Mary Lynch / Harrison Linsey / Northwest Sinfonia / David Sabee CHRISTOPHER TYLER NICKEL Concertos for Oboe

CONCERTOS FOR OBOE

 

Inbal Segev / London Philharmonic Orchestra / Marin Alsop ANNA CLYNE Dance EDWARD ELGAR Cello Concerto

DANCE - CELLO CONCERTO

Sarah Beth Briggs THE AUSTRIAN CONNECTION

THE AUSTRIAN CONNECTION

Elizabeth Hainen HOME

HOME

Rachel Barton Pine / Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Teddy Abrams DVORÁK - KHACHATURIAN Violin Concertos

                                                          VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Karim Sulayman / Yi-heng Yang WHERE ONLY STARS CAN HEAR US

                                            WHERE ONLY STARS CAN HEAR US

Susan Narucki THE EDGE OF SILENCE

                                                        THE EDGE OF SILENCE

Sarah Beth Briggs SCHUMANN Papillons, Kinderszenen BRAHMS Opp. 117, 118

For her first solo recital recording for AVIE Records, award-winning pianist Sarah Beth Briggs turns to some of the greatest collections of Romantic miniatures ever written, largely inspired by one woman: Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann and muse to Johannes Brahms. The bookends of the album are Schumann's early and youthful Papillons and Kinderszenen. In between is autumnal Brahms - his Op. 117 Intermezzi and Op. 118 Klavierstücke.

Multi-award winning pianist Sarah Beth Briggs earned multiple plaudits for her previous AVIE recordings, a Gramophone Critics' Choice for her pairing of concertos by Hans Gál and Mozart, and a Gramophone Editor's Choice for her Briggs Piano Trio's pairing of works by Gál and Shostakovich. For her first solo recital recording for AVIE, Sarah turns to some of the greatest collections of Romantic miniatures ever written, largely inspired by one woman: Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann and muse to Johannes Brahms. The twelve short dance movements of Schumann's early and enigmatic Papillons set the scene, giving way to autumnal, late Brahms - his Op. 117 Intermezzi and Op. 118 Klavierstücke. The album ends as it begins, with youthful Schumann and his lovingly crafted Kinderszenen, written over half a century earlier.

Philippe Graffin / Claire Désert IN THE SHADE OF FORESTS

The haunting cover image of a gypsy child peering from the back of a rickety horse-drawn cart is significant. The stated theme, ‘in the shade of the forests’, doesn’t only symbolise nature, gypsies and various ethnic strains of folk music but the notion of ferrying those influences from one land to another. Ravel and Debussy, for example, were swept off their feet by hearing Hungarian fiddle music.

In the case of George Enescu, the inborn folk seed sprouted virtually from day one: his Impressions d’enfance, written on the eve of the Second World War, explore the twin themes of nature and gypsy music as recalled from early childhood. I loved this recording by Philippe Graffin and Claire Désert, less because of any well meant attempt to approximate a ‘gypsy’ style than the intimacy of the playing. Take the garden stream in the third movement or the caged bird in the fourth, so subtly evoked, like a distant memory shared.

The combination of Graffin’s confidential tone and Désert’s attentive ear makes for what is surely the benchmark recording of Ravel’s early ‘posthumous’ Sonata, music discovered only 30 or so years ago and probably written during the composer’s student years. Although composed before the turn of the last century, unmistakable harmonic hints at Gershwin’s style crop up here and there – paradoxical given Ravel’s later admiration for the king of Tin Pan Alley.

