0
Berlioz: Overtures


“... a vivid , large-scale recording that brings out Berlioz’s detail really clearly, of which the excellent Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra players make a great deal. I personally feel the Berlioz’s textures are most truly rendered by instruments of his time, in the brass especially, but the playing here is satisfyingly mellow and vibrant, with warm strings and sturdy woodwind, yet also refreshing and translucent. This is aided by Andrew Davis’s tempos, fairly spacious and unforced but never slack, and now and then sizzling... a welcome release.” --BBC Music magazine – April 2013  - Performance ****   Recording *****

 


"...Sir Andrew Davis conducts these colourful and inventive scores with panache and he secures colourful, rhythmically precise performances from the Norwegian orchestra which plays with zest throughout the programme. The Chandos recording is up to the usual high standards of the house - I listened to this hybrid SACD as a CD - and Hugh Macdonald’s succinct notes are ideal. If you’re looking for a set of Berlioz overtures - a highly desirable addition to any collection - then this disc has very strong claims on your attention." --John Quinn - MusicWeb-International.com - 4 March 2013

“ ... [Davis] on fine form here with the Bergen Philharmonic. The opening to the Corsaire holds no terrors for them ... The lesser-known overtures reveal their virtues well.  Davis, abetted by an excellent recording, responds vividly to Berlioz’s pioneering orchestral textures...” --John Warrack – International Record Review – February 2013

0
Massenet: Ballet Suites


Most French operas from the middle of the 19-th century included ballets, as a lightweight intermezzo amidst the highly dramatic action of the opera. Jules Massenet was especially successful in the genre, and his ballet suites from his operas have surpassed the operas themselves in popularity. This CD contains the delightful and colourful suites from Le Cid,Thais and Cendrillon, evoking the atmosphere of the respective stories and fairytales of the operas.

Sir Neville Marriner and his Academy of St. Martin in the Fields perfectly capture the beauty, sensuality and drama of this immensely attractive music.



During the mid-19th century, it was traditional for all operas performed in Paris to have a ballet sequence inserted into one of their acts. One of the most prolific and celebrated opera composers of the era was Jules Massenet; this fantastic CD surveys ballet suites taken from three of his most popular works in the genre, all of which were written at the height of his career.

The release begins with one of Massenet’s most highly regarded compositions, the Le Cid suite of 1885. Based on the story of the Castilian nobleman Rodrigo, who was responsible for saving Spain through his defeat of the Moors, the work comprises a series of picturesque movements brimming with dance rhythms drawn from different regions, and is followed by the composer’s Cendrillon suite – a masterpiece of orchestral writing that draws its material principally from the Act 2 ball scene.

In the concluding suite, we move from Cendrillon’s fairy-tale enchantment to the spiritual Thaïs, which takes as its basis the tragic legend of a courtesanturned- saint and includes some of the French composer’s most sombre music. Although history has not taken kindly to all of Massenet’s operas, the suites heard here have remained enormously popular as concert pieces, testament to their quality and appeal. With Le Cid’s inventive use of percussion and Thaïs’s religious treatment of the organ, this collection abounds in colourful orchestration that recalls the grandeur of 19th-century Parisian opera. It’s an ideal purchase for the Romantic ballet connoisseur.

0
Schreker: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2


‘Sumptuous late-Romantic music performed with tremendous passion and intensity by Sinaisky and the BBC Philharmonic in resplendent Chandos sound. More than any previous interpreters, Sinaisky succeeds in harnessing the ebb and flow of Schreker’s musical invention with greater conviction, finally persuading the sceptics that this composer deserves serious consideration alongside his Viennese contemporaries Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Berg.’ --BBC Music Magazine Critic’s Choice on CHAN 9797





"...The playing of the BBC Philharmonic under Sinaisky is superb and the recording is in the demonstration class. Intelligent liner notes." --The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

'As I have said the playing of the BBC Philharmonic under Sinaisky is superb and the recording is in the demonstration class'. --International Record Review

‘The BBC Philharmonic’s playing is warmly expansive, and the recording captures every nuance of the ever changing textures.’ --The Guardian on CHAN 9797

0
Purcell: Ayres for the Theatre


Recognised during his lifetime as a genius, Henry Purcell subsequently influenced countless classical composers from Handel to Britten.

