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Zwilich: Cello Concerto & Other Works / Bailey, Lecce-Chong, Santa Rosa Symphony
Delos · Sep 2022CD$18.99 -
In Memoriam - Yehudi Menuhin - Rare Broadcast Performances
Music and Arts Programs of America · Oct 2009CD$19.99 -
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American Classics - Copland: The Tender Land Suite, Piano Concerto, Etc / Pasternack, Hanson
Naxos · May 2008CD$19.99 -
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SaleElegy - String Orchestra Music / Taddei, Borzak, Roma Tre Orchestra
Brilliant Classics · Apr 2023CD$13.99$10.99 -
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Italian Concertos & Sonatas / Lucia Swarts
Challenge Classics
CD
$18.99
Apr 25, 2011
ITALIAN CONCERTOS AND SONATAS • Stephen Stubbs, cond; Lucia Swarts (vc); Teatro Lirico (period instruments) • CHALLENGE 72516 (3 CDs: 181:10)
Works by BOCCHERINI, JACCHINI, LEO, PLATTI, PORPORA, VIVALDI
This appears to be the third time around for the works on this disc, having been recorded back in 1997–99, and released individually by Challenge Classics then and once more in 2004–2007. This time, though, all of the works are available on a three-disc set, a sort of compendium, even though the programming becomes a bit more generic than one might expect. Lucia Swarts, a protégée of famed cellist Anner Bylsma, follows her mentor closely in style, with dexterous rapid passages and a sonorous, soaring, lyrical line as appropriate. Brian Robins reviewed the first disc, the Italian concertos, back in 2003, and the others have generally received excellent reviews for her performance in several online venues, so there is little to add here, save for my own immediate reactions.
First, Challenge Classics made no effort in the booklet notes to unify the release. All three of the previous discs’ notes are given verbatim side by side, and there is no overarching continuity or explaining just what “Italian concertos and sonatas” means in this context. On the other hand, despite the incongruity of the works, each has its own special purpose. The first disc is a compendium of concertos from about 1700 to 1730, an excellent means of demonstrating how this instrument came to prominence as a solo during this period. The first Platti concerto in C Major is more of a concerto grosso, with the solo instrument playing in the episodes of the ritornello, emerging as a textural contrast. The Leo concerto, on the other hand, has some extremely difficult passagework in the two fast movements, all of which foreshadow the more virtuosic lines of composer-cellists like Boccherini later in the century. Each of these varies between three and four movements, as one might expect of the late Baroque period, but there is ironically more of a hint of the emerging galant in the second Platti and the Leo, both of which straddle the stylistic periods. Here, the Teatro Lirico period-instrument orchestra provides a good background, with a fine sense of nuanced style and an excellent ensemble.
For the two sonata discs, the term “worlds apart” can distinguish them. Vivaldi writes four-movement works that are interesting but not especially unique. To be sure, he writes long lyrical lines and uses a fair amount of rhythmic syncopation. But it is Vivaldi, and he is deliberately writing apparently for well-trained but non-virtuoso musicians. There is of course no evidence that these were composed for the Ospedale della Pietà, where he worked for many years, but the style may be telling. For the Boccherini, however, we enter a time where the instrument’s potential had been released, thanks to that composer’s technical prowess, including the extensive use of the thumb position. The four sonatas are tours de force , often requiring extreme ranges and double- or triple-stop passages. I am particularly impressed by the first movement of the Sonata No. 2 in C Major, with figuration that really makes the performer sweat. All of these Swarts performs with an ease that is exceptional. One final word about the continuo on these two discs. In the Vivaldi, she expands the size, which I find gives a nice contrasting resonance to the character of the individual movements, while in the Boccherini she has chosen to have it performed by a continuo cello, ably played by Richte van der Meer, and a plucked instrument, varying between guitar in the fast movements and theorbo in the slow. I am not convinced by the musicological arguments for this arrangement, but from a musical standpoint, the results are eminently satisfactory. Indeed, for Boccherini, who spent so much time in Spain, there is more than a nice echo of Iberia in the opening Allegro militaire of the third sonata, with its marchlike rhythms for which the guitar is a perfect accompaniment. If you don’t already own these individually, this set is a good way to incorporate some great pieces from the 18th century into your collection.
FANFARE: Bertil van Boer
Zwilich: Cello Concerto & Other Works / Bailey, Lecce-Chong, Santa Rosa Symphony
Delos
CD
$18.99
Sep 16, 2022
The great cellist Zuill Bailey begins this program with the world premiere recording of Zwilich’s beautiful Cello Concerto, a new and important work traversing many elements of the cello’s singing sound. This marks Bailey’s 6th recording for Delos. The amusing Peanuts® Gallery follows with a quote from Beethoven, which anyone familiar with the famous Charles Schulz cartoon knows is Schroeder’s toy piano passion. Short movements portraying many of the other Peanuts® cartoon characters follow. Zwilich says that the Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra “celebrates some of the simple pleasures of playing the fiddle,” and that the Prologue and Variations for String Orchestra highlights the “special sonorities, character and expressiveness of the string orchestra.” Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong and the remarkable Santa Rosa Symphony bring full warmth and color to the music on this program.
REVIEWS:
Ellen Taafe Zwilich writes music of bountiful imagination, and this disc of several orchestral works cements her reputation as among our very best contemporary composers. The newest work on this excellent recording, Zwilich’s 2020 cello concerto, was premiered during lockdown and is a remarkably vital achievement, buoyed by brilliant soloist Zuill Bailey. The other pieces are equally vigorous, highlighted by the delightful Peanuts Gallery (1996), a subtly coloured workout for pianist Elizabeth Dorman and the Santa Rosa Symphony (led by conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong) in six tongue-in-cheek movements mirroring Charles Schultz’s beloved characters: Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint Patty and Marcie.
-- The Flipside (Kevin Filipski)
Zwilich’s well-known combination of tonal, melodic music with modes and modern harmonies tossed in for flavor are clearly on display here, but so too is Zuill Bailey’s cello. In fact, except for his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites, issued a few months ago, I can’t recall hearing any other recording by him that so perfectly captures his gorgeous, manicured tone. In fact, judging just by those two recordings, I would go out on a limb and say that his tone has actually grown in richness and depth of sound. He used to sound like Emanuel Feuermann; he now sounds like Mstislav Rostropovich.
-- The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)
In Memoriam - Yehudi Menuhin - Rare Broadcast Performances
Music and Arts Programs of America
CD
$19.99
Oct 05, 2009
None of the material on this compilation has circulated beyond the scope of Japanese and Russian imports. Disc One's centerpiece is a 1945 broadcast of the Beethoven Concerto, reproduced in dry yet full-bodied sound. Lacking the rapt introspection coloring Menuhin's 1947 commercial recording with Furtwängler, the performance still remains one of the violinist's most eloquent and cleanly played versions of a work that was with him throughout his career. Three movements from Lalo's Symphonie Espagnol follow, impressively reproduced and played with fire and brimstone by the San Francisco Symphony under Pierre Monteux's expert baton. The second disc is less persuasive. While Menuhin and fellow violin legend David Oistrakh sensitively merge in a 1958 Bach D minor Concerto (BWV 1043), one has to listen past George Georgescu's slightly plodding Enescu Philharmonic. Poor sound, however, mars an inspired 1947 Lucerne Festival pairing of Menuhin with conductor Ernest Ansermet, who leads his L'Orchestre de La Suisse Romande in Bartok's Second Violin Concerto. Fortunately, Menuhin recorded the work four times, the best of which is his first stereo version (Dorati/Minneapolis/Mercury). Disc two closes with an interview excerpt where Menuhin speaks to Frederic Maroth about Bartok as both man and musician. The booklet notes reprint Allan Kozinn's comprehensive and frank obituary on Menuhin published in the New York Times.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
Vivaldi: Stabat Mater, Gloria & Other Works (Live)
Gramola Records
CD
$21.99
Apr 06, 2018
This past year's Easter Concert of the Bach Consort Vienna, conducted by Ruben Dubrovsky in the Basilica of Klosterneuburg Monastery, featured works by Antonio Vivaldi, which he composed during his engagement with the orphanage Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. The young girls growing up there received early musical training, which led the choir and orchestra of the Ospedale to become internationally acclaimed. This concert recording by Bach Consort Vienna with soloists Andreas Scholl, alto, Hanna Herfurtner and Joowon Chung, soprano and the Salzburg Bach Choir combines instrumentals like the Sonata a quatro in E-flat major "Al Santo Sepolcro", RV 130 and the Concerto in G minor, RV 156 with the liturgical works Stabat Mater, RV 621 and Gloria, RV 589, written for Easter.
