JOHN CAGE Four4

“Another Timbre celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of John Cage's influential work "Silence" by releasing  "Four 4", a work written in 1991, the year before Cage died. It was written for four percussionists, but the composer in his typical way, chose to let the musicians decide which instruments to use! By selecting the general instrumentation, while still allowing players to choose the specifics freely, Cage showed that he does not really lack interest in how the music should sound, he gives up only on the detail of the choices.  So his ego drew back, but - paradoxically - that doesn’t mean that he allowed that it should sound like just anything. Cage was not a pronounced friend of improvisation, or rather, he saw it only as one of many methods.

These days the elements of silence, style and repetition are often used within improvisation.  Without thinking about it, improvised musicians work with sounds and materials that are often reminiscent of Cage’s music. In this piece he withdrew having created a meagre economy of musical means for the players to explore. He used so-called "time brackets" in the score, determining only how long the piece should be.  In "Four 4" he lets the first player start his "time bracket" choice somewhere between 0'00 and 1'00, but it must end somewhere between 0'40 and 1'40. When such different "time brackets" are used for multiple players, the result will vary substantially in each realisation, and that leaves the performers with an enormous amount of artistic nuance and sensitivity with regard to each other's playing. This method creates a narrow limitation on one plane, but leaves things wide open on another dimension.

This performance opens with 30 seconds and ends with another 90 seconds of silence, or rather of inactivity by the musicians. This extreme openness of structure inevitably creates a relationship with so-called free improvised music. The soundworld  that is heard is significantly interwoven with the kind of low-dynamic gestures that we are used to in improvised music. As soon as the performance begins we sense both a slowness of pace and an energetic rhythmic repetition that moves between the instruments (and especially the very special timbres produced by Chris Burn’s piano).

The piece sounds as  transparent as improvised music often tends to be. It's also good to hear how a piece with written instructions can sound playful at times so that the pauses seem to vibrate with sounds.  Paradoxically, this recording of Cage which is a tribute 60 years after  "Silence" provides the clearest evidence of how alive Cage is within today's music.  The musicians, seasoned within improvisation, have brought with them a sense of nuance and group interaction so that Cage’s work is taken into a completely different rhythmic and tonal space than usual.  So let Cage think what he wants about improvisation, but these improvisers have developed his sound gently and firmly in their own way.” (Thomas Millroth / Sound of Music)

Christian Tetzlaff / Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu BARTÓK Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Star violinist Christian Tetzlaff performs Béla Bartók’s (1881–1945) two masterpieces in a new recording with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. This recording continues both artists’ highly successful series of recordings on Ondine.

‘The two violin concertos of Béla Bartók (1881–1945), completed thirty years apart in 1908 and 1938 respectively, celebrated relationships with two Hungarian violinists: the first romantic, with Stefi Geyer and the second artistic, with Zoltán Székely. Bartók’s 1^st Violin Concerto was published posthumously after the composer’s death in 1956, but Bartók reused the opening movement as the first of his Two Portraits for orchestra. He remarked in a letter written in late 1907 or early 1908 that ‘I have never written such direct music before’. Bartók completed two movements that portray the character of Stefi Geyer to whom the work was written to. Completed towards the end of 1938, Bartók’s three-movement 2^nd Violin Concerto was a much more substantial concerto than his first essay in the medium and it was dedicated ‘to my dear friend Zoltán Székely’. Székely’s name can also be found in the of his Second Rhapsody. Bartók adopted a rather unusual approach to the overall form of the Second Violin Concerto and the impact of both rural folk music and urban verbunkos on his language can be found in the Second Violin Concerto.

Trio Wanderer JOSEPH HAYDN Piano Trios

Prompted by a commission from a London publisher, Haydn took up the composition of piano trios, that is, sonatas for keyboard accompanied by violin and cello, on a grand scale in 1784. 

By that time, piano trios had become extremely popular with ‘amateurs’ (Liebhaber) – non-professionals from the aristocracy and the upper bourgeoisie – and their composition promised financial success. The piano carries the main burden of the compositional substance in these works and always forms the centre of the instrumental texture, around which the violin and cello are grouped. The tasks assigned to the stringed instruments are less structural than colouristic, although Haydn frequently allows the violin to break free from the piano part, entrusting it with independent ideas and sometimes allowing it to engage in dialogue with the piano.

Since forming in the late ’80s, Trio Wanderer have—with only one change of personnel—become one of the finest piano trios on the concert circuit. Surprisingly, they’ve recorded little Haydn, so this album is very welcome. The French trio have a lovely spring in their musical step and Haydn suits them to perfection. Fast movements flash past in a spirit of sheer delight while the slower ones are savored but never milked, and their tightly focused, well-balanced sound and restrained use of vibrato is very attractive.

Arcanto Quartett QUATUORS À CORDES

Admirers of the Arcanto Quartet will lap this disc up, and it deserves to be a spur to anybody who has not yet been alerted to this ensemble’s expertise, panache and interpretative perception. Previous discs of Brahms and Bartók have shown how the players, while possessing personalities of their own, coalesce and strike sparks off one another, instinctively sensing opportunities for crisp, collaborative counterpoint, for quick reactions, for rich, lyrical togetherness and for poetic eloquence as well. On this disc the landmark French quartets of Debussy and Ravel are combined with a later-20th-century classic by Henri Dutilleux, his Ainsi la nuit, completed in 1976. The playing throughout is masterly, and also thoroughly involving in terms of both technique and expressiveness.

The interpretation of the Debussy Quartet has sinew and propulsion, with that apt shading of dynamics and subtlety of nuance that have become hallmarks of the Arcanto’s distinctive and distinguished style. Delicacy and fluency are equally embraced in this commanding performance, as they are in the Ravel, where colouristic finesse is allied to clarity of articulation, sharp definition of thematic ideas and a warmth and energy in the overall characterisation of the music. With its broad outlook on the quartet repertoire, the Arcanto bring no less imagination to Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit, in which the short, epigrammatic miniatures that go to make up this seven-movement piece are played not only with complete control of the practical aspects but also with a gripping immediacy, personality and kaleidoscope of fascinating detail. (Gramophone)

Consort Brouillamini BACH Flûtes en fugue

The Consort Brouillamini is an unusual formation which gather five recorder player from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse of Lyon (CNSMDL). During these studies, the formation received a high quality education, provided by internationnal renamed teacher such as : Pierre Hamon, Pierre Boragno, Peter van Heyghen and obtain a master degree of chamber music with distinctions in 2010.

Based on the study of former treaties, Consort Brouillamini aim to bring up to date the caracteristic musical practice of XVIe and XVIIe century. They propose their own retranscriptions of masterpieces from the baroque repertory and from the classical one, in order to always demonstrate original and various programms which may help the spectator to travel through the music. The formation is also focused on modern pieces and had the opportunity to work with french composer Jean-Marc Serre in 2009, which composed five original pieces for the consort gathered under the name of “Haïkaï”.

