead of leaving a mass minus a movement as many recordings do: well done. Metcalfe points in particular to a passage in the Sanctus where the basses greatly augment the melody as the top voices “spin out melodies high above” as an example of “truly strange passages,” but in its entirety this mass is a boldly imaginative work of great melodic beauty and harmonic sensitivity.

What continues to set apart these recordings of Blue Heron from the majority of choirs recording similar repertoire is the use of expressive devices. To beauty of phrasing, and the careful blending of parts, Scott Metcalfe adds clarity of enunciation, flexible tempos, and both a general and part-related control of dynamics that never approaches stylistic anachronism. As a result, the music doesn’t float in a vacuum, but becomes the carrier when appropriate for an emotional current. When it is sung that with Mary “angels rejoice and archangels exult,” for example, the performance reasonably seconds the music, and the score blazes with the brightness of that eternal moment. There are many more instances of that, all to the good.

The sound is close and resonant, but absolutely clear, with none of the messy lack of focus that comes from cloudy, over-reverberant efforts. The quality of this series remains as high as ever, both for music and performance. Available from blueheronchoir.org and, needless to add, strongly recommended.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

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Ludford: Missa Inclina Cor Meum; Mason: Ave Fuit Prima Salus / Blue Heron
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir Oct 2013
CD
$21.99

The Etudes Project, Vol. 1: Iceberg / Jenny Lin

Sono Luminus

$8.99 ~~$17.99~~ Save 50% Oct 25, 2019

The term étude first started to turn up in musical literature in the late 1700s, and came into common usage in the first half of the 19th century. The notion of a piece of music exactingly engineered to promote some specific aspect of technique was nothing new; in her public presentations of “The Étude Project,” pianist Jenny Lin traces the concept back to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Clavier-Übung, four volumes of keyboard exercises published between 1726 and 1741 — the final volume known more widely as the “Goldberg” Variations.

Countless composers have risen to the challenge of the étude. This album, the first documentation of a sweeping project conceived by Lin, includes some of the most famous examples – Debussy, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Messiaen, Ligeti, and Glass – alongside equally noteworthy contributions to the format by such mavericks as Ruth Crawford Seeger, Toshio Hosokawa, and Unsuk Chin. Lin further pairs each of her canonical selections with an entirely new work by a member of ICEBERG New Music, a determinedly heterodox collaborative of 10 gifted young composers who represent a broad range of stylistic inclinations, but who are united by their enduring faith in substance and craft.

Bucking a current fad, the new études were not proposed as sequels or responses to existing works. Lin simply asked the ICEBERG composers to challenge her, and then used her own keen ear and sure instincts to find sympathetic pairings. Driving rhythms and rich harmonies link pieces by Alex Burtzos and Chopin. Rangy scatterings of notes present a frolicsome affinity between Victor Baez and Unsuk Chin. Stephanie Ann Boyd and Debussy both deploy dreamy arpeggios in rippling waves; and so on. In each case, hearing the new piece enhances your understanding of the older one—and vice versa. Identifying affinities among old and new music, and among familiar and unknown pieces, is a knack Lin has demonstrated again and again throughout her career—and it’s part of what makes her not only a persuasive interpreter, but also an invaluable guide and companion. Stated simply: you are in extraordinarily sure hands, here.

REVIEW:

Aligning with composers of ICEBERG New Music, pianist Jenny Lin gave its ten members absolute freedom of style and pianistic approach when crafting new etudes for her. In addition to her Herculean playing, the fearless pianist brings curatorial prowess to bear in pairing each new etude with an existing work from the canon. Have a listen to this disc and then have another. The Etudes Project will repay you manifestly.

– The Whole Note (CA)

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The Etudes Project, Vol. 1: Iceberg / Jenny Lin
Sono Luminus Oct 2019
CD
~~$17.99~~ $8.99

Gangi: Complete Music For 2 Guitars / Duo Pace Poli Cappelli

Brilliant Classics

$13.99 Feb 12, 2021

Mario Gangi (1923-2010) was among the pre-eminent Italian guitarists of his generation. Born in Rome to a professional jazz-musician father, Gangi graduated from the city’s Accademia della Santa Cecilia and soon followed in his father’s footsteps as both an orchestral bassist (with the local radio orchestra) and a guitarist. This latter career took off in the 50s: Gangi gave several important first performances of concertos by the likes of Petrassi and even the 19th-century Giuliani. His teaching method became an essential study for young guitarists, and he edited the music of Sor, Tarrega and J.S. Bach for modern guitar editions. With this recording, the Duo Pace Poli Cappelli present Gangi’s music for two guitars, comprising a trio of suites – the Suite Italiana, the Suite Spagnola and Suite Barocca – and a pair of standalone rhapsodies in a more contemporary idiom, the Fantas and Fabulae. The three suites evoke their titled points of inspiration. An Andalusa, Fandango and Sevillana capture the idiom of Spanish folk-music; a Saltarello, Adagio and whirling Tarantella present musical snapshots of Italy; and the Minuet and Gigue of the Suite Barocca return to the courtly world of the 18th century without parody. The Fantas and Fabulae plough a more modern furrow: still essentially lyrical in style, rhapsodic in form but more flecked with dissonance and less dependent than the suites on the specifics of a national idiom. The influence of modern popular styles imbues the Fantas in particular with sunshine and contemporary energy.

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Gangi: Complete Music For 2 Guitars / Duo Pace Poli Cappelli
Brilliant Classics Feb 2021
CD
$13.99