Beethoven: Concerto No 5, Choral Fantasy / Brautigam
BIS
SACD
$21.99
Jul 01, 2010
For the final instalment of his survey of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra, Ronald Brautigam has saved 'the final crowning glory of his concerto output', as Beethoven specialist Barry Cooper describes the Fifth Piano Concerto in his liner notes. The work has become known as the Emperor Concerto, as it shares its key (E flat major) as well as a certain sense of power and grandeur with the Third Symphony, the 'Eroica'. It is coupled on this disc with the Choral Fantasia - an intriguing work scored for piano, orchestra and chorus with vocal soloists. The explanation for this unusual combination is that Beethoven wanted to provide a fitting finale for one of his mammoth concerts in Vienna. The concert, which took place on 22 December 1808, included performances of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies as well as the Fourth Piano Concerto and two movements from the Mass in C major; the Choral Fantasia thus brought all of the evening's performers on stage once more before the end of the concert. The individual discs in Ronald Brautigam's series have received numerous distinctions, including a MIDEM Classical Award in 2010, and his performances have been weighed against classic recordings by legendary pianists. 'Brautigam's account [of Concerto No. 1] compares with Richter's for sparkle, with Pollini's for cleverness, and with Michelangeli's for liveliness... The performance of Beethoven's Third Concerto that follows is even better', wrote the reviewer on website All Music.com, while the one in Gramophone deemed that the recording of the Second Concerto was 'almost as good as Serkin's account with Ormandy, which is saying something!' In the review in International Record Review of the penultimate volume, finally, the series so far was summed up as follows: 'For my money, Brautigam and Parrott are setting a new bench-mark, and I eagerly await the final instalment.' It is of course a great pleasure to be able to announce the release of that longed-for disc, with Ronald Brautigam, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Parrott in their usual top form, and with the brief but crucial appearance of the eminent Eric Ericson Chamber Choir in the Choral Fantasia.
Emil Gilels In Italy: Chopin, Schubert/Kabalevsky, Mozart
Archipel
CD
$10.99
Jul 08, 2014
Newly released as part of the Archipel Desert Island Collection, this disc captures in concert one of the two greatest and most important of Russian pianists to emerge from the Soviet Union after WWII, Emil Gilels (1916-85). + From a March, 1963 Milan concert comes Chopin’s First Concerto and the Schubert/Kabalevsky re-imagined Fantasy in F minor, D940, an orchestrated version written specially for Gilels. + Also to be heard is a live 1951 performance from Firenze of Mozart’s C minor sonata, K457.
Antonio Salieri, Complete Works for Harpsichord & Piano
Dynamic
CD
$16.99
Jun 20, 2025
Antonio Salieri was influential as an opera composer and later in life as a teacher to the likes of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt - quite unlike the sinister and entirely fictional portrayal he received in the film Amadeus. Both of his keyboard concertos were composed during his early years in Vienna and reflect influences from Haydn and the galant style of Johann Christian Bach. The Harpsichord Concerto in B flat major is broader and more elaborate but lighter in mood when compared with the stormy first movement of the Harpsichord Concerto in C major. Heard here in it's world premiere recording, the Keyboard Sonata in C major presents as a suite of short independent pieces, while the short March in D major has only recently been discovered in a Berlin archive.
Rodolphe Kreutzer: Violin Concertos No 17, 18 & 19 / Axel Strauss
Naxos
CD
$13.99
$19.99
Save 30%
Oct 26, 2010
KREUTZER Violin Concertos: No. 17 in G; No. 18 in e; No. 19 in d • Axel Strauss (vn); Andrew Mogrelia, cond; San Francisco Conservatory O • NAXOS 8570380 (71: 52)
From a position of relative neglect (only his 40 studies for violin remained really active in the repertoire), Rodolphe Kreutzer has risen to greater prominence with recordings of his studies (by Elizabeth Wallfisch, cpo 999901, Fanfare 32:5) and concertos (No. 19 in D Minor, No. 18 in E Minor, and No. 15 in A Major, with violinist Laurent Albrecht Breuninger and Alun Francis conducting the SWR Radio Orchestra Kaiserlautern, on cpo 777188, Fanfare 33:6; and No. 9 in E Minor, No. 13 in D Major, the Variations on “Nel cor più non mi sento,” and Montanyas Regaladas , with violinist Saskia Lethiec and José Ferreira Lobo conducting the Orquestra do Norte, Porto, and the Versailles Conservatory Instrumental Ensemble, Talent 2911 126, Fanfare 33:1) now being frequently issued. In fact, Breuninger’s recording included Kreutzer’s last two concertos, the 18th and 19th, which Axel Strauss now offers along with the roughly contemporaneous 17th.
The slow movement of Kreutzer’s 17th concerto provides ample—and poignant—melodic relief from the bold thematic statements and technical passagework that mark much of its first movement. If Giovanni Battista Viotti, who’s often linked with Kreutzer (the French “Viotti-Rode-Kreutzer Concerto”) introduced Haydn’s symphonic orchestration into the violin concerto’s armamentarium, Kreutzer approached the sound of Beethoven’s orchestra, as Bruce R. Schueneman’s notes point out. But Kreutzer kept the violin at the forefront, a position that Axel Strauss and his 1845 J. F. Pressenda violin commandingly occupy. He’s snappy and alert in the passagework, as well, delivering impressive barrages of double-stops and sharply characterizing, both stylistically and rhythmically, the Rondo finale’s thematic material. And, as in the first movement’s second theme, he imparts an almost nostalgic sweetness to his reading of the second movement. Those who expect a clone of Viotti’s more familiar concertos (a greater number of them have remained in print) may be pleasantly surprised by Kreutzer’s inventiveness and keen ear for orchestral timbres.
The 18th and 19th concertos begin with Moderato movements, both almost double the length of the six-odd-minute affair that opens the 17th Concerto. As does the 17th, the 18th begins with a movement that explores the passagework, notably in double-stops, that must have stood near the avant garde of violinists’ technical capabilities at the time Kreutzer wrote it; although hardly a virtuoso vehicle in today’s terms, it exploits the instrument’s idiomatic possibilities with a canniness that the trailblazing composers of the era seemed to possess in abundance (else, how could the violin have achieved the prominence it did?), presenting them in the context of dramatic orchestral statements and barnstorming tuttis. Strauss hardly plays this work, or the 17th Concerto, for that matter, dismissively, as many might do (hear how seriously he takes the recitative passages in the middle of the first movement); perhaps the sense of history developed by period instrumentalists has opened the eyes even of world-weary and everything-but-masterpiece-disdaining conservatory students to the merits of compositions like this one. Strauss once again brings a plausible plaintiveness to the second movement with its melody flowing over a light accompaniment and an exuberant if dignified vitality to the final Rondo. Like the first movement of the 17th Concerto, that of the 19th (which Schueneman cites Boris Schwarz as considering, with Viotti’s celebrated 22nd, as one of the outstanding examples of the French Violin Concerto—Joachim admired these two concertos as well, placing Viotti’s just after Beethoven’s and ahead of Mendelssohn’s and Brahms’s) develops the contrast between the lyrical and the dramatic, which continues, in its way, into the second movement, while the finale provides the usual good-natured conclusion (often, as here, with the principal theme in dotted rhythms).
Those who consider Kreutzer’s studies mere drudgery that a violinist has to endure on the way to the Paganini caprices should discover in these concertos, as well as in the others that have been recorded, a composer of unsuspected talent, even one worthy of Beethoven’s dedication of the famous Ninth Sonata. The engineers have placed the violin in the forefront of the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, which plays with vibrant and sonorous enthusiasm. Strongly recommended.