This recording of Ravel’s Tzigane is interesting on two counts: first, Graffin’s unhurried approach ensures that every note is audible; and second, Désert plays the same exotic instrument that was used for the premiere of the version with ‘luthéal’ back in 1924. Here we’re talking a half-size Pleyel as opposed to a full-size grand, the approximate effect a cross between a cimbalom and a fortepiano, with numerous gradations of tone-colouring between. As to Debussy, Graffin and Désert make gentle play with the late Violin Sonata and lavish affection on the transcriptions. The most interesting is Graffin’s re-adaptation of an early, impish Nocturne and Scherzo originally intended for the violin but which hasn’t survived in that form. ‘Minstrels’ is presented in Debussy’s own cheeky arrangement, ‘Il pleure dans mon coeur’, ‘La fille aux cheveux de lin’ and Beau soir in wonderfully supple transcriptions by Debussy’s violinist friend Arthur Hartmann.

A beautiful disc, this, its message one of gentle longing and nostalgia, though the playing is anything but sentimental. Graffin’s annotations are a mine of valuable information, though you’ll need a magnifying glass to read them. (Rob Cowan / Gramophone)

Anne Akiko Meyers MIRROR IN MIRROR

Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is one of today’s most in-demand classical performers. A Billboard Top Selling Classical Instrumentalist of the Year, she is beloved by audiences around the world, with a reputation for groundbreaking recital programmes and ground-breaking commissions. Mirror in Mirror marks her 37th studio album and is one of her most personal projects to date.

With the exception of Ravel, Anne collaborated with all of the composers and arrangers on this album. Several of the works were written for her. The music is reflective and spiritual, and weaves a beautiful story. Philip Glass’ Metamorphosis II is heard in an arrangement commissioned by Anne. The original work inspired Fratres by Arvo Pärt, whose Spiegel im Speigel (Mirror in Mirror) provides the album’s title. John Corigliano’s Lullaby for Natalie was written to commemorate the birth of Anne’s first daughter. Anne has commissioned numerous works by Jakob Ciupinski who combines acoustic instruments with electronics in Edo Lullaby – a modern setting of a traditional Japanese melody that Anne recalls from her childhood – and Wreck of the Umbria which conjures the composer’s dive and discovery of the ship off the coast of Sudan. Ciupinski contributes electronics to Ravel’s Tzigane, re-creating the sound of the original version’s lutheal. The album is capped by another Anne commission – the premiere recording of Morten Lauridsen’s own arrangement for violin and orchestra of his most famous choral composition, O Magnum Mysterium.

Sarah Beth Briggs / Royal Northern Sinfonia / Kenneth Woods GÁL Concerto for Piano & Orchestra MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 K. 482

The Austrian Jewish composer Hans Gál fled Vienna in 1938 for England and then Scotland, then learned that both his aunt and his sister had committed suicide to avoid being sent to Auschwitz. He himself spent time in a British internment camp for enemy aliens. Through these events he maintained a consistent personal style that tended toward optimism, and his Piano Concerto, Op. 57, recorded here for the first time, is a fine example. It is Mozartian without being neoclassic, putting essentially Romantic melodies together in clean, distinct units and adding a bit of chromatic harmony. It's as if Carl Maria von Weber had written his piano music at the beginning of the 20th century instead of the beginning of the 19th. Sample the last movement (track 3), where a very Mozartian mixture of high spirits and melancholy reigns. The Royal Northern Sinfonia under Kenneth Woods and pianist Sarah Beth Briggs are quietly sensitive in the complex ensemble work. The Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482, fills out the program in an unusually satisfying way, and Avie gets exactly the right lucid sound, working in Sage Gateshead's Hall One in North East England. Marvelous music by a composer who is benefiting from a well-deserved revival. (James Manheim)

Briggs Piano Trio GÁL Piano Trio in E, Op. 18 SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67

