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Two for Rachmaninoff

Azica Records

$15.99 Oct 24, 2025

No wonder the stellar team of pianists Eric Zuber and Boris Slutsky found Rachmaninoff's works for two pianos irresistible. The two had a shared history: Mr. Slutsky was Mr. Zuber's piano teacher beginning when the latter was a mere 11. Here, instructor and student have now become equal partners with a shared aesthetic. "Like many pianists (and listeners), I've always felt deeply connected to Rachmaninoff's music," says Eric Zuber. "Precisely identifying what makes it resonate so profoundly with so many people is challenging, but for me, it's his sincerity of expression, emotional honesty, and exceptional craftsmanship in writing for the piano. Through his distinctive musical language, Rachmaninoff captures the complexities of human emotion-our joys, loves, and sorrows-in ways words alone cannot fully express.

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Two for Rachmaninoff
Azica Records Oct 2025
CD
$15.99

Mix & Match

Gluck: Iphigenie En Aulide, Iphigenie En Tauride / Minkowski, Gens, Delunsch

Opus Arte

DVD

$39.99 Mar 26, 2013

GLUCK Iphigénie en Aulide.1 Iphigénie en Tauride2 & • Marc Minkowski, cond; 1Véronique Gens (Iphigénie); 2Mireille Delunsch (Iphigénie); Salomé Haller (Diana); Nicolas Testé (Agamemnon); Anne Sofie von Otter (Clytemnestre); Frédéric Antoun (Achille); Martijn Cornet (Patrocle); Laurent Alvaro (Arcas/Thoas); Jean-François Lapointe (Oreste/Calchas); Yann Beuron (Pylade); Netherlands Op Ch; Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble • OPUS ARTE 1099 (2 DVDs: 229:00) Live: Amsterdam 9/7/2011

& The making of “Iphigénie en Aulide”; “Iphigénie en Tauride” (38: 00)

This two-DVD set documents an unusual evening in the theater, with both of Gluck’s Iphigénie operas being given on one night as a double bill. The risk of mounting such a project is great, not least because these operas are very draining on both cast and audience. The fact that Marc Minkowski was able to pull this off was due in no small measure to the intelligent casting, which duplicated only two singers in both operas: Salomé Haller as Diana and Laurent Alvaro, who sings the small role of Arcas in the first opera and Thoas in the second.

For those unfamiliar with these Gluck operas, they represent somewhat different styles despite their similar subject matter and the fact that they were only written five years apart. Gluck’s growth as a creative artist in those five years was phenomenal, almost as stunning as Igor Stravinsky’s growth between the first and last acts of his opera The Nightingale. In Iphigénie en Aulide, although he already has a firm grasp of the new musico-dramatic structures he had created, he was still operating in an essentially lyric vein. There are strophic arias and all of the recitatives are orchestrally accompanied, which gives the music a remarkable sense of unity that was very rare in those days, but by 1779, when he wrote Iphigénie en Tauride, his sureness of handling drama through music had grown to its full maturity. The later opera, even from its opening notes, has a much greater thrust and impetuosity in both the orchestral and vocal writing than was present in the earlier opera. This, then, presents director, cast, and conductor with another challenge, which is how to reconcile the differing styles of these operas in one night’s performance.

Pierre Audi’s direction is singularly arresting and brilliant despite sparse sets and updated, somewhat ridiculous costumes. We see Iphigénie and Achille singing to each other in trench coats; when Iphigénie appears later in the first opera, she is wearing a bomb belt on what looks like a prom dress and a greasepaint X on her forehead to indicate that she has been marked for death. Calchas, the High Priest, looks nerdy in a blue suit with shirt open at the collar and horn-rimmed glasses—and, of course, we get our ubiquitous mostly-naked guy in tight slacks (who turns out to be Arcas). In act II, Agamemnon appears in a carnival cruise ship captain’s outfit, complete with dorky hat and a little winged emblem on it (and sunglasses…don’t forget the sunglasses, even though the stage is nearly as dark as pitch). In short, the costumes are rather ridiculous. The set, such as it is, consists of two high but narrow staircases on either side of the very small stage. Yet to Audi’s credit, he directs around this nonsense to create a dramatic presentation that is both interesting and appropriate to an updating of Greek theater. One can almost envision these singing actors performing their roles in more conventional costumes and sets, and their portrayals are dramatically apropos as well as fascinating to watch.