FANFARE: Robert Maxham
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR DVORAK STEWART
CANARY CLASSICS
CD
$20.49
Mar 27, 2026
This new recording brings together violinist Gil Shaham, conductor Eric Jacobsen, and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in a program exploring the violin concerto as a vehicle for cultural memory and continuity. The album pairs Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80, and Antonin Dvorak's Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, with the world-premiere recording of "F. Harper," from The Famous People by Curtis Stewart. Coleridge-Taylor's concerto reveals a Romantic voice shaped by lyricism and rhythmic vitality, while Dvorak's work reflects folk influence and communal musical expression. Stewart's F. Harper responds through a contemporary lens, engaging questions of naming, lineage, and identity. Inspired by the layered meanings of "Slavonic," the work draws parallels between European histories of enslavement and the ways Black Americans continue to shape pride and cultural legacy today. Together, these works connect past and present through sound.
Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos; Romances / Pine
Cedille
CD
$19.99
Sep 24, 2013
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in e. SCHUMANN Violin Concerto. BEETHOVEN Romances Nos. 1 and 2 • Rachel Barton Pine (vn); Christoph-Mathias Mueller, cond; Göttinger SO • CEDILLE 90000144 (71:20)
Rachel Barton Pine’s new release on Cedille Records contains a pairing of the violin concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, plus the two short Romances by Ludwig van Beethoven. When Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835, he made his friend Ferdinand David the concertmaster. In a letter dated July 30, 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to him: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” He worked on it for six years, during which he kept up a regular correspondence about it with the violinist. David premiered it with his orchestra in1845, the last year of the composer’s life.
Barton Pine plays this most familiar piece with quite a distinctive interpretation. Her first movement is light, fast, and dripping with passion. She lets you know she is enjoying the pace as she rises to the challenge. Her blazing bow work and perfectly intoned notes are always impeccably smooth as the fingers of her left hand fly through the movement with seeming ease. The imaginative phrasing of her expressive Andante soars over the orchestra with limpid, poignant beauty. She plays the beginning of the third movement with ardor and the wonderful Finale marked Allegro molto vivace with amazing artistry and technique. As we all know, the most renowned violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries have recorded it so the competition is fierce. Joshua Bell recorded the Concerto for Sony in 2002 with Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg. His performance is tasteful and inviting, but I think it lacks some of Barton Pine’s intensity and excitement. Recording in 1995 on Deutsche Grammophon, Anne Sophie Mutter plays beautifully, but her interpretation lacks some of the individual flair and drama heard on the Cedille disc. A more recent release is Alina Ibragimova’s Hyperion recording, a historically informed performance of the Concerto with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Her playing is exciting but she does not have Barton Pine’s depth of understanding. Reaching back into history, there are some great performances by artists such as Henryk Szeryng, but their sound is nowhere near the present state of the art.
Like the Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann’s Concerto has many renditions despite its difficult birth. Although Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, and Johannes Brahms consigned it to a shelf, by now it has earned a place in the hearts of the music-loving public. Barton Pine plays it with a deep emotional commitment that is palpable throughout her performance. Henryk Szeryng plays it together with the Mendelssohn Concerto on a Mercury Living Presence CD released in 1994. On a Teldec disc, also released in 1994, Gidon Kremer’s rendition of the Violin Concerto is paired with Martha Argerich’s interpretation of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Known for his individualism, Kremer plays the first and third movements much slower and with greater deliberation than Barton Pine, but his second movement is faster. Barton Pine’s first two movements are slower than Szeryng’s, but she plays the finale faster than either Szeryng or Kremer. All of that pales in comparison to these fine artists’ interpretation of this great but much maligned work. With her judicious use of rubato and a tasteful interpretation, Barton Pine has put her indelible stamp on the Schumann. She has come to love it intensely and she is teaching her fans to love it as well.
The two Beethoven Romances are a charming addition to this excellent disc. Since one is placed between the concertos and the other is at the very end, they add moments of contemplation that allow the listener to fully absorb the untrammelled joy of the Mendelssohn and the deeply compelling lyricism of the Schumann. Christoph-Mathias Mueller and the Göttinger Symphonie of Lower Saxony give stellar performances of the orchestral parts of each work. Except for one slightly muddy note at the very end of the Mendelssohn, the sound on this Cedille recording is brimming with life and it allows you to feel as if seated in the 10th row center of a fine concert hall. I heartily recommend this delightful recording.
FANFARE: Maria Nockin
Rachel Barton Pine’s new release on Cedille Records contains a pairing of the violin concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, plus the two short Romances by Ludwig van Beethoven. When Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835, he made his friend Ferdinand David the concertmaster. In a letter dated July 30, 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to him: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” He worked on it for six years, during which he kept up a regular correspondence about it with the violinist. David premiered it with his orchestra in1845, the last year of the composer’s life.
Barton Pine plays this most familiar piece with quite a distinctive interpretation. Her first movement is light, fast, and dripping with passion. She lets you know she is enjoying the pace as she rises to the challenge. Her blazing bow work and perfectly intoned notes are always impeccably smooth as the fingers of her left hand fly through the movement with seeming ease. The imaginative phrasing of her expressive Andante soars over the orchestra with limpid, poignant beauty. She plays the beginning of the third movement with ardor and the wonderful Finale marked Allegro molto vivace with amazing artistry and technique. As we all know, the most renowned violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries have recorded it so the competition is fierce. Joshua Bell recorded the Concerto for Sony in 2002 with Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg. His performance is tasteful and inviting, but I think it lacks some of Barton Pine’s intensity and excitement. Recording in 1995 on Deutsche Grammophon, Anne Sophie Mutter plays beautifully, but her interpretation lacks some of the individual flair and drama heard on the Cedille disc. A more recent release is Alina Ibragimova’s Hyperion recording, a historically informed performance of the Concerto with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Her playing is exciting but she does not have Barton Pine’s depth of understanding. Reaching back into history, there are some great performances by artists such as Henryk Szeryng, but their sound is nowhere near the present state of the art.
Like the Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann’s Concerto has many renditions despite its difficult birth. Although Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, and Johannes Brahms consigned it to a shelf, by now it has earned a place in the hearts of the music-loving public. Barton Pine plays it with a deep emotional commitment that is palpable throughout her performance. Henryk Szeryng plays it together with the Mendelssohn Concerto on a Mercury Living Presence CD released in 1994. On a Teldec disc, also released in 1994, Gidon Kremer’s rendition of the Violin Concerto is paired with Martha Argerich’s interpretation of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Known for his individualism, Kremer plays the first and third movements much slower and with greater deliberation than Barton Pine, but his second movement is faster. Barton Pine’s first two movements are slower than Szeryng’s, but she plays the finale faster than either Szeryng or Kremer. All of that pales in comparison to these fine artists’ interpretation of this great but much maligned work. With her judicious use of rubato and a tasteful interpretation, Barton Pine has put her indelible stamp on the Schumann. She has come to love it intensely and she is teaching her fans to love it as well.
The two Beethoven Romances are a charming addition to this excellent disc. Since one is placed between the concertos and the other is at the very end, they add moments of contemplation that allow the listener to fully absorb the untrammelled joy of the Mendelssohn and the deeply compelling lyricism of the Schumann. Christoph-Mathias Mueller and the Göttinger Symphonie of Lower Saxony give stellar performances of the orchestral parts of each work. Except for one slightly muddy note at the very end of the Mendelssohn, the sound on this Cedille recording is brimming with life and it allows you to feel as if seated in the 10th row center of a fine concert hall. I heartily recommend this delightful recording.
FANFARE: Maria Nockin
Camille Saint-Saens: Complete Concertos (New Talents Edition
Berlin Classics
CD
$19.99
Jan 16, 2026
This is the second album of the Saint-Saens series, with young talents?. All recordings were made with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, conducted by Howard Griffiths. The repertoire inludes: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in G minor op. 22, Morceau de Concert in F minor op. 94, Romance in F major op. 36, Romance in E major op. 67 and Suite for Violoncello and Orchestra op. 16b?
American Classics - Copland: The Tender Land Suite, Piano Concerto, Etc / Pasternack, Hanson
Naxos
CD
$19.99
May 27, 2008
This is another collection of American classics that deserves the highest praise. With exemplary playing, singing and an acoustic to match this is plainly indispensable.
Thankfully this isn’t the umpteenth recording of Appalachian Spring but a collection of lesser-known Copland. As always this music is quintessentially American, the suite from his opera The Tender Land, the bluesy piano concerto and the Old American Songs, the latter in choral arrangements. Appropriately enough the orchestra is the Illinois-based Elgin Symphony, which has embarked on an ambitious project called In Search of Our American Voice. Helping them in this endeavour are the St. Charles Singers, a multi-talented chamber choir founded in 1984.
