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Sale ★ GrammyKodály: Háry János Suite; Symphony in C / Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic
Naxos · Oct 2023CD$19.99$9.99 -
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SaleThe Film Music Of Adrian Johnston - Brideshead Revisited / Davies
Chandos · Jul 2008CD$21.99$10.99 -
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NOW PRESENTS 12 INCH 80S: VOL 2 1983-1984 / VAR
Riccardo Chailly, Lucerne Festival Orchestra - The First Years
This box set documents Riccardo Chailly's first years as principal conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. In summer 2016, he steps into the office as Claudio Abbado's successor with Mahler's 8th Symphony. In a colorful, fresh and stirring performance of the overture and incidental music to William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Tchaikovsky's "Manfred" Symphony, Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra bring the musical imagery of both works to life. In summer 2018, the performers transport us to Ravel's musical universes full of colors, scents and flavors: from the pulsating three-four time of the waltzes to the ancient love story of Daphnis and Chloé and the relentless rhythm of the Boléro. A recording from summer 2019 of Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony and Third Piano Concerto with Denis Matsuev marks the various stages in the composer's life and demonstrates once again the close bond between the orchestra and their new principal conductor.
Jazz Club Montmartre - CPH 1988 / Michel Petrucciani Trio
Wolfgang Mitschke: The Berlin Nightbirds
Dring, Harrison & Howell: Danza Gaya - Music for Two Pianos
Antoni Gaudí’s monumental temple La Sagrada Familia is a universe within a building. Its mass of stone and metal is bathed in coloured light diffused from dazzling stained glass windows. The colossal structure is supported by great pillars inspired by the shapes of tree trunks that re-inforce the impression of a spiritual forest. Around the main access points to the basilica are three great facades; Nativity, Passion and Glory. Each is a visual world unto itself, stylistically apart yet united by Gaudí’s grandiose vision. These three facades are the inspiration of my three-movement La Sagrada Familia Symphony. The visual journey, from the representational to the abstract, is something I also tried to mirror in the music. When I visited La Sagrada Familia in October 2019 there was still scaffolding to support the work on the remaining towers. Whereas my symphony is inspired by that monumental building, I hope that my musical structure can stand alone as an homage to Gaudí in its own right. The two parts of the cantata begin similarly, presenting first the children of Seth - then in the second part, the children of Noah. Realizing that the aftermath of the destruction of the Tower of Babel could be anti-climactic, I left part of the Noah story unfinished at the end of Part I, and concluded it as an Epilogue. I wanted God’s promise to be the note on which the work should end, a message of hope that the divinity would protect His creation throughout the seasons: “While earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall never cease.” These beautiful words are taken up by the choir and soloists contrapuntally and lead directly to the hymn: Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven, whose melody was woven into the closing section of Part One. Following Britten’s inspiration in Noye’s Fludde and St Nicholas, I invite the audience to join in the hymn, celebrating creation and the world that has been entrusted to us. Babel uses the chorus extensively to narrate both stories, as well as to evoke the terror of the flood and the exuberance of the construction of the tower. In addition to set pieces, such as the Nimrod baritone aria, and the soprano aria, “Do not fear the largeness of the showers,” the three soloists often sing together in close harmony as the other-worldly voice of God. The instrumental forces are relatively modest, with the piano duet supported by the sustaining power of the organ, backed by two percussionists. This sound world is redolent of those Britten masterpieces for amateur choirs, ensembles and audiences, which have inspired many composers since, and to which I too am gratefully indebted.
Noctunes
Still: Summerland - Orchestral Works / Schiff, Eisenberg, RSNO
All World Premiere Recordings!
Featured in the New York Times' "5 Classical Albums You Can Listen to Right Now"
William Grant Still, the “Dean of Afro-American Composers,” was part of the Harlem Renaissance and wrote nearly 200 works including nine operas and five symphonies. Still’s many awards included three Guggenheim Fellowships and eight honorary doctorates. His work combines Classical forms with jazz and blues idioms and was inspired by the rich tradition of African American spirituals. Still hoped that his music would serve a larger purpose of interracial understanding, and this joyous, moving and hauntingly beautiful program –featuring all world premiere recordings – is infused with Still’s love of God, country, heritage, and even his mischievous dog Shep.
