Vivaldi: Concerti With Bassoon 2

"Frans Berkhout is an outstanding virtuoso ... and surmounts any apparent difficulties, and is able to make the music sing without any of the antics of another well-known bassoonist of the age. Flautist Georgia Browne is the perfect duetting partner ... A thoroughly enjoyable disc that I happily recommend." --Brian Clark in Early Music Review, October 2011

Antonio Vivaldi is by far the most prolific composer of concertos in musical history; around 475 of his concertos have survived. As a celebrated virtuoso violinist, it is not surprising that he composed mainly for violin, either as soloist or in the concertante group. But Vivaldi also demonstrated a keen interest in other melodic instruments of the period, enriching their repertoire with imaginative and virtuosic compositions. His second choice of solo instrument is, surprisingly, the bassoon. His 39 concertos for bassoon with strings and continuo remain somewhat of an enigma. They are the first such works in history, and there is no indication for whom they are written nor why there are so many. It is possible that they were written for a student virtuoso at the Ospedale della Piet�, where Vivaldi served intermittently throughout his career, and one visitor indeed listed the bassoon among the instruments he heard there, but there are no records of a bassoon teacher nor of the purchase of any such instrument. Furthermore, the instrument is conspicuously absent even among those typical Piet� showcases of rare instruments, such as the oratorio Juditha Triumphans of 1716

A Noble Entertainment

The young, vibrant musicians of The Parnassian Ensemble spotted a gap in the early music market and have filled it with flair, producing a debut album of original music for two recorders and continuo from the time of Queen Anne, most of it not previously available on disc. The only ensemble in England concentrating on this repertoire, the Parnassians relish in introducing to audiences this fine, original, early eighteenth-century English recorder music which would otherwise remain virtually unknown. 

The enthusiastic reception led them to commit their expertise to disc. Since its formation in 1998, The Parnassian Ensemble has gained a reputation for its virtuostic performances and innovative programming.

The Harp of Luduvico

Fantasias, arias and toccatas by Frescobaldi and his predecessors

GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE

'This is a quite stunning record. Treat yourself to it, even if it means pawning something you can live without' --Gramophone

'This is a stunning record' --Fanfare, USA

Telemann & 18th C. Dance Manuscript

"The disc makes fascinating listening (�) The Holland Baroque Society performs Telemann with vigour and panache. Recorded sound is vivid." --International Record Review

"(�) these are lively performances: the two guests bring a lot of spirit to their work, and the ensemble players are clearly cought up in the fun." --American Record Guide

"(...) All the music here is exotic and very entertaining and the performances are very lively (...) this collection is a real eye-opener." --Musicweb international

It goes without saying that Telemann had a thorough command of the French and Italian styles. Countless ensembles, including ours, have played such pieces. In �Barbaric Beauty� we follow a completely different path by focussing on Telemann's Polish style. At least, this is how he described the pieces he wrote after discovering the music played along the Polish-Hungarian border. It was at the beginning of his career, when he was just 25 years old, that he heard sounds that were to inspire him throughout his life.

On this recording Holland Baroque Society meets Milo� Valent - specialist both in Baroque music and 18th-century Central- European folk music. They play folk music from the heart of Europe, and Baroque music influenced by folk music from Telemann, among others. This program demonstrates the centuries-old influence of �popular� music on �art� music: a kind of world-music avant la lettre. Supported by cimbalon-player and flautist Jan Rokyta, Holland Baroque Society and Valent show the influence of folk music on baroque art-music, and highlight two important aspects shared by both styles: �groove� and improvisation. Alongside the Concerto �Polonois�, they present dance music from the folk-music collection Melodarium/ Szirmay-Keczer, melodies and dances from the Uhrovec Collection (1730), collections from which Telemann chose his favourite folk tunes. Beyond this, you never quite know what'll happen when Milo� arrives�

