Manuel Tomadin DECEMBER 1705

 

DECEMBER 1705

Carmen Mainer Martín / Violeta Mur / Enrique Escartín Ara 18TH CENTURY MUSIC FOR BASSOON

 

18TH CENTURY MUSIC FOR BASSOON

 

Klára Würtz / Vincenzo Maltempo SCHUMANN The Three Piano Sonatas

 

THE THREE PIANO SONATAS

 

Wolfgang Rübsam J.S. BACH French Suites BWV 812 - 817

 

FRENCH SUITES

 

Marco Testori / Costantino Mastroprimiano BEETHOVEN Complete Cello Sonatas & Variations

 

COMPLETE CELLO SONATAS & VARIATIONS

 

Jeroen van Veen THE BEST OF MINIMAL PIANO MUSIC

 

THE BEST OF MINIMAL PIANO MUSIC

 

Ensemble Italiano CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Chamber Music

 

CHAMBER MUSIC

 

Ensemble Giardino di Delizie COLISTA Sinfonie a tre

SINFONIE A TRE

Claudio Ortensi / Anna Pasetti DIONYSUS & APOLLO

DIONYSUS & APOLLO

Alejandro Casal KRIEGER Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music

COMPLETE HARPSICHORD AND ORGAN MUSIC

Jan Depreter J.S. BACH Klavierbüchlein für Anna-Magdalena Bach

KLAVIERBÜCHLEIN FÜR ANNA-MAGDALENA BACH

Letizia Calandra / Marcos Madrigal GUASTAVINO Song Cycles

                                                                   SONG CYCLES

Luca Magariello / Cecilia Novarino FAURÉ Cello Sonatas

                                                                CELLO SONATAS

Le Nuove Musiche / Krijn Koetsveld ARVO PÄRT Magnificat - Stabat Mater

Arvo Pärt (born 1935) is without doubt one of the best-known and –loved composer of today. His highly personal style, influenced by Gregorian Chant, is based on slowly shifting patterns, tintinnabuli (little bells), creating a meditative and hallucinatory effect, a visionary world of spiritual contemplation. Pärt’s sacred choral works enjoy a huge popularity with both the traditional classical audience as well as an open- minded new generation.

This new recording presents two of Pärt’s choral masterworks: the Stabat Mater and Magnificat, as well as the Maria-Antifonen and the Nunc Dimittis, all dealing with the complex emotions of Maria, Mother of God, in deepest sorrow and bliss.

Excellent performances by Le Nuove Musiche, conducted by Krijn Koetsveld, who delivered a remarkable achievement in recording the complete Madrigals by Monteverdi for Brilliant Classics. Their experience in performing Renaissance vocal music is paying off in these deeply felt performances of 20th century choral masterworks.

Gábor Tokodi MUSIC FOR MANDORA

It is an unfortunate accident of history that the mandora, if heard at all, is now encountered in company with the ‘Jew’s harp’ thanks to a pair of undistinguished concertos by Albrechtberger. In fact the mandora has a far more mellifluous timbre than its instrumental cousin, and its subtle palette of tone-colors is heard to best advantage in solo repertoire, such as the pair of anonymous Suites and the G minor Sonata by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (1690-1757) played on this new recording by Gábor Tokodi. A closer comparison to the mandora would be with the lute. They share a transparent, silvery sound that is often lost in ensemble; the biggest difference is their outward appearance. An 8-course Renaissance lute usually has 15 strings, and a 13-course Baroque lute has 24, whereas the anonymous Budapest manuscript from which Tokodi has drawn this Suite in C major requires an instrument with only six. In fact, the mandora evolved during the 18th century into an instrument tuned to the same strings as the classical guitar. The mandora and its music were cultivated primarily in South Germany and in the neighbouring Danube region of the Habsburg Empire. One particular aristocrat of the region cultivated her playing of the mandora and accordingly accumulated a substantial library of music for the instrument, among which may be found 16 sonatas by Brescianello, which make demands far beyond the capabilities of a dilettante. Further library sources in Bratislava and Budapest supply the material for the other two composite works to be enjoyed here. A cellist by early training, Tokodi began to play the guitar at the age of 15, and it was with this instrument that he graduated as a performer, and has since toured Europe and further afield with distinguished early-music ensembles such as the Savaria Baroque Orchestra and the Baroque Ensemble of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Costantino Catena WOLF-FERRARI Piano Music

The name of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) is now emerging from the shadow cast by his wartime collaboration with Italy’s Fascist regime. Operas such as I quattro rusteghi and I gioielli della Madonna occupy a place on the fringes of the repertoire, and Brilliant Classics have made a persuasive case for him as a composer of chamber music in a post-Brahmsian mould with the release of his piano trios. 