REVIEW:
William Grant Still's music evokes the melting pot that makes up the American experience, incorporating sounds and textures from many genres, including blues, African-American spirituals, French impressionism, and more.
The three movements of the Violin Suite of 1943 fall in the traditional fast-slow-fast format, but the styles of each vary dramatically, with the second movement, "Mother and Child," a beautiful, passionate lullaby bordered by two dance movements. The final work, Threnody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius, was commissioned for a celebration concert marking the composer's 100th birthday. This work displays Still's adaptability, infusing aspects of the Romantic symphonic sound with mid-20th century modern American.
--Allmusic.com (Keith Finke)
All the items on this program are world premiere recordings, so I think it would not be amiss if some information were to be forwarded for the benefit of all those interested in this very special music.
Can’t You Line ‘Em (1940) captures the rhythm and spirit of the construction gangs, particularly those lining up railroad tracks. A CBS commission, this piece was premiered on 17 February 1940 with the CBS Radio Orchestra on their network program American School of the Air.
Originally composed as the second movement of three Visions for solo piano, Summerland (1936) is Still’s delicate description of the serenity and purity of Heaven.
Another work originally written for solo piano, Quit Dat Foolnish (1935) conjures up a jazzy romp with the composer’s mischievous dog, Shep. Still also wrote a version for solo saxophone and orchestra, transposed for this recording by Dana Paul Perna.
Pastorela (1946) is a tone picture of a Californian landscape, peaceful but exciting, arousing feelings of languor in some of its aspects, and of animation in others, presenting an overall effect of unity in its variety.
American Suite (circa 1918) is the composer’s first symphonic work. Still sent the parts of the American Suite to Chicago Symphony conductor Frederick Stock. In 1998, Still’s daughter Judith Anne shared the orchestral parts with Dana Paul Perna, who created the present score.
Fanfare for the 99th Fighter Squadron (1945), which resonates with pride, courage, and patriotic resolve, was composed in honor of the Tuskegee airmen who during WWII gave everything for the cause of peace and justice. This work was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Los Angeles Philharmonic on 22 July 1945 in commemoration of the end of war and the valiant service of those Airmen.
Serenade (1957) was originally intended as material for a cello concerto proposed by Still’s friend, the famous cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Instead, it became a commission by the Great Falls, Montana High School Orchestra, with its lush cello writing hinting at its conception.
The Violin Suite (1943) is a musical impression of three works of art. African Dancer is a stunning bronze statue by Richmond Barthe (1901-1989). Mother and Child is a poignant colored lithograph by Sargent Johnson (1888-1967). Gamin is a sassy bronze bust by Auguste Savage (1892-1962). These works were featured in The Negro in Art, a book published in 1940 by Still’s friend and champion Alain Locke (1885-1954). The book so impressed Edith Halpert (1900-1970), a Russian-Jewish refugee, visionary and art promoter, that she contacted Locke to promote an exhibition in her Downtown Gallery in New York. The exhibition opened on 8 December 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but despite the deep sadness that engulfed American society, this first major commercial showing of African American art in New York was a great success. Still rose to the occasion and translated the artists’ imagination into music full of verve, tenderness and very often charm.
The beautiful Threnody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius (1965) was commissioned for a concert in memory of Finland’s national hero, composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. Still’s tribute is a noble and haunting farewell, channeling the spirit and mystique of Sibelius the man and the composer.
This is a marvelously exciting hour of music by a composer of substance whose recorded catalog is still only average. Hopefully, Naxos’s advocacy for Still’s oeuvre will induce more labels and listeners to turn to this uplifting repertoire which is as moving as it is entertaining. Do not remain still to Still’s sound world. You will be missing an experience and you might come to regret that. A peach of an issue, superbly performed, recorded and annotated.
--Classical Music Daily (Gerald Fenech)
Artist Profile Series - SUMMERLY, Jeremy (6 CD box set)
Autumn Gold
Tippett: The Midsummer Marriage / Davis, Herincx, Et Al
So many of the expressions of our age have frowned in their contemplation of it, or have turned away to cultivate arcane, private gardens. But here was Tippett in 1955 expressing joy, boundless optimism and faith in beauty and humanity; doing so, moreover, with such richness of imagery that even those who loved it at first hearing were a bit taken aback by its overwhelming abundance.