Speaking of voices, Copland has a unique, instantly recognisable ‘voice’ of his own and that is clear from the first bars of The Tender Land suite. In his illuminating liner-notes Joseph Horowitz reminds us that although this has a Depression-era rural setting one could argue that, in part at least, it’s also Copland’s response to the McCarthyist witch hunt of the 1950s.
Interestingly the suite, arranged after the opera’s premiere in 1954, starts with the introduction to Act 3 and the love duet between the farm girl Laurie Moss and her drifter beau, Martin. The second movement is based on the party in Act II and the final movement comes from the quintet,’ ‘The Promise of Living’, at the end of Act I.
Whatever Copland’s intentions the music is not far removed from the Pennsylvanian hills of Appalachia, with its open, unpretentious scoring. The usual epithets ‘folksy’ and ‘homespun’ apply but there is also a degree of disquiet reflected in the brass at the start of this movement. The ensuing harp melodies are most affecting in their simplicity and directness, Robert Hanson securing warm, idiomatic playing from his orchestra.
The recording is clear and detailed, notably in the vigorous party music, and there’s no sign of strain or grain in the climaxes. Indeed, it’s an almost perfect acoustic for such a lucid score, the surging music of the last movement lovingly shaped and projected. This is vintage Copland and hearing this music may spur you to try the opera itself.
Horowitz makes the point that Copland’s piano concerto was somewhat eclipsed by Gershwin’s much better known effort, written the year before. It doesn’t have the latter’s Broadway-inspired razzamatazz but what it does have is a more sophisticated, cosmopolitan feel to it. The insouciant, bluesy first movement – introduced with the usual fanfare – has the pianist doodling quietly at the keyboard. Benjamin Pasternack captures the languor of this movement very well indeed, the piano ideally placed and faithfully recorded. Copland’s detailed scoring is wonderfully realised too, the more expansive moments thrillingly intense but never overheated.
The doodler is back in the second movement, his random notes followed by raucous music that has a real swing to it. The drums and percussion are certainly reminiscent of Gershwin but there is a fresh, individual quality to this concerto. Pasternack is suitably foot-stompin’ in those repeated jazzy phrases and the Elgin players give him wonderful support throughout. But it’s the final minute or so that’s the real tour de force, with the splendid percussion chasing the pianist all the way to the finish line.
This is exhilarating stuff and quite possibly the most enjoyable item on the disc – go on, give it another whirl – so the choral arrangements of the Old American Songs needs to be pretty special to top that. Most listeners probably know these pieces in their original scoring for voice and piano; if that’s the version you want do try Willard White on Chandos CHAN 8960.
Alas, first impressions of the choral arrangements aren’t very encouraging, baritone Nathaniel Stampley’s rather wide vibrato spoiling ‘The Boatmen’s Dance’. The St. Charles singers are another matter entirely; they are clear and nimble and, to be fair, Stampley does improve in ‘The Dodger’. Those who have heard Willard White in this repertoire will know just how much character and personality he brings to bear in these songs. Well worth seeking out.
The Elgin Symphony is never less than excellent and the chorus sing eloquently in the ballad ‘Long Time Ago’. Diction could be clearer but with such heartfelt singing it seems churlish to complain. And then there’s ‘Simple Gifts’, the Shaker hymn we know from Appalachian Spring, essayed here with a wonderful sense of innocence and optimism. They even manage the farmyard onomatopoeia of ’I Bought Me a Cat’ which, if you don’t mind this kind of silliness, will probably put a smile on your face.
Really it’s the chorus that makes these arrangements stand out; their bright, focused sound is invariably pleasing, even if the music doesn’t always sound like Copland. They are also suitably impassioned – febrile, even – in the Revivalist hymn ‘Zion’s Walls’. Then Stampley and tenor Jeffrey Hunt join them for a spirited rendition of ’The Golden Willow Tree’. Both soloists acquit themselves well here and for once the quirky orchestration actually sounds like authentic Copland.
Of the two remaining songs the hymn tune ‘At The River’ could have been penned by Charles Ives, such is its mix of devotional text and strange harmonies. Hanson and his band bring this music to a stirring close before launching into the utterly delightful ‘Ching-a-ring Chaw’. If you haven’t smiled so far then this will surely do the trick, the singing and playing pin-sharp and full of fun. An upbeat finale to an enchanting disc.
Minor caveats about the baritone aside this is another collection of American classics that deserves the highest praise. With exemplary playing, singing and an acoustic to match this is plainly indispensable. And the song texts are included as well, which is a welcome bonus. Buy it and enjoy.
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International
Thankfully this isn’t the umpteenth recording of Appalachian Spring but a collection of lesser-known Copland. As always this music is quintessentially American, the suite from his opera The Tender Land, the bluesy piano concerto and the Old American Songs, the latter in choral arrangements. Appropriately enough the orchestra is the Illinois-based Elgin Symphony, which has embarked on an ambitious project called In Search of Our American Voice. Helping them in this endeavour are the St. Charles Singers, a multi-talented chamber choir founded in 1984.
Speaking of voices, Copland has a unique, instantly recognisable ‘voice’ of his own and that is clear from the first bars of The Tender Land suite. In his illuminating liner-notes Joseph Horowitz reminds us that although this has a Depression-era rural setting one could argue that, in part at least, it’s also Copland’s response to the McCarthyist witch hunt of the 1950s.
Interestingly the suite, arranged after the opera’s premiere in 1954, starts with the introduction to Act 3 and the love duet between the farm girl Laurie Moss and her drifter beau, Martin. The second movement is based on the party in Act II and the final movement comes from the quintet,’ ‘The Promise of Living’, at the end of Act I.
Whatever Copland’s intentions the music is not far removed from the Pennsylvanian hills of Appalachia, with its open, unpretentious scoring. The usual epithets ‘folksy’ and ‘homespun’ apply but there is also a degree of disquiet reflected in the brass at the start of this movement. The ensuing harp melodies are most affecting in their simplicity and directness, Robert Hanson securing warm, idiomatic playing from his orchestra.
The recording is clear and detailed, notably in the vigorous party music, and there’s no sign of strain or grain in the climaxes. Indeed, it’s an almost perfect acoustic for such a lucid score, the surging music of the last movement lovingly shaped and projected. This is vintage Copland and hearing this music may spur you to try the opera itself.
Horowitz makes the point that Copland’s piano concerto was somewhat eclipsed by Gershwin’s much better known effort, written the year before. It doesn’t have the latter’s Broadway-inspired razzamatazz but what it does have is a more sophisticated, cosmopolitan feel to it. The insouciant, bluesy first movement – introduced with the usual fanfare – has the pianist doodling quietly at the keyboard. Benjamin Pasternack captures the languor of this movement very well indeed, the piano ideally placed and faithfully recorded. Copland’s detailed scoring is wonderfully realised too, the more expansive moments thrillingly intense but never overheated.
The doodler is back in the second movement, his random notes followed by raucous music that has a real swing to it. The drums and percussion are certainly reminiscent of Gershwin but there is a fresh, individual quality to this concerto. Pasternack is suitably foot-stompin’ in those repeated jazzy phrases and the Elgin players give him wonderful support throughout. But it’s the final minute or so that’s the real tour de force, with the splendid percussion chasing the pianist all the way to the finish line.
This is exhilarating stuff and quite possibly the most enjoyable item on the disc – go on, give it another whirl – so the choral arrangements of the Old American Songs needs to be pretty special to top that. Most listeners probably know these pieces in their original scoring for voice and piano; if that’s the version you want do try Willard White on Chandos CHAN 8960.
Alas, first impressions of the choral arrangements aren’t very encouraging, baritone Nathaniel Stampley’s rather wide vibrato spoiling ‘The Boatmen’s Dance’. The St. Charles singers are another matter entirely; they are clear and nimble and, to be fair, Stampley does improve in ‘The Dodger’. Those who have heard Willard White in this repertoire will know just how much character and personality he brings to bear in these songs. Well worth seeking out.
The Elgin Symphony is never less than excellent and the chorus sing eloquently in the ballad ‘Long Time Ago’. Diction could be clearer but with such heartfelt singing it seems churlish to complain. And then there’s ‘Simple Gifts’, the Shaker hymn we know from Appalachian Spring, essayed here with a wonderful sense of innocence and optimism. They even manage the farmyard onomatopoeia of ’I Bought Me a Cat’ which, if you don’t mind this kind of silliness, will probably put a smile on your face.