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Concerti

In Wilhelm Friedemann Bach�s opus orchestral music played a significant role. In spite of their difficult technical demands these works cannot be regarded merely as pieces for show. The present CD demonstrates how thoroughly they are worked out and what a high level they attain. A particular highlight of this CD is the world premiere release of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach�s Flute Concerto in D. This concerto was recently discovered in 1999 among the music archives of the Berlin Singakademie in Kiev by Prof. Christoph Wolff (Harvard University). These archives were previously believed to have been lost. �This one�s a gem!� Classics Today

Borodin: Symphonies Nos. 1-3

�[the Second Symphony's] usually leonine, masculine profile is lightly feminised here...but how the melodies flow, with characterful contributions from first clarinet and horn...Schwarz's players take delight, and so do we.� --BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 *****

�After rather plodding its way through the First Symphony, the Seattle Symphony responds to Borodin's deeper feelings in the Second with some terrifically rich and imposing playing...A bonus is the attractive and discernibly Slavic 'edge' to the orchestra's string tone, particularly low down.� --Classic FM Magazine, September 2011 ***

�Three cheers to the Seattle Symphony for championing Borodin�s symphonies, particularly in such fresh, lithe performances...Gerard Schwarz shows how virile the symphonies are, and how worthwhile it can be to explore other areas of the Romantic Russian repertoire than the usual Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff...This is glorious music, played with character and vitality.� --The Telegraph, 30th June 2011 ****

�Schwarz and his Seattle Symphony deserve awards for venturing where many conductors and orchestras are nowadays unwilling to tread. These performances are very fine, with the First beautifully expansive, and the Second lean and taut without losing its poetry. The bucolic Third is too hard-edged for my taste, though it's nicely played...it's a fine disc and a terrific bargain. Treat yourself.� --The Guardian, 11th August 2011 ****

The Bible

There are few stories as epic as those contained within the Bible, so it should come as no surprise that the History Channel's five-week, ten-hour television mini series of the same name would tap a veteran composer of countless epics, Hanz Zimmer, to provide the score. Bolstered by Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard and Scottish composer/Zimmer understudy Lorne Balfe, Zimmer's take on biblical times is similar to the one he took on 2006's Da Vinci Code (that film's lovely and expansive "CheValiers de Sangreal" seems to be the springboard for many of the Bible's themes), deftly balancing heavenly choral arrangements and circular melodies with explosive action cues, resulting in a score that's about as subtle as the parting of the red sea.  --allmusic.com

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto & Clarinet Quintet

�Better recorded performances of these towering masterpieces may exist, but I have never heard them. In their technical proficiency, style consciousness and broad, yet never exaggerated emotional range, they shine as major achievements.� --International Record Review, 2011 edition

�Martin Fr�st plays Basset clarinet with the extra low notes of Mozarts presumed orginal version and succeeds in getting them unusually well in tune.His light,lively approach to the outer movments and his inward but not over-solemn reading of the Adagio are well matched by the chamber-sized Amsterdam orchestra.� --BBC Music Magazine, nov 2003

In the liner notes to this disc, Swedish clarinetist Martin Fr�st is described as a �daring performer� who has �stretched the limits of musical expression�, likely owing to his frequent collaborations with several contemporary composers including Anders Hillborg and Krzysztof Penderecki. �Daring� does not leap to mind when describing Mozart, and happily Fr�st himself does not flaunt his presumed reputation when tackling these popular works. While some may find Fr�st�s readings on the �cool� side, it is largely because they are just so perfectly executed and pristine that you are left hopelessly grasping for something that might be missing. After all, what ultimately determines Mozartian performance standards but the expectation of technical perfection? In no small part aided by the redoubtable Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Vertavo String Quartet, Fr�st steals the show with his sultry tone, sensitive phrasing, and utterly beguiling pianissimos, momentarily making us forget that several other great performances of the Concerto have graced the catalog for decades. - See more at:

Schubert: String Quartets Nos. 13 & 14

�The Doric Quartet play with passion, but there is relaxation, even wit, in both these works, and the Doric seem to be eager to stress the prevailing darkness at the expense of warmth and lyricism, which is so notable in the A minor Quartet. They play with notably little vibrato, so the impression of coolness is increased.� --BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 ****

