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Victoria de los Ángeles - Complete HMV and La Voix de son maître Recordings

WARNER CLASSICS

$177.49 Dec 22, 2023

A singer who inspired the greatest admiration and affection, Victoria de los Ángeles was, in the words of Opera magazine, "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century". In the opera house, the recital hall and on recordings, she captured her audience's heart with a voice of beauty and warmth and interpretations of grace and sincerity. This 59CD box unites all the recordings in her Warner Classics catalogue, made between 1948 and 1977, and encompasses complete operas, collections of arias and a rich treasury of song, above all from the soprano's native Spain. "Communication should be the most important motivation for a singer," she said, "My only goal is to 'talk' to people through my singing so we can all enjoy the music together."

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Victoria de los Ángeles - Complete HMV and La Voix de son maître Recordings
WARNER CLASSICS Dec 2023
CD
$177.49

Granados: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 / Gonzalez, Barcelona Symphony

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 10, 2016

Enrique Granados is best-known for his piano music, especially the ‘Danzas Españolas’ and ‘Goyescas.’ Little regard is given to his chamber music, songs and orchestral works. Earlier this year I reviewed Volume 1 of the present series of orchestral music for MusicWeb International and concluded that it was a worthy project that explored beyond Granados’s normal repertoire and I looked forward to hearing the second installment.

The CD opens with what is probably the only one of the composer’s orchestral works to become a hit – the ‘Intermezzo.’ It was derived from his opera Goyescas (1915), which was premiered in New York on 28 January 1916. It was a by-product of the great piano suite. The composer described his opera as displaying in the ‘rhythm [and] colour, a portrait of quintessentially Spanish life and a sense of emotion that leaps from the amorous to the passionate, the dramatic or even the tragic…just as in Goya’s works you find aspects of both love and tragedy, and both quarrels and flirtations.’ The delightful ‘Intermezzo’ was composed very quickly just before the premiere, to accommodate a longer than expected scene change between the first and second acts of the opera. Its mood is of passion, drama with a hint of sultry sunshine and romance in the ‘big tune.’

The delightfully named ‘Danza de los ojos verdes’ (Dance of the green eyes) was first heard in New York’s Maxine Elliot Theatre just a few days after the opera’s premiere. It was presented as a part of an ‘evening of dance’ performed by Antonia Merce (1890-1936), who was billed as ‘La Argentina.’ The present short dance was written for, and dedicated to, Merce. It is an uncomplicated little piece that uses the usual ‘mechanics’ of a Spanish dance – tambourines, castanets, and ‘gypsy tinged orientalism’. It is a magnificent little tone-poem that depicts the flamenco celebrations in the Sacromente district of Granada.

The mood of celebration continues in the Danza gitana (Gypsy Dance), which was composed in 1915 and was dedicated to the dancer Carmen Tórtola Valencia (1882-1955). It is full of vibrancy, instrumental colour and Iberian rhythms. The liner notes point out that the composer used a large orchestra for this short work, which succeeded in ‘limiting its opportunities for performance.’ This three-and-a-half-minute dance would make an ideal ‘encore’ for any symphony orchestra, in Spain or elsewhere.

A very different mood is evoked in the major symphonic poem La nit del mort (Night of the dead man). It was subtitled ‘poem of desolation.’ The work, which includes a tenor solo and a chorus, was composed in 1897. As I understand it, La nit del mort was left unfinished by the composer and remains unpublished. I can only assume that it was completed by someone unknown. It is very much a work of two parts. The first section, as Rob Barnett has pointed out, is almost Delian in its subtlety and soft impressionistic mood. However, about halfway through things change. It becomes almost a mini-opera, with a tenor aria ‘I am death, my girl…’ The chorus insists that the ‘horns of war are sounding’ and that ‘those who die defending their country will be glorified and will not die.’ The ‘libretto’ is by Apel-les Mestres (1854-1936). As a piece, I am only partially impressed. The first section (which I love) is beautiful; the second (which I do not like) is bombastic, over the top and sub-Verdi in its effect.