As for the singers in the first opera, pride of place goes to Nicolas Testé as Agamemnon. He possesses a large, well-focused voice that can even negotiate a trill, and his acting is superb. Nearly as fine are Véronique Gens as Iphigénie and Frédéric Antoun as Achille. Both have smallish voices of the sort that Gluck undoubtedly wrote for, yet they are pointed and carry well and their duets are a joy to the ear. Less impressive is Jean-François Lapointe as Calchas, whose voice has a flutter and an insufficient low range for the role. Anne Sofie von Otter, quite frankly, has little or nothing left of what was once a lovely if small voice. Twenty-plus years of singing, including several roles too large for her, have left the voice wobbly and hollow-sounding. She lacks volume even in so small a theater as this one that De Nederlandse Opera performs in. Her acting as always is spot-on, but I’m not listening to her just for acting. I want some voice, too.

Yet through it all, holding everything together, is the golden thread of Minkowski’s conducting, so that in the end one feels justified in going through this experience for his sure-handed leadership. One of the virtues of hearing a conductor this gifted is his way of knitting everything together so that chorus-recit-aria-vocal ensemble all flows seamlessly and naturally, with appropriate dramatic peaks when called for. Besides, it’s such a rare treat to actually see a production of any Gluck opera nowadays that I can almost overlook von Otter’s vocal faults and the silly costumes. Even in the earlier Iphigénie opera, one can clearly hear Gluck’s musical innovations and—more importantly for us today, with 20/20 hindsight—how much these innovations impacted the music of Cherubini, Spontini, Berlioz, and eventually Wagner. This is especially evident in those orchestrally accompanied recitatives: With their brief, almost blunt melodic thrusts, they stab into the listener’s ears in such a way that they convey the impetuosity of the characters. How ironic, then, that the “bel canto boys,” Rossini-Bellini-Donizetti, turn recitatives back into semi-parlando mush in the early decades of the 19th century. Listen—for just one small example-to the way Agamemnon sings of his daughter, whom he loves, and the tender accents that Gluck imparts to the orchestra behind him, using soft winds; then, immediately after, as he thinks of the sacrifice he is about to make, the tempo doubles and short, stabbing strings cut into his words. This is writing of pure genius. There is no other way to describe it.

The one demerit one can make against Gluck (and, specifically, his librettist) is that they whitewashed the story in order to provide a happy ending. In reality, Agamemnon had no guilt pangs or second thoughts about sacrificing his daughter, and in fact Iphigénie was killed to appease Diana; but by changing the ending of the story, Gluck was not only able to send his audiences home whistling a happy tune but also to manufacture out of thin air the “legend” that Diana took Iphigénie to her home island of Tauride, where the unfortunate girl spent much of her time doing what her father wanted to do to her: killing—oops, sacrificing—strangers who landed there to the goddess. Fabricated the story may be, but Gluck turned it into one of the most riveting operas ever written.

After a rough beginning, in which her voice is unsteady and very nasal, Mireille Delunsch brings it into clear focus and gives a good account of Iphigénie. Mind you, her performance here will not efface memories of Carol Vaness or Susan Graham, but it’s very fine on its own merits. As in the first opera, Minkowski’s conducting is just spectacular—he really “drives the storm” that opens this opera with intense fury—and again he manages to knit together the various scenes into a cohesive whole. Here, too, the staging makes even more sense that it did in the first opera, and except for Thoas (Laurent Alvaro) wearing a modern-day military uniform (what the heck is it with Regietheater directors and military uniforms? If they want to wear one so badly, just put it on yourself and leave the characters in their traditional garb!) most of the costumes here make much more sense. Sadly, Alvaro’s voice is consistently unsteady despite a bright timbre and his high notes covered and nasal. In short, he’s a poor choice for a role that requires long stretches of singing that are powerful and call for dramatic focus. The two priestesses, Simone Riksman and Rosanne van Sandwijk, are splendid, but the smaller male roles are sung rather pitifully.

Happily, our Oreste (Lapointe) and Pylade (Yann Beuron) are quite fine, which is important because from the point of their entrance onward they get the lion’s share of the singing. The staging of Iphigénie’s aria in which she grieves for her dead family is very well sung and staged, but I question the need to have Thoas come sneering into the picture to kiss her at the end.

Suffice it to say that Minkowski uses “original instruments” (or facsimiles thereof) as well as lower pitch (whether the A=409 supposedly used by French court tuner Pascal Taskin in 1783, the A=407.9 used a few years earlier, or Mozart’s A=421 I have no idea…these people really get hung up over this stuff), which makes the music sound at least a half-tone lower than you’re used to it from any A=440 performance, but to me this is all a moot point. It’s the performance that matters, the feeling and intensity of the playing and singing, not which tuning fork was used.

