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Bach: Fantasias, Toccata, Capriccio & Italian Concerto
Bridge Records Jan 1987
CD
$18.99

Schnittke: Discoveries
Toccata May 2010
CD
$20.99

Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing / Mauceri, UNC School of the Arts Symphony

Toccata

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Apr 30, 2013

Korngold’s music for Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing, premiered in Vienna in 1920, enjoyed instant success and soon spread around the world. But the music has not been heard as Korngold intended since the 1st production. For this recording, made in conjunction with a staged US premiere, Korngold’s complete score was reconstructed from the original Viennese materials and is played here by the chamber-orchestral forces for which it was written.

REVIEW:

This is indeed a worthy and welcome addition to the Korngold discography. At long last we have a further complete performance of the composer’s delightful incidental music to Shakespeare’s comedy. It joins the sequence recorded by Ondine with John Storgards conducting. The music was first performed in Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace when Korngold was just 21. It was very successful and the composer would later go on to adapt the music for various chamber ensembles and as an orchestral suite. Now we have the music as it was performed at Schönbrunn together with choice dramatic overlays including Balthasar’s Song, ‘Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more; Men were deceivers ever’, Beatrice’s soliloquy as she yields to love, and the two sets of lovers’ happy uniting in the final wedding scene.

The orchestra is the same size and specification as that at Schönbrunn with a string quartet rather than a string section so that proper balances with all the other instruments can be assured. With the string quartet are: solo flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet and trombone with two horns, a piano, harmonium, harp and three percussionists plus solo timpanist. The original parts were available so that each player could replicate the bowings and articulations used in Vienna. Furthermore, all the composer’s own recordings of the work were made available too, so questions of tempo and portamento could be addressed. Conductor John Mauceri was a very apt choice for he has had much experience conducting Korngold and is a stalwart champion of film music, an asset that might well be regarded as not being far removed from the spirit of this work – in fact the March of the Watch could be considered a pre-echo of Korngold’s Sherwood Forest scenes from his The Adventures of Robin Hood. Mauceri also contributes the erudite notes for this album.

Korngold’s conception works very well in his chosen ensemble. It points up the comedy and irony such as that in March of the Watch and in the dreamy romanticism of the Garden Music. All those intimate glistening string-harp-and-harmonium figures, and rippling piano arpeggios, suggest birdsong and flowers nodding in zephyr breezes. It’s all in gentle romantic waltz time, plus the contrastingly intense almost Mahlerian Funeral Music. Although I would have thought it unnecessary, five of the pieces that have dialogue are repeated again in purely instrumental dress.

There have been a number of recordings of Korngold’s purely orchestral suite from Much Ado About Nothing. Of these I would unhesitatingly recommend Caspar Richter’s 2002 reading originally released on CD DCA 1131. This is not only because it included, for the first time, the enchanting Garden Music but also for the other items on this album which had great appeal especially Korngold’s divine Abschiedlieder Songs (Songs of Farewell). A delight for committed Korngold fans.

-- MusicWeb International (Aan Lace)

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Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing / Mauceri, UNC School of the Arts Symphony
Toccata Apr 2013
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Three Generations - I., A. & N. Tcherepnin

Toccata

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Mar 18, 2022

This album explores music by three generations of the Tcherepnin family of composers: Nikolai, Alexander and Ivan. Although each wrote a wide range of scores, from solo pieces to operas and ballets, this recording focuses on their chamber music, presenting pieces spanning 95 years. Nikolai's works for violin and piano reveal a late-Romantic, post-Tchaikovskian sensibility, whereas those of Alexander have a more modern, twentieth-century touch, closer to the style of his friend Sergei Prokofiev (a student of his father). Ivan is represented by two works - early and late - for flute, clarinet and piano, which have an improvisatory and playful quality.