As so often with his pieces, it took a while to sink in, and for players and singers to get their fingers and their vocal chords around those springing rhythms and sinewy lines. The moment at which that happened was the moment of this recording and the performances that preceded it. Remedios and Carlyle are not simply managing those exuberant hocketings above the stave in their final duet; you would swear that they were enjoying them, and as they do so the image of love as a consuming flame is vividly projected. Burrows and the adorable Harwood are audibly moved by how much tenderness and innocence there is in their music, and they make a real and most touching couple. Herincx is wonderfully suave and bossy as King Fisher; Watts not only survives her forays into the bass-baritone register but makes an awesomely Sibylline figure of Sosostris. And Davis, raptly in love with this score and communicating that to his singers and players so effectively that one is never aware of them gritting their teeth and counting beats as though their lives depended on it, reveals again and again the opera’s magical sonorities. It is a superb performance: after it one can hardly read those early reviews (“incomprehensible libretto”, “too much counterpoint”, “half an hour too long”) without laughing. The recording, too, communicates a real sense of live performance.
A masterpiece, in short, and one that can be listened to again and again without exhausting its exuberant generosity.
Michael Oliver, GRAMOPHONE (1/1996) Review of original CD release
Through Gold & Silver Clouds - British Music / Hughes, Camerata Wales
Sir Edward Elgar once described the sensation of flying in an aeroplane to Frederick Delius: 'There is a delightful feeling of elation in sailing through gold and silver clouds. It is, Delius, rather like your music - a little intangible sometimes, but always very beautiful.' On this disc, Camerata Wales - consisting of some of today's finest Welsh musicians - and conductor Owain Arwel Hughes bring together not only Elgar and Delius, but also Holst, Peter Warlock and Welsh composer Arwel Hughes (father of the conductor) in a programme which is certainly both elating and beautiful. St. Paul's Suite and Capriol are both works that have proved almost impossible to sit still to while listening, while in Arwel Hughes' Fantasia, based on 'an old ecclesiastical theme', it is an elegiac melody bathed in nostalgia that sets the tone. Delius's Cuckoo and Summer Night are the most English of all English music - even though the river portrayed in the latter piece is actually French: the Loing, flowing past Delius's home near Fontainebleau. These gems are framed by Elgar's Serenade for Strings, one of his best-loved works and glowing with an identifiably Edwardian warmth throughout, and his Elegy, whose brevity (it lasts around five minutes) belies its depth of emotion.
Sturm, Hans: Fireflight
Janáček & Haas: String Quartets / Currie, Escher String Quartet
While the concept of the programmatic and autobiographical quartet seems to have been introduced by Beethoven, nowhere has it been taken up more forcefully than in the Czech lands, as the works presented here attest. Leoš Janáček’s first quartet, subtitled ‘Kreutzer Sonata’, is based on a novella by Leo Tolstoy, which deals with such subjects as marriage, adultery and murder, all of which are evoked here by highly expressive music. The second quartet, the last major work he completed, is subtitled ‘Intimate Letters’. The special feature of this unique and miraculous quartet, full of love songs and eruptions, is the intense and euphoric expression of the composer’s inspirational and unrequited passion for a young woman.
Pavel Haas, who studied with Janáček in Brno in the 1920s, composed his second string quartet subtitled ‘From the Monkey Mountains’ in 1925. Although the composer claims that he intended to evoke ‘pleasant summer holidays in the country’, it seems that the work also evokes a love story. A surprise is in store for us in the final movement, entitled ‘A Wild Night’: percussion is added to the string quartet and contributes to the jazzy atmosphere. It is played here by the Scottish virtuoso Colin Currie.
REVIEW:
The Escher’s Janáček is highly recommended, especially to those of you who have not yet become dedicated Janáček freaks; those who have will need a variety of approaches to these highly charged quartets. The Haas should be a keeper for everybody.