�The Dorics have enormous flair for this kind of music, getting comfortably under the skin of music written by Schubert when he was about the same as their average age and displaying a similar degree of maturity and insight� --Gramophone Magazine, October 2012

�imaginative and exciting...The A minor�s opening shows the Doric�s alertness to the quintessentially Schubertian combination of nervous, obsessive rhythm and songlike melodic lines...The D minor is very fine, culminating in a tingling presto finale whose whispered, ghostly pianissimos make the sudden outbursts all the more ferocious.� --Sunday Times, 23rd September 2012

Jan�cek: Orchestral Suites from the Operas Volume 3

��accomplished playing from the New Zealanders, and Naxos's sound is rich with depth.� --Gramophone Magazine, December 2009

With this disc Naxos completes its acclaimed recordings of Peter Breiner�s powerful and evocative orchestral suites from Jan�cek�s operas. In very different ways, The Cunning Little Vixen and From the House of the Dead both reflect on love and loneliness, life and death, good, evil and the human condition, with some of the composer�s most effective music.

The final volume in Breiner�s expansive extractions from Jan�cek�s operas

The suite usually performed from Jan�cek�s The Cunning Little Vixen, arranged by Talich in the 1930s, is a 17-minute diptych using material from Act 1 only (ie up to the point of the Vixen�s bloody escape from the Forester�s yard) and is based on a reorchestration Talich commissioned that was easier to play. Breiner�s returns to the original and runs to nearly 40 minutes. Breiner�s first two movements follow the same basic trajectory as Talich�s but the suite then takes off with the Vixen�s courtship and eventual marriage to the Fox over the next two spans. The fifth movement deals with the Vixen�s desperate hunt to feed her cubs and eventual death at the hand of the poacher but the brief finale (�Vixen is Running�) lights up the orchestra with its paean to nature.

Hope of a different kind underlies From the House of the Dead, Jan�cek�s final opera. Here Breiner has started with the Overture (related to the music of the Violin Concerto) and proceeds once again through six highly coloured movements running to over 35 minutes. The hard edge of Jan�cek�s scoring, devoid of the vocal elements, becomes even more telling.

Breiner himself conducts, securing accomplished playing from the New Zealanders, and Naxos�s sound is rich with depth. --Guy Rickards, Gramophone, December 2009

Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works 4

�Gardner's interpretative decisions vary from Lutoslawski's, swifter in the fast movements, very slow in the Poco adagio...The composer had the balance between them just right but Gardner is very persuasive...Highly recommended.� --Gramophone Magazine, May 2013

�[Little] finds the soft-edged energy of the Partita and traces a broad melodic arc in its central Largo. All the performers show their awareness of the work's indebtedness to Baroque gesture.� --BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 ****

�The BBCSO and Edward Gardner, in the latest of this excellent series, capture the range of moods eloquently.� --The Observer, 17th March 2013

�the violin concertos [are] notable for their expressive intensity, a quality matched by Tasmin Little�s performances. Finally, Michael Collins relishes the solo opportunities of Dance Preludes for clarinet and chamber orchestra� --Financial Times, 16th March 2013 ****

�[Gardner's] ear for detail, a feature of all these Chandos releases, brings out colours and associations which you might have missed in other versions...This is as vibrant and engaging a performance of this symphony as I have ever heard on record...a series of recordings which has to be considered a worthy new reference in some of the best music the 20th century has to offer.� --MusicWeb International, 23rd April 2013

Vivaldi: Concertos & Cantata with Bassoon 1

These are magnificent performances from bassoonist Frans Robert Berkhout. He was lead bassoonist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Amsterdam Bach Soloists. As a baroque bassoon and dulcian player he joined many authentic ensembles such as the Leonhardt Consort, La Petite Bande and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. La Suave Melodia was formed in 1998 and have since been highly acclaimed in both the concert hall and the recording studio.