'Classic accounts deserving a place in anyone's CD collection' --BBC Music Magazine

"A charming disc first issued in 1987 with a super clear sound and at a budget price. ... beautifully played and recorded. And, at £5.99 a bargain. I hope it will encourage people to explore Purcell 's music and his world!" --MusicWeb International





0
Safri duo: Works for Percussion


Danish natives Uffe Savery and Morten Friis met in 1977 while participating in the Tivoli Garden Boys' Guard and later attended the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music. The two created an experimental project called Safri Duo. Discovered by a label executive working for a classical department, they teamed up with a trance producer and signed with Universal Denmark in 1999 to make a dance/club record that combined traditional ethnic and last generation instruments. Safri Duo won a Danish Music Award for Best Danish Club Hit with "Played-A-Live (The Bongo Song)," released worldwide in January 2001.





0
Roman: Solo Concertos


Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Anthony Halstead

"Our Roman set out as a great musician and returned greater still." On his return from England, "the Swedish virtuoso" inaugurated a series of public concerts in Stockholm, the first of their in Sweden. He himself was presumably the soloist in some of the solo concertos presented in this recording.







0
Bartók: Works for Violin and Piano Volume 2


“Ehnes gives a stunning account of the Solo Sonata. The impression is that he's simply following all Bartok's meticulous direction...and adding nothing extra. If this seems boring, the effect is anything but: clarity of articulation, beauty of sound, the ease with which he surmounts the technical challenges, and deep understanding of the work's structure and character; all these combine to make a performance that's exciting and enthralling.” --Gramophone Magazine, January 2013

BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice - March 2013



“Big toned yet poetic, Ehnes is a persuasive interpreter.” --The Observer, 20th January 2013

“Needless to say, the score [of the Solo Sonata] holds no terrors for Ehnes who delivers a magisterial performance...Ehnes and his excellent pianist, Andrew Armstrong, make the best possible case for reappraising the early Violin Sonata of 1903, dismissed by the composer as a mere apprentice work.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2013 *****

0
Balakirev: Orchestral Works


“Altogether the Chandos set offers a good introduction to Balakirev's orchestral work…” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 ****

Sinaisky’s opening Largo [Symphony No. 1] is, to my mind, ideally paced and weighted so that it conveys an appropriate sense of awe and wonder… I was very impressed with this performance… --Fanfare on CHAN 9667 (Balakirev, Symphony No.1 etc.)

It is a warm and inventive score and has the benefit of sumptuous Chandos recording. --Classic FM Magazine on CHAN 9727 (Balakirev, Symphony No. 2 etc.)



Admittedly of variable quality, the compositional output of Mily Balakirev includes symphonic poems, two symphonies, concertante works for piano and orchestra, and numerous solo piano pieces and songs. His importance as an influence on the development of a Russian national style in music has long been recognised, but much of his music awaits wider discovery and performance. Originating as early as 1864, the First Symphony was only finished in 1897, and when Balakirev conducted its first performance in 1898 it was to prove his last public appearance as conductor. The musical material is extremely simple but developed with remarkable resourcefulness. At the age of twenty-two Balakirev wrote incidental music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, and the Overture, which manages to combine strict sonata form, including introduction and epilogue, with a neat musical synopsis of the play, reveals a talent that has been said to equal that of the mature Beethoven in his music to Goethe’s Egmont. In Bohemia, which began life as an ‘Overture on Czech Themes’ in 1866 – 67, but whose revised and reorchestrated version dates from 1906, draws on popular songs that are slow and reflective, lively and merry, and rhythmically complex at a moderate tempo. The orchestra is among the largest Balakirev ever required.