My lone complaint on packaging is that the booklet does not break down the operas by scenes, thus if you’re skipping ahead to catch a specific aria or scene you’ll have to guess. I’m not sure why they didn’t do this; I’ve seen it in almost every other opera DVD I’ve ever reviewed.

Having now given detailed descriptions of the performances, we reach the point where one rightly expects an endorsement or a rejection. I find myself divided on this issue, however. Audi’s direction, the conducting of Minkowski, and the singing of some, but not all, of the principals are certainly first-rate, but then we are faced with those cluttered staircases and inappropriate costumes (not to mention the substandard singing of Alvaro as Thoas). On the other hand, knowing how much the world (and particularly Europe) is in the thrall, I might even say the iron grip, of Eurotrash, could you really expect to someday see better productions with equally good direction, singing and conducting? The only other Iphigénie en Tauride on DVD is the one originally issued by Kultur in 2006 but now on Arthaus Musik 100377, which features the rather strained singing of Juliette Galstian as Iphigénie and yet another idiotic production, with people in giant masks following or mimicking the principals. Overall, I tolerated the Iphigénie en Tauride better because of the finer costumes and Delunsch’s generally well-focused singing, but you may prefer great audio recordings of these two operas. The best, indeed the only great, recording of the first work is the German-language performance from 1962 with Inge Borkh (Klytemnestra), Christa Ludwig (Iphigénie), James King (Achilles), and Walter Berry (Agamemnon), conducted by Karl Böhm, on Orfeo 428962, while the now-classic Muti recording of the second opera with Carol Vaness, Gösta Winbergh, and Thomas Allen (Sony Classical) is still the benchmark.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Gluck: Iphigenie En Aulide, Iphigenie En Tauride / Minkowski, Gens, Delunsch
Opus Arte Mar 2013
DVD
$39.99

Grieg: Works For Orchestra / Abravanel, Utah Symphony
Vox Jan 1991
CD
$29.99

Cavalli: Ercole Amante / Bolton, Pisaroni, Cangemi

Opus Arte

DVD

$39.99 Feb 23, 2010

Francesco Cavalli
ERCOLE AMANTE

Ercole – Luca Pisaroni
Iole – Veronica Cangemi
Giunone – Anna Bonitatibus
Illo – Jeremy Ovenden
Deianira – Anna Maria Panzarella
Licco – Marlin Miller
Nettuno / Tevere / Spirit of Eutyro – Umberto Chiummo
Bellezza / Venere – Wilke te Brummelstroete
Cinzia / Pasitea / Spirit of Clerica – Johannette Zomer
Mercurio / Spirit of Laomedonte – Mark Tucker
A Page / Spirit of Bussiride – Tim Mead

Netherlands Opera Chorus
Concerto Köln
Ivor Bolton, conductor

David Alden, stage director

Recorded live from the Het Muziektheater, 2009.

Bonus:
- Illustrated synopsis.
- Cast gallery.
- Behind the scenes with Johanette Zomer.
- Behind the scenes with Luca Pisaroni.
- The making of Ercole Amante.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo and 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch
No. of DVDs: 2

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Cavalli: Ercole Amante / Bolton, Pisaroni, Cangemi
Opus Arte Feb 2010
DVD
$39.99

Praulinš: The Nightingale & Music By Bortz, Bruun, Rasmussen / Petri, Layton, Danish National Vocal Ensemble

OUR Recordings

SACD

$18.99 Nov 15, 2011

THE NIGHTINGALE • Michaela Petri (rcr); Stephen Layton, cond; Danish Nat’l Vocal Ens • OUR RECORDINGS 6.220605 (59:22)

PRAULINS The Nightingale. BÖRTZ Nemesis Divina. RASMUSSEN I. BRUUN 2 Scenes with Skylark

Would that all “concept albums,” particularly those of new music, came out as well as this. Recorder player Michaela Petri, a veteran of at least two decades’ worth of performances around the globe, was absolutely thrilled with the 2007 world premiere of Daniel Börtz’s Nemesis Divina in Stockholm, so much so that she began to think of doing an album of modern music including the recorder with a vocal choir. A year later, composer Ugis Praulins was asked to write a similar piece, and he chose Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale, The Nightingale . When they told conductor Stephen Layton of their plans, he surprisingly suggested not his own group, Polyphony, but the newly established Danish National Vocal Ensemble. Serendipitously, the ensemble’s director, Ivar Munk, told them that he had been thinking of working with Petri for some time, and so gave his full support to the project.