This second CD with the highly esteemed baroque ensemble La Suave Melodia features Frans Berkhout on the baroque bassoon. This is a unique collection of concerti and even more so because of the small number of musicians accompanying. Next to that, Frans Berkhout plays a type of bassoon used in the time of Vivaldi gives a strong and passionate
 

For Frans Robert Berkhout (1950) the bassoon was love at first sight. From his sixteenth year Frans Robert received lessons from Brian Pollard, solo bassoonist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, who also encouraged him to start playing on period instruments. For many years he played in several orchestras, e.g. the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Amsterdam Bach Soloists and the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam. As a baroque bassoon and dulcian player he joined many authentic ensembles such as the Leonhardt Consort, La Petite Bande and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Frans Br�ggen).

La Suave Melodia was formed in 1998 to explore the trio sonatas of Dietrich Buxtehude and the Pi�ces de Clavecin en Concerts of Jean-Philippe Rameau. They met with immediate success as prize-winners in the 1998 Van Wassenaer Concours for Early Music and have since been highly acclaimed in both the concert hall and the recording studio. Their first CD on the Etcetera label (with the world premiere of Johannes Schenck's Giardino Armonico) has been acclaimed as �one of the best new releases of the year 2007�, and �a magnificent recording�.

Mendelssohn: Works for cello & piano

�The Watkins brothers play Mendelssohn's life-enhancing Second Cello Sonata with an infectious vitality and lyrical radiance that is unforgettable...The Variations concertantes receives a desert island performance that brims over with infectious bonhomie.� --Classic FM Magazine, February 2012 *****

�The two sonatas lie somewhere between Beethoven and Brahms but still have Mendelssohn's own stamp of fresh individuality...There have been plenty of recommendable recordings of this music...but this finely balanced and recorded Chandos CD now stands high on the list of recommendations.� --Gramophone Magazine, December 2011

�This glittering, calm sub-oeuvre fits compactly on a CD and is beautifully performed by the versatile Watkins brothers...The cellist�s tone in Op 109, as throughout the sequence, combines the most immediate speaking quality (though absent, words seem imminent) with an immaculate shining loveliness� --Sunday Times, 27th November 2011

�The Watkins' extraordinary fraternal partnership resonates with Mendelssohn's own relationship to his cellist brother, Paul. Here, Huw (a composer and pianist) and elder brother (a cellist and conductor) combine to create performances of warmth and intelligence. Their Variations concertantes are irresistably ebullient: there's real fire in the belly of the fourth variation...these are good performances with a true Mendelssohnian spirit.� --BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

�The fluency of Mendelssohn�s ideas, his polished craftsmanship and the music�s generally sunny disposition are matched by playing that has real verve, expressive finesse and an infectious romantic spirit.� --The Telegraph, 2nd December 2011 ****

Rossini: Arias

"A natural comedienne, she combines a vivacious stage presence with graceful, finished phrasing and an apparently effortless coloratura technique . . ." Gramophone, June 2013

"She tosses off Rossini's elaborate writing with the greatest of ease. This is an impressive Rossini recital." --Classicalcdreview.com, July 2013

"Dazzling . . . Kurzak combines a warm and richly colored low register with tireless, technically precise fireworks . . . the theatrical fearlessness of her delivery and the fluidity of her phrasing throughout make this an enjoyable and deeply impressive offering." --San Francisco Chronicle, August 2013

A natural comedienne, she combines a vivacious stage presence with graceful, finished phrasing and an apparently effortless coloratura technique . . . [she is] triumphantly celebrating her erotic power in the Act 2 "Rond� e finale" from "Matilde di Shabran" . . . Without ever over-egging the pudding, Kurzak acts vividly for a "blind" audience, alive to verbal nuance and using coloratura not merely as a vote-catching circus trick, but to enhance character. Lustily abetted by the Sinfonia Varsovia, she is especially good at generating a crescendo of delirious, dizzying glee that is such a hallmark of Rossini's comic art. But this is not all about frolicsome virtuosity and bright-pinging top Ds and Es. Kurzak can find warmer, deeper . . . colourings within her silvery soprano . . . [a] tenderly sculpted performance of Amenaide's prayer in "Tancredi" . . . she rails with passionate ferocity as the banished wife in the rarely aired "Sigismondo" and catches the mingled dreaminess and excited anticipation of Semiramide's "Bel raggio lusinghier" . . . elegance of style and expressive delicacy (she always cares for the text) . . . Kurzak brilliantly caps her recital with Fiorilla's Act 2 scena from "Il turco in Italia", beginning in intense pathos and ending in coruscating bravura . . . This regularly brought the house down at Covent Garden, and on this evidence it's easy to hear why. --Record Review / Richard Wigmore, Gramophone (London) / 01. June 2013