The Second Symphony occupied Balakirev from 1900 to 1908. It offers another taut sonata form, rich in chromatic effects, in the first movement, while the Scherzo alla cosacca is one of his finest creations. The Piano Concerto in F sharp minor is the single movement that Balakirev completed of an intended larger work; dating from 1855 – 56, it is a long, virtuosic movement, classical in scope, which Balakirev performed for the first time at a university concert in 1856, his St Petersburg debut. Tamara, the first ideas for which came to Balakirev as early as 1867 but which was completed in 1882, is inspired by Lermontov’s poem of the same title. Balakirev’s masterpiece, it is one of the finest products of a cult of the oriental and exotic which was popular in the music of nineteenth-century Russia.

0
Quantz: Flute Sonatas Nos. 272-277


Verena Fischer (transverse flute), Klaus-Dieter Brandt (baroque cello) & Léon Berben (harpsichord)

"this new one with Fischer, Brandt, and Berben is fantastic. If any recording can make a flute lover out of me, this one is a strong candidate. Quantz’s music is tremendously imaginative, ever inventive, and infectiously enchanting. Most assuredly recommended." --FANFARE: Jerry Dubins




Johann Joachim Quantz was one of the 18th century’s most prolific composers, yet most of his music remains unpublished.

A pioneer of the ‘mixed taste’ combining French, German and Italian elements, and an important figure during the transition from Baroque to Classical styles, Quantz wrote an impressive body of work for the flute-playing Frederick the Great at whose court he served for more than three decades.

These six Flute Sonatas rank among his very best, exemplifying his exquisite taste and masterful technique.

0
Chopin: Cello Music


“Brantelid's performance with the vivacious violinist Vilde Frang is entrancing. They draw us in to an engaging narrative and enjoy the play in the finale...an impressive cellist and definitely one to watch.” --BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 ****

“The Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid is only 23, but, with his Armenian pianist, he reveals astonishing maturity, bringing youthful freshness and vigour to a work championed on disc by Rostropovich and du Pré” nday Times, 7th March 2010 ****




“[Brantelid’s] interpretations...reveal a stylistic insight, elegance and emotional power to match his striking technical aplomb. This is an imaginative and fruitful combination of young talents on a disc that will be relished long after the bicentenary year is over.” --The Telegraph, 26th January 2010 *****

“Brantelid’s ability to reach the emotional core of a work is as evident here as on his previous disc, particularly in the Sonata...The overall sound is warm, technically perfect, and imbued with a youthful enthusiasm that is underpinned by interpretational maturity.” --Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 15th January 2010

0
Schumann: Violin Concertos, Fantasie in C


“Marwood's tone is notably characteristically focused with a notable sweetness which is matched by Wallin...Boyd and his Scottish players set ideal tempi in outer movements, enabling Marwood to negotiate fearlessly the fairly awkward and largely middle-range-lying solo writing...Utterly winning and authoritative.” --Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - November 2012





“[Marwood's] tone is sweetly centred, and avoids excessive contrasts between the upper and lower strings, so equalisation is the name of the game. So, too, is a certain chamber-scaled approach, with give-and-take with the orchestral wind principals...Marwood and Douglas Boyd keep the music on the go and bring out its felicitous colour” --MusicWeb International, December 2012

“There's little Marwood can do to disguise the shortcomings of the solo writing [of the D minor concerto], or the repetitions of the finale, but he and the BBC Scottish Symphony under Douglas Boyd go at it with a great deal of enthusiasm, with the solo line very prominent in the sound picture.” --The Guardian, 29th August 2012 ***

“in a performance as strong and imaginative as this one by Anthony Marwood its impact is considerable. The sinew of the first movement, with its bold opening statement and toughness of inner workings, is contrasted with the mellow, reflective lyricism of the central slow one...There are firm Schumann fingerprints all over the score, and it fully merits the passionate advocacy that it receives here” --The Telegraph, 6th September 2012

0
The Very Best Of Mozart


Naxos’s two-disc collection, The Very Best of Mozart, includes a generous selection of music by the prolific eighteenth century Austrian composer. The only works that are presented complete are the pieces in a single movement, and the album is made up mostly of individual movements from larger works. The set includes a variety of pieces from the many genres of which Mozart was a master, including symphony, opera, church music, serenades, orchestral music, keyboard music, and chamber music. 