Consort Brouillamini already gave several live performance among the Rhône-Alpes region such as the musical season of “l’Auditorium de Grenoble”, or at the “Temple Lanterne”. They also performed all across the country ; Strasbourg, Nantes and Paris. They have been part of some musical festivals such as “Les jeudi Musicaux de Royan”, baroque festival of Tarentaise, “Sinfonia en Périgord” festival, “La note envolée” festival, “Le printemps des orgues” festival and “Les concerts d’Anacréon” musicla season. The musical formation also performed abroad : Gijon in Spain and at the “Ecchi Lontani de Cagliari” festival in Sardegna.

Consort Brouillamini obtained the first prize and the audience prize of the international contest of ancient music of Gijon (Spain) in july 2012.

Lucile Richardot / Ensemble Correspondances / Sébastien Daucé PERPETUAL NIGHT

The circulation of artists and sovereigns between France and England in the seventeenth century resulted in the establishment of highly original genres in the latter country: the first recitatives, large-scale airs from masques and dramatic ‘scenes’ provided fertile ground for experimentation and prepared the way for the birth of semi-opera. Sébastien Daucé explores this English vocal art in a programme tailor-made for one of today’s most fascinating voices: Lucile Richardot, in the exquisite setting provided by Ensemble Correspondances, subtly blends music, love, night and melancholy.

Leila Josefowicz / St. Louis Symphony / David Robertson JOHN ADAMS Violin Concerto

Nonesuch releases a new recording of John Adams's Grawemeyer Award–winning Violin Concerto (1993) with his frequent collaborators violinist Leila Josefowicz, conductor David Robertson, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on April 27, 2018. The album was recorded at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis in 2016.

Adams's Violin Concerto was co-commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet. It was described by the Boston Globe as having "the qualities of intelligence, craftsmanship, and quirkiness that have always marked the composer and his work; this time Adams also mingles virtuoso show with soul, popular appeal with the staying power that comes from intellectual interest." The premiere recording of the work, featuring violinist Gidon Kremer and the London Symphony Orchestra led by Kent Nagano, was released by Nonesuch in 1996.

Josefowicz said of the concerto in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "It was the piece where [Adams] first got to know me as a person and a player, when I was twenty-one. I'm now thirty-eight. When I started playing this piece, it was the confirmation of the new path that I was on, to really go down this new road with new music and with composers, because this experience was so inspiring for me." She further said, "It has a really dancelike feeling, so the violin line is often incredibly syncopated with everything else going on in the orchestra … Basically, it's supposed to make you groove."

Irina Muresanu FOUR STRINGS AROUND THE WORLD

Irina Muresanu writes of this release: “It all started when I tackled Mark O’Connor’s “Cricket Dance.” It is a short, straightforward tune that requires the skills of an intermediate player, and yet it took me an absurdly long time to learn. To put things in context: I was capable of learning whole violin concertos in a matter of weeks, so why was the O’Connor piece so hard to get under my fingers? Could it have been because it was written in a musical style completely different than my classical training? And if so, how many more different languages were there outside of the traditional/standard repertoire? With this idea, I started my exploration of works reflecting the ways the violin (including its ancestors and relatives) is employed in musical settings worldwide. What resulted is Four Strings Around the World, a celebration of diverse cultures refracted through the unifying voice of solo violin, a project which immersed me in sounds and colors I didn’t even realize could be produced by my own instrument…” “irresistible…not just a virtuoso but an artist” (The Boston Globe) “Musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception made Irina Muresanu’s performance especially admirable” (LA Times)

Mariana Flores / Cappella Mediterranea / Leonardo García Alarcón CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Lettera Amorosa

After the success of their album of music by Francesco Cavalli, the same performers now return in a programme devoted entirely to works a voce sola by Claudio Monteverdi, from the famous Lamento d’Arianna to the sublime (and much less well-known) Voglio da vita uscir. Mariana Flores embodies here the most touching personalities of this section of Monteverdi’s output.

Carolina López Moreno / Doriana Tchakarova IL BEL SOGNO

‘My aim with this recording is not only to realize a beautiful dream, to conquer the stage and to touch people’s hearts, and to lead my listeners on a journey of great emotions in the world of music. I would like to uncover the dreams that lie dormant in all of us and that are yearning to be brought into the open – desires which often reveal themselves in our dreams, where they seem tangible and achievable. Dreams of love, and phantasies of the world we would like to live in.’ (Carolina López Moreno)

Annika Treutler JOHANNES BRAHMS

Annika Treutler grew up in Detmold and is now based in Berlin. She studied with Prof. Matthias Kirschnereit at the Rostock College of Music and Drama and Prof. Bernd Goetzke at the Hanover College of Music, Drama and Media. The young artist won third prize at the Montreal International Piano Competition in 2014 and reached the semifinals of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich that year. Annika Treutler has appeared as a guest soloist with such orchestras as the Konzerthaus Orchestra of Berlin, the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. On this release, she presents beautiful solo piano works by Johannes Brahms.

Beatrice Berrut ATHANOR

Athanor. A mysterious name to designate, in alchemy, the long-combustion furnace that produces the philosopher’s stone. This matrix, which symbolises the quest of one who seeks to the Absolute, is a metaphor of Liszt’s approach.
With the patience of the alchemist who pursues the perfection of the material, the virtuoso composer and pianist has long matured the genesis of his two Piano Concertos and of the Totentanz: in fact, more than 20 years separate the first sketches of their publication.
These three major works are each crossed by a powerfull and captivating leading theme, and driven by a logic of transformation: the Totentanz uses the theme and variations form while the concertos are unifyed by a unique theme that nourishes the whole musical flow through its metamorphoses.
Pianist Beatrice Berrut, who was already venturing on the Lisztian paths in her previous record, testifies here to the infinite invention of the composer: she performs the first Concerto with its last variants noted by Liszt himself on the copy of his pupil Hans von Bülow. (Aparté)

Carolyn Sampson / Joseph Middleton A VERLAINE SONGBOOK

Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have turned to Verlaine settings for their new album for BIS, drawing inevitable comparisons with ‘Green’ (Erato, 4/15), Philippe Jaroussky and Jérôme Ducros’s two-disc Verlaine survey. Wisely, perhaps, they take a very different approach. Where Jaroussky and Ducros focus on multiple settings of individual texts, Sampson and Middleton concentrate on song-cycles, bookending their recital with Fêtes galantes and Ariettes oubliées, and placing La bonne chanson at its centre. Notable among the remaining songs are those by Régine Wieniawski (‘Poldowski’ was the pseudonym she adopted), and d’Indy’s pupil Déodat de Séverac, whose plainchant-inflected ‘Paysages tristes’, one of many discoveries here, forms the disc’s unforgettable epilogue.

Sampson and Middleton are very much at home in this repertory, frequently functioning as an indivisible unit with sound and sense beautifully fused. Occasionally – in the opening ‘En sourdine’ from Fêtes galantes, for instance – Sampson lets consonants slip in a quest for dynamic shading, though elsewhere texts are scrupulously delivered. She’s in excellent voice, too, her tone clear and silvery, her upper registers exquisite: Chausson’s ‘Apaisement’ sends shivers down your spine with its floated high pianissimos and suggestive portamentos.