Paul Kletzki: Piano Concerto, Etc

"Joseph Banowetz is masterly in all these works, none of which could be described as easy to play. More than merely negotiating the challenges, he proves to be a genuine interpreter. Sanderling and the Russian orchestra provide good support (in what is definitely a supporting role), and the sound is excellent." --Fanfare, January 2011

Treated �like a son� by Wilhelm Furtw�ngler and admired by Toscanini as both composer and conductor, Paul Kletzki was active as a composer between 1921 and 1942, relinquishing this creative outlet to become famous solely as a conductor.

All the works on this disc are adventurous, sometimes improvisatory, tonal pieces which push the pianist�s technique and musicianship to the limit.

The Fantasie is a colossal work of highly contrapuntal music, a sonata comprising four movements joined together within a single continuous movement, while the Piano Concerto may be counted among the most significant twentieth-century contributions to the genre.

Joseph Banowetz has been described by Fanfare as �a giant among keyboard artists of our time.�

Mozart: Concertos K 242, 365, 466 (2 & 3 Pianos)

This reissue offers one major work, the Piano Concerto in D Minor, coupled with recordings of pieces that I would guess musicians like to play for the sheer, uncomplicated fun of it: the concertos for two and three pianos. (All the concertos here were recorded in 1989.) The three-piano work was written for an aristocratic patron, Countess Maria Antonia Lodron, to play with her two daughters. The problem was that daughter number two was evidently not a good pianist, so Mozart wrote a particularly simple part for Giuseppa (played here by Georg Solti).

 

 The two-piano concerto was written so that Mozart himself would have a piece to play with talented Viennese students. It�s a more sparkling work, but neither piece, however good-natured the composer�s intentions, ranks that high in Mozart�s �uvre. That said, they both are treated respectfully and played well by Georg Solti and his two auxiliary pianists, who make the Adagio of the Three-Piano Concerto more touching than I�ve heard it before.

It�s charming to hear the measures of that concerto that Mozart wrote for his least-talented patron, but it also reminds me that some of Mozart�s greatest moments, even in the Piano Concerto in D Minor, come in passages a pianist could play with two fingers, such as the four quarter notes in measure 49 of the Rondo of this piece, which Rubinstein plays as written to incomparable effect and which Solti decorates. I have always thought that the sublime simplicity of those notes was the point: Solti sees them as a sketch. Still, his is a wonderful recording by a man who is obviously an important conductor and a fine pianist. This is not my favorite recording: there are others starting with Schnabel and Rubinstein. Yet orchestra and pianist play beautifully together, Solti with energy and drive.

-- Michael Ullman, FANFARE

Frank Martin: Concerto For 7 Winds, Etc

The Concerto for seven wind instruments, percussion and strings [21.29] was premiered in 1949 and in its pawky humour owes somewhat to Stravinsky. The soloists imbue it with its full meed of character. I single out Celia Chambers for her delightful way with the flute part bringing out its relation with the Nielsen Flute Concerto. Philip Tarlton's bassoon serenading is chortled with great style. Ravel's Valse flickers alight at 5.23 in the Allegro but the second movement (typically of calmer character), in fact, is quite troubled among the undoubted elegance. A sour darker note recalls Kurt Weill's wind writing. 

The Allegro Vivace is lively and the trumpet's roulades even suggest a Genevan Arnold but there is yielding emotion as well as an anxious glance cast over the shoulder. Nightmares from the last war were still alive. The work was premiered in 1949.

The Studies for String Orchestra (1956) [20.47] was given its first performance by the insatiable Paul Sacher many of whose commissioned works have formed mainstays of the repertoire. This work is clean of line, troubled, varied and severe. There is a flighty tranquillo, a grandly satisfying pizzicato (brilliantly recorded by Chandos) seeming to picture an orchestra of wavering balalaikas in Spanish dress. The Allegro giusto is limber but does not give way to any overt romance.