‘Dante’ was premiered during June 1908 in Barcelona’s then new Palau de la Música Catalana. It was remarkably successful at the time, with performances in the USA, as well as at the Queen’s Hall, London with Sir Henry Wood. It subsequently fell into neglect. As the titles of the two ‘movements’ suggest, Granados took two important themes from Dante’s great poem: the meeting with the great Roman poet Virgil and the tragic love affair between Paolo e Francesca. In this latter movement the mezzo-soprano sings beautifully Francesca’s story. The composer suggested that it was not ‘my intention to mirror The Divine Comedy line by line, but to give my impression of a life and a work; the lives of Dante and Beatrice and The Divine Comedy are, for me, one and the same thing.’ The listener must not look for an Iberian influence in the pages of the two-part symphonic poem. The liner notes quote Carol A. Hess, who has pointed out that this is ‘a vast and sombre work with little hint of the traditional images of a lively, sunlit Spain…’ There are influences from Richard Wagner, César Franck, Alexander Scriabin and even the romantic side of Arnold Schoenberg. The harmonies are chromatic, rich and ‘voluptuous’. Tantalisingly, there exists a third movement of this massive tone-poem, ‘La Laguna Estigia’ (The Stygian Lake) but unfortunately there are only sketches. The work was originally planned to be in four movements.

All the music is finely played and performed by the soloists, the chorus and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Pablo González. Mezzo-soprano Gemma Coma-Alabert gives a stunning performance in the ‘Dante’. The liner notes are helpful in approaching this little-known music. They are written by Justo Romero and well-translated by Susannah Howe. They are also given in Spanish. The text of La nit del mort and ‘Paulo e Francesca’ are presented in both languages. Details of the performers are included.

– MusicWeb Internationsl (John France)

The first section shows González and his orchestra at their best, with grainy strings, piquant soft-edged woodwinds and a natural, musicianly way of shaping a phrase. Those qualities are all in evidence in two short gypsy dances and the familiar Goyescas Intermezzo; the slightly hazy Naxos sound complements performances that are affectionate and characterful.

– Gramophone

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Granados: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 / Gonzalez, Barcelona Symphony
Naxos Jun 2016
CD
$19.99

Echoes Of Spain - Albeniz / John Williams
Sony Masterworks Aug 1983
CD
$11.98

Falla, Granados & Albeniz: Flamencos

Marchvivo

$20.99 Nov 11, 2022

This is a remastered recording of the concert given by cantaora Rocío Márquez and pianist Rosa Torres-Pardo at the Fundación Juan March on November 28, 2014. It presents a selection of Spanish classical works interspersed with music from the folk tradition that inspired their composition. The flamenco singer–classical pianist duo interweaves works by Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados and Isaac Albéniz with popular Spanish songs (some of which were later harmonized by Federico García Lorca). The artists’ flamenco take on classical repertoire reveals the often neglected traditional origins of works whose composers drew on popular culture as they searched for the essence of Spanish music.

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Falla, Granados & Albeniz: Flamencos
Marchvivo Nov 2022
CD
$20.99

BEETHOVEN: DIABELLI VARIATIONS

ONYX CLASSICS

$20.17 Sep 29, 2023

In 1819 the publisher and composer Anton Diabelli invited 50 Austrian composers to write one variation a short waltz he had composed. He specified that it take up just one sheet (which he supplied) and this already contained his waltz. Composers such as Czerny, Moscheles, Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Liszt (just 10 years old), Schubert and Beethoven were among those invited. All except one provided their contribution. That one was Beethoven, who, electrified by Diabelli's Waltz produced a massive work comprising 33 variations which was completed after the composer had completed the Missa Solemnis, and the last three piano sonatas. He delivered it to Diabelli in 1823, making it his final masterpiece. This huge work is one of the peaks of the repertoire for solo piano, it still baffles the listener, it still has the capacity to reveal more than we thought we knew about it. It makes extreme demands upon the performer and the listener, and in a great performance never ceases to surprise and shock the listener.