REVIEW:

Chamber music from three generations and almost 100 years from the Tcherepnin family, is presented on this CD. The family is represented by Nikolai, Alexander and Ivan. The works for violin and piano are by Nikolai and Alexander. Ivan is represented by compositions for flute, clarinet and piano. In five cases these are premiere recordings. Their music always develops on the basis of their Russian roots, which also leads to folk-song sounding elements. However, other influences always play into the music, such as expressionism in Nikolai’s case, Peruvian culture in Ivan’s, and in the well-traveled Alexander’s diverse influences and penchant for hexachordal scales alternating semitones and minor thirds. These recordings from a concert performance offer an opportunity to get acquainted with this assemblage of three generations of musicians – the fourth is not represented here. By far the best known, Alexander, is represented with his violin sonata and three small works for this instrumentation. The internationally experienced performers, all of whom have a connection to the United States, particularly Boston, offer a carefully crafted and spiritedly presented picture of these works by the three composers in mature performances.

-- Pizzicato

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Three Generations - I., A. & N. Tcherepnin
Toccata Mar 2022
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Wordsworth: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4

Toccata

$20.99 Jan 21, 2022

The music of William Wordsworth (1908–88) – a great-great-grandson of the poet’s brother Christopher – lies downstream from that of Vaughan Williams and Sibelius; like that of his contemporary Edmund Rubbra, Wordsworth’s music unfolds spontaneously, as a natural process. This fourth volume of his orchestral works presents four works which are all symphonic studies in essence, each remarkable for its unassertive strength of purpose and its suggestion of a sense of scale beyond its actual dimensions – perhaps in part a reflection of the majesty of the Scottish Highlands where he made his home, and of the quiet resolve of his own character.

REVIEWS:

Is it recommended? Indeed. The playing of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra is comparable to that on earlier volumes, while John Gibbons directs with his customary ear for detail and care for balance. Hopefully a fifth volume, perhaps including the hitherto unheard Sixth Symphony, will not be long in coming.

-- Arcana.FM

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Wordsworth: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4
Toccata Jan 2022
CD
$20.99

Bach: The Four Great Toccatas & Fugues / E. Power Biggs
Sony Masterworks Aug 2004
CD
$11.98

Nixon: Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 3 / Mann, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra

Toccata

$20.99 Jun 05, 2020

The English composer-conductor Henry Cotter Nixon (1842–1907) had entirely disappeared from music history until this series – presenting all his surviving orchestral music in its first-ever recordings – revealed him to have been one of the most accomplished English composers of his generation, with a style that takes in elements of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Weber, Brahms and Sullivan. This third and final volume mixes music for the concert hall and the stage and adds the Coronation March for Edward VII that turned out to be Nixon’s last composition. Most of the pieces here were left incomplete, but thanks to Paul Mann’s orchestrations they now confirm Nixon’s position as one of the superior tunesmiths of Victorian England.

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Nixon: Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 3 / Mann, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra
Toccata Jun 2020
CD
$20.99

Weinberg: Music for Orchestral, Vol 2 / Vasilyev, Siberian Symphony

Toccata

$20.99 Jan 08, 2016

The Toccata Classics 2014 release of Mieczys?aw Weinberg’s Symphony No. 21, Op. 152 Kaddish and Polish Tunes, Op. 47, No. 2 was remarkable and created considerable interest. Now Toccata present a second Weinberg volume comprising two world première recordings. Once again Toccata use the admirable Siberian Symphony Orchestra under Dmitry Vasilyev.

Thanks to a burgeoning interest in Weinberg there is now an increasing number of recordings of this Polish-born Soviet composer. The Bregenz Festival in 2011 headlined a Weinberg Retrospective and gave the stage première of Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger directed by David Pountney the festival’s music director (review ~ review). As the Bregenz festival’s featured composer a number of other Weinberg scores were performed including his Gogol opera The Portrait directed by John Fulljames. David Fanning’s recent book Mieczyslaw Weinberg: In Search of Freedom has undoubtedly increased awareness and further widened the knowledge of this talented and fascinating composer. It would only take a renowned conductor - maybe one born in Russia - such as Kirill Petrenko, Vasily Petrenko or Kirill Karabits to make recordings of Weinberg’s symphonic works to command international attention.