Erasmi Monumentum (1969) is scored for organ and orchestra. The title reference is to Erasmus. The Homo pro se movement takes its title from the name by which Erasmus was known by his contemporaries. Dignified and slowly swelling its clean yet unglamorous counterpoint builds steadily. The organ comments discreetly and ending all in an ocean of calm. The Stulticiae Laus is almost knockabout - cackling and goading along the way. Querela Pacis (plea for peace) does not shrink from protest but its resolves into tranquillity. This was written, presumably, as a response to Vietnam.

The recording quality is in the reliably pellucid Chandos house style for the 1990s. This is an indispensable series neatly flanked by Richard Langham Smith's notes.

These works are not similarly coupled on any other disc.

Rob Barnett, musicweb-international.com

Grieg: Violin Concertos (based on the sonatas for violin and piano)

�The arrangements, clever and imaginative, are for the most part strikingly successful; the intense drama of the opening Allegro of Op 45 is well served by the sustaining power of the strings, and the colourful sonorities heard in the finales of Opp 8 and 13 accentuate the verve and energy of these ebullient pieces. And the orchestration of the first page of Op 45�s Andante as a flute solo sounds really beautiful.

�Kraggerud�has provided its players with some very attractive repertoire and they clearly respond with enthusiasm, producing performances that are precise, alert and expressive�thoroughly recommended.� --Gramophone Magazine, July 2013

 Everyone loves Grieg. Everyone wishes he had written more orchestral works in large forms. Well, now he has, more or less. I have to confess that I had some qualms about this project to arrange the three violin sonatas as violin concertos, especially on reading the statement, �In these arrangements the solo violin is set against a string orchestra augmented by wind instruments in order to retain the feel of chamber music.� After all, if you want to �retain the feel of chamber music,� why not just stick to the originals?

In turns out that listening is believing. These are superbly made arrangements. The fact is that Grieg�s writing for solo violin in a duo sonata is naturally quite different from the kind that would have been necessary in a romantic concerto for violin and large orchestra. The use of restrained forces is thus entirely appropriate, and by having four woodwinds on hand�one each of bassoon, clarinet, oboe, and flute�there�s just enough contrast to prevent monotony and color the orchestral melodies effectively. Try, for example, the bassoon solo at the start of the F major Concerto�s central Allegretto (sound clip). It�s delightful�just right.

The concluding bars of the Second Concerto�s finale basically summarize all that can be done to transform Grieg�s piano original into a work for string orchestra (second clip). To facilitate comparison, and show how effective these arrangements truly are, I also provide the violin and keyboard original (third clip). Violinist Henning Kraggerud is more than just an able transcriber (along with colleague Bernt Simen Lund). He is the excellent soloist and leader of the very fine Troms� Chamber Orchestra. They sound lovely together�by turns robust, delicate, and always sensitively balanced. The result couldn�t be more natural.

This beautifully recorded release has to be accounted one of the most successful projects of its type ever realized, and this is certainly one of the best discs of the year. -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The World of Borodin

Decca's "The World of ..." series have been of variable quality, but for this issue, the selection is exactly on the mark. This CD presents all the major works of Borodin and provides a wonderful snapshot of his music. The three excerpts from Prince Igor are dramatically played, full of Russian vigour and energy. Sir Georg Solti injects power and grandeur into the London Symphony Orchestra, and one would be hard-pressed to find a more lyrical Polovtsian Dances.

Borodin's meagre chamber music output is represented here by the Nocturne from the Second String Quartet, ravishingly played by the Borodin Quartet. The song For the shores of your far-off native land is yearningly performed by the Ghiaurovs, while Ashkenazy plays stylishly in the Scherzo. The collection comes to a thundering conclusion with the rousing Second Symphony, a work to place alongside those of Peter Tchaikovsky.

