HEINZ HOLLIGER Scardanelli-Zyklus

Heinz Holliger's brilliance as an oboist has long tended to overshadow his achievements as a composer, so it is all the more important to declare that the Scardanelli Cycle is a major work by one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians of our time.
Scardanelli is one of the names with which Holderlin signed the poems of his madness. The poems, named after the seasons, are not in themselves crazy, but they are obsessive, and it is their search for intensity of expression through economy of materials which Holliger has so imaginatively matched. As a committed modernist of the electro-acoustic generation he knows how to explore the complex components of apparently simple sounds, and the insert-notes miss the point with their talk of subversion and denial. At his best Holliger achieves a refined expressiveness whose inherent instability is eloquently reinforced as his textures fine down to microtonal oscillations. At his best, too, he attains a poised gravity worthy of the texts.
The Holderlin settings—The Seasons—are interspersed with various instrumental pieces: Scardanelli Exercises for small orchestra: (t)air(e) for flute: excerpts from Tower Music for flute, orchestra and tape: and—the most recent composition—Ostinato funebre for orchestra. Not all of this is on the highest level. The pieces with flute don't steer clear of some rather routine modernist gestures, although these are countered by more searching, more personal melodic writing. Also, to my ears the use of extended vocal techniques in the later choral movements allows delicacy of colour to shade into muddiness: the very last movement suffers in this respect, although without seriously undermining the impact of the work as a whole.
The performance brings together Terry Edwards's outstanding team of British singers, the leading German contemporary music ensemble, and the formidably versatile Aurele Nicolet, with superb results. The recording achieves an excellent balance between clarity and atmosphere, reinforcing the definitive status of this presentation of a work which by its very nature will not often be heard in the concert-hall.' (Arnold Whittall / Gramophone)

Thomas Zehetmair / Ruth Killius MANTO AND MADRIGALS

Violinist Thomas Zehetmair and violist Ruth Killius have shared many years as musical collaborators in the Zehetmair quartet. The couple’s spectacular duo performance at last autumn’s ECM festival in Mannheim raised the expectactions for their new programme, a carefully composed anthology of contemporary pieces for violin and viola. Next to Bohuslav Martinů’s virtuosic and accessible “Madrigals”, written in 1946 in American exile, the central piece here is “Drei Skizzen” by Heinz Holliger, a triptychon with the instruments tuned in the scordatura of Mozart’s fomous “Sinfonia concertante” for violin, viola and orchestra. It was commissioned by the duo as an encore piece for their frequent renderings of Mozart’s masterworks on the concert platform. Its first movement “Pirouetts harmoniques” is entirely based on shimmering harmonics, whereas the second one is an exuberant perpetuum mobile. The cycle concludes with a six-part chorale that requires both string players to hum an extra voice. This idea, which is realised by the duo to a most stunning effect effect, was itself inspired by Giancinto Scelsi’s solo piece “Manto” for a “singing viola player”. The programme is complemented by compositions by Nikos Skalkottas, Béla Bartók and short pieces by Rainer Killius and Johannes Nied. (ECM Records)

Momo Kodama DEBUSSY - HOSOKAWA Point and Line

Born in Osaka, educated at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, Momo Kodama is well-placed to approach music from both Eastern and Western vantage points, as she does in this album which interweaves etudes of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Toshio Hosokawa (born 1955). Both composers have similarly been border-crossers. Debussy, pointing to music of the future, looked to the Orient for inspiration. Hosokawa has combined aspects of Japanese and European tradition in his contemporary compositions. Momo Kodama: “In the music of Toshio Hosokawa I find elements close to Debussy: the freedom of form and tone colour, the sense of poetic design, with a wide range of lyricism and dynamics, between meditation and virtuoso development, between light and shade, between large gestures and minimalist refinement.”
Point and Line is the pianist’s second ECM album and follows the widely-praised La vallée des cloches, with music of Ravel, Takemitsu and Messiaen, of which American Record Guide noted. “Kodama’s impeccable technique and facility for crystalline sounds makes for a mesmerizing program. “ (ECM Records) 

Point and Line is the pianist’s second ECM album and follows the widely-praised La vallée des cloches, with music of Ravel, Takemitsu and Messiaen, of which American Record Guide noted. “Kodama’s impeccable technique and facility for crystalline sounds makes for a mesmerizing program.

“The album is called ‘Point and Line’ after one of the Hosokawa studies, but that name also hints at the cool definition of Kodama’s playing. Her touch is immaculate and diligent, neatly flamboyant in the Debussy and reassuringly robust in the Hosokawa. She writes that both composers are ‘between meditation and virtuoso development, between light and shade, between large gestures and minimalist refinement’ – and it’s those places in between that make her interpretations interesting. (Kate Molleson / The Guardian) 

Japanese pianist Momo Kodama reaches halfway around the world and across a century of time to bring together the 12 late études of Debussy and six études written between 2011 and 2013 by her countryman, Toshio Hosokawa. […] Kodama eschews chronology and interweaves the pieces into a sometimes boundary-blurring sequence that trades on the cross-fertilisation between French and Japanese composers. Her performing style in the Debussy also tends to downplay the pieces’ étude-like nature. A fascinating collection. (Michael Dervan / The Irish Times)

Hr-Sinfonieorchester / Michael Gielen / Ensemble Musique Nouvelle / Bl!ndman PIERRE BARTHOLOMÉE Années 1970 - 1985

The art of combining instruments therefore has no secrets for him. The disc gathers works from the 1970s and 80s, and features remastered recordings and an unpublished score that has just been recorded during summer 2017: the opportunity to rediscover the interpretation of Michael Gielen at the head of the a magnificent Frankfurt radio orchestra in Harmonique, a piece inspired by extra-Western music. The richness of the timbral combinations gives the work a rhythmic density from which brilliant colors arise. Then, this orchestral effervescence leaves room for more transparency. The programme also features a more intimate piece by Pierre Bartholomée, his saxophone quartet entitled Ricercar. Considered too difficult in its time, the score had not been recorded. Bl!indman sax quartet has finally done it. The four musicians released it with ease and displayed its shimmering harmonies with a pleasure and a joy that make forget its formidable virtuosity. (Evidence Classics)

Marie-Elisabeth Hecker / Antje Weithaas / Martin Helmchen SCHUBERT Arpeggione Sonata - Trio No. 2

Following a first recording on Alpha devoted to Brahms which garnered much praise – ‘real duo playing’ said Gramophone, while Classica discerned ‘shared music making . . . a world full of nuances and subtlety, boundless sonic imagination (Marie-Elisabeth Hecker), playing of rare intelligence (Martin Helmchen)’ and awarded the disc a ‘Choc’ – the duo is reunited. Its new programme features two summits of chamber music: Schubert’s famous Arpeggione Sonata – named after a now obsolete instrument that was a cross between the guitar and the cello – and his no less celebrated Trio no.2 D929, which achieved even greater popularity thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon. In the latter, the duo is joined by an eminent musician with whom they enjoy playing, Antje Weithaas, ‘one of the great violinists of our time’ (Fonoforum) and also one of the teachers most sought after by the young generation. For example, she taught Tobias Feldmann, the young violinist recently signed by Alpha.