From 1958 The White Chrysanthemum ballet in three acts after A. Rumnev and J. Romanovich has a scenario based on a girl who is blinded at Hiroshima but later has her sight restored by Soviet doctors. The ballet was never staged probably due to difficult political relations with Japan around that time. No score has been found and it is even possible that Weinberg left the ballet unorchestrated. It was Weinberg himself who extracted the Six Ballet Scenes and orchestrated them as the Choreographic Symphony and dated the manuscript July 1973. This is a memorable score, full of delicious contrasts, often percussion laden in a similar way to late Shostakovich. In the energetic and restless opening Allegro the forceful percussion seem to be jousting with the strings and the following Adagio is infused with an exotic middle-eastern flavor. Appealing is the playful and dance-like Allegretto and the dark mystery of the Adagio-Moderato is heavy with foreboding. Especially engaging, the penultimate movement an Adagio contains some gloriously melodic writing that could have easily come from the pen of Rachmaninov. Ending the work the Presto just bristles with raw energy. Towards the beginning of the movement the music contains a definite klezmer feel but overall has all the vivacious force of Prokofiev.

Illness delayed Weinberg’s writing of his Symphony No. 22 and it was left unfinished at his death in 1996. Dedicated to Olya his wife the unfinished manuscript was completed in piano version only. Weinberg’s widow suggested to Kirill Umansky that he might orchestrate the score. Immersing himself in Weinberg’s symphonic music Umansky completed the orchestration and the first performance was given by the Belgorod State Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003. The symphony steeped in melancholy is notable for its bleak rather severe character and sense of foreboding. I found little in the way of contrast throughout the three movements and although it’s not a work I especially enjoyed its intensity and severe emotions are certainly hard to ignore. At just under 25 minutes the opening movement is over double the length of the next longest. Titled Fantasia the writing contains a feeling of intense sadness and a searching quality combined with a near constant icy chill. Relatively short at just over 5 minutes the second movement an Intermezzo contains that now familiar bleakness although it’s not quite as harsh. Titled Reminiscences the Finale eschews originality returning to the austere character of the opening movement.

Under the assured baton of Dmitry Vasilyev the Siberian Symphony Orchestra excel with compelling playing of unyielding vitality in the Six Ballet Scenes and vigor matched with sheer concentration in the Symphony. Recorded at Philharmonic Concert Hall, Omsk in Siberia the sound quality is full and clear. The release also has the benefit of a helpful essay in the booklet from leading Weinberg authority David Fanning.

For those unaccustomed to Weinberg this admirably played release is not the place to start however the Six Ballet Scenes was a satisfying surprise and is worth obtaining for that alone.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

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Weinberg: Music for Orchestral, Vol 2 / Vasilyev, Siberian Symphony
Toccata Jan 2016
CD
$20.99

TOVEY: Symphony in D major / The Bride of Dionysus: Prelude
Toccata Jun 2006
CD
$20.99

Stöhr: Chamber Music, Vol. 1

Toccata

$20.99 Aug 12, 2014

Richard Stöhr (1874–1967) was yet another Austrian composer driven by the Nazis into American exile. His output– ripe for rediscovery – includes 7 symphonies, 15 violin sonatas among much other chamber music, songs, choral and piano pieces. His two cello and piano works, recorded here in the first of a series of Stöhr CDs, reveal a lyrical and expressive composer downstream from Brahms and Schumann. The disc continues the Toccata’s rediscovery of composers who suffered under the Third Reich.

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Stöhr: Chamber Music, Vol. 1
Toccata Aug 2014
CD
$20.99

Myroslav Skoryk: Music For Violin And Piano

Toccata

$20.99 Jul 10, 2012

SKORYK The High Pass: Melody. Violin Sonatas: No. 1; No. 2. Hutsulian Triptych: Allegretto and Dance. Caprice for Solo Violin. Carpathian Rhapsody. Poem. Spanish Dance • Solomia Soroka (vn); Arthur Greene (pn) • TOCCATA 0137 (65:42)

Violinist Solomia Soroka, who has collaborated with the composer in performances of his works, herself wrote the booklet notes for Toccata’s collection of Miroslav Skoryk’s music for violin and piano, in which she’s joined for recital by pianist Arthur Greene. The notes trace the composer’s early years in Siberia, to which his family had been exiled, through his attempts to study musical composition in Ukraine, to his final work with Dmitri Kabalevsky. They also trace his affection for Hutsulian modes and the kolomyika , a dance of the same ethnicity (familiar from one of the most intoxicating of Béla Bartók’s duos for two violins).