The subtlety of Verlaine’s poetry – in which inner emotion and external reality are in continuous if fragile accord – encouraged song composers to expand the range of their piano-writing, and Middleton’s playing is marvellously fresh throughout, the thin dividing line between wit and melancholy superbly negotiated. When it comes to La bonne chanson, I prefer the more forthright approach of Gérard Souzay, say, or the underrated Camille Maurane, to Sampson and Middleton’s reined-in interpretation, fascinating though it is. Ariettes oubliées, on the other hand, gets one its finest performances on disc, the slide from eroticism to bitterness immaculately judged. Very fine. (Tim Ashley / Gramophone)

Arcanto Quartett / Jörg Widmann WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Clarinet Quintet - String Quartet K.421

If you want a recording of Mozart’s Quintet on a conventional clarinet, Jörg Widmann and the Arcanto Quartet are up there with the best. Using a basset clarinet, with its treacly extra low notes, Romain Guyot or Matthew Hunt (with Ensemble 360) bring more Papageno-ish fun to the finale. But few performances I know rival Widmann and the Arcanto for mingled refinement, imagination and sensitive give and take.

In the first two movements the players balance autumnal lyricism with more than a hint of period-style astringency. Tempi – not least in the flowing Larghetto – are on the brisk side, textures crisp and lucid, with sparing string vibrato, dynamic contrasts unusually wide. In the Minuet’s second Trio, Widmann creates two distinct characters, yodelling blithely, then digging with a vengeance into his deep, chalumeau arpeggios. The whole performance combines illuminating detail with an unerring sense of the music’s larger shapes, whether in the mounting harmonic tension of the first movement’s development or the floating serenity of the Larghetto, clarinet and first violin locked in tender colloquy.

On their own, the Arcanto, lean and sinewy of tone, are no less eloquent in the D minor Quartet. In the opening Allegro they stress the music’s elegiac fatalism rather than its agitation. Rarely will you hear such intense pianissimo playing in the mysterious – and still shocking – remote modulations at the start of the development. Here and elsewhere their response to mood and colour is matched by their care for balance and contrapuntal clarity. Perhaps the Arcanto’s rubato in the Minuet’s serenading Trio totters on the edge of winsomeness. But their vivid characterisation of the finale’s variations, from the truculent cross-rhythms of No 2 to the chaste tenderness of the D major variation, sets the seal on a desirable Mozart coupling, recorded in an aptly intimate acoustic. (Richard Wigmore / Gramophone)

MORTON FELDMAN Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello

"Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello" (often abbreviated to "PVVC") was Morton Feldman's final composition, receiving its premiere on July 4th 1987, less than two months before the composer's death from pancreatic cancer on September 3rd. This recording of the piece dates from January 2017 at Henry Wood Hall, where it was recorded by Simon Reynell. The quartet of Mark Knoop on piano, Aisha Orazbayeva on violin, Bridget Carey on viola and Anton Lukoszevieze on cello had performed "PVVC" the previous September at Café Oto, on a night that stuck in the minds of musicians and audience, alike, for being one of the year's hottest. 

Having come through that night successfully, the January recording afforded the quartet a valuable opportunity to apply what they had learnt from the Oto performance and the audience's reaction to it. As Knoop has commented, "I always like returning to things after a first performance as there are some aspects of the music which can only reveal themselves in performance, no matter how much rehearsal is done."

The recording runs for seventy-four minutes, making it a challenge to maintain concentration both for the performers and the listener. The composition is as uncomplicated as its title suggests. Lacking any formal structure or obvious peaks and troughs, it evolves at its own glacial pace, with the introduction of even the smallest motif acquiring significance. While it is in progress, its twin fascinations lie in the smooth, effortless ease with which Feldman achieved that evolution without disquieting the listener, and the skill with which the quartet perform the music without occasioning comment.

Throughout, piano and strings operate together as an integrated unit, seeming to think, move, inhale and exhale as one. Altogether, it makes a beguiling listening experience but, because of that, concentration can easily be lost. With time and effort, it is possible to maintain focus throughout, whereupon the true beauty of the piece reveals itself, more and more with each new listening. An important and valuable addition to both the Another Timbre catalogue and the Feldman discography.“ (John Eyles / All About Jazz)

Yeol Eum Son / Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner MOZART

A double Second Prize winner at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 2011 (To my ears she gave the more exciting interpretation of the mandatory Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto: a blistering reading that left me gasping.

I would have given her gold, not silver’ The Times, London) and at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, Yeol Eum Son’s graceful interpretations, crystalline touch and versatile, thrilling performances have caught the attention of audiences worldwide.

Praised for her widely eclectic concerti repertoire, ranging from Bach and all Mozart to Shchedrin and Gershwin, her recent concerto highlights include appearances with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Seoul Philharmonic and a European tour with KBS Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2017-18 season, Yeol Eum makes her UK debuts in Birmingham with the CBSO (Mozart Piano Concerto No 21) and London’s Cadogan Hall with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 8 & 21) on 20 April.

This recording was the last made by Sir Neville Marriner. (Presto Classical)

  

“Conductor Neville Marriner’s final album before his death is full of wit and vitality. Under his inspiring leadership, pianist Yeol Eum Son shines in Mozart’s late Piano Concerto No. 21, playing with a forensic attention to detail and revelling in the smallest gestures while the orchestra responds exquisitely to every nuance. The stunning second movement Andante, with its subtle changes in mood, is utterly radiant, while the final Allegro, each note a sparkling jewel, emerges as a slice of musical perfection.” (Apple Music)

ANTOINE BEUGER Ockeghem Octets

1996-1998 I had been focusing on solo music or, as i would call it now: music for solo situations, exploring in what ways solitude (as opposed to loneliness) can be reflected and experienced meaningfully in a musical situation.

1998 my musical exploration of  “being two”, of the duo, started and is still continuing. you certainly noticed, that a lot of my music is duo music, or: music about “being two”, or, more radically, about love. I strongly believe, that of all the arts, music, the art of sounds appearing and disappearing, the art of approximation (in tuning, timing, sound balancing …), can be the most reminiscent, commemorative, resonant of the single most important event, that human beings may experience in their lives: love. And if music can be this, it should be this. Especially in the constellation that is by itself closest to a love relationship: the duo. 

2003, very much inspired by Alain Badiou’s book Number and Numbers, a study of number with a very strong political subtext, it occurred to me, that the number of people, which constitute a group, might have an essential impact on what can happen, which kind of interactions, of sub-groupings etc. may emerge in such a group.

In other words: that going from 1 to 2, or from 2 to 3, etc. is not just adding one, but shifting from one situation to another, different one. Badiou’s book encouraged me to think of each number as having its own “ontology”, constituting its own special “world”, as it were.

My idea then was to create a series of musical situations in which all players do the same: play very long, very soft tones. So it is not their being different from each other, that primarily shapes the musical situation, but their number, their “being two”, their “being five”, …

Of course, the shifts are more overtly dramatic with the smaller numbers, as in real life. But continuing my search I was really surprised, how even situations like “being eleven” or “being seventeen” may induce very specific worlds. 

Since 2010 Johnny Chang has been putting the series into practice in Berlin, this way allowing the ensemble Konzert Minimal to gradually emerge along the growing number of players involved in the pieces.