Really it’s the chorus that makes these arrangements stand out; their bright, focused sound is invariably pleasing, even if the music doesn’t always sound like Copland. They are also suitably impassioned – febrile, even – in the Revivalist hymn ‘Zion’s Walls’. Then Stampley and tenor Jeffrey Hunt join them for a spirited rendition of ’The Golden Willow Tree’. Both soloists acquit themselves well here and for once the quirky orchestration actually sounds like authentic Copland.
Of the two remaining songs the hymn tune ‘At The River’ could have been penned by Charles Ives, such is its mix of devotional text and strange harmonies. Hanson and his band bring this music to a stirring close before launching into the utterly delightful ‘Ching-a-ring Chaw’. If you haven’t smiled so far then this will surely do the trick, the singing and playing pin-sharp and full of fun. An upbeat finale to an enchanting disc.
Minor caveats about the baritone aside this is another collection of American classics that deserves the highest praise. With exemplary playing, singing and an acoustic to match this is plainly indispensable. And the song texts are included as well, which is a welcome bonus. Buy it and enjoy.
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International
Bach: Complete Concertos For Solo Harpsichord / Elizabeth Farr
Naxos
CD
$29.99
Nov 17, 2009
BACH Concertos for Solo Harpsichord: BWV 972-93, 975-76, 978, 980 (after Vivaldi); 974 (after A. Marcello); 979 (after Torrelli); 981 (after B. Marcello); 977, 983, 986, 985 (after Telemann); 982, 984, 987 (after Ernst). Prelude and Fugue in a, BWV 894 • Elizabeth Farr (hpd) • NAXOS 8572006-07 (2 CDs: 150:35)
This recording hit me like a ton of bricks in three ways. First, there is the music itself, not actually by J.S. Bach but rather transcriptions he made for harpsichord of concertos by Vivaldi, Torelli, Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello, Johann Ernst, Telemann, and unknown composers, in addition to his own Prelude and Fugue in A Minor. Second, there is the extraordinarily high quality of Elizabeth Farr’s performances, dramatic, nuanced, and extraordinarily colorful. And third, there is the sound of the instrument, a rare Baroque-era harpsichord with a 16’ set of strings as well as damper and sustain pedals. When this CD first started pouring out of my speakers, I thought I was listening to Wanda Landowska in digital stereo. It turns out that such fabulous beasts did exist, after all, in the Baroque era, in fact from as far back as the 16th century. Well, well, well. It turns out that Landowska, who has been lambasted for more than half a century for her “grotesque,” “gargantuan-sounding” instruments, was on the right track after all. Not having an authentic instrument to play, she simply had Pleyel create one for her. Granted, it had a grand piano frame because she was a touring musician and even a newly minted harpsichord with 16’ strings would have gotten pummeled on trains, but the sound was not that far removed from this.
Farr is also an interesting annotator. In order to save space I refer you to her liner notes, which explain why Bach transcribed 22 concertos by primarily Italian composers for harpsichord (six of them are for two harpsichords). The key to the project was young Prince Johann Ernst, the nephew of Duke Wilhelm, who in fact composed three of the concertos transcribed here. The young prince, an outstanding musician, wanted them to play on his instrument. Bach was willing to oblige for one particular reason: By writing out these concertos he could study their composing methods, and apply what he learned to his own “Italianate” music.
Farr’s playing is in the style of Leonhardt and Kipnis, using a great deal of rubato—some of it obvious, some of it quite subtle—to break up the very regular rhythms. I love this style. It is antithetical to British harpsichordists like Trevor Pinnock (whom I also highly admire), but very much in line with the type of “hesitating” style that Bach himself later employed in so many solo harpsichord works, a style he undoubtedly picked up from his friend and older colleague Buxtehude. She also plays very dramatically—heavy chording and rich textures when emulating the full tutti of the orchestral passages, lighter and airier in slow movements and when emulating solo passages. This took me some getting used to, but I came to enjoy this approach.
Some listeners may feel cheated that only one work (the Prelude and Fugue) is actually by Bach, but as a compendium of Baroque style transcribed by a musical genius, played to perfection and stunningly recorded, this set is very highly recommended.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
Liszt: Complete Piano Music Vol 24 / Giuseppe Andaloro
Naxos
CD
$19.99
May 29, 2007
The second Mephisto Waltz dates from the years 1878/9 to 1881. In it's orchestral version it was heard in Budapest in the latter year. The piano version was dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. The dance starts tentatively with the notes that suggest the diabolus in musica, the devil in music, the awkward interval of a tritone, and it is with the same allusive interval that the piece ends, after moods that swing from diabolic energy to more relaxed passages, still suggesting, after so many years, the literary inspiration that was it's original source. The third and fourth Mephisto Waltzes are also the product of Liszt's later years. The third piece was written in 1883. It was dedicated to Marie Jaëll, now living in Paris, a former pupil of Liszt, who described her as 'artiste éminente qui est hors ligne au-dessus de la réputation qu'elle a acquise'. From the outset the third Mephisto Waltz makes use of ambiguous intervals of a fourth that, in outline, make up the tentative opening, and remain a continuing feature, suggesting at times an inversion of the tuning of a violin. There are lyrical passages in a dance that largely lacks the diabolical fury that had impelled it's predecessor. The fourth Mephisto Waltz, dated March 1885, remained unpublished and apparently unfinished, since it's seems that Liszt intended to incorporate a contrasting Andantino section, for which he left sketches. As with other compositions of this last period of his life, the harmony is ambiguous, dominated by the scale motif of the opening. The first of the two Elegies was written in 1874 in memory of Madame Moukhanoff-Kalergis, née Countess Marie Nesselrode, a gifted pianist and pupil of Chopin, a leading member of Liszt's circle, commemorated in a concert in Weimar. The deep-felt mourning is expressed in a descending interval, heard at the outset and remaining a feature of the whole piece. The second Elegy, composed in 1878, was dedicated to Lina Ramann, Liszt's biographer, initially in a collusion with the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein that later proved troublesome, and editor of his writings. She had a piano school in Nuremberg and had made a name for herself as a teacher, notably with her Grundriss der Technik des Klavierspiels (Ground Plan of the Technique of Piano Playing), adopted, on Liszt's recommendation, by the Royal Hungarian Music Academy in Budapest. A work of tender melancholy, the Elegy includes a gently lyrical passage marked dolcissimo amoroso, which leads to a passionate climax, resolving into final evocative simplicity. Liszt's Grosses Konzertsolo was written in 1849-50 for a competition at the Paris Conservatoire and was dedicated to the pianist Adolph von Henselt. Whether it was played then is unknown, but it presented daunting technical difficulties. Clara Schumann, to whom Liszt had sent a copy, refused to play it, privately criticizing what she regarded as empty virtuosity, while suggesting to Liszt that it was beyond the grasp of a mere woman, a work to which only Liszt himself could do justice. The first performance was apparently given by Carl Tausig. Liszt also arranged the work for piano and orchestra as Grand Solo de Concert, a version that remained unpublished, and for two pianos as Concerto Pathétique. The work represents a development of the now traditional sonata, including in a single movement contrasting elements of other movements, united by a single theme, from which others are derived. The principal theme of the Grosses Konzertsolo is heard at the start, the first part of the work moving to a chordal G major passage marked Grandioso, followed by a lyrical Andante sostenuto, opening in D flat major. A cadenza is followed by a continuation of this quasi-slow movement, now in more majestic and ornate form. The principal theme returns in something approaching it's original form, followed by the secondary theme, now in E minor and marked Andante, quasi marcia funebre, it's progress accompanied by a simulated muffled drumbeat, melting into the E major of the earlier Andante sostenuto and capped by a triumphant conclusion.
DISCOVERED TAPES - CONCERTOS
Rhine Classics
CD
$74.99
Aug 02, 2019
Ruggiero Ricci is recognized to have greatly contributed to the world's renewed appreciation and affection for the great 19th century composers, though he maintained a broad repertoire including over 50 concertos with orchestra. Ricci has performed the world premieres of several contemporary composers including Gottfried von Einem, Richard Flury, Urs Joseph Flury, Vittorio Giannini, Alberto Ginastera, Alexander Goehr, Gail Kubik, Benjamin Lees, Gerard Shurmann and Carlos Veerhoff. His official discography encompasses the widest repertoire of any violinist. This six-album set presents live and studio recordings, ranging from 1951 to 1978, including some rarities, never recorded commercially, like the Ginastera Violin Concerto, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze Violin Concerto, and Paganini Violin Concerto No. 6.