Alexa Still EFRAÍN AMAYA Syzygy

Alexa Still credits fellow flutist Jeanne Baxtresser for introducing her to the music of Venezuelan-born composer and conductor Efraín Amaya. On Syzygy, Still’s second release on the Oberlin Music label, she joins fellow Oberlin Conservatory faculty members and students on six pieces written by Amaya between 1997 and 2014. Former principal flute of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Still joined the Oberlin faculty in 2011. She remains an avid performer in recitals throughout the world, including the Australian and US premieres of Matthew Hindson’s ‘House Music’- a piece she also premiered on a 2015 Oberlin Music recording. Syzygy, which takes its name from a movement in the recording’s opening piece, means “working together toward a common goal.” On pieces for flute and piano, flute and cello, and two flutes, Still works effortlessly with her Oberlin collaborators. Joining her are longtime piano professor Robert Shannon, cello professor Darrett Adkins, and two former standout students in Still’s flute studio: Aram Mun and Tasiaeafe Hiner. (Arkiv Music)

MAX RICHTER Infra

Scored for piano, electronics, and string quartet, ‘Infra’ is an expansion of a 25-minute piece Richter wrote for a collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and visual artist Julian Opie. 

The original ballet was a response to the London bombings on 7/7. It is classic Richter and it will crush you. “’Infra’ works as an enveloping and moving work even absent any knowledge of its beginnings. Others may glean different feelings from it than I do, but that is part of the point. Even if it conjures nothing of the night for you, it is some of Richter's very best work. And if you've ever cared about his music, it will make you feel something.”

Jeroen van Veen RICHTER Solo Piano Music

Having made a gradual switch during the 15 years since his first album was published from electronica to instrumental variations on ambient and minimalism, Max Richter is among the most commercially successful composers of our time. This album of his solo piano music belongs in the genre explored so thoroughly for Brilliant Classics by Jeroen van Veen, whose prolific recording history includes hugely popular albums of Philip Glass (BC9419) and Michael Nyman (BC95112), Ludovico Einaudi (BC94910) and Yann Tiersen(BC95129) and his fellow Dutch musician Jakob ter Veldhuis (BC94873) and himself (BC9454). The appetite for slowly moving,unchallenging, post Minimalist music is apparently infinite, and so this new album is sure to be a success.Born in 1966,Richter has in the last few years achieved international fame with his recomposed version of Vivaldi`s Four Seasons, which topped the iTunes chart in the UK, the US and Germany. Then last year, came the record breaking Sleep,an eight hour cradle song which like the Vivaldi mixed live and pre recorded, electronic and acoustic sounds, to induce and accompany deep slumber.The songs on this album are all shorter, though sharing the somnambulistic mood of Sleep. Vladimir's Blues featured on a BBC documentary series about the deep sea,while The Twins (Prague) was used in a series on Auschwitz, The Nazis and the Final Solution. As Richter`s own programme notes explain, the music is for beginners,based on classical Alberti style bass figures.Several tracks derive from his albums The Blue Notebooks and Songs from Before; H in New England is extracted from the incidental music written by Richter for the film Henry May Long.

Alexander Melnikov / Isabelle Faust SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concertos - Sonata for Violin & Piano Op. 34

The programming of this recording by Alexander Melnikov seems to be no accident. The two large, witty, outward-looking piano concertos surround the more grave, inward-facing Violin Sonata the way a sonata's or concerto's two fast movements surround a slow movement. It's also a real reflection of Melnikov as a performer, schooled in the Russian tradition and mentored by Richter (the pianist of the first public performance of the Violin Sonata), who is as comfortable as a soloist as he is as a collaborative pianist playing chamber music. In that regard, Melnikov and Faust make their parts of the sonata equal partners in the music, bringing out the smallest details. It is generally held that the sonata is about death, and these two handle it with intensity and seriousness, but do not make it grim or frightful. In the concertos, Melnikov and conductor Teodor Currentzis are also well matched. In the slow movements, especially of the Concerto No. 2, Melnikov's touch is so soft and phrasing so lyrical as to give the music a sweetness normally associated with a Rachmaninov or Ravel concerto, and Currentzis follows his lead. The animation in the fast movements, where Shostakovich likes to use rapidly repeated notes, is not pointedly sharp, but is impressive and extremely engaging nonetheless. The finale of Concerto No. 1, when everyone -- including the very precise trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts -- gets going together is almost precipitously exciting. Yet it is Melnikov's sensitivity of touch that distinguishes his performance of these works from others'. (Patsy Morita)

Isabelle Faust / Alexander Melnikov CARL MARIA VON WEBER Sonatas for Piano & Violin - Piano Quartet

The unjustly neglected piano quartet (J76) was completed in September of the year 1809, which the 22-year-old Weber spent in Stuttgart. It was originally offered to the publisher Hans Georg Nägeli, but he rejected it, advising the composer that it created wanton ‘confusion in the arrangement of its ideas’ and indeed too obviously imitated the ‘bizarreries’ of Beethoven. However, the work was issued a year later by the Bonn firm of Beethoven’s friend and admirer Nikolaus Simrock, whose ears were more receptive to the peculiarities of the score than Nägeli. And in the following year, 1811, Simrock once again stepped into the breach in the matter of the publication of the Six Violin Sonatas (J99–104). These were written to a tight deadline in the late summer of 1810, on commission from the Offenbach publisher Johann Anton André, who had in mind a collection of short pieces of moderate difficulty for the domestic music-making of the upper middle classes. Unhappy with the concomitant artistic limitations, Weber took the commission only half-heartedly and repeatedly complained during the compositional process of this ‘swine of a job’, which cost him ‘more sweat than the same number of symphonies’. His annoyance was all the greater when André rejected the finished work out of hand because it did not correspond to his expectations. When Simrock finally published these pieces in Bonn in two instalments under the title 'Progressive sonatas for fortepiano with obbligato violin, composed for and dedicated to amateur musicians', with the opus number 10, Weber had only remotely followed André’s specifications. It is true that the technical demands on the performers, especially the violin, are fairly modest, but in terms of content the 6 short two- or three-movement sonatinas far outstrip mere pedagogical intentions.They were written to please amateurs, but quite as much to satisfy connoisseurs of any era. Isabelle Faust follows up the success of recent recordings for hm [Bach volume 2, Berg and Beethoven with Claudio Abbado] with regular partner Alexander Melnikov and her brother Boris, currently principal viola of the Bremer Philharmoniker, and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt of whom Mstislav Rostropovich has said: ‘Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt is one of the leading cellists of his generation, of our time’.