Last year ‘van riel tunings for fifteen’ was performed. (Antoine Beuger)

Lucille Chung LISZT

One of the first female students of the iconic Russian pianist Lazar Berman at the Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy, Chung has won numerous awards for her performances of Liszt’s music, including the B minor Sonata that features on this programme. Lucille describes in her introduction to the programme how Berman “... for a time doubted that a diminutive lady with hands spanning a 9th (although I can now stretch a 10th on a good day) would ever succeed in playing Liszt well ... Mr Berman came around.”

Renowned for her “blazing gutsy performance[s]” (The Washington Post), Lucille Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, “combining vigour and suppleness with natural eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir).

Florian Noack SERGEI LYAPUNOV Works for Piano Vol. 2

My acquaintance with the piano music of Sergei Lyapunov has, until recently, been confined to the recording of the Transcendental Études by Konstantin Scherbakov on Marco Polo 8.223491. Then, in the space of a month, Louis Kentner’s 1949 recording of the Études came along, followed by this latest disc from Ars Produktion in Florian Noack’s Lyapunov series. The more I listen to the piano music of this composer, the more I fail to comprehend its unjust neglect. For me it’s an amalgam of the Russian nationalism of his mentor Balakirev and the virtuosity of Liszt. Undoubtedly much of it is technically challenging, yet its intense lyricism and rhapsodic narrative is positively compelling.

Three of the pieces here are receiving their premiere recording. Lyapunov purloined Schumann’s title Novelette for his Op. 18, closely following the structure of the second of the older composer’s Op. 21 set of eight. Clearly Schumann’s influence lurks in the background, but the piece also has a strong Russian accent. It’s characterized by unbridled virtuosity, Noack injecting plenty of energy and power into his bold rendition. The Humoresque Op. 34 truly lives up to its name. Frolicsome, humorous and even capricious, its pointed staccatos invest it with a mischievous quality. The sombre and plaintive disposition of Chant du Crépuscule, Op. 22 is Russian through and through.

Dreamy and reflective aptly sums up the Barcarolle, Op. 46. The Three Pieces, Op. 1 consist of an Étude, an Intermezzo and a Valse. The Étude, my favourite, is beguiling, and Noack’s incandescent playing of it is seductive. His rhythmic buoyancy in the Valse is also a convincing and winning element. The Seven Preludes, Op. 6, despite their brevity, encompass a wide emotional range. They should be played as a set due to the tonal relationship of each being linked by a pattern of descending thirds. No. 3 is quite bleak and gloomy, whilst No. 5 effuses geniality and charm, the pianist’s diaphanous finger-work glistening and evoking sunshine. No. 7 ends the cycle with an energetic romp to the finishing line. With the four Fêtes de Noël, Op. 41 you’re in for a treat. They capture the wide-eyed innocence and wonder of Christmas. Noack relishes the lyricism of this surfeit of delights, his sensitive pedalling painting these appealing miniatures in varied pastel shades. The Variations and Fugue on a Russian folk theme Op. 49 I didn’t enjoy so much. As a work I find it a little dry and academic.

This generously filled disc comes in top of the range sound. I’m very taken by the piano, which has been expertly voiced. Its rich, resonant tone is complemented by a warm and sympathetic acoustic. Noack clearly has an affinity with this music and is to be lauded for championing these rarely aired scores. This is the second volume of Lyapunov’s piano music he has recorded; the first included the Valse-Impromptus, Mazurkas, a Tarantella and a Valse Pensive. We are told that his intentions are to record the composer’s complete piano oeuvre. I can’t wait for the Transcendental Études. (Stephen Greenbank)

Florian Noack SERGEI LYAPUNOV Works for Piano Vol. 1

The young Belgian pianist Florian Noack devotes Volume 1 of what promises to be the complete solo piano music of Sergey Lyapunov (1859-1924) to dance forms. Each of the three Valse-impromptus are placed judiciously between the eight Mazurkas grouped in pairs. He opens with Valse pensive, Op 20, whose influence is audible to the extent that, notwithstanding Lyapunov’s independent voice, there is in almost every piece what sounds like a thematic reference to Islamey: a figure of a quaver triplet/two quavers/crotchet appears almost like a leitmotif.

The shortest work is the Second Valse-impromptu, a feather-light confection à la Moszkowski (‘a bibelot of exquisite craftsmanship’ says the booklet) with some delightfully casual canonic episodes that Noack invests with great charm. Here and elsewhere he gets to the heart of this music, responding to such instructions as quasi flauto and then quasi piccolo in the middle section of the Fifth Mazurka with finesse. The Tarantella, Op 25, in which Lyapunov’s pianistic heritage of Chopin, Liszt, Henselt and Balakirev is combined in one fearsome moto perpetuo, is thrillingly dispatched. The lush piano sound is a joy. ARS Produktion’s booklet is translated into a strange version of English with terms that will fox the uninitiated (eg the ‘Myxolydian pedal’ in the Fifth Mazurka) and confound even a Scrabble champion: the Seventh Mazurka is, apparently, ‘assuredly zal’.

No such head-scratching with Toccata Classics – Margarita Glebov is as fascinating on the composer as Donald Manildi is on the music, nine works which Glebov plays in chronological order, beginning with Three Pieces, Op 1 (1888). Like the later tumultuous Scherzo, Op 45 (1911) – with that Islamey-esque leitmotif again – and the Sonatina, Op 65 (1917), these are first recordings.

If her tone is marginally less effulgent than Noack’s, Glebov’s affinity with Lyapunov’s distinctive brand of lyrical virtuosity, couched firmly in the language of the late 19th century, is complete. The remainder of her programme duplicates the three Valse impromptus and four of the eight mazurkas played by Noack, though the two pianists differ significantly on some tempi: Mazurkas Nos 1 and 2, for instance, are 4'26" and 5'12" (Noack), 3'31" and 6'02" (Glebov). So which disc to choose? It would assuredly be zal to have both. (Gramophone)

Anima Eterna Brugge / Jos van Immerseel, BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique - Le Carnaval Romain