The tracks are taken from CDs from Naxos’ archives. Most of the performances are serviceable and the sound quality is adequate. The program notes don’t list the performers but instead point the listener to Naxos’ website for full information about each track. --Allmusic.com, December 2010

0
Arias for Guadagni


GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2012

“Through his effortless line, countertenor Iestyn Davies revivifies Guadagni's Orphic powers...Whether drawing out sustained notes or knitting together filigreed coloratura, he is a paragon of gallant taste: poised, cool, elegant...Jonathan Cohen and his ensemble Arcangelo capture the rapid, unexpected twists of the younger Bach's radical imagination...this [is] a refreshingly ambitious and superbly realised recording.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 *****



British countertenor Iestyn Davies is one of the fastest rising stars on the concert and opera circuit. Following his highly acclaimed recording of Porpora cantatas, he returns for a second solo album with Hyperion, a selection of arias written for Gaetano Guadagni. Italian-born Guadagni was the first ‘modern’ castrato, famed all over Europe for the lyric purity of his voice and his powerful, naturalistic acting style.

Not only did he enjoy a close artistic relationship with Handel, who nurtured Guadagni’s voice to fit the alto roles in his English oratorios, but he effectively created the role of Orpheus in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, an opera he thoroughly made his own. Here, Iestyn Davies is joined again by the renowned period-instrument band Arcangelo, directed by Jonathan Cohen.

0
Bainton: Orchestral Works


“The BBC Philharmonic under the sympathetic baton of Paul Daniel seem to enjoy the experience, and the engineering is as ripe as accommodating as we have come to expect from Chandos.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

“Delius with a splash of Eric Coates. Bainton is worth knowing, and is strongly espoused in these premiere recordings by Paul Daniel and the excellent BBC Philharmonic.” --BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ****




“All four works were composed prior to Bainton's permanent move to Australia in 1934, by far the most ambitious being the Concerto fantasia for piano and orchestra which won Bainton his second Carnegie Award. It is cast in four movements, launched by a solo cadenza destined to reappear at salient points throughout the work's half-hour course. Margaret Fingerhut's limpid pianism proves tailor-made for such a gorgeously lyrical, tenderly poetic and subtly integrated offering, which bids farewell in the sunset glow of a somewhat Baxian epilogue.

Bainton himself was the soloist for the 1921 world premiere of the Concerto fantasia in Bournemouth, where it shared a programme with the extremely fetching Three Pieces for Orchestra (1916-20). These grew out of incidental music for two Shakespeare productions in Ruhleben Camp near Berlin, where Bainton was held during the First World War, and are followed here by another most attractive triptych, the Pavane,Idyll and Bacchanal that Bainton wrote in 1924 for amateur groups but which requires a high level of technical expertise.

Unheard for the best part of a century, the four-movement suite The Golden River (1908, but revised four years later) derives its inspiration from a short story by John Ruskin and packs plenty of touching and colourful invention into its 16-minute span.

The BBC Philharmonic under the sympathetic baton of Paul Daniel seem to enjoy the experience. Excellent sound.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

0
Debussy: Nocturnes; Ravel: Daphnis Et Chloe Suite No. 2, Pavane; Scriabin


It seems that at some point DG made some of its best recordings with the Boston Symphony and a wide variety of guest conductors: Abbado, Tilson Thomas, Steinberg, Bernstein, and Jochum. The performances collected here are wonderful. The BSO has always been acclaimed in French repertoire, and at this point in his career Abbado had not yet turned into the fussy micromanager that he is now (at least most of the time). And Scriabin also is French, to the extent that he’s anything at all.