Ries: Piano Trios
Naxos
CD
$13.99
$19.99
Save 30%
Mar 14, 2025
Ferdinand Ries occupies a remarkable place in the history of music. He was famously a friend and pupil of Beethoven and a virtuoso pianist. His extensive oeuvre opened up the musical aesthetics of Viennese Classicism to Romanticism. Completed in 1826, the Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 143 features two lively, fast movements surrounding a poetic Adagio, reminiscent of the era's finest opera arias. Very different is the Grand Trio in F minor, WoO 86. It features four thematically interwoven movements that traverse emotions from despair to passion and eventual peace.
Italian Oboe Concertos - Platti, Salieri, Rosetti, Besozzi
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Jan 01, 2002
Whether or not the oboe's your thing, this recording promises baroque/classical-period concerto fans a solid hour of pleasant listening. The exceptional quality of the opening G minor work by 18th-century composer Giovanni Platti rewards multiple hearings for its splendid, agile melodies, flowing rhythmic style, and, most of all, it's exquisitely lovely slow-movement solo lines. Oboist Anthony Camden, a soloist of vast experience and well-deserved acclaim, lavishes care and artful expression on this and all the other works on the program, enhancing even the less-illustrious works--the relatively routine if still agreeable Salieri and Rosetti pieces--with his facile technique and eloquent articulation. His tone is at once warm and tangy, very easy on the ear, and, as a singer with a text, he effectively alters its quality as the music suggests. Equal in interest to the Platti is the concerto by Carlo Besozzi (1738-c. 1798), a piece that offers the soloist some wonderful virtuoso challenges, highlighted by an exciting cadenza in the opening Allegro and fancy passagework in the concluding Allegretto. Camden is partnered by an excellent and responsive City of London Sinfonia, sympathetically directed by Nicholas Ward. The sound is appropriately full-bodied with a touch of brightness that serves the music and solo instrument well. --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
Elegy - String Orchestra Music / Taddei, Borzak, Roma Tre Orchestra
Brilliant Classics
CD
$10.99
$13.99
Save 20%
Apr 21, 2023
Hidden behind the late 19th century’s great symphonies, sumptuous ballets, and concertos with moving climaxes is something much more thoughtful and contemplative. This secret landscape comes courtesy of a few precious pieces for string orchestra by three Russian composers, all active at approximately the same time.
The extremely simple theme in 3/4, from Glazunov’s Theme and Variations in G Minor, Op. 97, has the feel of a solemn, ancient dance, simultaneously nostalgic and sombre. In another example of Glazunov’s crystal-clear yet expressive writing, the string orchestra provides the backdrop and conversation partner for a solo instrument that was a rarity in concertos at the time: the saxophone. Overall, despite the explosive counterpoint in the work’s final movement, it is a dreamy composition, never overly dramatic, and subdued and melancholy in places: almost elegiac, in other words.
The two elegies Tchaikovsky composed for string orchestra are highly refined works that reveal another side to the famous composer. In the same period that Tchaikovsky was writing his elegies, between 1880 and 1885, the composer and chemist Alexander Borodin was drafting his second Quartet. The third movement, a Nocturne, is one of Borodin’s finest works. It was therefore not only written at the same time as Tchaikovsky’s elegies, but also shares their gracefulness.
REVIEW:
Sieva Borzak (b. 1997) serves as the Conductor-in-Residence of the Roma Tre Orchestra, a collegiate ensemble that, when founded in 2005, became the first of its kind in central Italy.
The young musicians play with an artistic maturity and sensitivity well beyond their age; and the entire program bathes the listener in the timeless and contemplative romantic soundscape of the pre-Soviet school. Even so, this remains a student ensemble; and moments of stunning beauty are sometimes followed by shaky intonation and patchy teamwork. Taddei has all the tools for a solo career, executing the Glazounov concerto with splendid poise, expressive phrasing, and superb technique; but his free-blowing set-up always seems on the edge of spreading, even if his control is very good. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating preview of what the next generation of Italian talent has to offer.
-- American Record Guide
SAINT-SAENS: CELLO CONCERTO NO. 1 / DELIUS: CELLO
WARNER CLASSICS
Vinyl
$27.99
Feb 21, 2025
The great cellist Jacqueline Du Pre would have been 80 years old on January 26, 2025, if illness had not taken her too early at the age of 42. This LP brings together Camille Saint-Saens' famous 1st Cello Concerto with Jackie's husband Daniel Barenboim at the baton, and Frederick Delius' rarer Cello Concerto, which perfectly fits with Du Pre's playing and sensitivity (this time accompanied by Sir Malcolm Sargent). Warner re-released on LP a few years ago the 1968 EMI studio recording of the Saint-Saens Concerto, also with Barenboim (but with the New Philharmonia Orchestra). The live recording on this new vinyl was made three years later, in 1971, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in it's city, and released on CD at the end of the 90s by Teldec. It is released here on vinyl for the first time.
Salomon Jadassohn: Symphonies 1-4
CPO
CD
$36.99
Apr 14, 2015
Yes, this music is ridiculously conservative, as we might expect from a founder of the post-Mendelssohnian Leipzig school, but with a difference. Unlike so many of his colleagues Jadassohn, who composed these four symphonies between 1860 and 1888, keeps all of their elements in scale. They are brief (about thirty minutes maximum), immaculately scored, tuneful, and not afraid to be light without ever turning frivolous. Indeed, in their day these works were criticized for their lack of profundity. Today, we can see this as one of their greatest virtues.
The First Symphony looks back less to Mendelssohn than to Schumann, with better scoring. Consider the scherzo, and try to guess the composer. After that, the range expands a bit. Jadassohn had a genuine lyric gift, evident in the two Cavatinas for violin and cello, respectively, and also at such moments as the slow movement of the Third Symphony. With the Fourth Symphony, in C minor, Jadassohn does strike a more serious note, but once again at no point does it ever seem that he’s stretching his material farther than it wants to go. He knows how to keep his music moving, and he’s not ashamed of the fact that he’s not Beethoven. That’s saying a lot.
The performances by the Brandenburg State Orchestra under Howard Griffiths are quite good, with characterful contributions from the woodwinds and nice, clean ensemble generally. In the two Cavatinas, Thomas Georgi (cello) and Klaudyna Schulze-Broniewska (violin) play sensitively and don’t overload their predominantly gentle solo lines. The sonics are also naturally balanced and warm. Jadassohn’s symphonies may not be “important,” but they are wisely written, attractive pieces and for that reason well worth getting to know.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
The First Symphony looks back less to Mendelssohn than to Schumann, with better scoring. Consider the scherzo, and try to guess the composer. After that, the range expands a bit. Jadassohn had a genuine lyric gift, evident in the two Cavatinas for violin and cello, respectively, and also at such moments as the slow movement of the Third Symphony. With the Fourth Symphony, in C minor, Jadassohn does strike a more serious note, but once again at no point does it ever seem that he’s stretching his material farther than it wants to go. He knows how to keep his music moving, and he’s not ashamed of the fact that he’s not Beethoven. That’s saying a lot.
The performances by the Brandenburg State Orchestra under Howard Griffiths are quite good, with characterful contributions from the woodwinds and nice, clean ensemble generally. In the two Cavatinas, Thomas Georgi (cello) and Klaudyna Schulze-Broniewska (violin) play sensitively and don’t overload their predominantly gentle solo lines. The sonics are also naturally balanced and warm. Jadassohn’s symphonies may not be “important,” but they are wisely written, attractive pieces and for that reason well worth getting to know.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
BACH, MOZART, BRITTEN CONCERTI
WARNER CLASSICS
CD
$18.36
May 08, 2026
Recorded in Salzburg with the city's Mozarteumorchester and conductor Howard Griffiths, Bartlett performs Bach's Keyboard Concerto No 1 in D minor, Mozart's 'Jeunehomme' Piano Concerto and Britten's Young Apollo, which is scored for piano, string quartet and string orchestra. "When I began shaping this album, I started with Benjamin Britten," explains Bartlett. "He was a brilliant pianist, remarkable for his purity of intention, clarity of touch, and emotional honesty... When programming his own Aldeburgh Festival, Britten would often give the works of Bach and Mozart special attention. He also showed his deep admiration in the way he allowed them to influence his own compositions."