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BEETHOVEN: DIABELLI VARIATIONS
ONYX CLASSICS Sep 2023
CD
$20.17

Monteverdi Edition

Brilliant Classics

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

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

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

CONTENTS:

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

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

CANCIONES ESPANOLAS

HYPERION

$18.49 Feb 12, 2013

On this album the young Spanish soprano Sylvia Schwartz, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, offers a deeply seductive collection of romantic Spanish songs. The recording includes works by Granados and Turina as well as less familiar composers such as Guridi, Toldr+i and Montsalvatge. Schwartz demonstrates her wonderful emotional and dramatic range in Granados's Tonadillas en estilo antiguo, a set inspired by the paintings of Goya, and her commitment to this repertoire is evident from her utterly enchanting performance of the folk-influenced songs by Guridi that set a beautiful series of Castillan melodies.

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CANCIONES ESPANOLAS
HYPERION Feb 2013
CD
$18.49

Saverio Mercadante, Quartets for Flute & Strings, Vol. 2

Dynamic

$16.99 May 16, 2025

Saverio Mercadante was one of the pioneers of Italian instrumental music in the first half of the 19th century, a period dominated by opera. His quartets for flute and strings show his willingness to evolve and experiment in the genre, and this selection illustrates his mastery of both the Quatuor brilliant and the Quatuor concertant styles. Technical agility, a varied use of tone colours and harmonic richness mark out these very different and individual works. The performances employ the latest critical editions by Mariateresa Dellaborra.

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Saverio Mercadante, Quartets for Flute & Strings, Vol. 2
Dynamic May 2025
CD
$16.99

Red Seal - Songs Of The Spanish Renaissance Vol 1 / Caballe
Sony Masterworks May 2003
CD
$11.98

MOZART: Piano Variations, Vol. 2
Naxos Aug 1993
CD
$19.99

LA TRAVIATA
WARNER CLASSICS Nov 2009
CD
$27.96

Bach: Variations & More

Fra Bernardo

$32.99 Jan 20, 2017

This CD of the Italian harpsichordist and organist Maurizio Croci is dedicated to keys works of Bach, which were designed for both organ and harpsichord. Frequently Bach transformed his compositions between the two keyboard instruments back and forth in order to get a better understanding of the relevant technical and idiomatic possibilities and limitations. As a keyboardist, Bach was admired by all who had the fortune to hear him and was the envy of the virtuosi of his day. The cornerstone of this album is Bach’s thirty variations. This admirable work includes a regular four part Fugue, several extremely brilliant Variations for two Claviers, and concludes with a Quodlibet, as it is called. Born in 1958 in Melk, Wolfgang Gluxam studied harpsichord with Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and organ with Alfred Mitterhofer at the Vienna Conservatory. He has won prizes at international competitions, and has been teaching harpsichord at the Vienna Music University since 1985.

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Bach: Variations & More
Fra Bernardo Jan 2017
CD
$32.99

CANCIONES ESPANOLAS
Arte Verum Jul 2006
CD
$20.99

Vivaldi: Il Farnace / Sardelli, Prina, Galou, Nesi, Castellano [dvd]

Dynamic

DVD

$36.99 Jun 30, 2015

Also available on Blu-ray

Il Farnace is the most re-written and re-proposed of Vivaldi’s operas. Versions of Farnace, two in 1727 and one each in 1730, 1731 and 1732, were conceived and adapted to the different circumstances for Venice, Prague, Pavia and Mantua, always with a cast to Vivaldi’s satisfaction and with the composer in control of the production. The greatest appreciation of Vivaldi’s operatic music was expressed in a letter by a spectator of the 1727 Carnival season. The abbot Antonio Conti wrote that of all the operas of the Venice season he liked best Farnace because its music was varied, “between the sublime and the tender,” and because Vivaldi’s pupil worked wonders. In 1738, for the Ferrara Carnival season, Vivaldi wrote a new score of the opera. This is the last Farnace, in two acts, as the third was lost.