 


This version of the Nocturnes is certainly the best by this orchestra, and one of the best by anyone. Consider the opening of Fêtes: perfect tempo, ideal transparency of texture, and bright trumpets that provide power without stridency (sound clip). These qualities grace the two Ravel items equally, and work equally well. The Daphnis Second Suite, alternately poetic and exciting, with its chorus parts intact, also ranks with the best on disc.

As for the Poem of Ecstasy, a work you either love or hate, it proceeds in a seamless arch of opulent excess, from mysterious opening to the concluding blast of sound. DG’s remastered sonics are very good–not state of the art for today, perhaps a touch dry, but a slightly lean sonority suits the music well, even the Scriabin (especially if you have a low tolerance for schmaltz). A great collection. -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

0
Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 16 & 21


“her performances are characteristically thoughtful – too much so for my liking. Pires’s approach is more high Romantic than late Classical, constantly oscillating between loud and soft, fast and slow, with the sort of artful phrasing that, instead of suggesting the music’s architectural scale and emotional anguish, ends up limiting them. She is at her most persuasive in the central movements of D845 and the Scherzo of D960” --Financial Times, 9th February 2013 ***





“Pires has recorded Schubert's B flat major Sonata D960 before, as part of a series of Schubert discs for Erato in the mid-1990s, and in terms of timings the two performances are often strikingly similar...What remains unchanged is the patience with which Pires allows Schubert's music to unfold so naturally that nothing seems forced or contrived.” --The Guardian, 21st February 2013 ****

0
Schreker: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1


"This sequence of six pieces presents a good cross-section of his output, demonstrating Schreker’s development ... Schreker had a wonderful sense of fantasy, a feeling for colour, and impressive mastery of the orchestra. The textures are lush and overheated. Sinaisky draws seductively beautiful playing from the BBC Philharmonic, heightened by gloriously rich Chandos sound, and the whole disc serves to advance Schreker’s case." --The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12





Sumptuous late-Romantic music performed with tremendous passion and intensity by Sinaisky and the BBC Philharmonic in resplendent Chandos sound. More than any previous interpreters, Sinaisky succeeds in harnessing the ebb and flow of Schreker’s musical invention with greater conviction, finally persuading the sceptics that this composer deserves serious consideration alongside his Viennese contemporaries Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Berg. --BBC Music Magazine Critic's Choice

The BBC Philharmonic’s playing is warmly expansive, and the recording captures every nuance of the ever-changing textures --The Guardian

0
The Trio Sonata in 18th-Century France


London Baroque presents a disc charting the Trio Sonata in 18th-century France - a musical environment undergoing rapid changes following the death of Louis XIV in 1715.

In 1725 François Couperin published his Apothéose de Lulli, advocating a fusion of Italian and French styles, and the following year saw the collection Les Nations, which included L’Impériale recorded here.





Jean-Marie Leclair and his colleague (and great rival) Jean-Pierre Guignon took the idea one step further. Both were fêted violinists as well as composers, and wrote music mainly for their own instrument in an often virtuosic style.

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was not known as a performer, and composed a large number of small-scale works aimed at wealthy amateurs.

0
Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV244 · Final performing version, c. 1742

“The thread of intensity is achieved largely by the focus and roundness of the Dunedin Consort's palette, the thrusting legatos (when called for) and the welcome presence of a strong, directed bass-line. No recorded St Matthew Passion…comes without its blemishes but few parade such a compellingly fresh and raw realism.” --Gramophone Magazine, April 2008

“From the word go, the Dunedin Consort draws you in. The instruments are perfectly balanced, the playing is soulful, there are subtle swells, and the lilting tempo strikes a happy medium between pace and sobriety.” --Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, March 2008


“One-to-a-part Bach infiltrated the St Matthew Passion with Paul McCreesh in 2002. I described him then as 'provocative and compelling', and John Butt is no less so. Of his eight remarkable singers (plus two unison sopranos for the opening chorus' crowning chorale) several are barely out of college, but they match spine-tingling tone with astonishing maturity.” --BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 *****

“Having swept the board with their Awardwinning Messiah, John Butt and the Dunedin Consort and Players proceed headlong into the summa of dramatic religious masterpieces. One imagines, however, that this highly singular approach has been marinating in Butt's mind for years. This is a reading (the first to draw on the 1742 performing version with its re-allocation of continuo instruments) where scholarly and musical penetration is indivisible in the strength of the approach and the unswerving commitment of the 'players'.