Olivier Cavé HAYDN - BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas

Ludwig van Beethoven was just twenty years old when he first met Joseph Haydn, in 1790. Two years later, the young composer joined the Viennese master’s numerous pupils. But, weary of his teacher’s frequent absences and stung by his criticisms, he soon broke off his lessons, declaring bitterly some years later ‘I never learnt anything from Haydn’. It is this distance, this difference of style and ambition between Beethoven and his former teacher that are to be heard in this new recording by Olivier Cavé, the award-winning Swiss pianist who is a regular guest at the leading festivals. Whereas Haydn’s Sonata Hob. XVI:32 (1776) aims for a classical but vigorous style, Hob.XVI:48, composed only four years later, is more subdued and academic. Beethoven sought to break with this classicism, allowing himself greater expressive scope and replacing the traditional third-movement minuet with a scherzo in his Sonata no.2, a clear sign of his revolutionary spirit.

A Nocte Temporis / Reinoud Van Mechelen CLÉRAMBAULT Cantates Françaises

“A nocte temporis”: Latin translation of the French expression “depuis la nuit des temps”, which means “from time immemorial”. A nod towards the past, towards what is changing, and especially also towards what remains unchanged.

After several years of activity as a soloist with conductors such as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Hervé Niquet, Christophe Rousset, and many others, Reinoud Van Mechelen founds his own ensemble in 2016. His goal is to present historically informed music as well as to emotionally touch an as large audience as possible. For this purpose he surrounds himself with musicians who share this passion with him and who are ready to take up this challenge.

Isabelle Faust / Kristian Bezuidenhout J.S. BACH Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord

"Isabelle Faust has never cultivated the whale-boned red-carpet glamour that many female soloists feel obliged to pursue. On stage and off, the German violinist's manner is relaxed, her style understated. She sports a gamine, Jeanne d'Arc crop and, save for the tell-tale violinist's love-bite just below her jaw, you might guess her to be an architect or an academic. In a way, she is both, for an appreciation of musical structure and an interest in historical research are integral to her work.

The stillness of focus and purity of sound that has distinguished her playing can be heard in a repertoire stretching from Beethoven and Schubert through to Hartmann and Ligeti, on modern and period strings. Where other violinists dazzle, Faust is a thinker. On the subject of her own individual sound, she is hesitant: "Of course, I'm trying to be me in whatever repertoire I'm playing, and I do think that my work is different from that of other violinists – but actually I'm never really trying to keep to this idea of an individual sound. It's always my goal to get a different interpretation and also a different kind of voice particular to the voice of the composer." (Anna Picard / The Guardian)

Javier Perianes / Münchner Philharmoniker / Pablo Heras-Casado BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra - Piano Concerto No. 3

Neither the disillusionment that set in after his exile to the United States nor his declining health stopped Bartók from fulfilling his commission for the Concerto for Orchestra nor from writing the Third Piano Concerto, his final work, intended to secure his wife’s future. Hence his gloomy circumstances led to two masterpieces (and gained him a long-awaited American reputation). They are magnificently served here by Javier Perianes and the musicians of the Münchner Philharmoniker under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado.
...The Concerto for Orchestra was composed in a single burst of inspiration during an unexpected remission of his leukaemia, from August to October 1943. It is Bartók's only orchestral work on so large a scale. Fascinating both for its sonic hedonism and for the virtuosity it demands from each section of the orchestra (which justifies the choice of this title rather than ‘symphony’), the work sums up the composer’s achievement...

...The Piano Concerto no.3, the only keyboard work that Bartók did not compose for himself to play, has a less gruelling solo part than its two predecessors. Here he forsakes ostinatos, repeated notes and batteries of chords in favour of singing melodies. Tonality is clearly asserted (the key is E), and triads, octaves and unisons abound, as if sending out reassuring signals...

Chor & Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Pablo Heras-Casado FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY Symphonie Nr. 2 "Lobgesang"

It has been about 45 years now since Mendelssohn’s once popular but forgotten “Lobgesang” Symphony was first revived on disc by Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch. In recent times, happily, it has been welcomed back without controversy into the repertory by any number of conductors as the masterpiece that it is. The Karajan were an opera, and I would advise our readers to avoid it. But in recent times, several conductors have gotten the porridge right: Ashkenazy, Chailly, Orozco-Estrada, Bosch, and now Heras-Casado, who appears in general to be a young “Mendelssohn whisperer,” conducting Mendelssohn symphonies wherever he guests.
Among these performances, Chailly’s is perhaps the most satisfying, unashamedly large-scaled and velvety, with wonderful sound. It made a big impression a few seasons ago on his East Coast tour with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Mendelssohn’s own, it bears remembering). But unfortunately, Chailly chose to conduct an early edition of the symphony, with a less impressive opening trombone fanfare and awkward transitions in the three orchestral movements.  

That puts Orozco-Estrada, Bosch, and Heras-Casado at the top of the list. The perfectly fine Ashkenazy has been available only as part of a complete set of the symphonies. The Bosch is in a league of its own for beautiful SACD sound and a swift, soft-grained yet lean approach, with just the slightest touch of “early music” phrasing to detract from the romance of it. The Orozco-Estrada and Heras-Casado performances are extremely similar and uncontroversial in their approach. Both feature fine soloists, beautiful renditions of the famous chorale Nun danket alle Gott , and lively, emotionally engaged playing in the three orchestral movements. I might be tempted to favor Orozco-Estrada on Preiser, recorded live with the Tonkunstler in the open acoustic of Vienna’s Musikverein, but that is a subjective judgment. Heras-Casado gets finely balanced sound as well, studio-recorded for Harmonia Mundi in Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig, but I find it just a touch dry.
Even so, I think it hard to imagine how one could fail to be swept up by the great trombone fanfare which opens the symphony and unifies it with such subtlety—and deeply moved by all which follows. Mendelssohn is lucky once again to be considered a great symphonic composer, and lucky that this hybrid work has made it back onto the concert stage. But he is not so lucky as the listener. This is memorable music, exciting, noble and pure of heart. (FANFARE / Steven Kruger)

Jae-Hyuck Cho BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas

Acclaimed pianist Jae-Hyuck Cho has been described by the New York Times as “…splendidly clear and his ideas unaffected…fluent and resolute…”   The Star-Telegram lauded Cho as having “…fleet fingers and an extraordinary breadth of expression…”  He was praised as having an “…effortless, brilliant technique and a strong sense of the work’s contrasting moods and character…” by the New York Concert Review.  A native of Korea, Cho has concertized in such renowned venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Korea’s Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall and Hoam Art Hall, and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.  