Without any prior information, the first thing listeners will notice about Jos van Immerseel's 2008 recording of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique is the umistakable period instrumentation, with the sheen of the strings and the distinctive sound of early 19th century woodwinds and brass, obvious at the outset. The second thing discriminating listeners will notice is the great care Immerseel takes with connecting notes, not only in the straightforward handling of melodic phrases, but also in linking secondary figures in the accompaniment, so that this chord progression or that isolated pitch makes sense within the larger scheme of things. This is where the performance either rises or falls, depending on what one wants to get out of this work. To the extent that Berlioz created Symphonie fantastique to show off his innovative orchestration, this recording goes as far as any historically informed and scholarly version to make sure that everything is heard clearly, not merely as separate sounds, but as integral parts of the greater, kaleidoscopic whole. Where this rendition might be regarded as a failure is in its lack of visceral excitement, which seems to be the unintended result of producing an immaculate-sounding performance. Immerseel gets astonishing sonorities from the ensemble Anima Eterna Brugge, and the engineers of Zig Zag Territoires capture them to perfection, but no one remembered to make the music cook. If Symphonie fantastique is deprived of its passion, delirium, fury, violence, and horror, it is merely an exercise in futility. The point of this work and its bizarre program is to portray the extreme emotional life of its drug-addled protagonist. Yet because it is played here at somewhat slower tempos that feel plodding, and with a meticulous precision that seems overly fussy, it doesn't rush madly, it doesn't whirl feverishly, and it doesn't fly off its handle, but seems too self-conscious to really let things rip. The sole exception is the Dream of a Witches' Sabbath, which is almost as fiendish and hair-raising as one might wish, but comes much too late to save the performance. Conversely, Le Carnaval romain is the best selection on the album because it has a wonderful period sound and is played with the verve and energy missing in the Symphonie. At points, Immerseel seems to pull back slightly in his pacing, but these are minor adjustments for the sake of clarity that don't impede the vitality of the whole overture, least of all in the final stretch. So if clear performances of these classics are required, this CD will fill that need, but for wild and thrilling Romantic music, this recording of Symphonie fantastique is not a contender. (Blair Sanderson)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet DEBUSSY Complete Works for Piano, Volume 5

This is the final volume in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s much acclaimed series of the solo piano works of Debussy. The disc consists of the composer’s piano transcriptions of the three ballet scores Khamma, Jeux and La Boîte a joujoux. Jean-Efflam comments: ‘In my opinion the transcriptions can offer greater clarity and organisation of musical discourse. Young conductors have told me that they understand the score of Jeux better after hearing the version for two pianos [recently prepared by Bavouzet]… for those who do not know these three ballets in their original orchestral versions, this disc may give them the curiosity to explore the works further.’ With Jeux, Jean-Efflam condensed his own published arrangement for two pianos, which resulted in this being ‘one of the most difficult works that I have played’.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet DEBUSSY Complete Works for Piano, Volume 4

Here Jean-Efflam Bavouzet presents his fourth volume of Debussy’s piano music, which comprises the Images Series 1 and 2 and the twelve Études Books 1 and 2. Comments for previous releases in the series include, ‘Bavouzet commands all the shading, nuance and timbral sensitivity one expects in Debussy, together with virtuoso flair and characterful spontaneity’ (Gramophone) and ‘…there is a balance of clarity and lyricism that immediately distinguish the pianist’s work’ (International Piano). This is a very personal project for Bavouzet who comments, ‘Debussy compels us to listen to his music in a very private, intense and nearly religious manner’. Volume 2 of this series has just been voted Record of the Year by Diapason d’Or magazine in France.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet DEBUSSY Complete Works for Piano, Volume 3

This is the third volume in Bavouzet’s complete series of the piano works by Debussy. The music now moves to a more playful strand in Debussy’s compositional career, with generally shorter pieces of the salon genre, including the two famous collections Children’s Corner and Suite bergamasque. In addition there are several rarities, including La plus que lente and Élégie. The previous two volumes have been very well received both critically and commercially. The LA Times wrote of Volume 2, ‘In what may turn out to be the greatest completed recorded survey of the composer’s piano music yet, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet… plays with such bracing clarity that hearing the early Romantic pieces, one feels like jumping into an icy pond after an hour in the sauna’.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet DEBUSSY Complete Works for Piano, Volume 2

This is Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's second volume of Debussy's piano music and includes Images (oubliées), Estampes and L'Isle joyeuse, all representing a perhaps more reflective vein in Debussy's compositional output. Bavouzet is a supreme interpreter of Debussy's music, as The Sunday Times notes: 'Bavouzet has taken his time before committing his interpretations to disc but here he announces himself a peerless Debussyite... Bavouzet's command of touch, colour, and rhythmic vitality are all that one could ask for.'

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet DEBUSSY Complete Works for Piano, Volume 1

This recording marks the debut of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on Chandos. Ralph Couzens was immediately impressed by Bavouzet's brilliant technique coupled with an acute sensitivity. Bavouzet was keen to record the complete piano works by Debussy and this first volume covers Books 1 and 2 of the famous Préludes together with the short, late prelude entitled 'Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon', only rediscovered in 2001 and thought to have been written by Debussy as a gift for his Parisian coal merchant who managed to find him some coal during the particularly cold winter of 1917. Bavouzet will record the second volume in this series in July.

Anima Eterna Brugge / Jos van Immerseel DEBUSSY Prélude à l'Après-Midi d'un Faune - La Mer - Images

Debussy suddenly seems to be on the front line of the period-instrument movement's steady advance through music history. This disc from Jos van Immerseel and his Belgian orchestra arrives just a few months after Simon Rattle's London performances of La Mer and Prélude à l'Après-Midi d'un Faune with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and John Eliot Gardiner's Proms account of Pelléas et Mélisande with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. For this recording, Anima Eterna Brugge's woodwind, brass, percussion and harps were French-made instruments of Debussy's time; they're generally more abrasive and pungent than their modern counterparts, and they combine with the gut strings to produce a more open sound than we are used to today.

Van Immerseel's approach can seem a bit too deliberate; there's something ponderous about Prélude à l'Après-Midi, while in La Mer he seems determined to emphasise the work's symphonic credentials. In fact, it's the orchestral Images that gains most from the brighter, rawer colours of this performance, with the myriad subtleties of Debussy's scoring more beguiling than ever. Where most conductors make the three-part Ibéria their centrepiece, with Gigues before it and Rondes de Printemps as the finale, Van Immerseel begins with Rondes and places Ibéria last, following the order adopted by Debussy's friend and assistant André Caplet for performances he conducted after the composer's death. There's logic to that ordering, for Ibéria is significantly longer than the other two movements put together, and makes a substantial finale to the whole sequence; Van Immerseel resists the temptation to turn it into a real orchestral showpiece, but there's enough flair and imagination to make his performance compelling. (Andrew Clements / The Guardian)

Chouchane Siranossian / Jos Van Immerseel L'ANGE & LE DIABLE

Jos Van Immerseel returns to chamber music and the accompaniment of young talents, two absolute priorities for him. In Chouchane Siranossian he has found a worthy partner, as gifted on the modern violin as she is on the Baroque instrument, a pupil of Tibor Varga, then of Zakhar Bron, as well as a disciple of Reinhard Goebel, whose first recording, on the Oehms label, attracted great attention (winning a ‘Diapason Découverte’). Here it is the Baroque violinist who engages in dialogue with the harpsichord of Jos Van Immerseel in a Franco-Italian program juxtaposing the music of the ‘Angel’ Leclair and the ‘Devil’ Locatelli, not forgetting Tartini’s famous ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata . . . Indeed, all this music is ‘devilishly’ difficult to play, but the Franco-Armenian violinist shows perfect mastery of it, combined with great inventiveness.