The Briggs Piano Trio, which Avie brought together for this release, have a mission to raise the profile of the Austrian composer Hans Gál. In 2016, Sarah Beth Briggs and Kenneth Woods collaborated on the world premiere recording of the composer's Piano Concerto. Earlier this year, Briggs contributed to Volume 3 of Gál chamber music series on Toccata Classics. I was very lucky to have the opportunity to review both those discs. Kenneth Woods, whose many-faceted career includes not only playing the cello but also conducting, has recorded the composer's four symphonies. Looking around, there is every evidence that a Gál renaissance is underway, and not before time.
Hans Gál, born in Vienna in 1890, studied piano with Richard Robert, who also taught Clara Haskil, Rudolf Serkin and George Szell. Robert later appointed Gál teacher of piano, harmony and counterpoint at the New Conservatory in Vienna. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Gál saw the writing on the wall and eventually fled to the UK in 1938. He spent a period of internment in the Isle of Man. In 1942 his mother died, and his aunt and sister took their own lives shortly after to avoid deportation to Auschwitz. In December 1942 his son Peter, only eighteen, met a similar fate. Throughout the composer’s long life, music was to sustain him, and the tragedies that came his way in no way dimmed his creative powers. He eventually relocated to Edinburgh, where he remained for the rest of his life. He helped found the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. He died in 1987 aged 97.
Gál penned his Piano Trio in E major in 1923. His fortunes had been on the rise. He had been awarded the Rothschild Prize in 1919, and had secured a post on the teaching staff at the University of Vienna, albeit on a modest salary. Then came a period of political instability caused by German hyperinflation, but none of this turmoil is reflected in the Trio. I discovered that this was the first of two piano trios he wrote. The other was a short work in G major, Op. 49b, composed just over twenty-five years later in 1949. Both trios, together with the 'Heurigen' Variations have been recorded before, in 2004, on the Camerata label. I have never heard this alternative so I will not offer any comparisons.
The Op. 18 Trio is in three movements. The first is melodically rich, where dreamy lyricism alternates with more dramatic intent. Sweeping declamatory romantic gestures are seasoned with the occasional hint of nostalgia. The piano seems to have a prominent role. The central movement is a Scherzo in all but name. It opens with a sprightly romp which falls over itself into a bout of rough and tumble. The trio section offers some warm lyrical contrast. The finale has a slow wistful introduction; this gradually becomes a whimsical allegro, which is capricious and mercurial in character.
The Variations on a Viennese 'Heurigen' Melody date back to 1914, but were only published after the First World War. The work has gained some popularity since, and here provides some lighter fare before the anguished Shostakovich Trio. The Briggs Piano Trio seem to be really enjoying themselves here, and imbue the work with an alluring Viennese charm.
Shostakovich's four-movement Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor from 1944 was dedicated to his friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, who had recently died at age 41. It was premiered in Leningrad on 14 November the same year. The work is a response to both the national tragedy of war and his own very personal loss. The first movement opens with ethereal harmonics around which the muted violin weaves an eerie melody, backed by some dark sombre piano chords. The atmosphere could not be more bleak. The tempo becomes more animated but the overall mood is restless and agitated; there is no peace. To the second scherzo-like movement, the players bring savage irony and wit. A passacaglia with funereal tread, weighed down with pain and anguish, precedes an Allegretto finale, where joy and sorrow rub shoulders. Shostakovich makes use of Jewish themes in what one can only describe as a danse macabre. The ensemble deliver a rhythmically potent reading which really makes you sit up and take notice. Their energy is totally infectious.
For Gál enthusiasts, like myself, this release will be self-recommending. The Briggs Piano Trio’s immaculately tailored performances, enhanced by superb sound quality, get my warm-hearted recommendation. (Stephen Greenbank)