The Melody (from 1981) recalls Skoryk’s work as a composer for movies, this being an adaptation from his first effort, The High Pass , which movie—and melody—Soroka relates, became “universally popular” in Ukraine. Firmly tonal and strongly evocative, it nevertheless sounds a bit edgy in Soroka’s performance, perhaps due to the strong but slightly abrasive quality of the tone she produces (still, her generally suave manner of performance hardly sounds unnuanced). The engineers have focused the spotlight on her, and she appears to dominate the piano in the recorded sound. The First Violin Sonata, from 1963, recalls the dark harmonic shimmer of Prokofiev’s work (Soroka relates that Skoryk wrote his doctoral dissertation on that composer’s modal practices). Passages crop up in the first movement (of three) that recall the earlier composer’s haunting Five Melodies , which Prokofiev himself arranged for violin and piano. In these moments, Soroka adopts a throaty manner that accentuates the music’s sultriness, a manner that continues, intensified, in the brief Largo. The finale thrusts and slashes in this performance, relieved by searingly intense expressivity.

If anything, the Allegretto and Dance from Hutsulian Triptych (1964) sound even more accessible; they come from another Ukrainian movie, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , and Soroka and Greene extract all the poignant lyricism and stormy drama, and gaiety, respectively, that the music and its program suggest. The four-odd-minute Caprice for Solo Violin (1978), according to Soroka, harks back to Paganini’s 21st Caprice, but it also bears some connection, in its combination of a declamatory slow opening section and a brilliantly animated concluding one, with Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo Caprice (with double-stopped tremolos and pizzicatos, although, of course, in a completely different style); Gustave Samazeuilh’s similar piece, Lamento et Moto perpetuo , also comes to mind.

The Carpathian Rhapsody (2004) and Poem (2006), the most recent items on the program, both began their lives, according to Soroka, as required repertoire for violin competitions. The first sounds forbidding, perhaps because Soroka makes it seem more difficult than ingratiating. Although the Poem opens more reflectively, and overall sounds less ethnic, it nevertheless contains its share of purely violinistic difficulties and probes further into the harmonic penumbra than any of the pieces that precede it on the program. The Second Violin Sonata (1990) explores differing styles, but Soroka points to the recurrence of material from Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata as a unifying element. The slow movement (the center one of three) makes a more consistent impression, centered on a single somber mood, captured by Soroka in a long-breathed melodic outpouring. The virtuosic finale recalls that of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto but also interweaves some lyrical jazzy elements. The Spanish Dance, from 1978, also began as incidental music, for The Stone Ruler . It’s heavier, darker, and more smoldering than Sarasate’s pieces, and could serve as a substitute for one of them on almost any program. According to Soroka, Bodhar Kotorovych, of the Kiev Conservatory, considered the original arrangement of this final movement from a suite for string orchestra to be technically too simple. Violinists should hear how Skoryk responded. In fact, violinists should hear the whole disc, as should those interested in relatively recent repertoire for the instrument. In fact, its workable performances, fascinating booklet, and clear recorded sound should appeal to almost anyone with the slightest interest in the violin.

FANFARE: Robert Maxham

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Myroslav Skoryk: Music For Violin And Piano
Toccata Jul 2012
CD
$20.99

Dodgson: Chamber Music, Vol. 2

Toccata

$20.99 Apr 07, 2017

These three quintets by the London-born Stephen Dodgson continue the exploration of his chamber music on Toccata Classics. Dodgson's musical language inherited something of Shostakovich's irony. Janacek's spiky energy and Britten's polished clarity, occasionally reaching further into the past in passages of Purcellian dignity. All these characteristics animated with a gentle, harmonic warmth of Dodgson's own. The result, in a typically English paradox, manages to be both elusive and direct. The Tippett Quartet has performed at the BBC Proms, and numerous other festivals. Emma Abbate has performed in duo recitals for international festivals and concert societies all throughout the world. Susan Monks is Principal Cello of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

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Dodgson: Chamber Music, Vol. 2
Toccata Apr 2017
CD
$20.99

Shostakovich: Complete Music For Piano Duo And Duet, Vol. 1

Toccata

$20.99 Oct 11, 2011

Terrific stuff.