And 'players' they are – except that Butt argues here for a new dramatic understanding of the Matthew (note the curious de-sanctification) where the work challenges the notion of 'parts' in an opera, towards various 'voices' which reflect the listener's absorption of the conflicting positions – both biographical and emotional – of the main protagonists and the most far-flung thresholds of human experience.

This is achieved using the main singers, from the eight principal voices, in different contexts. Hence, as Butt explains in his illuminating note, the Evangelist may rally us to lament as an allegorical 'Daughter of Zion' in the opening chorus before darting in and out of the story in recitatives, chorus, aria and chorales, mixing up the past and present, first person and third person, in a web of intense and coherent narrative and reflection.
All of this presupposes a one-to-a-part troupe where all these subtle character combinations can be perceived. With such a spectacularly clear and balanced sound from Philip Hobbs, these ambitious perspectives are powerfully realised; refreshingly, too, Bach's 'novel in sound' is presented in a small inter-reliant ensemble without the need for tiresome dog- matic mantras on historical rectitude. Indeed, often so entwined are the textures that singers' vowels are shadowed by instruments in a closeknit rapport of exceptional immediacy.

For those steeped in both recent and old schools, this performance will resonate with both, though it is not always so easy to summarise how. The thread of intensity is achieved largely by the focus and roundness of the Dunedin Consort's palette, the thrusting legatos (when called for) and the welcome presence of a strong, directed bass-line.
Such responses are relatively superficial because Butt's St Matthew is truly original in spheres resonating beyond established parameters.

As his story-teller, Nicholas Mulroy brings his own striking naturalness of delivery, clarity of diction and honesty. At the start of Part 2, especially, there are moments of disarming reportage, such as the encounter with the High Priest where the Evangelist conveys a sickened response to Christ's humiliation and a gutting catch in his voice at the emptiness of Peter's denial. Yet it is Mulroy's identification with the outstanding Christus of Matthew Brook which raises the stakes in this performance. The timing between the two and the realism of the musical choreography is both remarkably patient and animated.

The only downside of a single-part St Matthew is that, while the singers – in Butt's words – 'become familiar to us as the piece progresses', this only works to advantage if they have the tonal and musical range to sustain such an extended and exposed vision. For all the stylistic nuancing and deft ensemble work of the sopranos, their arias rarely lift themselves beyond the generic. 'Ich will dir' sounds unsure and snatched and 'So ist mein Jesus gefangen' fails to demarcate the almost cosmic mystery ('moon and light have set in their anguish') alongside the admirable discipline of the crowd's graphic interjections.

No recorded St Matthew Passion comes without its blemishes but few parade such a compellingly fresh and raw realism, one so strongly identifiable by its wilful clarity of intent that it asks new questions about what this great work can say to us.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

0
Beethoven & Hummel: Piano Trios


“…these are really impressive and vibrant accounts that bring out all the abrupt contrasts that so shocked the works' Beethoven first audiences… If you prefer these pieces on period instruments, you're unlikely to find them better done… Beside Beethoven, Hummel's G major Trio is small beer, though its scherzo-like- finale is fun, and Staier wittily invokes the piano's built-in percussion effect for the concluding chords.” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice - February 2007



“This bold juxtaposition of Beethoven and Hummel resurrects a real-life musical rivalry… Equally bold are the timbres displayed by this vividly imaginative trio of period instrumentalists.” --Gramophone Magazine, March 2008
◄ Newer Post Older Post ►
Langganan: Postingan ( Atom )
eXTReMe Tracker
 

Copyright 2011 CLASSIC JAZZ is proudly powered by blogger.com