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Vivaldi: Il Farnace / Sardelli, Prina, Galou, Nesi, Castellano [dvd]
Dynamic Jun 2015
DVD
$36.99

Bach: Goldberg Variations Bwv 988 / Charles Rosen
Sony Masterworks Jul 2008
CD
$17.99

Rojotango / Erwin Schrott

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Apr 19, 2011

The music of South America, steeped in sultry passion, irresistible dance rhythms and melancholic reflection is a unique challenge for the vocal and interpretive abilities of a great singer. Rojotango promises to reveal new facets of Erwin’s sensuously dark, chocolaty voice.

The imaginative and intriguing repertoire features a varied and exciting selection of passionate tangos by Astor Piazzolla, Pablo Ziegler and Juan Carlos Cobian as well as a number of evocative Argentinean and Brazilian folk songs.

"Magnificently devilish, charming and irresistible." - The New York Times

"He sang and acted rings around everyone else, showing a gorgeous, dark, versatile bass. Young, hyperkinetic and hunky, he is a boring singer’s nightmare." - Opera News

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Rojotango / Erwin Schrott
Sony Masterworks Apr 2011
CD
$11.98

KURT MASUR: THE COMPLETE WARNER CLASSICS EDITION

WARNER CLASSICS

$157.67 May 13, 2022

Kurt Masur's achievement is defined above all by his relationships with two orchestras exemplifying vastly different traditions. Having spent some 20 years as Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, which traces it's roots to the 15th century, he became the transformational music director of the New York Philharmonic, an embodiment of the New World. Through all this, his musical integrity remained consistent. As the New York Times wrote: "He brought to the podium the ardent conviction that music-making was a moral act that could heal the world." Masur himself put things more simply: "My goal is meaningful playing... What counts is to be able to communicate the composer's meaning to the audience... When I conduct Beethoven, I wouldn't like to replace Beethoven. He should be in your mind, not me." This 70CD set consolidates the entirety of the catalogues that Masur built for EMI and Teldec between 1974 and 2009.

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KURT MASUR: THE COMPLETE WARNER CLASSICS EDITION
WARNER CLASSICS May 2022
CD
$157.67

Mystery Variations On Giuseppe Colombi's Chiacona

Toccata

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Jan 29, 2013

MYSTERY VARIATIONS ON GIUSEPPE COLOMBI’S CHIACONA • Anssi Karttunen (vc) • TOCCATA 0171 (79:57)

COLOMBI Chiacona. KAIPAINEN Anything Goes. MATALON Polvo. REYNOLDS Colombi Daydream. COHEN Chaconne. TIENSUU Bleuelein. STUCKY Partite Sopra un Basso. SALONEN Sarabande per un Coyote. CAMPION Something to Go On. WALLIN Ciacconetta. ORTIZ Paloma. HEININEN Triple Antienne. HILLBORG Still and Flow. LERDAHL There and Back Again. PUUMALA Se Sillan. DUSAPIN 50 Notes in 3 Variations . HAKOLA Colombi Variation. DUN Chiacona After Colombi. NEIKRUG Tiny Colombi. YUASA Locus on Colombi’s Chiacona. WIGGLESWORTH Arietta. MATTHEWS Drammatico. SAARIAHO Dreaming Chaconne. FEDELE Preludio and Ciaccona. GLOBOKAR Idée Fixe. DAZZI Variation Sombre et Libre d’après Chiacona. TUOMELA Idulla. JOLAS A Fancy for Anssi. SRNKA A Variation. FRANCESCONI Anssimetry. LINDBERG Duello