Born in ChunCheon, South Korea, Cho began piano studies at age five.  Upon arriving in the United States in 1987, he continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division with Solomon Mikowsky, and went on to receive Bachelor and Master of Music and degrees from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Herbert Stessin and Jerome Lowenthal.  Cho received his  DMA degree at Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nina Svetlanova. 

Jerusalem Quartet HAYDN

Called one of the most dynamic and exciting young quartets of the new millennium, the Jerusalem Quartet's first recording for France's Harmonia Mundi label of three Haydn string quartets is certainly dynamic and exciting. Whether that's what one wants in performances of Haydn's string quartets is open to debate. The Jerusalem's intonation is impeccable, its ensemble is agile, and its rhythm is driven and all that is just fine. One could easily imagine its approach working in the string quartets of later composers. But the Jerusalem's interpretations of Haydn's string quartets are too histrionic and the tempos too rhapsodic. The Lark Quartet, Op. 64/5, is too fleet and too whimsical, the tempos flitting, and the phrasing precious. The Quinten Quartet, Op. 76/2, is too harsh and too hard, the tempos pushing forward at climaxes and pulling back immediately after. The Op. 77/1 is too nostalgic and too sentimental, the tempos too loose, and the phrasing close to cloying. The Jerusalem's expressive approach to interpretation might work splendidly in Janácek, but it's too much for Haydn, a composer who was never precious, harsh, or sentimental. Harmonia Mundi's digital sound is lush and enveloping, but clear and clean. (James Leonard)

Jerusalem Quartet SCHUBERT Der Tod und das Mädchen

The Jerusalem Quartet has established a fine reputation for insightful interpretations and incisive playing, and its polished recordings for Harmonia Mundi are well worth investigating for their acute and passionate performances. This compelling recording of Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden," D. 810, and the String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, "Quartettsatz," D. 703, is utterly exciting from start to finish, not just for the powerful suspense that the ensemble builds, or only for the intense energy it brings to these brooding Romantic works, but also for the foreboding mystery and haunted feeling with which it imbues this dark, death-obsessed music. If these late string quartets were intended to send a few chills up the spine, then the Jerusalem Quartet has found the right tone and edginess for Schubert's grim expressions, and the ensemble's tight rhythms, sharp articulation, and breathtaking speed combine to great effect in both performances. While some listeners will undoubtedly prefer vintage recordings by more seasoned quartets, this 2008 release bespeaks the Jerusalem Quartet's freshness, vitality, and firm mastery, despite not having much of a track record yet in Schubert; though this disc may not have the status of established classics, it promises great things to come. Harmonia Mundi's reproduction is clean, crisp, and quite spacious. (Blair Sanderson)

Jerusalem Quartet JANÁCEK String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 SMETANA String Quartet No. 1

There is much to admire here from the excellent Jerusalem Quartet. In Smetana’s First Quartet there is the fine opening viola melody; the sensitively played Largo, heart of a tragic work; and, brilliantly done, the sense of panic in the succeeding Vivace that plunges towards the dreadful moment when the first violin’s high E – though this could have been more piercingly played – signals the cruel tinnitus symptom of the syphilis that was wrecking Smetana’s life. The slow movements of the Janáček quartets are also carefully and thoughtfully played. The First Quartet’s Con moto is veiled with sadness, and with a sense of the danger threatening from the sinister seducer of the Tolstoy programme inspiring the work; the Second Quartet’s Adagio is inward and quietly reflective, and sustains something of its mood to shadow the succeeding Moderato, which is taken almost as a pensive valse triste.

Something of the abruptness, even violence, that characterises Janáček’s Second Quartet is lacking, as with the desperate interventions in the third movement. So is the sense of dance that permeates all three quartets, with the polka impetus in Smetana’s Allegro moderato and the Allegro of Janáček’s Second. This is something that is often latent elsewhere, and is especially effective in animating the music in the performances by the Vlach (Panton) and Talich (Supraphon) quartets, still outstanding records. The present recordings are generally excellent, and effective in capturing all the unusual, not to say eccentric effects which Janáček wishes upon his players and the long-suffering recording engineers. (John Warrack / Gramophone)

Nicolas Horvath PHILIP GLASS Glassworlds 5 - Enlightenment

The works in this programme demonstrate Philip Glass’ perpetual goal of connecting with his audience. Taking shape as something like a hidden sonata form, Mad Rush contrasts peaceful atmosphere with tempestuousness and mesmerising beauty. The last of its kind in Glass’ oeuvre, 600 Lines, here receiving its première recording on solo piano, is an obsessive and hypnotically restless toccata that represents the zenith of his experiences while working with Ravi Shankar. These two monumental works are joined by première recordings of the subtly transformed Metamorphosis Two, and Glass’ transcription of Paul Simon’s The Sound of Silence.

Nicolas Horvath PHILIP GLASS Glassworlds 4 - On Love

This volume focuses on love, one of Philip Glass’ most glorious themes. The timeless melancholy of his BAFTA award-winning music for The Hours forms an organic suite driven by the film’s three powerful characters, here complete with three unpublished movements. The breathtakingly energetic Modern Love Waltz expands the limits of minimalism by combining Glass’s style with Viennese dance tradition, while his transcription of Notes on a Scandal is a recording première. Steve Reich described the iconic Music in Fifths as being “like a freight train”.

Nicolas Horvath PHILIP GLASS Glassworlds 3 - Metamorphosis

This programme reverses time, revealing the metamorphosis in Glass’ work from his 1980s film and theatre transcriptions, through The Olympian composed for the Los Angeles Olympiad, to rarities such as the dream-like Coda. The Trilogy Sonata highlights Glass’ renowned operas from the celebratory Akhnaten Dance to the stately Satyagraha and landmark Einstein on the Beach. The dazzling pulse-patterns of Two Pages make it a milestone of minimalism, while the Sonatina No. 2 is a pre-minimalist work composed under the influence of Darius Milhaud.

Nicolas Horvath PHILIP GLASS Glassworlds 2 - Complete Etudes Nos. 1 - 20

Composed between 1991 and 2012, the 20 sweepingly diverse and intricately melodic Etudes are among Philip Glass’ most beautiful and inventive works. Exploring a variety of textures, tempi and techniques, they provide an unintended but compelling self-portrait of the composer. “Piano solo concerts are among my favorite experiences,” says Glass, “the most essential basic dialogue… Whatever happens is happening directly between me and the audience … This is the first body of work where I’m really welcoming the world of pianists into my world.”