-- Fanfare
Montmartre 1964 / Dexter Gordon
Bax: Orchestral Works Vol 9 / Bryden Thomson, London PO
BAX The Truth about the Russian Dancers. From Dusk till Dawn • Bryden Thomson, cond; London PO • CHANDOS 10457 (67:12)
This is Volume 9 of Chandos’s midprice reissues of Bryden Thomson’s extensive survey of the orchestral music of Arnold Bax. The good news for Bax fans is that these are two obscure but major works showcasing the composer’s distinctive and highly personal orchestral style. The bad news is that the music is not qualitatively on the same level as any of his symphonies or major tone poems. From Dusk till Dawn and The Truth about the Russian Dancers were composed respectively in 1917 and 1920 when Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes visited London and immediately captured Bax’s artistic imagination. The Truth about the Russian Dancers (at 46 minutes) is a major score (despite its ridiculous plot), and both works are replete with Bax’s typical colorful orchestration. These ballets also prove that Bax is not to be compared with Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, or Delibes as a melodist. Nevertheless, both pieces have their melodic moments. The lengthy and pivotal “Dance of Motherhood” from The Truth about the Russian Dancers is a characteristic Baxian lyrical effusion. “Karissima’s Farewell” is suitably dramatic in a gentle sort of way, and the final allegro vivace dance achieves a level of dramatic urgency worthy of Prokofiev, who seems to be Bax’s principal influence in these ballets. From Dusk till Dawn contains several examples of lovely tone-painting, such as the aptly titled “Summer Night at the Window.” This may not represent Bax at his best, but there is plenty of gorgeously orchestrated, never-before recorded music here for the adventurous listener.
Bryden Thomson is obviously totally committed to Bax and conducts the music with plenty of rhythmic vitality. The sound is unequivocally Chandos, but on the top end of their game. Any Bax-lover will thoroughly enjoy this worthy presentation of some of his virtually unknown ballet music.
FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen
Kodály: Háry János Suite; Symphony in C / Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic
Zoltán Kodály’s orchestral output is relatively small but brimming with Hungarian spirit. JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic (BPO) present one of the composer’s most popular works, the Háry János Suite, alongside Summer Evening and the Symphony in C major. Falletta and the BPO’s acclaimed previous Kodály album is on 8573838.
REVIEW:
This is JoAnn Falletta’s second recording for Naxos of music by Kodály and it is every bit as fine as that earlier one. It includes two works which deserve greater exposure than they have received. It also contains Kodály’s most popular orchestral piece, the Háry János Suite. There have been plenty of excellent accounts of this suite, particularly by such Hungarian conductors as István Kertész and Iván Fischer. Falletta holds her own against those, even if none I have heard surpasses Kertész in this music, including his 1964 recorded sound.
The primary reason to get this CD is the rarely performed Symphony in C, a piece that Kodály worked on over a long period beginning in the 1930s and completing only in 1957. It is an attractive and well-orchestrated work with memorable themes and characteristic of Kodály in its harmony and rhythms.
There is plenty of detail to be savoured and at the same time good, but not excessive reverberation. Another fine production from Naxos.
-- MusicWeb International
C.P.E. Bach: Fantasias / Häkkinen
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was widely known for his passionate, incomparable improvisations on the clavichord, most characteristically in the form of free fantasia. His compositions were unique in style, full of contrasts, and universally admired by several generations; the Vienna Classicists, even Beethoven and Schubert, considered him their musical father. Declamatory, improvisatory style is of course the epitaph of all 18th-century music – exemplified in Johann Sebastian Bach's Chromatic Fantasia BWV903, with its central recitative and broken chords audaciously passing through distant harmonies. Johann Nikolaus Forkel, author of the first Bach biography and part of C.P.E. Bach’s literary circles, transmitted a refined version in his manuscript (P 212) and subsequent edition that may derive from a revised original version once in possession of the Bach sons. C.P.E. Bach’s Fantasia in C minor (published in 1753) bears distinct similarities to his father’s Fantasia chromatica, and it has been suggested that it may in fact have been a tombeau to the elder Bach. The deep personal nature and connection between the two works is explicit. For Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and the ‘Bachists’, the most expressive and intimate compositions were reserved for the clavichord. It was in the clavichord that one might ‘find the soundboard of your heart. … Have no regrets when alone under the moonlight you improvise, or refresh your soul on a summer night, or when you celebrate a spring evening; ah! then pine not for the strident harpsichord. See, your clavichord breathes as gently as your heart.’ (Ch.F.D. Schubart: Musikalische Rhapsodien III, 1786) Charles Burney, who visited C.P.E. Bach in Hamburg in 1772, described the composer improvising at his legendary clavichord, built by Gottfried Silbermann: ‘He grew so animated and possessed that he not only played but looked like one inspired. His eyes were fixed, his lower lip fell, and drops of effervescence distilled from his countenance.’ The original 18th-century instruments heard on this recording – from Regensburg, Stockholm and Vienna – demonstrate possibilities the like of which would have been known to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin and Hamburg and ultimately derive from the Saxon school of G. Silbermann.