Mystery Variations contains 30 different short works based on Giuseppe Colombi’s Chiacona. Colombi who lived from 1635 to 1694 replaced Giovanni Bononcini as maestro di cappella of the Modena Cathedral in Italy in 1678. The Chiacona is only one of an enormous number of pieces he wrote for various instruments, chamber groups, and orchestras. It is, however, said to be the oldest piece written for the cello. The music is part of a collection from the court of Francesco II of Este at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena. The idea for the Mystery Variations came from composer Kaija Saariaho and Muriel von Braun, the wife of cellist Anssi Karttunen, as a means of celebrating the cellist’s 50th birthday. They asked each of 30 composers to write a variation on the Chiacona . None of the composers knew who else had been asked and Karttunen promised to premiere music that he had not yet heard. Most of the variations range from just under two to just over three minutes long, so all of them fit on one disc. Few of these variations are truly melodic, most depend on texture, drama, percussion, and tonal color to excite the senses of the listener. Only one of the composers, Colin Matthews, uses electronics. Mark Neikrug and Magnus Lindberg use the letters of the cellist’s name as part of their variations. Some composers, such as Tan Dun, who was born in China and Pablo Ortiz from Argentina, make use of their native cultures while others, like Argentinian Martin Matalon and Texan Edmund Campion turn elsewhere. Matalon creates novel textures and far off sounds with a mute while Campion includes some aspects of Happy Birthday in his variation. Roger Reynolds’s Colombi Daydream , evokes an element of foreboding, while Jukka Tiensuu’s Bleuelein and Paavo Heininen’s Triple Antienne have plaintive, pleading qualities.

Composers like Steven Stucky, Kimmo Hakola, Joji Yuasa, Ivan Fedele, and Magnus Lindberg are fully aware of Karttunen’s virtuosity and have written works that show off some of his skills. Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Sarabande for a Coyote starts with the cello sounding a bit like a harp, before introducing some charming harmonies that expand the usual cello range. Rolf Wallin’s Ciacconetta has sliding arpeggios that resolve into an impressive dance. Lerdahl’s There and Back Again uses the dance to guide us from Colombi’s time forward to our own and back again. Anders Hillborg’s Still and Flow treats us to his seriously studied version of Bach. The in-your-face style of Veli-Mali Puumala’s… Se Sillan… is rather unique and it added a bit of spice to the mixture on this disc. Kartunnen follows it with Dusapin’s 50 Notes in 3 Variations, an inventive and intuitive work that resolves into a tone color-filled meditation. Also in the meditative mood, Ryan Wigglesworth’s Arietta offers more respite from the dramatic. Kaija Saariaho’s Dreaming Chaconne portrays a pastoral scene with her full-blooded sound vocabulary. In Idée Fixe, Vinko Globokar asks the cellist to sing and I found it a distraction. Gualtiero Dazzi’s Variation Sombre et Libre d’après Chiacona brings us a sweet and smooth melody played in the cello’s lowest notes. Idulla means germinating and Tapio Tuomela brings us a fantasy that includes tonal color and percussion. Betsy Jolas’s A Fancy for Anssi creates rivers of sound that broaden out to reflect fragments of Colombi’s theme. Miroslav Srnka, on the other hand, uses slides and double-stops to make us hunt for the theme while Luca Francesconi makes use of it openly but varies it in unexpected ways. The finale is Magnus Lindberg’s Duello , a dialogue between the Chiacona and music based on the cellist’s full name. It ends with a pleasing melody that leaves the listener feeling that the music was worthwhile hearing. The sound on this disc is excellent and I think many of our readers will find it interesting.

FANFARE: Maria Nockin

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Mystery Variations On Giuseppe Colombi's Chiacona
Toccata Jan 2013
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Spanish Piano Concertos / Melani Mestre, Orquesta Filarmonia Iberica

Haenssler Classic

$20.99 Feb 05, 2021

Commanding a vast repertoire of more than 100 concertos for piano and orchestra by Spanish composers (Granados, Malats, Albeniz, Blancafort, Falla, Cassado, J. Gomez, E. Serrano, Molleda, etc), and others (including Astor Piazzolla, Xaver Scharwenka, Nikolai Medtner and Ignaz Paderewsky), Melani tenaciously champions the little known and often neglected hidden treasures of Spanish and International Classical Music repertoire, showcasing them in his performances as a solo pianist, in Chamber Music, and as an orchestral conductor. Now he releases unknown Spanish Piano Concertos. Recognized as “one of the world’s elite virtuous musicians” by international critics (“The Daily Telegraph” – 1997, London), Melani Mestre studied music at the Superior Municipal Conservatory of Music of Barcelona, They give London the renowned Russian pedagogue Sulamita Aronovsky (piano) and Sir Colin Davis (orchestra conductor). Since his debut with the Dortmund Festival Orchestra in 1998, many have collaborated with some of the best orchestras in the world, both in his role as solo pianist and conductor director.