Nicolas Horvath PHILIP GLASS Glassworlds 1 - Piano Works and Transcriptions

Philip Glass has made an immense and stylistically wide-ranging contribution to piano repertoire. The Orphée Suite, a transcription of excerpts from the first opera in Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy, is one of his most distinctive piano pieces, blending virtuosity and melodic richness. In contrast, the hypnotic How Now is structurally influenced by Indian ragas and gamelan music, whilst Dreaming Awake contains one of the most powerful climaxes in all Glass’ works. Performed by Nicolas Horvath, a Scriabin Competition first prizewinner, this is the first release in the complete Glass solo piano edition which will include many premières.

Jerusalem Quartet LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartets Op. 18

With Haydn, Mozart and Schubert under their belt, it was only a matter of time before the Jerusalem Quartet turned their attention to Beethoven. Their only previous taster was a recording of Op 18 No 6, coupled with Ravel and Dvořák, from more than a decade ago. As you’d expect from this group, personality, integrity and lustrous tone are all high on the agenda. The slow movement of No 1, for instance, is given at a relatively brisk pace, avoiding all temptation to over-romanticise it; but, by making the chugging accompaniment relatively prominent, there’s a sense of unease as the melody struggles to make itself heard. They are alive to the drama of Beethoven’s all-important silences too.

Others may find more extremes in this set of quartets. The third movement of the Third can sound more febrile – as the Takács ably demonstrate in the Trio, with its sharply pointed hairpin dynamics – while in the finale of the same work the Jerusalem are a touch gentler than the Takács, the irrepressible Lindsays and the supreme Hungarian Quartet, while the Talich (on Calliope) put more emphasis on a sense of wistfulness. The Jerusalem’s Fourth Quartet is a particular highlight, from the irresistibly characterful viola-playing, a first-movement development full of fire and intensity and a third movement that seems to be paced just right, and in the coda of the finale they really throw caution to the wind, similar in approach to the thrilling Takács but with a more refulgent sound.

They capture well the very different worlds of each quartet, and the variation-form slow movement of No 5 is given with plenty of charm, the trill-infused fifth variation sounding truly unbuttoned. Even if the Hungarian are peerless here in the interplay between musicians in the chattering finale, the Jerusalem run them close, the ending warmly insouciant.

The Sixth Quartet certainly doesn’t lack for energy in the first movement, a whisper faster than the Takács and more gleeful than the Belcea. In the slow movement their characteristically rich tone again comes into its own, while the contrast between the finale’s mysterious opening and the ensuing Allegretto is potently conveyed. Add to that a wonderfully naturalistic recording and you have a triumphant addition to the bulging Beethoven catalogue. (Harriet Smith / Gramophone)

Anna Göckel JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sonates et Partitas pour Violon Seul

Born in Marseille, 22 year old violinist Anna Göckel began her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris at age 14, where she was taught by Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Svetlin Roussev. Having earned numerous awards and accolades, Anna appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician in such iconic halls as the Cité de la Musique, Salle Pleyel and Théâtre des Champs-Élysees in Paris, Victoria Hall in Geneva, and Wigmore Hall in London, and has performed as soloist with the Ensemble Parisien, Musique en Seine Orchestra, and the Neue Philhamornie Westfalen.

In 2009, she founded the Trio Karénine together with Louis Rodde and pianist Paloma Kouider and, after having won a string of internationally renowned competitions for chamber music, was most recently was awarded the top prize at the ARD Munich International Music Competition in 2013. The trio has already won praise and support from major chamber music artists, including members of the Ysaÿe Quartet and Menahem Pressler.

Anna is currently enrolled in David Grimal's Solistenklasse at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken. She enjoys spelunking in the calanques back at home, discovering new approaches in cooking tofu, and frolicking in pouring rain.

La Venexiana / Claudio Cavina CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Selva Morale e Spirituale

Not for the first time in their illustrious career, Claudio Cavina and his Italian vocal and instrumental ensemble La Venexiana have just received a strong critical vote of approval for their artistry, with the announcement on Thursday September 25th that they have won a coveted Classic fM Gramophone Award. Claudio Cavina was on hand to collect the Baroque Vocal Award for 2008 (decided on by the specialist critics of the UK-based Gramophone magazine) at a ceremony held in London, UK for his and La Venexiana’s recording of the fabula in musica by Claudio Monteverdi, L’Orfeo.

In Gramophone’s original review of the recording (which merited L’Orfeo being marked out as an Editor’s Choice), Richard Lawrence commented that “Cavina’s wonderful account goes straight to the top of the list of recommended recordings. Do not miss it.”; a recommendation that was taken up by the also prestigious UK reviewing forum, the “Building a Library” feature on BBC Radio 3’s CD Review programme, which identified the Glossa recording as the Top Recommendation for the work.

Counter-tenor and conductor Cavina has assembled a strong cast of leading vocal specialists including Emanuela Galli, Mirko Guadagnini (in the title role), Marina De Liso, Cristina Calzolari, Matteo Bellotto and Josè Lo Monaco, accompanied by the period-instrument forces of La Venxiana for the recording released last year on the 400th anniversary of the first performance of L’Orfeo.

La Venexiana have long been fêted for their subtle mastery of their native Italian – musical as well as vocal – language: indeed, back in 2000 Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, again in Gramophone magazine, enthused about them in terms as, “This exquisitely modulated Italian ensemble is wonderfully discriminating, extracting the eloquence of the mercurial lines and unobtrusively seeking architectural sense behind the text.” – when commenting on La Venexiana’s recording of Gesualdo da Venosa’s Il quarto libro di madrigali. This Glossa recording was to win the Gramophone Award in 2001.

Although La Venexiana have recorded and performed madrigals by other leading early Italian composers – Luca Marenzio, Sigismondo d’India and Giaches de Wert among them – the secular music of Claudio Monteverdi has, to date, been the focal point of the group’s activities: madrigals from all nine books have been recorded in Glossa’s Monteverdi Edition. Now Cavina is preparing for imminent release on the label an extensive three CD collection of Monteverdi’s sacred music, drawn from the 1640 Selva morale e spirituale collection.

Le Banquet Céleste / Damien Guillon GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI Affetti Amorosi

With Affetti amorosi Damien Guillon directs a dazzling selection of vocal works from Girolamo Frescobaldi, drawn from the Ferrara composer’s two books of Arie musicali. These arias date from 1615-1630, by which time Frescobaldi, now resident in Rome, had become a “cult” composer, and permitted great expressive freedom in the performance of his music.