This disc is the result, and I don’t think it is going too far to say that more than half of the record’s success is due to Layton’s greatness as a choral director. Those who have read my few reviews of his group know that I am a huge fan of Polyphony and, by inference, of Layton. He really knows how to get the best out of a choir, not only the usual things like good blend and phrasing but also the unusual things like rhythmic acuity, flawless diction, and a deep knowledge of how to get the most and best out of all of his singers.

Praulins, a Latvian composer, is one of those whose developing years were spent listening to as much rock as classical music, particularly King Crimson and Gentle Giant. He also formed his own rock band, Vec?s M?jas. According to the notes, the surge of Latvian cultural nationalism that arose from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led him to delve into the music and traditions of pre-Christian Latvia, which deeply influence his work. While rejecting formalism, Praulins nevertheless seeks to join folk songs, Renaissance polyphony, and “a confident theatricality to create music that entertains and uplifts.” The Nightingale is both an unusual piece and an appealing one, using the chorus in a highly virtuosic manner, ranging from the bass low D to soprano D above high C. Of course, Petri’s recorder is the nightingale, and her “voice” is heard signaling the most important events and changes in the story.

Börtz is known for his film scores for Ingmar Bergman, and like the filmmaker he uses an intuitive and modern approach to matters of structure and form. As a result of working with Bergman, Börtz has also absorbed what the notes call “the metaphysical darkness” of Bergman, which he then processes through his music. His earlier works were strongly influenced by the Polish avant-garde, composers like Penderecki, but beginning in the 1980s he changed to a more melodic and linear style. This led to his operas Bacchanterna and Marie Antoinette, and oratorio And His Name Was Orestes. Nemesis Divina is based on two texts by 18th-century botanist-physician Carl Linnaeus, Respiratio Diaetetica (The Dietitics of Respiration) and Nemesis Divina, a lengthy treatise on theodicy, written to help his son. The composer describes the setting of Linneaus’s words as largely episodic, with the recorder working as an auditory form of “theatrical lighting.” To this end, Petri moves step-by-step from the dark sound of the tenor recorder to the piercing sound of the sopranino. I find Börtz’s choral writing absolutely fascinating, breaking the sound into little shards of color by using neutral syllables. The rather enigmatic nature of Linnaeus’s text, questioning the existence of God because it cannot be seen or touched yet can be intuited like the ego itself, lends itself perfectly to Börtz’s musical panorama. The choir continues to divide itself until it is in eight parts, singing the words in a rhythmically complicated, hocket-like style. The music becomes chromatic, spiked with tritones, gradually emerging as a sequence of three chords. (The notes say this, but so do my ears.)

Sunleif Rasmussen’s I is the musical setting of Danish modernist poet Inger Christensen’s self-reflective response to Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Rasmussen uses Christensen’s verse as a reflection on the human condition, intimacy, freedom, and creativity. The music starts with Petri playing mournfully on a bass recorder before the chorus enters, singing “A man and a woman are one” (and here, as unfortunately elsewhere, the Danish choristers’ inability to properly enunciate English comes to grief). I won’t quote more of the poem in detail here, but suffice it to say that Rasmussen’s music matches it in mood and structure. All through the piece, Rasmussen puts the sopranos opposite the rest of the choir, sometimes in call-and-response patterns but more often in imitative passages while the recorder never really stops, but continues to play an unfolding and developing melody. As in Börtz’s work, Petri keeps moving up through different ranges of the recorder, eventually sounding a shrill note in the section “Grasping the bird’s speech / Calling am I woman.” I find the composer’s masterly use of glisses through the chromatic scale particularly arresting in that they often obscure the actual pulse of the music.

The album concludes with Danish composer Peter Bruun’s Two Scenes with Skylark, based on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. The first, “The Sea and the Skylark,” opens with overlapping melodies that create a rich yet turgid texture reminiscent of the ocean. Petri gives us the rhapsodic song of the skylark through rippling arpeggios that provide gentle dissonance with the chorus. As Hopkins’s poetry turns to humanity’s inability to truly appreciate nature’s beauty, Bruun make the music even more dissonant. In the second part, “The Caged Skylark,” stuttering rhythms and fragmented textures depict the plight of the caged bird, which is compared to the plight of the soul.