This well-filled disc is great value for money, and will surely be of interest to anyone who enjoys full-blooded, powerfully nationalistic, late Romantic Russian music. There is no other compilation that offers such a satisfying overview of Borodin's musical career, so get it! -- I.K.

Deux � deux � Harp and Horn Duets from the Age of Enlightenment to Romanticism

The title of this CD is named after a piece of the same name by the two artists themselves Masumi Nagasawa and Teunis van der Zwart. Van der Zwart has become a worldwide ambassador for the natural horn.

Masumi Nagasawa is one of the few harpists to perform on the modern Grand Harp, thesingle action harp, the Irish harp, and the kugo (or Japanese ancient harp). She received the Muramatsu Music Prize Grand Prix Japan in 1990.

Her partner here, Teunis van der Zwart, has undertaken numerous recordings and tours with outstanding ensembles including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Orchestre des Champs-Elys�es, and many more.

Satie: Complete works for piano four-hands

Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866�1925) was born in Honfleur, of a Normand father and a Scottish mother. He rates as one of music�s true originals � a real �one-off �. After his studies as an organist, and then a period as a rather unsuccessful concert pianist having studied with several eminent teachers (he hated the rules of academic life), he enrolled in the French Army. This didn�t solve his problems with life either, so he deliberately contracted bronchitis and was invalided out after being declared unfit for service.

It was after this sad episode that he started to compose, and his earliest published work was Valse-Ballet. Satie then entered the life of Parisian nightclubs, absorbing all the influences of sound and life on offer, becoming friends with Debussy � they met when Satie had got a job as second pianist at a club. Satie had developed a unique way of composing � a kind of musical freehand � and was introducing complex chord structures that would come to influence Debussy. His music attracted the attention of such leading figures as Diaghilev, Picasso, Ravel, Stravinsky and Cocteau. Even so, Satie had a feeling that he wasn�t being taken seriously as a composer, and embarked on a three-year counterpoint study with Albert Roussel. The piano four-hands form has a long and distinguished history with many major symphonic works by Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky published in this form for a wide domestic market. For many years the great classical composers� works had appeared in this form, including works by Mozart and Schubert, who wrote specifically for piano four-hands.

In the days before LPs, CDs and MP3s this was how music was heard in the home. This CD contains some of Satie�s most important works � Parade, written for Cocteau, Rel�che, Gymnop�dies Nos. 1 and 3, and his so-called �Furniture music�, Musique d�ameublement of 1917.

Piano Duo Sandra & Jeroen were established in 1987, and since then have toured extensively.

They have also made over 40 CDs. They teach, adjudicate, and have a passion for bringing music to unusual locations such as railway stations!

Jan�cek: Orchestral Suites from the Operas Volume 2

�the Naxos sound�is satisfyingly deep and wide�Breiner�does capture some of the opera�s distinctive rhythms and colours�just listen to those dashes of Taras Bulba starting at 1:52. Also, there is some lovely, tender playing at the start of the second movement, while in the third�where K�t�a looks forward to her clandestine meeting with Boris�Breiner conjures up vivid, authentic-sounding harmonies; there is more dramatic thrust here as well, although perhaps the sharper edges of Jan�cek�s score are somewhat blunted.

 

I particularly liked the free-flowing music of Intermezzos and Songs (tr. 4), where Breiner teases delectable sounds from his orchestra�the New Zealand Symphony�with flair and character throughout. The lovers� brief moments of happiness are glowingly done, but before long we are plunged into the final movement and the approaching storm. This pivotal event is a lightning rod for all the opera�s pent-up emotions, rendered by Jan�cek in music of extraordinary tension and power. Yes, Breiner is exciting here and he does capture the pain of K�t�a�s dilemma, but in this arrangement we lose sight of the opera�s broader span, its cumulative tension.

�The New Zealand Symphony sound thrilling here [The Makropulos Affair], Wellington Town Hall a good match for Breiner�s more expansive view of the score�Breiner finds a good balance between lyricism and drama, seriousness and absurdity, in tracks 8 and 9. In the end Emilia is within reach of that elusive potion but decides to embrace death instead. Despite the absurdities of the plot Jan�cek�s potent score makes it remarkably easy to suspend disbelief, nowhere more so than here.