Purposefully offering a recording full of contrasts and singing of human and divine love, countertenor Guillon is admirably matched by the other vocal talents in Le Banquet Céleste: soprano Céline Scheen, tenor Thomas Hobbs and bass Benoît Arnould. This new Glossa recording includes two of Frescobaldi’s enduring and moving spiritual sonnets, Maddalena alla croce and Ohimè che fur as well as one of the nascent Baroque’s favoured vocal forms, the lettera amorosa, in Vanne, o carta amorosa.

The singers are joined by lute, harp, cello and harpsichord from Guillon’s ensemble. In his wideranging and thought-provoking essay Pierre-Élie Mamou points out vivid characteristics of this early Baroque music – including “the play of opposites that greatly moves our souls” – notably the polarities between anxiety and pleasure, and time which passes and time which remains. (GLOSSA)

La Ritirata / Josetxu Obregón NEAPOLITAN CONCERTOS FOR VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS

The Neapolitan Baroque, especially in the first half of the eighteenth century, was a vibrant and vital time for instrumental music, as Josetxu Obregón and La Ritirata now demonstrate with their new recording of six concertos from that era. The Neapolitan school – which owed so much in its formation to Francesco Provenzale – flourished in the hands of Francesco Mancini, Nicola Porpora, Nicola Fiorenza, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Alessandro Scarlatti, all represented with concertos on this new Glossa recording. 

The four major conservatories in the city created an astonishingly productive and innovative environment for musicians – students and their teachers alike. The composers here all studied or worked in the conservatories or at the Cappella Real. The Neapolitan concerto had its own structure at this time, which was quite different to that found in the Venice of Vivaldi, and there was a constant competitive spirit for soloists to demonstrate their virtuosity. 

As they showed with their earlier Glossa recording of Il Spiritillo Brando , the members of La Ritirata are more than a match for their Neapolitan predecessors in both stylishness and technique. The soloists gathered by Josetxu Obregón represent some of the leading musical lights in Spain today: violinist Hiro Kurosaki (in a Fiorenza concerto), recorder-player Tamar Lalo (Scarlatti and Mancini) , harpsichordists Ignacio Prego and Daniel Oyarzabal (Pergolesi) and not least, Obregón himself who is the cello soloist in works by Fiorenza and Porpora. (GLOSSA)

Jean-Guihen Queyras / Alexandre Tharaud BRAHMS Cello Sonatas - Hungarian Dances

Pianist Alexandre Tharaud and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras are long-established as a duo team, but this is the first time that Queyras has joined Tharaud for an Erato recording. They have chosen works that lie at the heart of the Romantic repertoire, all by Brahms: his two cello sonatas and the duo’s own transcriptions of six of the Hungarian Dances.

Jerusalem Quartet / Veronika Hagen / Gary Hoffman ANTONÍN DVORÁK String Quintet op. 97 - String Sextet op. 48

...With their founding in the 1993/1994 season and subsequent 1996 debut, the Israeli musicians embarked on a journey of growth and development that has resulted in a wide repertoire and a stunning depth of expression: a journey still motivated by the energy and curiosity with which the ensemble began. The Jerusalem Quartet carries on the string quartet tradition in a unique manner. The ensemble has found its inner center in a warm, full, human sound and the balance between high and low voices, giving it the freedom both to refine its interpretations of the classical repertoire and to explore the works of new genres and epochs—all the while striving for perfection of sound. Collaborations with exceptional musicians such as Martin Fröst, Steven Isserlis, Sharon Kam, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alexander Melnikov and András Schiff demonstrate clearly the ways in which the musicians benefit from their work, as each guest becomes an integral part of the indivisible ensemble.

The Jerusalem Quartet explores two aspects of Dvořák’s chamber music: one of the first big successes in the genre of a Bohemian composer who now enjoyed a well-established reputation in Europe (op.48), and one of the masterpieces from the years of American exile which brought him worldwide fame (op.97). A chance to discover two places, two periods, but always the same depth of expression in this indefatigable composer endowed with remarkable creative faculties.

Maria Magdalena Kaczor PORTRAITS

Maria Magdalena Kaczor was born in 1980 in Kościan, Poland. Her love of music awakened at the age of seven, and she received initial piano instruction, at first at the music school of her hometown, then later with Hanna Morawska-Bernacka at the music school in Poznań.

In 1995 she was accepted into the piano class of Aleksandra Utrecht at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Music High School in Poznań, where in 1999 she passed her examinations as instrumental soloist with a major in piano and in music education (with emphasis on piano). She additionally studied choral conducting, conducting (in the class of Przemysław Pałka, exams with honors), improvisation, chamber music, and organ.

In 1999 she began her musical studies at the National Academy of Music “Ignacy Paderewski” in Poznań, graduating in 2004 with a master’s degree in piano (in the class of Ewa Jakóbczyk-Kandulska) and in music education (with emphasis on piano). Her thesis, graded cum laude, dealt with the works of twentieth-century composers from Poznań.

As a result of her participation in an interpretation course for organ music in France, she received an invitation to continue her training in Paris. From 2005 she studied with Françoise Dornier at the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré in Paris (5th Arrondissement), graduating with a diploma in organ from the Conservatoire National de Région in June 2008.
In September 2008 she was unanimously accepted into the organ class of François Espinasse and Liesbeth Schlumberger at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Lyon, where she graduated with a Prix d'Orgue cum laude in June 2012.

Hilary Hahn RETROSPECTIVE

On January 19, Hilary Hahn releases Retrospective, an album showcasing all of her recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, along with new, unedited live performance recordings, which provide the full immediacy of the concert experience.

The collection includes at least one track from each of her 12 Deutsche Grammophon albums and live recordings from Hahn's Meistersaal concert in Berlin, an event especially dedicated to her fans. The recording includes the live performance of Mozart's Sonata KV 379, in addition to Max Richter's “Mercy” and Tina Davidson's “Blue Curve of the Earth,” with pianist Cory Smythe, from In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores.  

Hahn made her first record at the age of 17: Hilary Hahn Plays Bach. She has gone on to release sixteen more albums on Deutsche Grammophon and Sony, in addition to an Oscar-nominated movie soundtrack and an award-winning recording for children, and win three Grammy awards. This latest release Retrospective references Hahn’s latest decade and a half of recording activity, from age 23 to the current day. 

For many years, Hahn has received unsolicited works of art from fans of all ages at concerts, which she features on her website and social media. To include her fans in this retrospective and acknowledge their longtime presence in her career, Hahn decided to use fan art for both the cover and the internal booklet. She chose pieces by professional and amateur artists in Turkey, Switzerland, Canada, and the U.S., and the artists will be compensated for the use of their work.