Much of this music, but especially the Börtz piece and parts of The Nightingale, puts me in mind of P?teris Vasks’s Plainscapes, broadcast on St. Paul Sunday in 2005 by the Seattle Chamber Players with a wordless choir, but has still never been commercially recorded (according to ArkivMusic, anyway). I was mesmerized by Plainscapes, and I am similarly mesmerized by much of the music on this CD as well. Highly recommended.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Praulinš: The Nightingale & Music By Bortz, Bruun, Rasmussen / Petri, Layton, Danish National Vocal Ensemble
OUR Recordings Nov 2011
SACD
$18.99

Hindemith: String Quartets Nos. 2 and 6

Wergo

$20.99 Sep 01, 1997

The second CD with Paul Hindemith’s string quartets - superbly interpreted by the renowned Juilliard String Quartet - has just been released. Samuel Rhodes writes in the liner notes of the CD: "My group, the Juilliard String Quartet, has been fascinated by the Hindemith quartets for some time. We are challenged by the depth of the musical content, the overflowing vitality, and the sophistication of compositional technique that exist in these works." German Record Critics' Award for the complete recording of Hindemith's string quartets by the Juilliard String Quartet! The CD was awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics' Award!

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Hindemith: String Quartets Nos. 2 and 6
Wergo Sep 1997
CD
$20.99

PHILLY GUMBO 2

CRISS CROSS

$20.21 Feb 22, 2005

For his ninth Criss Cross session as a leader, trumpet sensation John Swana makes the scene again with several of his peers from the city of Brotherly Love for a follow-up to 2001's "Philly Gumbo" (CRC #1203). Featuring the twin tenors of Bootsie Barnes and Larry McKenna, this CD offers a bristling set of hardbop delights, the kind of fare you might hear in Philly when dropping in at Ortlieb's Jazzzhaus to catch Swana for a set or two. The rhythm section has Sid Simmons on piano, Mike Boone on bass, and drummer Byron Landham.

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PHILLY GUMBO 2
CRISS CROSS Feb 2005
CD
$20.21

Klami: Northern Lights, Cheremissian Fantasy / Peltonen, Storgards, Helsinki PO

Ondine

$18.99 Jan 26, 2010

Uuno Klami was the Finnish Ravel, his music characterized by superb craftsmanship, glittering orchestration, and melodies that sound like you might have heard them before but can't remember where. The Cheremissian Fantasy for cello and orchestra is a case in point, saturated with the folk music of far-off Cheremissia (or wherever). It doesn't matter, either there, or in the Kalevala Suite, the closest thing that Klami has to a popular international hit. Northern Lights will be new to most collectors. It's an 18-minute symphonic poem that more than lives up to its title: alternately atmospheric and brilliant, it rises to an imposing climax that reveals Klami's gifts as an orchestrator to excellent effect.

While both the Fantasy and the Kalevala Suite have been recorded previously--and very well (BIS has a fine Klami series from Lahti)--this new release is outstanding in every way. The Helsinki Philharmonic knows this music as well as anyone, and in any event is a first-class ensemble no matter what the repertoire. John Storgards leads vibrant interpretations, with Samuli Peltonen an impressive cello soloist. The sonics are superbly lifelike, with plenty of detail and a wide dynamic range. Highly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

--------------------------- 3362050.az_KLAMI_Northern_Lights_Cheremissian.html

KLAMI Northern Lights. Cheremissian Fantasy. 1 Kalevala Suite • John Storgärds, cond; 1 Samuli Peltonen (vc); Helsinki PO • ONDINE ODE 1143-2 (65:25)

Uuno Klami (1900–1961) is one of the best-known of those Finnish composers who flourished in the wake of Sibelius, although Klami was also influenced by French and Russian music of the early 20th century. He was especially renowned for his orchestral works, of which the five tone poems comprising the Kalevala Suite (1943) are the most familiar and most often recorded. His best music maintains a bracing rhythmic momentum and reveals an attractive vein of lyricism.

The tone poem Northern Lights (1946) was new to me. The piece does not seem to have been recorded before (or, at any rate, no previous recording appears to be available). It evokes a Sibelian atmosphere; Klami’s music became more appreciably nationalistic after the Second World War. It is a lovely work, with a Ravelian sheen to the orchestration. While there are moments where swirling woodwind and harp glissandi suggest the dazzling phenomenon of the northern lights, Klami’s penchant for melodic cells keeps the music anchored. Around the 10-minute mark a cheeky waltz episode appears, and a suitably grand chorale provides a satisfying coda.

The Cheremissian Fantasy for cello and orchestra (1931) is in two movements, slow and fast, its thematic material loosely based on folk tunes from northern Finland. The cellist is given the bulk of the melodic material, which young soloist Samuli Peltonen plays here with fine tone and lots of heart.