This album was recommended by Classics Today for the ‘eloquently sustained’ performance of Trio Archè, displaying ‘a whimsical discursiveness… that might be described as the lovechild of Schubert and Fauré.’ Much the same might be said of Wolf-Ferrari’s piano music on the evidence of this new recording by the Italian pianist Costantino Catena, who has made many well-received albums with the Camerata Tokyo. To open the album, Catena has made his own completion of an early, substantial (19-minute) Bagatelle that Wolf-Ferrari left unfinished. Theatricality and high contrast mark the Bagatelle throughout, as one would expect from an experienced composer for the stage, and they lend beguiling variety to the other first recordings here, of Variations on the minuet from Verdi’s Falstaff, a Chopin-Phantasie in B minor and a Scherzino, all dating from Wolf-Ferrari’s prodigious twenties when he was the toast of new Italian music. 

Wolf-Ferrari turned to the Romantic genre of character-piece in three Impromptus Op.13 (1904) and three Klavierstücke Op.14 (1905), but he addressed the form in a personal and authentic manner. Some of the rhythmic sophistication may remind us of Brahms, and the delicately embroidered harmony of Hugo Wolf, but Wolf-Ferrari’s characteristic sweetness of tone does not descend into decorative mannerism or affected sentimentalism: he was, to the core, a German-Italian composer with a foot on both sides of the Alps.

Cinzia Milani A TRIBUTE TO TERESA DE ROGATIS

Although a tribute to an artist is always a great responsibility, it is also a way of breathing new life into feelings, thoughts, life and art, in this case by focusing on the importance of a particular chapter of guitar history. 

Getting to know Teresa de Rogatis through her manuscripts has been a fascinating form of time travel. The period in which she lived and the places she experienced have come newly alive with the study of the notes that accompany her scores. In some cases these documents even indicate the day and time of composition: for example, in “Bagdad” we read “Teresa de Rogatis, 22 February Thursday 1968 5.30 pm”. 

My musical interpretation aims at expressing the compositional refinement typical of Teresa de Rogatis, the way she reconciled brilliant virtuoso air with an elegantly feminine touch, even when the overall tone is jocular or ironic. The decision to record these pieces on a distinctly modern instrument is simply part of the imaginary dialogue between different periods and the changes they heralded: like glancing backwards while walking towards the future. 

I am especially grateful to Angelo Gilardino for his invaluable collaboration on this project. (Cinzia Milani)

Coro Victoria / Ana Fernández-Vega ALONSO LOBO Sacred Vocal Music

On this new recording, Coro Victoria offers a portrait of Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) through a cross-section of his sacred output (his works in Spanish are all lost). The group also illustrates the variety of interpretative practices of the period. The concluding O quam suavis est Domine is sung by a single soprano while the vihuela accompaniment supplies the remaining five parts. Church choirs sang this music in the liturgy, but minstrels also played it during processions, and there was free traffic between sacred and secular contexts. 

Coro Victoria was founded by its director, Ana Fernández-Vega, to recover and preserve a native, historically informed tradition of singing Spanish polyphony from its Renaissance-era high noon, exemplified not only by Victoria himself but also his contemporaries such as the Seville-born and bred Alonso Lobo (indeed, Victoria considered Lobo his equal). He is now best known for a haunting, six-voice setting of the Requiem, and his magnificent motet for the obsequies of King Philip II, Versa est in luctum shares the Requiem’s tone of mourning and remembrance, established by a dense mesh of overlapping counterpoint. 