ALEXANDER KNAIFEL Lukomoriye

The fourth New Series album from Russian composer Alexander Knaifel may be his most wide-ranging to date, voyaging from the sacred to the secular and back again via several inspired detours. It includes two Prayers to the Holy Spirit, movingly performed by the Lege Artis Choir. The composer’s wife, Tatiana Melentieva, sings Bliss, based on Alexander Pushkin’s poem, and the great Russian poet is cross-referenced with St Ephraim the Syrian in O Lord of All My Life (A Poem and a Prayer) sung by Piotr Migunov. Oleg Malov, one of Alexander Knaifel’s closest associates for more than thirty years, accompanies both singers and is called upon to internalize texts - playing as if singing, a Knaifel speciality - in four further solo piano pieces. A mad tea party lives up to its title, with a surreal Alice in Wonderland spirit. This Child (after the Gospel of St Luke), A Confession and title piece Lukomoriye (both after Pushkin) are luminously quiet, and quietly magical. The scope of the musical material – by turns playful, devotional, lyrical – defies typecasting, just as it testifies to Kanifel’s eclectic imagination. “The music comes from up there,” Knaifel has said, pointing skyward, “what’s important for a composer is to listen to it, and get it down on paper.”

Alexander Knaifel was born in 1943 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but grew up in St. Petersburg. His music, described by the Frankfurter Rundschau as "one of the most important revelations of recent years", belongs to that circle of near-contemporaries and associates from the former Soviet lands which includes Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Tigran Mansurian, Valentin Silvestrov and Sofia Gubaidulina. But, although critics have found echoes of Pärt, Tavener and Górecki in Knaifel’s quest for musical beauty, he has an idiom that is entirely his own, with its own expressive power.

ECM’s documentation of Knaifel’s work began with Svete Tikhiy (recorded 1997 and 2000), with the Keller Quartet, pianist Oleg Malov, and Tatiana Melentieva. Amicta Sole, recorded 2000 to 2001, featured the great Mstislav Rostropovich, who had been Knaifel’s cello teacher at the Moscow Conserbatory; Rostropovich was subsequently the dedicatee of the 2006 recording Blazhenstva, which also featured The Lege Artis Choir. (ECM Records)

ALEXANDER KNAIFEL Blazhenstva

The third ECM album pioneering Alexander Knaifel’s highly personal œuvre after “Amicta Sole” and “Svete Tikhiy” (released in 2003 and 2005, respectively) offers an important addition to the label's wide-ranging spectrum of Post-Soviet music. Two starkly contrasting yet spiritually interrelated compositions – both of them, according to Knaifel, following the same path and forming a "united way" – are presented in exemplary interpretations from some of his long-standing collaborators, especially from cellist and conductor Ivan Monighetti. "In my opinion this recording is one of the best ones we ever did", says the composer who took part in all production stages.

While the heavy chords in “Lamento” for solo cello tend to evoke an almost orchestral density of sound, the subtle sonic hues of “Blazhenstva” for soloists, orchestra and choir often verge to silence. The 18-minute cello piece, a central example of Knaifel’s expressive early style, depicts an impressive development from vehement rage to almost transcendent tranquillity. Towards the end, the (male) player is asked to sing with closed mouth in the cello register. “Lamento” was written in 1967 when the composer, originally a cellist himself, was still studying in Leningrad. It was revised twenty years later and dedicated to the memory of the influential Russian choreographer Leonid Jakobson who had died in 1975.

“Blazhenstva” was composed in 1996 and is dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, Knaifel’s former teacher and mentor. Representative of Knaifel’s mature style it is a very sparse and completely quiet score of 37 minutes in slow tempo throughout. Relinquishing all ornamental elements it creates an incomparable sonic space of almost narcotic intensity. The biblical verse from the Sermon on the Mount (Gospel of St. Matthew) in Russian language are set for solo voices and different choral groups and enhanced by extensive string interludes. “Feasible comprehension of these immeasurable words seemed to me the best gift to the 70th anniversary of the great musician and great person Mstislav Rostropovich”, writes Knaifel in a short note for this recording. (ECM Records)

Yeol Eum Son MODERN TIMES

Classical pianist Son Yeol-eum has returned to the limelight with her first album in eight years, “Modern Times.” It  features a wide range of music from jazzy razzmatazz swing tunes to sounds that remind listeners of a dark and desolate night. 

“This musical theme is something I have always wanted to pursue because I think this style of music represents such important and influential times in our history,” said Son, during a press conference held at the Stradeum concert hall in Seoul.

“All of the music selected from the album are from the early 20th century, an era in which I think saw a big shift in both world history and music culture,” she added. 

Son’s new four-track album features Alban Berg’s “Piano Sonata op. 1,” Sergei Prokofiev’s “Toccata in D minor, op. 11,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Trois Mouvement de Petrouchka” and Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin La Valse.” 

The album is a far cry from other recent releases by her local pianist peers such as Cho Seong-jin, Lim Dong-hyek and Dasol Kim, which have all tended to err on the side of traditional classical pieces from Chopin to Schumann.  

“We are now living in the 21st Century, and it has been 100 years since these pieces were written,” Son explained.

“During this era I think the world has really opened up and there has been some drastic changes in the sounds of classical music … in the process of making this album, I found myself thinking about how much change happened in both the East and the West during the World Wars,” she said, adding that the seismic shift in the world’s cultural and historical climate allowed for the birth of a new generation of classical music repertories.  

Son, who is from Wonju in Gangwon Province, first drew international attention when she appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004 under the baton of conductor Lorin Maazel. (Julie Jackson)

David Aaron Carpenter / London Philharmonic Orchestra MOTHERLAND

For his second Warner Classics album, David Aaron Carpenter - "a star violist" in the words of the Los Angeles Times - brings together concertos by Dvořák, Bartók, Walton and a dance cycle by contemporary composer Alexey Shor. Carpenter identifies a connecting theme of "a longing for the homeland … a reverence for native musical folk tunes and language." He is accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under three distinguished conductors: Kazushi Ono, Vladimir Jurowski and David Parry.

David Aaron Carpenter / Salomé Chamber Orchestra THE 12 SEASONS

There is no shortage of recordings of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but this one really is different. First of all, it is played on the viola, not on the violin – by David Aaron Carpenter. He has been described by the German newspaper Die Welt as “a new star at the forefront of violists”, by the Helsinki Times as playing “like a young god” and by Gramophone as a player of “superlative assurance and magnetic conviction". When he made his debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in in 2007, the New York Times praised his “seductively rich sound … forceful interpretive personality and remarkable control of his instrument,” and his mentors have included such distinguished musical figures as Pinchas Zukerman, Yuri Bashmet and Christoph Eschenbach. Secondly, Vivaldi’s Baroque concertos are placed in a new light, since they are programmed alongside far more recent works inspired by the cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter: Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), written between 1965 and 1970 by Argentina’s King of Tango, Astor Piazzolla, and A Manhattan Four Seasons by the Ukrainian-American composer Alexey Shor, premiered in 2013. This CD represents the first time that the works by Vivaldi and Piazzolla have been recorded in a version for viola.

Alexey Shor wrote his work – moody, mellow and immediately appealing – in his capacity as composer-in-residence with the Manhattan-based Salomé Chamber Orchestra, which David Aaron Carpenter founded with his violin-playing sister and brother, Lauren and Sean. The orchestra generally plays without a conductor and is therefore headless… hence its striking name, inspired by the biblical princess who demanded the decapitation of John the Baptist. It was founded by the Carpenter siblings in 2009 with the declared aim of achieving “a dynamic balance of novelty, tradition and hard work”. As Lauren Carpenter told the New York Times, “It’s great to try and change the face of what classical music concerts can be.”