The main work on this disc is the Kalevala Suite . In five movements, its layout could be regarded as symphonic. The first movement, “The Creation of the Earth,” is the equivalent of a sweeping symphonic allegro with a mysterious introduction and gentle postlude added. The second movement,“The Sprout of Spring,” is a scherzo with a lyrical second subject; the third, “Terhenniemi,”—apparently a late addition—serves as an evocative interlude before the calm of the slow movement, “Cradle Song for Lemminkäinen,” and grandeur of the finale, “The Forging of the Sampo.”

The suite’s programmatical basis lies in the great Finnish national epic, the Kalevala , which also inspired much of Sibelius’s music. Indeed, Klami’s work was initially commissioned by Robert Kajanus, chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and a friend and champion of the older composer. (Kajanus died before the suite reached its final completed form.) Sibelius does not seem to be a major influence until the final movement, and even then the theme on which the movement is based (first played by the English horn) primarily suggests Grieg. Again, Klami’s melodic ease and expertly detailed orchestration leave their stamp on the work.

Storgärds and the modern-day Helsinki Philharmonic give it everything they’ve got in this stunningly recorded program: Tender moments sound gorgeous, the climaxes leap out at you, and Storgärds’ plush, well-balanced orchestral textures do not preclude tension or drama. In the Kalevala Suite , a greater sense of urgency informs a 1973 performance on a Finlandia disc with the same orchestra conducted by Jorma Panula (which includes the only other recording of the Cheremissian Fantasy , with Arto Noras); it may be difficult to track down. Panula rerecorded the suite alongside other works of the composer for Naxos, but rougher sound blunts that performance and the Turku Philhamonic Orchestra is not quite in the Helsinki league. This new Ondine release is definitely the one to go for.

FANFARE: Phillip Scott

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Klami: Northern Lights, Cheremissian Fantasy / Peltonen, Storgards, Helsinki PO
Ondine Jan 2010
CD
$18.99

Mascagni: Sì / Vivian, Felle, Gentile, Nicoletti, Comas, Liguori, Sanna, Orchestra Sinfonica del Cantieri d'Arte de Montepulciano

Bongiovanni

$20.99 Jun 24, 2022

In the search for a specific form and language, the music of “Sì”, under the modernist patina, returns to our most sincere sources, to the spirits of comedy and comic opera. After all, the audience of the melodrama found in the 'little lyric' a sort of deforming nail in which situations, behaviours and conventions were reflected with polite caricature. Such was the Mascagni operetta, which, in its background of parodist grotesque, re-enacts the petty-bourgeois salacity, even in the title: Sì, from the name of the protagonist, so called because she never knew say no to anyone. In this operetta Mascagni lavished the gifts of his most spontaneous melody; the letters aria sung by Vera, the andantino of the duet in Act 1, the page of the wedding party in act 2, the seduction duet between Chablis and Vera, the “sad waltz” sung by Sì; the prelude for strings opening Act 3. The Mascagni talent however reveal itself in the entire score with his fluent streak, rhythmic liveliness, and skill for developing the ensemble scenes.

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Mascagni: Sì / Vivian, Felle, Gentile, Nicoletti, Comas, Liguori, Sanna, Orchestra Sinfonica del Cantieri d'Arte de Montepulciano
Bongiovanni Jun 2022
CD
$20.99

KLAVIERKONZERTE 1 & 2 LSO LON
Archipel Jan 2012
CD
$10.99

BLUE NOTE RE:IMAGINED II / VARIOUS

BLUE NOTE RECORDS

Vinyl

$43.49 Oct 21, 2022

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold jacket. Legendary labels Blue Note Records and Decca Records team up again to release the 2nd volume in acclaimed Blue Note Re: imagined series which features the most exciting young talents of the U.K. scene reworking classic Blue Note tracks by Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk, Bobbi Humphrey, Marlena Shaw, Chico Hamilton, Chick Corea, Joe Lovano, Cassandra Wilson, and Norah Jones.

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BLUE NOTE RE:IMAGINED II / VARIOUS
BLUE NOTE RECORDS Oct 2022
Vinyl
$43.49

Palmgren: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 5 / Somero

Grand Piano

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Jun 24, 2022

For many years the Busoni student Selim Palmgren was the most frequently performed Finnish composer after Sibelius. With a portfolio of nearly 400 piano works, his contribution to the prestige of the Nordic repertoire was significant both in scope and creative artistry. This fifth volume of Palmgren’s complete solo piano music explores oriental moods in Exotic March, Op. 46, and includes two of his best-known and most beautiful pieces, Aftonröster, Op. 47, No. 1 (‘Evening Whispers’) and the winter magic of Snöflingor, Op. 57, No. 2 (‘Snowflakes’). The Sonatine in F major, Op. 93 marked Palmgren’s return to composition after the death of his wife five years earlier and enshrines nostalgia whilst hinting at neo-Classicism.