�Some listeners will enjoy this selection of tunes; others will surely prefer the emotional and musical maelstrom of the operas themselves. --MusicWeb International, July 2009

Johann Christian Bach: Concerti

�� the FBO duly demonstrate their passionate ensemble-playing and urgent tone in the overture to the opera Il tutore e la pupilla� with fizzing tremolandi in the opening movement and healthy weight given to the more shapely melodic lines of the central Andante. The same goes for the other symphonies on offer; there is nothing wispy and wan here.� --Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

In the 1770s Johann Christian Bach may have been among the most successful and prosperous musicians in all of Europe. In the 18th century the youngest son of Bach was regarded as the most famous and successful members of the Bach family. However, it appears his reputation faded even during his lifetime � today he is known by many only as a forerunner of Mozart. The new recording of five of his orchestral works, a sequel in the Carus CD series with instrumental music of Bach�s sons, shows that his music has been unjustly forgotten and that definitely it breathes its own independent spirit. Similar to Mozart, the �Milan Bach,� later known as the �London Bach� knew how to pour his varied musical experiences into his works and thus achieve his own unique style. Johann Christian Bach preferred colorful instrumentation in his compositions and he experimented with different solo instruments. His works are characterized by noble elegance and the cantabile style of the Italian opera aria.

Later generations of musicians accused Bach of making composition too easy. The present recording shows most clearly that on this CD every piece is an inspired, original work of great music. These are brilliant pieces that showcase the musical trademarks of the Freiburger Barockorchester �outstanding artistic level of performance, joy in experimentation, and a passion for playing � which here are once again realized to the highest degree.

Vivaldi

"I've realized that even more that what is beautiful about the accordion is to play with a single finger sometimes, with a very pure, very pointed sound that gives a lot of poetry and emotion." - Richard Galliano on Vivaldi. A seasoned performer of jazz and French folk music, renowned accordion player Richard Galliano still approaches every piece with delicacy and excitement. 

The end result is a new take on even the most traditional and popular pieces. On Vivaldi, Galliano re-imagines (and re-arranges) one of the most performed pieces of all time, making it refreshing and groundbreaking yet familiar because of the accordion's warm, classic sound.

"The themes are constructed like songs: simple, repetitive melodic cells that can be developed. It's optimistic music. Even in the 'Winter' concerto. It ends with a great deal of energy, a great deal of hope, in a highly virtuoso fragment." - Richard Galliano on Vivaldi, 2013

Brahms & Clara Schumann: Violin Concerto, Romances

�Even before Lisa Batiashvili makes her entrance, we can sense this will be an outstanding performance of the Brahms. Finely balanced, spacious recording, with woodwind and horns well placed, highlights the fine orchestral playing...Batiashvili, too, finds a wholly convincing equilibrium between her bold, passionate entry and the more reflective music that follows...Batiashvili and Alice Sara Ott are splendid advocates for the Clara Schumann Romances.� --Gramophone Magazine, April 2013

 

�Batiashvili�s Brahms is beautifully played and makes rewarding listening but this is a most crowded catalogue...the Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann provide the finest imaginable support. In the Clara Schumann Romances Alice Sara Ott demonstrates what a fine recital pianist she has become.� --MusicWeb International, 15th May 2013

�this performance is lively and warm, partly thanks to Batiashvili, who sets the dominant tone in her darkly sensuous opening line...And throughout Batiashvili remains herself: less showy than some but deeply responsive to the music�s inner workings and its colours.� --The Times, 18th January 2013 ****

�Batiashvili can always justify revisiting a popular work such as the Brahms Violin Concerto. Her reading of this tough masterpiece is more lyrical than combative, but there is a tensile quality throughout. Speeds are well judged and the Dresden band play winningly.� --Sunday Times, 27th January 2013

�The concerto is engrossingly done, with the first movement majestically shaped and

 the finale sensibly paced so that we appreciate its logic as well as her panache. And she does indeed play the Adagio like a declaration of love.� --The Guardian, 7th February 2013 ****