Duo Gazzana RAVEL - FRANCK - LIGETI - MESSIAEN

The third ECM New Series recording by Italian sisters Natascia and Raffaella Gazzana focuses primarily on French music, by César Franck, Maurice Ravel and Olivier Messiaen, and also pays tribute to Hungary’s György Ligeti, with a premiere recording of his Duo for violin and piano.

Where 20th and 21st century music was explored on their two previous discs – the first with music of Takemitsu, Hindemith, Janáček and Silvestrov and the second with Poulenc, Walton, Dallapiccola, Schnittke and, again, Silvestrov – this time Duo Gazzana also reaches back a little further in music history. The album begins with two pieces composed at the end of the 19th century, Ravel’s Sonate posthume, written in 1897, and César Franck’s monumental A-major Sonata for piano and violin of 1886.

“If you speak of French music, the first association is probably with music where atmosphere and mood are emphasized,” the Gazzana sisters note. “But the Franck sonata is something really solid as well as beautiful, and it has influenced so many other composers.” As Wolfgang Sandner remarks in the CD booklet essay, “The sonata is a test of interpretation. In particular, it requires a command of its architecture, built through successive cycles, of its expressive intensity, product of a formal clarity maintained through harmonic boldness, enharmonic ambiguities and modulations to distant keys, and not least the dialogue that develops between the two instruments.”

Studying and playing the Franck sonata was Duo Gazzana’s starting point for the repertoire of the present disc. “And then we tried, as we always do in our programmes, to find links and interconnections, musically and historically.”

Three of the featured pieces are early works. Maurice Ravel was just 22 when he wrote the Sonata posthume (which remained unpublished until 1975), Olivier Messiaen composed his Thème et variations at 24, and György Ligeti wrote his Duo (dedicated to his good friend György Kurtág) aged 23. The Gazzana sisters, who gave eloquent voice to early William Walton on their last ECM album, are fascinated by the transitional character and the promise of such pieces: “In them, you can already hear and sense the next steps that these composers will make in their musical language.” Early potential is also embodied in the Franck A major sonata: completed when its author was in his mid-60s, it was built upon a work he had sketched some three decades earlier.

The Franck, Ravel and Messiaen pieces reflect upon their authors’ close relationships with great violinists. Franck dedicated his sonata to a fellow composer, the virtuoso violinist Eugène Ysaӱe. Ravel’s 1897 sonata is said to have been inspired by the playing of his friend George Enescu, when both musicians were members of Fauré’s composition class in Paris. And Messiaen’s Thème et variations is dedicated to his first wife Claire Delbos, who gave the premiere performance. The profound keyboard skills of César Franck and Olivier Messiaen are however not to be gainsaid, and both had reputations as outstanding organists and improvisers. Raffaella Gazzana: “In some of the demanding counterpoint of the 4th movement of his sonata, especially, one can imagine Franck thinking also of the foot pedals of the organ.”

Messiaen and Ligeti were universes unto themselves: “Neither of them can really be classified in terms of any school.” Regarding the inclusion of the György Ligeti piece here, the duo says, “we like Ligeti’s music very much, but he didn’t publish music for our instrumentation. After doing some research we found a mention of the early Duo, and went in search of the piece.” In contradistinction to the Franck piece, where any new interpretation must take into account many distinguished recorded performances, “it was interesting and challenging to play the Ligeti with no other reference than the notes on the newly-printed Schott score.”

Paul Griffiths’s commentary on Duo Gazzana’s 2011 debut can serve equally as a summary here: “The programme as a whole is typical of the duo’s inquiring and sensitive approach to repertory. What we hear here is a vital freshness.”

Like its predecessors, the album was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, and produced by Manfred Eicher. (ECM Records)

NFM Wrocław Philharmonic / Tõnu Kaljuste ARVO PÄRT The Symphonies

Here are all four of Arvo Pärt’s symphonies, newly recorded with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic under the direction of one of Pärt’s most trusted colleagues, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste. Each of the symphonies, as the great Estonian composer has noted, is a world unto itself. Heard in chronological order, they also tell us much about Pärt’s musical and spiritual odyssey, and the very different ways in which he has exercised his craft. Forty-five years separate his Symphony No. 1 (“Polyphonic”) written in 1963 while he was still a student of Heino Eller, from his Symphony No. 4 (“Los Angeles”) written in 2008, by which time he was the world’s most widely-performed contemporary composer, and one whose now famous “tintinnabuli-style” has become an immediately identifiable artistic signature.

In presenting the works together, Tõnu Kaljuste considers them as “if they were a single grand symphony. I perceive Arvo Pärt’s creations as a biographical narrative, and hope that with the sound of the entirety of the music on this album we can refresh our memory of Pärt’s journey. It began with an entry into the neo-classical and serialist world, moved on with a composition that incorporated the use of collage, continued under the influence of early sacred music and - with the fourth symphony -  arrived at a confession-like music, with a sound world supported by prayer, penitence and suffering.”

 “To study and listen to symphonies is, in essence, to read and comprehend a biography in notes,” writes Wolfang Sandner in his liner essay, going on to trace many of the correspondences between the notes in Pärt’s scores and the changes taking place in the composer’s life.  In 1968, Pärt embarked upon an intense period of study that found him reevaluating Gregorian chant, the Notre Dame school, and Renaissance polyphony. The first signs of this study were felt in the Symphony No. 3 in 1971.

Wolfgang Sandner: “Pärt did not bury his head in the sand of music history in an effort to shut out the present. Like an archaeologist, he explored ancient compositional devices and realised what power can still be drawn from them with the knowledge of our day and a renunciation of all fashionable accessories. Pärt's method has irrevocably become his own personal style of composition. It has given birth to an entire cosmos of masterpieces, from such early instrumental works as Tabula rasa, Fratres, Summa and Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten to the large-scale choral and orchestral works Berliner Messe, Litany, Stabat Mater, Passio and Te Deum to his many pieces of chamber music and a cappella compositions, including the monumental Kanon Pokajanen.” (ECM Records)

ARVO PÄRT In Principio

The eagerly-awaited new Pärt: Released 25 years after the Estonian composer started ECM’s New Series (“Tabula Rasa”, 1984), “In Principio” offers six compositions of different scale and instrumentation written between 1989 and 2005 thus allowing for an impressive overview of Pärt’s recent stylistic development.

The dramatic 25-minute “In principio” for mixed choir and large orchestra sets the famous opening of the gospel of St. John, “In principio erat Verbum”. In its five movements, “tintinnabuli”-diatonicism is contrasted with sophisticated harmonic procedures, massive brass chords are juxtaposed with almost stoic calm in the choir.

With most of Pärt’s more recent works, the score (2003) was written in response to a major commission. 

The purely orchestral “La Sindone” (The holy shroud), mirroring the textile’s symbolic shine-through effects in delicate string-textures, was premièred in Turin during the 2006 Winter Olympics whereas “Caecilia, vergine romana” for mixed choir and orchestra is a commission from the organisation for the celebration of the jubilee of Rome in 2000.