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Palmgren: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 5 / Somero
Grand Piano Jun 2022
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Bach: The Works For Organ Vol 2 / Kevin Bowyer

Nimbus

$20.99 Oct 01, 1996

Kevin Bowyer...has chosen to produce a series of carefully planned recitals, using the same Danish organ throughout, rather than grouping works together in their respective genres... Volume 2, a predominantly cheerful programme, brings more examples of Bowyer's lively rhythmic sytle and appealing colours and husky reeds of this fine Danish organ. -- The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs & DVDs

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Bach: The Works For Organ Vol 2 / Kevin Bowyer
Nimbus Oct 1996
CD
$20.99

Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol 2 / Reuter, Munk, Et Al

Naxos

$19.99 Dec 11, 2007

This second volume in the Naxos series of Buxtehude’s vocal music was previously issued on Dacapo (Dacapo 8.224160). It is made up of four sacred cantatas – and one ‘interloper’, a setting of the Magnificat mistakenly identified as Buxtehude’s back in 1931 by Bruno Grusnick, but pretty certainly not his.

The four cantatas give us the chance to hear Buxtehude employing a variety of strategies.

Das neugeborne Kindelein sets the four verses of a Christmas hymn first published in 1588 by Cyriacus Schneegass (1546-1597), German hymn-writer, composer and music theorist. The words have a simple radiance, each of the four stanzas made up of four lines rhymed aabb. Buxtehude treats them interestingly; he adopts different approaches for each of the four stanzas. In the first he sets the opening three lines, the initial announcement of the recurrent ‘new’ birth of Christ and its significance, relatively plainly, allowing the words to dominate and hold the attention. Then, as if to celebrate the significance of the words of proclamation, the final line of Schneegass’s first stanza is richly elaborated through repetition and contrapuntal echo. Between each stanza we get an instrumental ritornello and after its first return, the second stanza offers yet more vocal elaboration and responds beautifully to the text’s assertion that the angels are singing in the sky, a response heightened by a greater use of instrumental accompaniment interwoven with the vocal phrases than was allowed to happen in the first stanza. The third stanza speaks of the battle against “Teufel, Welt und Höllenpfort” and the sense of conflict is heightened by much greater use of instrumental interjections which break up the vocal phrases and the lines of the verse. In the fourth stanza, as the text grows to a full realisation that the birth of “das Jesuslein” guarantees the possibility of human salvation, the musical metre changes and the instruments and voices work more obviously together, so that verse, voice and instruments embody, in their new relationship, the transformation into coherent meaning of which the hymn speaks. Buxtehude, in short, has integrated text, singers and instrumental ensemble with a completeness of achieved purpose that makes Das neugeborne Kindelein a minor masterpiece.

In Der Herr ist mit mir the text is taken from the Psalms (Psalm 118 verses 6-7). In the Authorized Version it reads thus: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me”. To the German translation of these verses is added a concluding ‘Hallelujah’. Buxtehude sets the Psalm text in predominantly homophonic fashion, the text remaining clearly and emphatically audible, its meaning emphasised by some patterned rhythmic and harmonic touches. With the ‘Hallelujah’ Buxtehude launches into a virtuoso ciacona made up of nineteen variations over two-bar ostinato bass. The contrast with what has gone before is startling and exciting.

The most dramatically expressive work here is Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit, setting verses from Isaiah prophetic of the crucifixion. There is some powerful instrumental writing and Buxtehude’s music articulates a powerful response to the idea of the Passion; the writing, both for the bass soloist and for the chorus, as well as for the sections of the chorus, is consistently intense and moving. The response to the imagery of Christ’s wounds and “stripes” is especially poignant. Fürwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit is a fine piece, full of sustained melodies and aching harmonies, and it comes off particularly well in this recording.

Alles, was ihr tut is perhaps the most familiar of these four cantatas. It is an exhortation to ensure that (in the words of the Epistle to the Colossians) “whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [ye] do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the father by him”, as well as a petition that God might assist both individual and community. Buxtehude fruitfully juxtaposes elements of the sacred concerto and the aria, as well as the setting of a chorale text to an already existing melody; homophonic passages and contrapuntal writing are employed by turns; the interplay of instruments and voices is always effective and interesting. In passing phrases – both textual and musical – between soloist and chorus, Buxtehude seems to offer an artistic statement as to the proper relationship between the individual and the community in a Christian society. The whole work breathes an untroubled faith and the continuo work from the Dufay Ensemble is particularly striking here.