Coro Victoria also presents other sides to a composer whose style is far more various than is commonly assumed. As well as the beautifully handled techniques of canon and counterpoint in Marian motets such as Ave Maria and Ave Regina coelorum, distinguishing features of Lobo’s style are his jagged melodic lines, a far cry from Palestrina’s smooth curves, and his more animated conclusions, both vividly demonstrated by Vivo ego, dicit Dominus. 

There is also a complete, portmanteau setting of the Mass, drawn from his Missa O Rex gloriae, Missa Petre ego pro te rogavi and Missa Simile est regnum caelorum, with the Credo filled in by the separate Credo Romano, which is underpinned by a figured bass and continued to be popular long after his death. These polished performances should renew wider interest in Lobo’s music.

Roberto Loreggian J.S. BACH Violin Sonatas & Partitas - Cello Suites

During the late 1970s, the Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012) transcribed and arranged the works by Bach for solo violin and solo cello for harpsichord. He played them in his own recitals and recorded some of them for a German label. Only in 2018 did these arrangements become more widely available for keyboard players thanks to a new Bärenreiter edition prepared by Siebe Henstra at the invitation of Leonhardt’s widow Marie and daughter Saskia. With typical understatement, Leonhardt declared that ‘I think Bach would have forgiven me for the fact that I have set myself to making arrangements of his works. Whether or not he would have forgiven the way I have done it, remains of course a moot point.’
The Cello Suites, the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin and a pair of slow dances (originally for flute and for lute) now receive their first recordings not made by Leonhardt himself, and at the hands of an early-music keyboard player who has enriched the Brilliant Classics catalogue with acclaimed recordings of Telemann, Frescobaldi, Bach and much more.
Leonhardt’s transcription of the great Chaconne from the D minor Partita is as rich and thrilling as to be anticipated from one of the sovereign Bach interpreters of our age (or any other), discreetly opening out Bach’s implied harmonies without adding superfluous anachronisms. In some ways more enlightening and impressive are his elaborations of the Cello Suites’ plainer textures. Much more than a curio, this significant new album demands the attention of all Bach devotees.
First complete recording of the Sonatas, Partitas and Suites by Bach in the harpsichord transcription by Gustav Leonhardt.
The transcription of these works, which were originally written for a solo string instrument (violin, cello) requires the hand of a master: Gustav Leonhardt certainly proves his deep insight of both Bach’s sound world and the possibilities of the harpsichord in these transcriptions, which feature complex counterpoint and harmonies.
Bach himself transcribed many of his own works and those of others for different instruments. The close study of these works gave Leonhardt the courage and vision to write his own, commenting in his typical modest way: “I think that Bach would have forgiven me the fact that I have set myself to making arrangements of his works. Whether or not he would have forgiven the way I have done it is a moot point..”.
Italian harpsichordist Roberto Loreggian has a substantial discography to his name, including works by Frescobaldi, Gabrieli, Vivaldi, Galuppi, Handel and others.

Trio Carducci ARENSKY Piano Trios

Two masterpieces of Russian romantic-era chamber music performed by a talented young Italian trio.

The chamber music of Anton Arensky (1861-1906) embodies a happy and inspired synthesis of two contrasting sound-worlds: the peculiarly Russian language of Rimsky-Korsakov and the ‘Mighty Handful’, and that of Western-European accents exemplified in the sphere of chamber music by Brahms, but filtered through Tchaikovsky’s West- leaning approach.

It’s Mendelssohn who comes to mind in the vernal surge of energy that opens the First Piano Trio which is Arensky’s best-known work beyond his piano music. The sombre third-movement elegy is a tribute to the cellist Davidoff, and accordingly opens with a soulful cello melody, before an impassioned finale banishes all introspection.

Composed over a decade later in 1905, the Second Trio replaces such youthful energy for a more concise and refined harmonic idiom that even brings to mind Gabriel Fauré at points such as the polished, elusive second-movement Romance. After a delightfully capricious Scherzo full of subtle rhythmic shifts and conversational hesitations, the Second Trio concludes with an expansive set of variations on a noble theme in Tchaikovskian vein.

Formed in 2016, the Carducci Trio has already won praise for its accomplished performances of Russian music in particular, having recently made a tour of China and given London performances at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields. This is the Trio’s debut recording.