TABULA RASA / SYMPHONY 1 / COLLAGE ON A THEME BACH
VINYL PASSION
Vinyl
$34.99
Mar 20, 2026
Experience the groundbreaking evolution of Arvo Part with this remarkable 2LP set featuring his seminal works. Opening with Tabula Rasa (1977), a concerto for two violins, prepared piano, and string orchestra, including the evocative movements Ludus and Silentium, this album journeys through Part's early avant-garde phase with Symphony No. 1 "Poliphonic" (1964) featuring Kanons and Prelude and Fugue. Also included is the intricate Collage on a Theme B-A-C-H (1964) with Toccata, Sarabande, and Ricercar, alongside the intense Pro et Contra (1966), a concerto for cello and orchestra dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, showcasing the dramatic Maestoso, Largo, and Allegro movements. A powerful testament to Part's innovative spirit and a must-have for fans of modern classical and avant-garde music.
Schneider: 4 Flute Sonatas
Brilliant Classics
CD
$14.99
Oct 10, 2025
World premiere recordings of beguiling flute sonatas written on the cusp of the early-Romantic era in Germany. Almost completely forgotten in our own time, Johann Christian Friedrich Schneider (1786-1853) once enjoyed substantial fame as a pianist, composer, teacher and musical organiser. He was born in 1786, 16 years after Beethoven, in the same year as Weber and the Brothers Grimm, and received his first musical education from his father. His talent was evident from an early age, as he learnt the piano and several other instruments. Breitkopf & Hartel published his Op.1, a set of piano sonatas, in 1804; he went to study in Leipzig, where he became organist of the Thomaskirche, and settled there for his 20s, giving the local premiere of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto in 1811. A standard German work of reference from 1838 cites Schneider 'among the living German masters of music'. From the evidence of these four sonatas for flute and piano, it is hard to see why his name should have so comprehensively vanished from view. Schneider composed the first of them, his Op.18, in 1808, and it follows the same Classical exemplar as Beethoven's first eight violin sonatas, and all of Mozart's in being written for a pianist with an accompanying melody instrument rather than the other way around. Over the course of the following three sonatas, the flautist becomes more independent, and his Op.61 Sonata of 1827 requires a virtuoso. Schneider wrote the first three sonatas in a four-movement form, breaking ground in this way by elevating the flute sonata from it's previous association with pretty variation sets and pot-pourris of operatic themes. This originality extends to the finales of all four sonatas - notably the Second, which is cast in G minor against the prevailing G major tonality (foreshadowing in this way the 'Italian' Symphony of Mendelssohn). In his booklet essay for this new recording, the flautist Daniele Ruggeri pays tribute to the 'simple but bewitching' trios of each sonata, and to Schneider's 'profound understanding of the expressive character of the different registers of the flute' in the slow movements. Based in Venice, Ruggeri has played across the world and recorded for many major labels. With this album of Schneider he revives an unjustly neglected contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, and does so on an instrument of the period. - Johann Christian Friedrich Schneider was a German composer, conductor, organist, and pianist of the early Romantic period. Born in Saxony, he was a highly respected musician during his lifetime, known for his contributions to church music, orchestral works, and chamber compositions. He earned his place in history as the pianist premiering Beethoven's 5th piano concerto. - Schneider's flute sonatas are elegant and expressive works that reflect the stylistic transition from the Classical to the Romantic era. Blending lyrical melodies with intricate harmonic textures, the sonatas are technically challenging and musically rewarding for performers. The flute sonatas follow the traditional sonata form, typically structured in three or four movements, combining virtuosic passages with expressive slow sections. - Played by Italian flutist Daniele Ruggieri and pianist Luigi Caselli.
Ries: 3 Violin Sonatas / Grossman, Kagan
Naxos
CD
$9.99
$19.99
Save 50%
Feb 10, 2015
Recording of the Month
Ferdinand Ries was Beethoven’s student, close friend and biographer, but until quite recently was very much one of those composers living in the shadow of his Bonn master, rather than as the gifted and prolific composer he in fact was.
American pianist, author and educator Susan Kagan has explored the music of those composers associated with Beethoven and his musical scene. In fact she has researched the music of Archduke Rudolph – Beethoven’s composition student for more than twenty years – for her Ph.D. This was subsequently published by Pendragon Press back in 1988. More recently she has almost single-handedly championed the cause of Ries’s piano music, with five CDs of his Sonatas and Sonatinas on the Naxos label.
Kagan explains: ‘Ries studied piano with Beethoven (both were natives of Bonn, Germany) and was entrusted by him with such work as making transcriptions and piano arrangements, and copying orchestral parts of Beethoven’s new works. Ries moved to England in 1813, married an Englishwoman, and had a successful career touring as a virtuoso concert pianist. At the same time he was composing prodigiously and virtually everything he wrote was published. His thorough knowledge of Beethoven’s music undoubtedly helped shape Ries’s style, but his piano sonatas, from 1809 on, show an adventurous turn toward an expressive keyboard style anticipating that of the first generation of Romantic piano composers – Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann. His gift for melody is like Schubert’s, and he is ever inventive in creating and developing beautiful themes. While his symphonies and concertos are ‘public’ works, intended for large audiences and concert halls, the piano sonatas are his most personally-expressive works, revealing an individual outlook on a genre of music cultivated by that great triumvirate of the Classical period – Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.’
Ries also composed eighteen violin sonatas, which were brought out by Bonn music-publisher, Simrock, who also published much of Beethoven’s music. On this latest release from Naxos, Kagan is joined by violinist and fellow-American Eric Grossman, in an exploration of three of Ries’s violin sonatas, two from his op. 8 set, and his op. 19, all world-première recordings. However, unlike the piano sonatas, which have been released as part of a series of volumes, by starting here with a well-chosen selection from the eighteen extant examples, it gives the record company the option of releasing further violin sonatas in the future, or just letting this present single CD speak on behalf of the other fifteen.
It is interesting that the opening movements of the Sonata in F, Op. 8 No. 1, recorded first, and the Sonata in C minor, Op. 8 No. 2 that follows, have more than just a passing acquaintance with movements by Beethoven himself. While the latter first movement is very reminiscent of the corresponding movement from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in the same key, Op. 10 No. 3, the F major Sonata opens in a pastoral vein, with a main theme which immediately hints at Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata for violin and piano in the same key. Rather than reinforcing the idea that Ries is merely mimicking his teacher – what follows, in both of Ries’s sonatas, after the initial ‘homage to Ludwig’, really does confirm that the younger composer has an individual voice, and subsequently embarks on quite a different musical journey from his master.
Of the violin sonatas as a whole, Kagan continues: ‘(They) are models of the Viennese Classical sonata style established by Mozart: most are in three movements, with first movements in sonata-allegro form, lyrical slow movements in ternary (ABA) form, and rondo finales. Like Mozart, Ries divides the material to provide equal interest for both instruments.’ The Sonata in F largely adheres to this pattern, though is, in fact, a four-movement work, with a sprightly Scherzo and Trio in the tonic minor (F minor) following the opening ‘Allegro ma non troppo’, before a conventional, though short slow movement, leads to the finale, with its essentially rustic theme. However, this soon contrasts with the central episode, where staccato triplets evolve into a vigorous fugato section (like a fugue, but not fully played-out), and something which, according to Kagan in her compact, yet succinct and informative sleeve-notes, is an unusual event in Ries’s music, where polyphonic writing is ‘generally avoided’.
The characteristic dotted rhythms and robust dynamics of the ‘Allegro con spirito’ that open the Sonata in C minor, imbue it initially with an almost martial character, but this soon turns lyrical, in which vein the ensuing ‘Adagio cantabile’ slow movement continues, and which also then acts as the perfect aperitif to the lightness of the closing rondo, with its staccato texture and preponderance of rapid repeated notes.