Christine Fraser, who drew the cover art says, “Fan art seems like a way to honor a person and to visually say, 'thank-you.' In Hilary's case, she has provided me with such a wonderful array of music that I frequently listen to while drawing or painting, I wanted to show her my appreciation by creating something to convey that message. For me, it's exciting to see an artistic exchange like this, as music has always been a huge influence in my own creative process. I am both honored and inspired by this opportunity and it is an incredible feeling to be part of a collaboration that includes artists of different age groups, with different styles, and from various locations around the world.” 

Capella Cracoviensis / Jan Tomasz Adamus NICOLA PORPORA Germanico in Germania

As interest in the Italian opera serie of the eighteenth century has grown apace in recent years, Handel’s operas are now seen as increasingly mainstream, and several works by Vivaldi and other contemporaries have again seen the light of day, including a few by Nicola Porpora.

However, until now, Germanico in Germania has, with the exception of one or two arias, remained firmly hidden on library shelves scattered around Europe. During his lifetime Porpora was as famous as a teacher of singing as for his compositions, so it is little wonder that his score is a veritable feast of vocal delights ripe for resurrection. Born in Naples on 17August 1686 and educated at the city’s Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, Porporas first opera, Agrippina , was given at the Neapolitan court in 1708. During the period 1715 to 1721, while maestro di cappella at the Naples Conservatorio di San Onofrio he also gained a reputation as a singing teacher: his most famous pupil was the castrato Farinelli. 

“Mr Cencic is blessed with the finest countertenor voice of our day.” That was the view of the German magazine Opernwelt back in 2008, and ever since Cencic has strengthened his iconic status among present-day countertenors, with a combination of beautiful, pure tone and passionate delivery.
Born in 1976 in Zagreb, Cencic first came to public attention aged six singing the Queen of the Night aria from the Magic Flute. He went on to sing with the Vienna Boys Choir, touring widely and launching his solo career in 1992 as a male soprano, followed in 2001 as a countertenor.
In this world premiere recording, Max Emanuel Cencic unearths Porpora’s opera Germanico in Germania.

Cencic is supported by a world-class cast, including star soprano Julia Lezhneva, and Capella Cracoviensis under the baton of Jan Tomasz Adamus.

Performed on period instruments from a brand new edition, this is a highly authoritative recording.

Yulia Berinskaya / I Musici di Parma / Stefano Ligoratti THE VOICE OF VIOLIN

The center of this album is not only the “song” of the violin but also its “voice”. The violin becomes the vehicle for a talking expression so strongly rooted in the Yiddish culture that when the Jews want to congratulate a violinist they say “You speak the violin well”. Violinitistically growth on the shape of his father Sergei Berinsky, important Muscovite composer of a Yiddish family, Yulia Berinskaya in this anthology is looking for the archaic origins of the music itself (song and dance), declining them according to her personal violinistic Voice, a sort of alter ego of the soprano. Furthermore, the peculiarity of this project is the fact that new transcriptions have been properly made for violin and chamber orchestra by Giovanni Dettori (Falla, Bloch, Piazzolla) and Stefano Ligoratti (Stravinsky).

Martin Helmchen BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations

The pianist Martin Helmchen has now joined Alpha for several recordings. Acknowledged as one of the leading pianists of his generation, an eminent interpreter of the German repertoire, Helmchen will explore various periods and composers (including Messiaen!), but Beethoven will have a preponderant place in his forthcoming recording projects. Before the complete concertos, planned for 2020, he tackles the Diabelli Variations, ‘a climax in the life of a pianist’. He sees these variations as ‘a voyage to the very heart of the infinity of human feelings and moods, by turns profound, philosophical, satirical’. He regards the cycle as a visionary work that heralds future developments in music, containing the first stirrings of twentieth-century minimalism, atonality and abstraction. This recording is the end result of a long personal association and numerous concerts; a powerful version in which each variation emerges as a masterpiece in its own right.

Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo / Brad Cohen / Emma Matthews IN MONTE CARLO

Bel Canto Emma Matthews is the brightest star out of Australia, the most anticipated since Dame Joan Sutherland. A co-production between ABC Classics and Universal Music in Australia, this CD combines jewels from French and Italian operatic repertoire, as well as music by Bernstein and 2 Australian composers Richard Mills and Calvin Bowman.

Emma made her Covent Garden debut in March/April 2010 in the title role of Cunning Little Vixen at the Royal Opera House, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras and her European concert debut with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and also her debut with conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy as soloist in Mahler’s 4.

This release highlights Romantic opera heroines the Doll Song from Tales of Hoffmann, the Bell Song from Lakme, as well as fearless and thrilling coloratura moments in Proch’s Theme and Variations and Bernstein’s Glitter and Be Gay. There are two world premiere recordings on the disc both from Australian composers - The Nightingale’s Song at the close of Richard Mills opera The Love of the Nightingale and Calvin Bowman’s song Now touch the air softly. (Presto Classical)

Stephen Hough DEBUSSY

It is 100 years since the death of Claude Debussy in 1918. It may have seemed at the time that the inimitably French, impressionist style he established would prove to be of less importance than the powerful ongoing musical traditions of Germany and Italy, but that is not how it looks now. Hardly any new contemporary work today passes without acknowledging some aspect of Debussy’s hugely influential exploration of texture, colour and atmosphere.

There will be many anniversary tributes throughout the year. Stephen Hough is getting in early with this all-Debussy piano disc, based on works he has been playing in recitals over the past few years.

It is surprising there has not been more of him in Debussy on disc. Anybody who has caught Hough in a live recital, or heard his scintillating recordings of Saint-Saëns’s piano concertos, will know how well the sparkling clarity of French music suits him.

A well-balanced selection embraces most of Debussy’s larger works for solo piano outside the two books of Préludes and the Études. The triptych of Estampes sets the tone with clear, atmospheric playing, given an extra warmth in Hyperion’s perfectly judged recording (it is hard to tell that two different recording venues were used over the course of the disc).

In the two groups of Images the reflections in the water ('Reflets dans l’eau') present a warm, impressionist wash of sound rather than the chiselled precision of a pianist like Michelangeli. The snowflakes in Children’s Corner fall with the softest delicacy. The delight in L’isle joyeuse is less exhilaration than joy at the radiance of a sun-soaked atmosphere. La plus que lente, played with affectionate simplicity, makes a nicely light-hearted bonus. (Richard Fairman / Financial Times)

Joyce DiDonato / The Dallas Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Patrick Summers JAKE HEGGIE Great Scott

Great Scott is the first full-length opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally since Dead Man Walking in 2000. It was commissioned by The Dallas Opera and is co-produced with San Diego Opera.

The world premiere was Oct 30, 2015 at the Winspear Opera House with a starry cast that included Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Kevin Burdette, Michael Mayes and Rodell Rosel.