Shostakovich’s work for piano duet and duo may be of lower profile than his symphonies, string quartets and solo piano repertoire, but still contains some of his finest music. Recordings have emerged from the Northern Flowers label and elsewhere, but this Toccata Classics set seeks to go a considerable step further. Shostakovich’s routine habit for his orchestral works was to make a transcription for piano four hands, so that the music could be ‘tried out’, not only for his own use, but so that Communist Party officials could hear for themselves and decide if a new work was suited to the ideals of the party and therefore appropriate for public performance. This version of the Symphony No.9 was therefore almost certainly written alongside the orchestral score. The work was famously supposed to be a massive celebration of victory over the Nazis in 1945, but turned out to have an entirely different character. The piano duet version of this piece is a highlight of this disc as you might expect, and with an excellent performance and recording the work takes on an entirely new life in this setting. In short, it ‘works’ as a piano piece, with only a few passages during the slower movements and the extended build-up towards the end of the final movement where the sustaining quality and colourful impact of orchestral instruments are missed to a certain extent. Right from the moment where Vicky Yannoula and Jakob Fichert hammer out the accompaniment and bring out that witty theme at 0:48 into the first movement we know we’re in for a treat. Much of the music has been described as ‘Haydnesque’ or indeed light and bouncy in nature, at times bringing the nervy rhythms of Prokofiev to mind, and this is something which makes it sound as if written for the piano. The clarity of the bass lines, the variety of ‘oom-pah’ rhythms driving on terrifically and the exposed nature of the harmonies all work in excellent fashion, and the whole thing is a discovery and a feast for Shostakovich fans.

Lighter works and arrangements are of course part of the Shostakovich piano canon, and the waltz and polka numbers here are ‘pop’ pieces which entertain but needn’t delay us too long. Malcolm MacDonald’s booklet notes go into the origins of these pieces in some detail. That Polka from the Ballet Suite No. 2 is perhaps the most familiar, and as a litmus test shows how much fun the Yannoula and Fichert duo can make of these minor works. ‘The Chase’ from the film score to Korzikana’s Adventures is a magnificently daft romp.

For the works with two pianos we get a still very good but slightly different recorded perspective, and there are one or two minor tuning issues – a twangy effect in one of the upper notes with the piano already used for the duet pieces, and between the two instruments on occasion. Have a listen at 1:47 on the opening movement of the Suite and you’ll hopefully hear what I mean. These are actually quite minor issues, but can’t be left unmentioned. The Suite Op.6 is Shostakovich’s earliest surviving two-piano work, and pregnant with the emotions surrounding the sudden death of Dmitri’s father in February 1922. The chiming bells and romantic overtones are very nicely played here, placed effectively in Shostakovich’s early idiom, performed with warm sonority and without too much stretching of the phrases in the beautiful Nocturne, and conveying all of the rhythmic verve of the swifter movements.

The Concertino is a later work, written for Shostakovich’s son Maxim and having some of the character of his second Piano Concerto which was to come a few years later. This work has if anything the most orchestral character of all the pieces here, and the duo builds up huge volumes of sound in a highly effective performance.

With some fascinating piano duet versions of Shostakovich’s symphonies to look forward to this promises to be a series to collect. None of the performances here disappoint, the recording standard is high, and Vicky Yannoula and Jakob Fichert have the measure and spirit of all of this music very much at their fingertips.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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Shostakovich: Complete Music For Piano Duo And Duet, Vol. 1
Toccata Oct 2011
CD
$20.99

TOVEY: Cello Concerto / Air / Elegiac Variations
Toccata Jan 2007
CD
$20.99

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Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 15 / 13 Variations / Deutscher In
Toccata Oct 2007
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Center: Instrumental & Chamber Music, Vol. 3

Toccata

$20.99 Apr 19, 2024

Ronald Center (1913–73) is sometimes described as ‘the Scottish Bartók’, and his music does indeed capture some of the wild energy of the Scottish landscape in a style of Bartókian asperity. It also shows affinities with the music of Busoni, Debussy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams, absorbed into an individual style that is audibly Scots. Center was essentially a miniaturist, his meticulous craftsmanship allowing him to encompass a range of emotions – heart-felt sorrow, grim humour, relaxed lyricism, dark despair – in a crisp and succinct manner, animated by sharp wit and irony. Many of the works recorded here also show off his skill as a contrapuntist and one, surprisingly, is a rumba.