The so-named Grande Sonata in F minor, while the shortest of the three works on the CD, is nevertheless conceived in large scale, both with regards structure and content, and with its key, and the dramatic insistence of the opening movement’s main theme, link it in character to Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ piano sonata, written some five years earlier. Unlike Beethoven’s work, Ries’s sonata begins with a short and poignant ‘Largo espressivo’ introduction – not unlike the opening of Beethoven’s earlier ‘Pathétique’ sonata, but providing nowhere near as dramatic a lead-in. Ries maintains the feverish mood of the ‘Allegro agitato’ throughout, despite the occasional sections away from the over-arching minor tonality, and the movement’s calmly-understated close. The following slow movement, in a gentle triple measure, and in the relative major key (A flat major), has a simple charm and eloquence that makes it extremely endearing and pleasing on the ear, but with sufficient contrast within, to hold the listener’s attention throughout. The overall playful mood of the final rondo also has more than enough variety, both rhythmically and melodically in its main theme and episodes, to sustain it, with some real fireworks in the central episode. The music has a decidedly Schubertian feel, both thematically, and in Ries’s use of tonality, where more remote keys figure, and there is often a characteristic shift from major to minor and back. Yet again Ries chooses to finish like a lamb, rather than a lion – something Beethoven does in the opening movement of his ‘Appassionata’, but not in the work’s tumultuous and clattering coda to the finale.
Whichever way you look at this latest Ries CD from Naxos, you will surely not be disappointed. The playing, positioning and recording are first-rate, and the three pieces recorded are charming, entertaining and with a good feel for motivic development. Whether they form part of a more extended investigation into the composer’s repertoire for violin and piano, or remain just a one-off sampler, at the bargain price offered, they are simply too good to miss.
– Philip R Buttall, MusicWeb International
Ferdinand Ries was Beethoven’s student, close friend and biographer, but until quite recently was very much one of those composers living in the shadow of his Bonn master, rather than as the gifted and prolific composer he in fact was.
American pianist, author and educator Susan Kagan has explored the music of those composers associated with Beethoven and his musical scene. In fact she has researched the music of Archduke Rudolph – Beethoven’s composition student for more than twenty years – for her Ph.D. This was subsequently published by Pendragon Press back in 1988. More recently she has almost single-handedly championed the cause of Ries’s piano music, with five CDs of his Sonatas and Sonatinas on the Naxos label.
Kagan explains: ‘Ries studied piano with Beethoven (both were natives of Bonn, Germany) and was entrusted by him with such work as making transcriptions and piano arrangements, and copying orchestral parts of Beethoven’s new works. Ries moved to England in 1813, married an Englishwoman, and had a successful career touring as a virtuoso concert pianist. At the same time he was composing prodigiously and virtually everything he wrote was published. His thorough knowledge of Beethoven’s music undoubtedly helped shape Ries’s style, but his piano sonatas, from 1809 on, show an adventurous turn toward an expressive keyboard style anticipating that of the first generation of Romantic piano composers – Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann. His gift for melody is like Schubert’s, and he is ever inventive in creating and developing beautiful themes. While his symphonies and concertos are ‘public’ works, intended for large audiences and concert halls, the piano sonatas are his most personally-expressive works, revealing an individual outlook on a genre of music cultivated by that great triumvirate of the Classical period – Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.’
Ries also composed eighteen violin sonatas, which were brought out by Bonn music-publisher, Simrock, who also published much of Beethoven’s music. On this latest release from Naxos, Kagan is joined by violinist and fellow-American Eric Grossman, in an exploration of three of Ries’s violin sonatas, two from his op. 8 set, and his op. 19, all world-première recordings. However, unlike the piano sonatas, which have been released as part of a series of volumes, by starting here with a well-chosen selection from the eighteen extant examples, it gives the record company the option of releasing further violin sonatas in the future, or just letting this present single CD speak on behalf of the other fifteen.
It is interesting that the opening movements of the Sonata in F, Op. 8 No. 1, recorded first, and the Sonata in C minor, Op. 8 No. 2 that follows, have more than just a passing acquaintance with movements by Beethoven himself. While the latter first movement is very reminiscent of the corresponding movement from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in the same key, Op. 10 No. 3, the F major Sonata opens in a pastoral vein, with a main theme which immediately hints at Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata for violin and piano in the same key. Rather than reinforcing the idea that Ries is merely mimicking his teacher – what follows, in both of Ries’s sonatas, after the initial ‘homage to Ludwig’, really does confirm that the younger composer has an individual voice, and subsequently embarks on quite a different musical journey from his master.
Of the violin sonatas as a whole, Kagan continues: ‘(They) are models of the Viennese Classical sonata style established by Mozart: most are in three movements, with first movements in sonata-allegro form, lyrical slow movements in ternary (ABA) form, and rondo finales. Like Mozart, Ries divides the material to provide equal interest for both instruments.’ The Sonata in F largely adheres to this pattern, though is, in fact, a four-movement work, with a sprightly Scherzo and Trio in the tonic minor (F minor) following the opening ‘Allegro ma non troppo’, before a conventional, though short slow movement, leads to the finale, with its essentially rustic theme. However, this soon contrasts with the central episode, where staccato triplets evolve into a vigorous fugato section (like a fugue, but not fully played-out), and something which, according to Kagan in her compact, yet succinct and informative sleeve-notes, is an unusual event in Ries’s music, where polyphonic writing is ‘generally avoided’.
The characteristic dotted rhythms and robust dynamics of the ‘Allegro con spirito’ that open the Sonata in C minor, imbue it initially with an almost martial character, but this soon turns lyrical, in which vein the ensuing ‘Adagio cantabile’ slow movement continues, and which also then acts as the perfect aperitif to the lightness of the closing rondo, with its staccato texture and preponderance of rapid repeated notes.
The so-named Grande Sonata in F minor, while the shortest of the three works on the CD, is nevertheless conceived in large scale, both with regards structure and content, and with its key, and the dramatic insistence of the opening movement’s main theme, link it in character to Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ piano sonata, written some five years earlier. Unlike Beethoven’s work, Ries’s sonata begins with a short and poignant ‘Largo espressivo’ introduction – not unlike the opening of Beethoven’s earlier ‘Pathétique’ sonata, but providing nowhere near as dramatic a lead-in. Ries maintains the feverish mood of the ‘Allegro agitato’ throughout, despite the occasional sections away from the over-arching minor tonality, and the movement’s calmly-understated close. The following slow movement, in a gentle triple measure, and in the relative major key (A flat major), has a simple charm and eloquence that makes it extremely endearing and pleasing on the ear, but with sufficient contrast within, to hold the listener’s attention throughout. The overall playful mood of the final rondo also has more than enough variety, both rhythmically and melodically in its main theme and episodes, to sustain it, with some real fireworks in the central episode. The music has a decidedly Schubertian feel, both thematically, and in Ries’s use of tonality, where more remote keys figure, and there is often a characteristic shift from major to minor and back. Yet again Ries chooses to finish like a lamb, rather than a lion – something Beethoven does in the opening movement of his ‘Appassionata’, but not in the work’s tumultuous and clattering coda to the finale.
Whichever way you look at this latest Ries CD from Naxos, you will surely not be disappointed. The playing, positioning and recording are first-rate, and the three pieces recorded are charming, entertaining and with a good feel for motivic development. Whether they form part of a more extended investigation into the composer’s repertoire for violin and piano, or remain just a one-off sampler, at the bargain price offered, they are simply too good to miss.
– Philip R Buttall, MusicWeb International
William Sterndale Bennett: Piano Concerto Nos. 4 & 6 and Con
Lyrita
CD
$23.99
Jan 02, 2026
Bennett was acknowledged both in England and Germany as an outstanding pianist, and his finest and most characteristic music was composed for his own instrument. As well as numerous works for solo piano, including two sonatas, he composed six piano concertos and a single-movement Caprice for piano and orchestra. He gave public performances of all his works for piano and orchestra with himself as soloist. It was during the heady days of Bennett's third long visit to his friends in Leipzig, from January to March 1842, that he mentioned in correspondence that he was working on a new concerto, which he hoped to perform before leaving for London. In the event, this did not happen, but a substantial amount of work must have been done at this stage on what was to become the unpublished Piano Concerto No. 6 in A minor, WO 48. Bennett did further work on the concerto in the summer of 1843 and hoped to publish it, but changes to his personal circumstances contributed towards further delays. His son claimed that he always intended it to be published, but as the years passed, the more out-of-date it became.