“Da pacem Domine”, one of Pärt’s most serenely beautiful pieces responded in a very subtle way to the 2004 terror attacks in Madrid’s Atocha station. The piece which could be heard a cappella on the 2005- release “Lamentate” appears here in a striking new version with choir and strings. 

The programme is completed by two instrumental compositions, “Mein Weg” (1989 / 1999 / 2000) and “Für Lennart in memoriam” a very still piece for the late Estonian president Lennart Georg Meri.

The exemplary interpretations by some of the best and most faithful Pärt specialists were recorded in Estonia with the assistance of the composer and will surely make for one of the strongest 2009 releases on ECM. (ECM Records)

ARVO PÄRT Orient Occident

This programme represents a retreat from the remote cloister where for so long Arvo Pärt invited us to join him‚ a definite shift from the aerated tintinabuli. The purity remains‚ so do the spare textures and‚ to a limited extent‚ earlier stylistic traits. Pärt’s voice is always recognisable. And yet who‚ years ago‚ could have anticipated the tempered tumult that erupts in the third movement of Como cierva sedienta‚ a half­hour choral drama commissioned by the Festival de Mœsica de Canarias and premièred in Tenerife in 1999.
I remember hearing an imperfect taped copy of that first performance‚ which both fascinated and perplexed me‚ but this new recording subscribes to ECM’s well­tried aesthetic where clarity‚ fine­tipped detail and carefully gauged perspectives are familiar priorities. The texts come from the 42nd and 43rd Psalms‚ opening with ‘As the hart panteth…’ (Psalm 42). Even in the first few seconds‚ after chorus and bell have registered‚ vivid instrumental colour signals a fresh departure. It’s almost as if Pärt is relishing textures previously denied him‚ like a penitent released from fasting. Take the second movement‚ ‘Why art thou cast down‚ my soul?’‚ which opens among lower strings then switches to tactile pizzicati and woodwinds that are almost Tchaikovskian in their post­Classical delicacy. At 2'36" an unexpected upwards harp glissando cues a rhythmically driven affirmation of praise. The descent from flutes‚ down to bass clarinet and finally bassoon that closes the piece is a really imaginative touch. That aforementioned ‘eruption’ occurs at 1'42" into the next movement‚ with its fearsome waterspouts and billowing waves‚ its bass drum‚ brass‚ bell‚ swirling winds and cymbal spray. The long closing section is pensive but conclusive: a dramatic opening‚ drum taps that recall Shostakovich 11‚ expressively varied instrumental commentary‚ quiet string chords later on and a closing episode filled with equivocal tranquillity.
The two shorter works are also significant. Wallfahrtslied (1984‚ ‘Song of Pilgrimage’)‚ a memorial to a friend‚ is presented in the revised version for strings and men’s choir. Again Pärt engages a lyrical muse‚ particularly for the emotionally weighted prelude and postlude whereas the accompaniment to the main text (Psalm 121‚ ‘I lift up mine eyes unto the hills…’)‚ a combination of pizzicato and shuddering bowed phrases‚ suggests a lament tinged with anger.
The seven­minute string piece Orient and Occident is barely two years old‚ and has ‘a monophonic line which runs resolutely through [it]’‚ to quote Pärt’s wife‚ Nora. Snake­like oriental gestures‚ coiled with prominent portamenti (the sort used by Indian orchestras) sound like an Eastern variant of Pärt’s earlier string works. ‘With perfect consistency‚ like links in a chain‚’ writes Nora‚ ‘tiny contrasting musical segments […] converge‚ yet produce a gently flowing stream of music.’ I’ll certainly buy that‚ but the choral pieces are the prime reasons for investing in this exceptional and musically important release. (Gramophone)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet HAYDN Piano Sonatas, Vol. 6

Haydn’s reputation as a competent pianist but no wizard is surely correct; he appears never to have stepped forwards to present himself as a performer of his own solo pieces, and that probably accounts a good deal for the fact that they still live in the shadow of Mozart’s. Yet the piano was at the centre of his life, the instrument at which he improvised and tested all his ideas as part of his morning routine, and in writing music for it he was interested in the expressive possibilities that the developing fortepiano was opening up. The 60-odd sonatas represent some of the most ambitious keyboard music of their time, and virtuosity was always an element of it.

I’ve always loved it and have been admiring of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Chandos series for promoting – in his description – ‘the boundless treasures of this sublime music’. He has done so at a level of technical perfection allied to insight, rigorous intellectual curiosity and the probing instincts of a distinguished performer that have never been brought to bear so acutely and consistently on this part of Haydn’s activity. Sometimes the music doesn’t look much on the page; some pianists regard the writing as relatively undeveloped, compared with Mozart’s or Clementi’s, and others have been perplexed by the fact that it doesn’t display a continuous stylistic development. Lay this baggage aside and listen to these five nicely programmed sonatas, none of which is often encountered in recitals. You catch Haydn’s adventurous spirit and humanity straight away; only he could have written them.

The B flat Sonata, HobXVI/2, is the earliest in this grouping and may date from 1762. It’s a lovely piece with a Largo second movement in G minor and a Trio section in B flat minor of the final Minuet that must have gladdened Brahms’s heart. Haydn at this time was reaping the harvest of his studies of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the Treatise on the True Art of Keyboard Playing as well as CPE’s compositions. Haydn admired him as ‘the father of us all’.

In our turn we credit Haydn as the father of the symphony and the string quartet, yet we should not forget what he did for the piano sonata – neither Mozart nor Beethoven would have neglected to. The other four pieces here show his burgeoning range. The E flat Sonata No 28 explores brilliance and what the piano in the 1770s could inspire a composer to write; E flat minor appears for the Trio section of the Minuet, so fast-forward again to Brahms. Honour that man for championing his great predecessor when the 19th century had all but forgotten him. The closer one looks at No 43 in A flat, which appears at the outset to be content to please rather than astonish, the more characteristic it appears, with its pianissimo chords in a low register ending the first movement, the play of texture and sonority, the pauses, the little oppositions of sound and silence, the air of conversation and the bagatelle-like middle movement.

Faithful as always to Potton Hall in Suffolk, Bavouzet made the recording there last December. I had a moment of thinking the sound a mite clinical. I don’t think so now: wonderfully clean as his playing is, there is always warmth and a host of qualities that make his fingers sing and speak and entertain the way they do. There is nothing otiose or vacuous but he has the gift of making Haydn smile at us. With all repeats, the sonatas pan out at approximately 15 minutes each, which seems to me right. He is concerned that repeats should never be straightforward rhetorical formalities and varies them with an armoury of ornaments, mini-cadenzas and little textual ‘adjustments’. Better still, he knows when to stand back and do nothing. He writes about the why and wherefore of all this in the booklet.

The thicket of numerals attendant on any presentation of Haydn sonatas, thanks to the two divergent chronological numbering systems in use, is explained by Marc Vignal in another written contribution. Necessary to have, I daresay, but not compelling reading for most punters. Don’t let it put you off from getting to the music. (Stephen Plaistow / Gramophone)