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Center: Instrumental & Chamber Music, Vol. 3
Toccata Apr 2024
CD
$20.99

Eller: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2

Toccata

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Oct 30, 2012

This 2nd release continues Toccata Classics’ pioneering releases of music by Baltic, and Estonian, composers. Eller (1887–1970) was one of the founding fathers of Estonian music – the best-known of his students is Arvo Pärt. His huge output of piano music encompasses some 200 works, almost none of which have been recorded before.

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Eller: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2
Toccata Oct 2012
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Weinberg: Music for Orchestra / Bartenyeva, Vasilyev, Siberian Symphony

Toccata

$20.99 Jul 08, 2014

Mieczyslaw Weinberg, born in Warsaw in 1919, became a close friend of Shostakovich in Moscow, after fleeing eastwards before the invading Nazis in 1939. His style has much in common with Shostakovich’s: fluent contrapuntal skill, a keen feeling for melody, often inflected with Jewish cantilena, and an acute sense of drama which combines a natural narrative manner with an extraordinary ability to create atmosphere. Since his death in 1996, his vast output – which includes 26 symphonies, seven operas and seventeen string quartets – has enjoyed increasing recognition as some of the most individual and compelling music to have been composed in the twentieth century. This recording pairs an early orchestral work, the suite Polish Tunes of 1950, with the last full orchestral symphony he was to complete, dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

REVIEW:

It’s truly incredible that works as excellent as these are being recorded for the first time. …[Polish Tunes, Op. 47, No. 2:] there is no shortage of appealing folk-inspired melodies in this fresh and uplifting music. …Symphony No. 21, Op. 152 is titled ‘Kaddish’ referring to the Jewish prayer service for the dead. …Bold and unsettling, almost sinister in character, the Allegro molto section has a swirling, driving momentum. The brass playing is especially striking in writing of a conspicuously martial quality with heavy and relentless percussion. …A fascinating feature that noticeably softens the emotional tension is the inclusion of a wordless soprano at 2:45-7:51 and 10:34-11:06 here performed by Siberian Veronika Bartenyeva. This was my first experience of hearing the Siberian Symphony Orchestra (Omsk Philharmonic) who under the reliable baton of principal conductor Dmitry Vasilyev excel in this wonderful and inexplicably neglected music. The Symphony makes compelling listening with Vasilyev’s unfailing instinct producing assured orchestral playing of striking directness. The engineers provide clear sound with a natural and realistic balance. This important release from Toccata Classics comprising first recordings of Weinberg’s orchestral music has exceptional appeal.”

-- MusicWeb International

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Weinberg: Music for Orchestra / Bartenyeva, Vasilyev, Siberian Symphony
Toccata Jul 2014
CD
$20.99

Ottorino Respighi: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Gatto

Toccata

$20.99 Aug 06, 2021

Respighi’s orchestral works are some of the most popular in the mainstream repertoire. His output of piano music, by contrast, is as good as unknown, and this Toccata Classics series will be the first ever to present it all: original works and transcriptions alike, for solo piano, piano four hands and two pianos. The prentice works on this second volume of solo works reveal a Respighi with roots in the high-Romantic past of Schumann, Chopin and Brahms, but they also show the first signs of his later interest in the Italian pre-Baroque.