The Film Music Of Adrian Johnston - Brideshead Revisited / Davies
Directed by Julian Jarrold, Evelyn Waugh's novel, Brideshead Revisited receives its first cinematic adaptation this summer with a cast which includes Academy-Award winner Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Matthew Goode, Hayley Atwell and Ben Whishaw. The screenplay is written by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies. Brideshead Revisited follows the memoirs of Charles Ryder and his involvement with the Flyte family who own the Brideshead Estate. It relives the hedonistic days of 1920s Oxford University and tells an evocative story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence with particular focus on Charles's relationship with brother and sister, Sebastian and Julia and their mother, Lady Marchmain. Chandos is delighted to have been given the opportunity to record Adrian Johnston's soundtrack, the first original film score on Chandos Movies. Having won both BAFTA and Emmy Awards for his scores, Adrian Johnston has had an impressive career in television and film to date including Becoming Jane, Kinky Boots, The Mayor of Casterbridge and White Teeth. Adrian Johnston writes of the Brideshead Revisited recording "I was thrilled to have an opportunity to work with Chandos - a label whose philosophy I have always liked, and whose CDs of Philip Lane's fine film score reconstruction I have particularly admired. I know that to release a 'non historical' film score was somewhat of a departure for the label, but I hope that Brideshead Revisited can somehow exist as a Chandos product, and perhaps open up the way for future film music collaborations." The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by Olivier Award winner Terry Davies who has a wide range of credits in film, theatre and TV including Shakespeare in Love, Becoming Jane, House of Mirth and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Debussy: Evening in Granada
Langgaard: Complete Works for Violin and Piano, Vol. 3
AN EVENING WITH
AFTER DARK: A MIDNIGHT FANTASIA
Hildegard: Celestial Harmonies / Summerly
We remember Hildegard if nothing else for her 1980s "revival", or perhaps from Anonymous 4's hit 1997 recording featuring "Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula" (with the provocative title 11,000 Virgins). Her writings, her prophecies and visions, her poetry and music, and her founding and nearly 30-year leadership of the convent at Rupertsberg established Hildegard as one of the more remarkable and influential figures of her time; the question today is how to best present her music--long sequences of unison chant--which of course was intended for worship and prayer, not for "performance". Some have answered that question by arranging the melodies--for string quartet (Kronos Quartet), brass ensemble (Empire Brass), solo voice and cello (Matt Haimovitz, Eileen Clark)--or even "reworking" them with added percussion, whistles, electronic sounds, and cellos (Richard Souther).
Some performers seek authenticity by employing only female voices, but there is good evidence that her music also would have been sung during her lifetime by men. So this program, its selections taken from Hildegard's collection of 77 "poetical-musical" works known as Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the harmony of celestial revelations) and presented in their original, unadulterated form (no whistles, cellos, or tubas!), takes a very sensible and listener-friendly route: the eight responsories and antiphons alternate between one group of four women and one of four men. The contrast of timbres from track to track is a nice effect, and thanks to some very well-matched and impressively well-practiced voices, the inflections, phrasing, and even the smallest nuances of textual emphasis achieve the desired uniformity while retaining the interesting tonal character of four combined voices. (We shouldn't be surprised at the high level of technical and musical accomplishment demonstrated here--a glance at the list of singers reveals several of Britain's finest, most experienced and versatile choral musicians.)
Oxford's Chapel of Hertford College proves to be an ideal venue for this pure, unadorned, unaccompanied vocal music, and Jeremy Summerly's short but informative notes provide just enough details to give listeners new to this music a start in understanding the mystique of this fascinating and uniquely gifted celebrity from the 12th-century--a true Renaissance woman long before the Renaissance was invented.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