It was conducted by Patrick Summers and directed by Jack O’Brien with sets and costumes by Bob Crowley, lighting by Brian MacDevitt and projections by Elaine J. McCarthy.

Based on an original story by McNally, Great Scott is set in a large American city that has a respected but struggling opera company and a thriving professional football team. International opera star Arden Scott has returned to her hometown to save American Opera, the company that launched her career, but the opening night performance of the long-lost opera she discovered (Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei) falls on the same night as the home football team’s first national championship (Go Grizzlies!). The fate of the company hangs in the balance as Arden is forced to consider the sacrifices she has made and discovers that true greatness is a matter of heart.

Anna Stéphany / Labyrinth Ensemble BLACK IS THE COLOUR

When we met for the first time in order to organise a concert based around Berio’s Folk Songs , little did we know how the project would develop over the next five years, culminating in the recording of this cd. 

Berio’s reworking of traditional material and also his inventing of new folk songs inspired us to seek out a similar work which we could rearrange to meet the ensemble’s specific needs. We quickly fell in love with Maurice Ravel’s magnificent Histoires Naturelles and its poetry by Jules Renard, which still enchants us today. 

Just as Ravel authorised Manuel Rosenthal to arrange the songs for large orchestra, a version we found a little grandiose, we too went in search of our own ‘Hunter of Images’ (to quote a title from one of Renard’s Histoires Naturelles), to transcribe the piece for us, without losing any of its intimacy or delicacy. 

All rearranging carries a risk and indeed Jules Renard himself chose not to be at the premier of Ravel’s songs in 1907, but we hope you will be as charmed as we are by Arthur Lavandier’s ability to recreate Ravel’s immensely nuanced soundworld in his magical transcription. (Anna Stéphany and Clément Noël)

François Salque / Claire-Marie Le Guay SCHUBERT Wanderer

Is it the lure of the unknown or the need to run away from something that prompts the Romantic ‘Wanderer’ to roam the world without any precise aim? If ever he encounters happiness where he is, his solitary itinerary nevertheless retains an initiatory quality. The lieder of Franz Schubert, here transcribed for cello and piano, explore all the nuances of this inner quest, in which a journey both painful and comforting finally leads to tranquillity and a sort of transcendence.

In November 1824 Franz Schubert composed a sonata in A minor (D821) specifically intended for performance on the arpeggione, a stringed instrument that enjoyed no more than an ephemeral existence. Patented in 1823 by Johann Georg Stauffer (1778–1853), one of the most important Viennese luthiers of the early nineteenth century, the arpeggione (also known as ‘guitarre d’amour’ at the time) offered a compromise between the guitar and the cello. While retaining several features of the guitar – the six strings and their tuning, the neck with its twenty-two frets for positioning the fingers and the smoothly contoured body – it was played like the cello, between the knees, with the vibration of the strings produced by a bow. Today there are no more than a dozen arpeggiones in the world (either originals or copies); the timbre of these instruments was very close to that of the nineteenth-century cello and to the viola, less rounded and warm than the modern cello, but richer in upper harmonics.

Franco Fagioli HANDEL Arias

Countertenor Franco Fagioli’s latest album, Handel Arias, is set to be released January 12 via Deutsche Grammophon. Recorded with specialist period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo D’Oro, the album features Fagioli’s personal selection of twelve arias from Handel’s rich and colourful operatic world including excerpts from Serse, Rinaldo and Ariodante.

“When I was recording,” Fagioli says, “it was as if I was taking snapshots of moments I wanted to capture for ever. In choosing the arias, my only criterion was this: which pieces move me the most when I sing them?” The result is a very personal selection revealing Fagioli’s deep veneration for this great Baroque composer. “Handel’s operas are a must for any countertenor,” he observes. “His inimitable style captivated both singers and audiences. You could say he was the Broadway star of the Baroque.”

Alongside highlights such as “Ombra mai fu” from Serse or the bravura aria “Venti turbini” from Rinaldo, Fagioli has also chosen miniature gems such as the radiant, ethereal “Ch’io parta?” from Partenope, or “Dopo notte” from Ariodante. Regardless of the popularity of the arias, he has arrived at his own individual interpretations with the awareness of his strengths. Fagioli was determined that the recordings should convey the emotional development of the various roles even without the context of the complete opera, and he succeeds so well in this that we hear even the most famous arias with fresh ears.

Franco Fagioli has found the perfect partners for his foray into Handel’s sound worlds in the musicians of Italian Baroque ensemble Il pomo d’oro. Since it was formed in 2012, the orchestra has been exploring the subtleties of historical performance practice and in their recordings with Fagioli its players let all the nuances of the scores shine through, showing the extraordinary, weightless beauty of his voice, with its three-octave range, to full advantage from start to finish.

The Argentinian countertenor is a dynamic performer as his vocal virtuosity brings the characters he plays to life while he harnesses his tremendous ability to express emotion. He is in his element in Handel’s colourful Baroque operas and is able to deploy his monumental talent to the utmost.

Riccardo Chailly / Lucerne Festival Orchestra STRAVINSKY Chant Funèbre - Le Sacre du Printemps

In 2015, an early piece by Stravinsky, lost for over a century, made headlines when it was rediscovered among a pile of manuscripts in the St Petersburg Conservatory. Chant Funèbre was composed in 1908, after the death of Stravinsky’s teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and it received a single performance at a concert in the conservatory the following January. But then the score and parts disappeared, and though Stravinsky himself remembered it as one of the best of his early works, the assumption was that it had been destroyed during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra gave the first modern performance of Chant Funèbre in St Petersburg in December 2016, and subsequently the piece has been performed around the world. Decca secured the rights to make the first commercial recording, however, and it features on Riccardo Chailly’s first disc with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, devoted to early Stravinsky.

What makes Chant Funèbre so fascinating is not that it illuminates more detail of Stravinsky’s journey towards the three ballet scores for Diaghilev that would make his name, but how it reveals a path he would not explore any further. In this steady processional, the highly coloured world inherited from Rimsky is replaced by something much darker and more Wagnerian; there are hints of Parsifal especially.

Chailly follows it with three other early pieces – Fireworks and the Scherzo Fantastique, and the tiny Pushkin settings of Le Faune et la Bergère (in which the mezzo Sophie Koch is the subtly nuanced soloist) – each of which hints at what was soon to come, while Chant Funèbre very definitely stands apart.

The whole sequence, brilliantly coloured and played with immaculate precision by the LFO, takes up half of this disc. It is followed by an equally brilliant account of The Rite of Spring, though one that takes a little while to catch fire. It’s more detailed, and more measured, than the version Chailly recorded in 1985 with the Cleveland Orchestra, but equally convincing in its own way. (Andrew Clements / The Guardian)