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Ottorino Respighi: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Gatto
Toccata Aug 2021
CD
$20.99

Jadassohn: Piano Trios Nos. 1-3
Toccata Feb 2011
CD
$20.99

Juon: Piano Music, Vol. 1

Toccata

$20.99 Jul 07, 2017

The Russian-born German-Swiss composer Paul Juon (1872-1940) produced a generous amount of piano music - no fewer than 35 opus numbers. That has yet to be explored in great details. This first instalment of the first-every survey of his piano music reveals a composer close to his Russian roots but also alive to the music of his own time. His style has much in common with Medtner and Rachmaninov, both friends from student days, but with a harmonic freedom that suggests Debussy. His inventive use of rhythm calls on folk influences from Azerbaijan, Armenia and elsewhere. This album is the first of a series of collaborations between Toccata Classics and Mexican musicians. The Mexican pianist Rodolfo Ritter is a frequent soloist with mos tof the major Mexican orchestras, performing the complete piano concertos of Bartok, Brhams, Brachmaninov, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, as well as less-well-known concertos by Martinu, Miguel Galvez-Taroncher and Xavier Scharwenka, alongside the world premieres of the Second Piano Concerto by Manuel Ponce, the Ricardo Castro Piano Concerto and the Second and Third Piano Concertos by Gonzalo Curiel, works which he has also recorded.

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Juon: Piano Music, Vol. 1
Toccata Jul 2017
CD
$20.99

Kornauth: Piano Music Vol. 1 / Powell

Toccata

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Mar 26, 2013

The music of the Czech-born Viennese composer Kornauth (1891-1959) was once a staple of Austrian concert-halls. It has been largely forgotten in the half-century since his death. In this pioneering recording, British pianist Jonathan owell uncovers the many strands that fed into Kornauth’s rich and full-bodied compositions.

REVIEW:

This is the first full disc of piano music by Egon Kornauth, a composer born in what is now Olomouc in the Czech Republic (and was then Olmütz) who studied with Robert Fuchs in Vienna and then later with Schreker and Franz Schmidt.

Jonathan Powell is one of the most eloquent commentators on the music he plays I have come across, whether that be Sorabji or Kornauth, and his booklet note is a source of great interest. The angular, active Fantasy (1915) contains distinctly Richard Straussian turns of harmony and phrase in the sweet contrasting themes (that influence is less obvious in the more Schwung sections); the overt lush Straussian gestures sound more like a reduction of an orchestral tone poem. The op. 25 Klavierstücke (1920) are more modernist, probably because of his experiences of Schreker. The first is decidedly Bergian (think the op. 1 Piano Sonata), while the central Improvisation sounds exactly like that. Most fascinating is the final “Walzer,” a very sprightly evocation of Viennese dance, a bit like an Austro-Germanic Ravel La Valse in places.

The Kleine Suite (1923) has fewer ambitions than the other works on the disc and receives another fantastic performance from Powell. The Barcarolle (third movement) sums the suite up in essence, reflecting the less demanding demeanor of the piece, while the penultimate “Walzer” elicits a phenomenally light touch from Powell before the cheekily scampering Finale rounds things off with a smile.

The Präludium und Passacaglia offers maximal contrast, the B♭-Minor twilight of Bachian rigor and severity of the Prelude meeting the storm clouds of Chopin’s finest turbulence; the Passacaglia continues the gloominess. Powell paces it superbly: The close is truly crushing before the final surprise major-key end. The op. 44 Klavierstücke of 1940 is also sometimes known as the Second Suite. It is shot through with sweet nostalgia. The five pieces (“Präludium”; “Intermezzo”; “Capriccio”; “Mährische Ballade”; “Walzer”) speak of sweet nostalgia. Powell lavishes them with an attention to detail that almost makes them sparkle (in a retrospective sort of way). The “Mährische Ballade” (Moravian Ballad) is the highlight. Its almost folkish mode of discourse hides a strong compositional rudder steering the work perfectly; the final “Walzer” is the suite’s longest movement, and drips with charm.

This is a fascinating disc (as we are beginning to expect from Toccata Classics). The recording (made at Durham University, U.K.) is excellent.

-- Fanfare

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Kornauth: Piano Music Vol. 1 / Powell
Toccata Mar 2013
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Bargiel: Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 1

Toccata

$20.99 Nov 11, 2014

Woldemar Bargiel was the half-brother of Clara Schumann, and given his interest in music, it is not surprising that he became part of the Schumann circle. His compositions were described as pale copies of the great composers, including his brother-in-law, which is perhaps unkind but not entirely unjustified. His later works resist the pull of the late-Romantics, such as Mahler and Strauss, looking to Brahms and back to Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert.