Adrian Chandler / La Serenissima VIVALDI X2

The Vivaldi recordings by Adrian Chandler and his British period instrument ensemble La Serenissima, named after the nickname of the Venetian Republic and specializing in its music, are breaking new ground. Give this one a try if you haven't heard the group before: it's wonderful. Chandler focuses on double concertos, which Vivaldi produced in profusion for his players as the Osepale della Pietà, but which have been largely neglected on recordings. Chandler digs up unusual and interesting pieces; there isn't an overplayed item in the bunch. And the big news is his overall style: 180 degrees removed from muscular Italian Vivaldi approaches derived from operatic styles. For Chandler, the Vivaldi concerto is a playful, subtle affair, with soloists neither blending into the ensemble, as in some small-group readings, nor standing up to it in big contrasts. Instead, Chandler's soloists react flexibly to the orchestral tutti, catching the variety in Vivaldi's solo treatments. The work on Chandler's period horn and wind players is notable; hornists Anneke Scott and Jocelyn Lightfoot tame the temperamental natural horn and produce gentle sounds that fit perfectly with Chandler's approach. Sample one of the two-oboe concerts, such as the first movement of the Concerto in D minor, RV 535, or the finale of one of a pair of violin-and-cello concertos included, the Concerto in B flat major, RV 547, to hear how Chandler and La Serenissima weave the solo line into the orchestral texture rather than setting it apart. Also included is a notorious puzzle, the Concerto S.A.S.I.S.P.G.M.D.G.S.M.B. in F major for two horns, two oboes, bassoon, violin, cello, strings, and continuo, RV 574. This work has been the subject of speculation because of its title (it may stand for Per Sua Altezza Serenissima il Signor Principe Giuseppe. Maria de' Gonzaga Signor Mio Benignissimo, but then again maybe not), but its real interest lies in the truly virtuosic mixing of the solo parts, and in this performance, where Chandler has explored just that aspect of Vivaldi's double concertos on the program up to that point, and it makes an entrancing finale. Bravo! (James Manheim)

Rachel Barton Pine BEL CANTO - PAGANINI 24 caprices and other works for solo violin

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine traverses Paganini’s ground breaking set of 24 Caprices with virtuosic flair and, in equal measure, reverence for the bel canto, or “beautiful singing,'' style of the composer’s generation. Playing on the ‘ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat’ Guarneri del Gesù violin from 1742, made by the same Cremona-based maker in the same year as Paganini’s own violin, Rachel channels the composer’s own technical wizardry as well as his love for beautiful melodies. Rachel was first introduced to Paganini’s Caprices at the age of six. In her early twenties she gave her first performance of all 24 Caprices in a single concert, a feat she has accomplished several times since including at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Ravinia Festival. Rachel fills out this release with other pyrotechnical works by Paganini, including his “Duet for One”, Caprice d’adieu and the Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento’ from Giovanni Paisiello’s opera La molinara. Inspired by Paganini’s legacy of virtuosic themes and variations, Rachel concludes the set with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand’, written in 2000 for the final concert of her first tour of that country. Paganini dedicated his 24 Caprices ''to all the artists.” Rachel in turn dedicates this recording to “all the listeners,” of which there will be legions.

Claire Booth / Christopher Glynn PERCY GRAINGER Folk Music

Soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn explore the fascinating and multifaceted folk song output of the original and inventive composer Percy Grainger. Percy Grainger was an extraordinary human being and musician - a precocious pianist, colourful composer and world traveller, a peculiarly passionate and emotive eccentric whose fertile mind produced an expansive oeuvre of original and inventive works. Above all Grainger is best known for his most enduring musical endeavour, his exploration and dissemination of folk music. With this release, soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn, who have spent decades delving into Grainger's folk music output, document their fascination with the multifaceted firebrand, and bring his alluring music to a wider audience. Grainger's success resulted in multiple versions of his folk song settings, for orchestra, wind band, chamber ensemble and choir. But it's perhaps his versions for voice and piano that are the most characteristic, bringing out Grainger's own highly individual style at the keyboard. Claire's and Christopher's survey, one of the most comprehensive available on the market today, offers a variety of transcriptions of songs found in collections from the British Isles as well as discoveries Grainger heard as he roamed throughout the field. The album concludes with Grainger's most celebrated piece, English Country Gardens, in which Claire makes a cameo appearance on piano, joining Christopher in a rousing duet. "The exemplary soprano soloist, handling the slippery vocal lines as if there was nothing remotely challenging about them" - The Guardian "At Carnegie Hall pianist Christopher Glynn was an exemplary partner, by turns impossibly delicate, colourfully nimble and thunderously firm." (Opera News)