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Spanish Piano Concertos / Melani Mestre, Orquesta Filarmonia Iberica
Haenssler Classic Feb 2021
CD
$20.99

Pablo: Los Novisimos & Vendaval
Stradivarius Jun 2010
CD
$18.99

Music Of Spain - Rodrigo, Falla, Albeniz / Williams, Entremont, Ormandy, Stokowski

Sony Masterworks

$24.99 Apr 22, 2011

The Rodrigo concerto (double woodwind, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and strings) needs real virtuoso playing—it is one of those works which are harder than they sound—but is most skilfully written. The cheerful first movement, starting up with typical Iberian belatedness from apparently idle introductory strumming, may make the most immediate effect, but undoubtedly the finest part of the work is the introspective Adagio, which shows that in the right hands even such seemingly cliché-bound elements as melancholy cor anglais solos and quasi-flamenco fiorilure can still be moving. Williams's reading differs somewhat from Bream's (which I still think superb): he takes the first movement a thought slower and just misses Bream's élan, but gives the finale actually more bite: he plays the slow movement sensitively, less dramatically and more dreamily than Bream (and incidentally changes the notes of the final arpeggio). It is a throughly musical performance, a worthy rival to that by his distinguished fellow-countryman.

-- Gramophone [7/1966]
reviewing Concierto de Aranjuez on LP

-------

This is not a record for purists, but never before on disc have I heard a performance of the vividly atmospheric Falla ballet anything like so involving as this. Stokowski may indulge in some souping up of the texture in the haunting "Pantomime", but I confess that that is how I have always wanted to hear it, and the brisk songs and dances (not just the "Ritual Fire Dance") have a dramatic bite that conveys the freshness of excitement that must have attended the first appearance of a ballet which so patently extended from Russia to Spain the new and exotic medium developed by Diaghilev. Diaghilev himself certainly appreciated its potential quickly enough with the ensuing Three Cornered Hat.

Shirley Verrett makes a superb soloist, characteristically rich-toned most of the time but from time to time flinging at us impressive imitations of raucous flamenco chest-tone. The recording, larger than life, dates from the early sixties, but it is still impressive, rich and atmospheric.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone
reviewing El Amor Brujo on LP

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Music Of Spain - Rodrigo, Falla, Albeniz / Williams, Entremont, Ormandy, Stokowski
Sony Masterworks Apr 2011
CD
$24.99

Leif Ove Andsnes - The Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010

WARNER CLASSICS

$98.12 Apr 12, 2024

Leif Ove Andsnes is a leading pianist of his time, known for his exceptional musicianship and subtil touch, his considerable technical flair being unfailingly put at the service of his interpretations. He was a pioneer for being the first home-trained superstar pianist to have emerged from Norway. This box is the story of a 20-year partnership that has yielded a rich seam of recorded treasures, first for Virgin and then for EMI. Running through this cornucopia of 34 albums (36 CDs), we find recurring themes: Grieg (Andsnes even recorded some Lyric Pieces on the composer's own piano at Troldhaugen), Nordic music in general, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Schubert.

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Leif Ove Andsnes - The Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010
WARNER CLASSICS Apr 2024
CD
$98.12

MARIA CALLAS: 100 BEST CLASSICS
WARNER CLASSICS Jan 2007
CD
$18.56

New Music with a Caribbean Accent – 5 Bocetos / Conjuros / Descarga / Glosa a la Sombra / Trio Tropical / Vestigios Rituales
Naxos May 2007
CD
$19.99

Cilea: Gloria (1932 version)
Bongiovanni Jan 2005
CD
$35.99