My first encounter with his music was fairly recent, as part of my survey of piano trios. Trio Parnassus have recorded his three piano trios on two MDG CDs, which are now difficult to obtain. You can obtain readily them as downloads, but they do not come with a booklet. I am generally resistant to this situation, especially where the composer is little known, but the samples of the trios that I heard were sufficiently encouraging to persuade me into a purchase. As far as I can tell, this is the first review on this site of Bargiel’s music.

The Prometheus overture was written while Bargiel was studying at Leipzig Conservatory. There is little doubt that it owes much to Beethoven’s similarly named overture, though Liszt’s tone poem Prometheus may also have had some influence. At over eighteen minutes, there is no doubt that it stretches its material too far, but it does have some splendid melodies. The orchestration is not as interesting as the other works presented here.

The premiere of Overture to a tragedy was conducted by Bargiel’s teacher, Julius Rietz, and led Hans von Bülow to write “Bargiel can claim the highest rank among Schumann’s followers after Joseph Joachim”. It was originally titled Overture to Romeo and Juliet, but changed before publication because it simply doesn’t have the emotional depth suited to the play. It has stylistic links to Schumann’s Manfred overture, but is a fine work in its right.

The Medea overture was his big success, with numerous performances around Germany and further afield, and led to his appointment as director of the music school in Rotterdam. The booklet links it to Schumann, though I more hear Mendelssohn. It builds from an ominously quiet opening into a series of increasingly dramatic surges, separated by short darkly lyrical moments. Personally, I prefer the Overture to a tragedy, but I can understand why it was so successful in its time.

The Symphony, with the exception of the second movement, is very much a case of “spot the influence”. The first movement, is very, very Beethovenian: imagine a blend of the fifth, sixth and seventh symphonies. Some of the melodies sound as though they are direct borrowings. The slow second movement is fortunately more original, though it does include what could be construed as a funeral march. It has a number of quite beautiful melodies, and some very appealing orchestral colours from the woodwinds and horns, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Menuett that follows might be mistaken for an abandoned Schubert piece, while the final Allegro molto owes much to Haydn, though as reorchestrated by Beethoven. Lest I sound too critical, it is worth bearing in mind that Brahms, only five years younger than Bargiel, had not completed his first symphony by this time, and when he did, there was obvious homage to Beethoven in it as well.

In its early days, Naxos was known for using journeyman orchestras from eastern Europe, but even they didn’t go as far as Toccata has done recently, with a number of recordings based in the Siberian city of Omsk. The orchestra goes by two names: the the Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra at home (and on their website) and the Siberian Symphony Orchestra abroad. The performances are well beyond serviceable – I very much doubt we are likely to get another recording of these works soon, but it would take one of the top orchestras to make much more of this music.

The booklet is written by Dean Cáceres, who has written a biography of Bargiel, and hence provides comprehensive and informative notes. The sound quality is excellent, the delicate orchestral colours well defined and the climaxes imposing.

– MusicWeb International (David Barker)

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Bargiel: Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 1
Toccata Nov 2014
CD
$20.99

Emil Tabakov: Complete Symphonies, Vol. 8

Toccata

$20.99 Mar 13, 2026

The symphonies of the Bulgarian composer-conductor Emil Tabakov (b. 1947) explore the darker side of the human spirit in monumental scores as austere as they are powerful, his language sitting somewhere between Shostakovich, Varèse, Pettersson, and Simpson in it's fierce, explosive energy and elemental drive. His Tenth Symphony (2018) opens with the first of many wild outbursts that occasionally give way to islands of uneasy calm. The inconsolable sorrow of the slow movement finally boils up into an epic passage of colossal anger. By way of contrast, the scherzo opens in a mood of mischievous humour that soon spirals into a swirling, headlong, white-knuckle ride. Like the first movement, the finale sets off with the untrammelled power of a raging flood; it abates only briefly, to reveal a blasted landscape suggesting Kafka's 'There is hope - but not for us'. The Symphony is prefaced here by a dignified, deeply felt symphonic essay for strings, an epitaph for lost love.

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Emil Tabakov: Complete Symphonies, Vol. 8
Toccata Mar 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Telemann: Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst, Vol. 5
Toccata Apr 2013
CD
$20.99