The external evidence makes it unlikely that the Magnificat is Buxtehude’s; although one copy of the work was found in the collection of Buxtehude’s friend Gustav Düben, who certainly owned copies of works by Buxtehude, it has to be said that he also owned works by other composers too; other surviving copies of this setting come from areas of Europe where Buxtehude is not known to have had any connections. Nor, indeed, does it really sound like Buxtehude; it lacks the subtlety and inventiveness of Buxtehude at anything like his best. It is pleasant but undistinguished and is perhaps best attributed to that old favourite ‘Anon’.

These are not perfect performances. The closing ‘Hallelujah’ of Der Herr ist mit mir hasn’t quite the brilliance and lightness of touch that the music deserves; Johan Reuter’s bass, though tonally very apt and attractive, isn’t quite as expressive as one might wish; just now and then, by the highest standards, the voices of one or two of the choir’s soloists sound overtaxed. On the other hand, the Choir as a whole sings beautifully, their work tonally lovely, their diction exemplary. The performances are certainly plenty good enough to give the hearer a pretty good idea of just how fine this music is.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

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Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol 2 / Reuter, Munk, Et Al
Naxos Dec 2007
CD
$19.99

Handel in Italy Vol. 2

Signum Classics

$19.99 Sep 09, 2016

London Early Opera continue their new series of Handel's works with the second volume of pieces composed in Italy. Both volumes of Handel in Italy explore the young composer's Italian years through his cantatas, sacred pieces, operatic works and instrumental compositions. Featuring performances from internationally acclaimed soloists, the sopranos Sophie Bevan and Mary Bevan with their uncle, baritone Benjamin Bevan, conducted and conceived by Bridget Cunningham.

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Handel in Italy Vol. 2
Signum Classics Sep 2016
CD
$19.99

Haydn: The Seasons / Muller-Kray, Wunderlich, Engen, Giebel

SWR

$13.49 ~~$26.99~~ Save 50% Apr 24, 2012

In April 2012, the Schwetzingen Festival celebrates its 60th birthday. On this occasion, a very special oratorio recording from the festival's early years has been selected - a vintage performance of Haydn's "The Seasons", featuring the immortal Fritz Wunderlich!

Haydn wrote his oratorio "The Seasons" between the years 1799 and 1800. The work is based on the poem "The Seasons" by James Thomson in the German translation of the Baron van Swieten. The contemporary descriptions of nature and genre scenes are a work of perfection, insuring the composition's enduring popularity.

This early festival recording is a true time-capsule, recorded on May 24th, 1959 featuring in addition to Wunderlich, the vocal artistry of Agnes Giebel, and Kieth Engen, who together bring Haydn's secular oratorio to vivid life.

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Haydn: The Seasons / Muller-Kray, Wunderlich, Engen, Giebel
SWR Apr 2012
CD
~~$26.99~~ $13.49

Berlioz: L'enfance Du Christ

Naxos

$20.99 ~~$29.99~~ Save 30% Nov 05, 1998

Berlioz's L'Enfance Du Christ is probably known primarily due to it's famous "Shepherd's Chorus" but it is a piece that once listeners discover it, they realize a true golden gem has been found. It is primarily a choral work which tells the story of what are called the Infancy Narratives in the New Testament. Scenes of the work are taken from both the scriptures and legends and include Herod visiting a soothsayer which predicts the birth of the Messiah, the Annunciation (Mary learning of the birth of Jesus), the birth itself, and the flight into Egypt. This recording by the Orchestre National du Lille under the direction of Jean-Claude Casadesus captures both the beauty and scope of the work.

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Berlioz: L'enfance Du Christ
Naxos Nov 1998
CD
~~$29.99~~ $20.99

Tenor Treats

SteepleChase

$22.99 Oct 02, 2009

Though Ambrose and Riley, two of the elite tenorists of younger generation have known each other for several years and are both SteepleChase recording artists, this is the first time they went into a Studio to cut co-led albums. Both of them share a deep respect of the jazz’s tradition but their expressions distinctly bear their strong individual voices. Here’s the first volume of the dynamic and creative collaboration.

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Tenor Treats
SteepleChase Oct 2009
CD
$22.99

Farrenc: Symphony No 2, Two Overtures / Goritzki, NDR Philharmonic
CPO Aug 2004
CD
$18.99

MAHLER: SYMPHONY 2
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Dec 2018
SACD
$26.99