Jane Gordon / Jan Rautio GABRIEL FAURÉ Works for Violin & Piano

 

WORKS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO

 

Gould Piano Trio CLARKE - IVES - BEACH

 

CLARKE - IVES - BEACH

 

BBC Concert Orchestra / John Andrews MALCOLM ARNOLD The Dancing Master Op. 34

THE DANCING MASTER Op. 34

 

Simon Smith / Clare Hayes / Paul Silverthorne / Katherine Jenkinson KODÁLY & DOHNÁNYI Chamber Works for Strings

CHAMBER WORKS FOR STRINGS

Stephen Farr J.S. BACH Chorale Partitas BWV 766-768 & 770

Following on from his lauded recording of of 'Clavier-Übung III' celebrated organist Stephen Farr continues his survey of J.S. Bach’s organ works with the four Choral Partitas, BWV 766–768 &770. This volume also marks the first recording on a substantial and colorful three-manual Bernard Aubertin organ newly installed in a private residence in Fairwarp, East Sussex, UK in 2015. Stephen Farr’s career as a soloist and ensemble and continuo player has taken him throughout Europe, to North and South America, and to Australia. He has performed with some of the world’s leading ensembles and conductors and has appeared in venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Royal Festival Hall, and many others. His extensive and wide-ranging discography for Resonus encompasses music from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century.

Dominic Childs / Simon Callaghan TABLEAUX DE PROVENCE

Rising star saxophonist Dominic Childs makes his solo recording debut with this exquisite programme of French works for the instrument. Joined by the internationally renowned pianist Simon Callaghan, together they present an engaging recital of works either written by or inspired by women, and that were written with both piano and orchestral accompaniment in mind – the 1903 Rhapsodie by Claude Debussy sits alongside works by Fernande Decruck, Paule Maurice & François Borne.

Fidelio Trio FAURÉ, CHAUSSON & SATIE Piano Trios

Following on from their acclaimed Resonus debut the Fidelio Trio continues its exploration of the French piano trio with this impressive new recording of works by Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Chausson, and Erik Satie.

Chausson’s opulent and lyrical Op. 3 piano trio from 1881, is joined by Fauré’s only work in this chamber music genre – the heartfelt Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 – composed during the latter part of his life. The album is completed with arrangements by John White of works by Erik Satie – selections from his only liturgical work, the Messe des Pauvres, and the incidental music to his own play, Le Piège de Méduse.

The Gentlemen of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace / Carl Jackson THOMAS TALLIS GENTLEMAN OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL

The Gentlemen of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace and their director Carl Jackson make their Resonus Classics debut with this album of works for lower voices by Thomas Tallis – himself a Gentleman of the Tudor Chapel Royal serving under four monarchs.

Recorded in the impressive surroundings of the Chapel Royal where the choir is resident, this first disc with The Gentlemen presents works for four and seven voices including the Missa Puer natus est nobis based on chant for Christmas Day, and the sumptuous Suscipe quaeso Domine.

DANCE MAZE Chamber Music by TOM ARMSTRONG

Resonus is proud to present a programme of world premiere recordings of chamber music by the contemporary British composer Tom Armstrong.

Performed by an impressive line-up of musicians for whom the pieces were originally composed, this unique programme explores the processes of revision and re-working, from minor alterations to radical re-examinations of the same musical materials.

BBC Singers / The Norwegian Wind Ensemble / David Hill G.F. HANDEL Messiah

The BBC Singers and conductor David Hill join with one of the world´s oldest continuously running orchestras, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble (NWE), to present this major new arrangement of George Frideric Handel’s most celebrated oratorio – Messiah HWV 56.

Arranged for wind ensemble by NWE member Stian Aareskjold, this version here receives its world premere recording with a stellar cast of soloists who bring this visionary re-scoring of this famous work vividly to life.

Anneke Scott / Steven Devine LE COR MÉLODIQUE

Renowned period hornist Anneke Scott returns to Resonus with a programme of works for horn that chart a fascinating and pivotal period in the development of the instrument and its repertoire in nineteenth-century France.

Joined by Steven Devine, this album, which celebrates 200 years since the birth of Charles Gounod, features a selection of works composed for both natural and piston horns by Charles Gounod, Joseph-Émile Meifred and Jacques-François Gallay, as well as a Gounod arrangement by François Brémond, all performed on original period horns and a grand piano by Érard.

The St Catharine's Girls' Choir, Cambridge / Edward Wickham SING LEVY DEW

The St Catharine’s Girls’ Choir, Cambridge, with director Edward Wickham, celebrate ten years since their foundation with this album of works for upper voices.

In marking the momentous occasion in 2008 when St Catharine’s created the first college-based girls’ choir, the current choristers of this acclaimed group present a varied programme of secular works from British composers including Britten, Bennett and a world premiere by Sally Beamish.

Fantasticus SONNERIE & OTHER PORTRAITS

This is a most delightful recital of early-18th-century French Baroque chamber music. The works have been carefully chosen and comprise solos as well as trios. Although some of the works will be relatively unfamiliar to listeners (particularly the Dornel and Francoeur), there are still more of similar calibre waiting to be recorded. This single CD-length programme – only available as a download – could thus easily be added to, an observation prompted by the high standard of playing heard here.

Fantasticus was formed specifically to explore the excesses, shall we say, inherent in the Baroque style and present in some of the chamber music of the late 17th and 18th centuries, as well as to experiment with the limits of associated performing practices. Each member of the trio is a polished period player. Their performances are confident, stylish, beautifully articulated and convey a sense of genuine rapport. This is only their second release, so we have much to look forward to.

All of the composers represented here were equally well known as fine performers in their day. They held posts at the Paris Opéra and at the courts of Louis XIV and XV. The intimate scale of the music on this disc belongs to the salons where French aristocrats indulged themselves and their friends with private performances of virtuoso works, music that was nearly always new and had a certain edge.

Originally a literary genre, portraiture in music was subsequently explored by composers such as Couperin, Marais and Rameau. This recording includes three portraits of the Forqueray family: the Dornel Sonata undoubtedly celebrates Antoine’s penchant for playing Italian violin sonatas on the viol; the Rameau seems more likely to portray Antoine’s son and collaborator; and the mesmerising Duphly most certainly personifies the harpsichordist Marie-Rose Dubois, who was married to the son, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine. Definitely a collector’s item. (Julie Anne Sadie / Gramophone)

Anita Watson / Anna Starushkevych / Nicky Spence / James Platt / Navarra Quartet / Lada Valešová FATA MORGANA Song by PAVEL HAAS

It’s good to see commitment to Pavel Haas’ legacy from the rather unlikely environs of a British label and to see the name of, say, tenor Nicky Spence amongst the singers. But look a little closer and you’ll also see the name of the pianist and artistic director the project, Czech-born, London-resident Lada Valešová, whom I have praised here before for her idiomatic performances of her native country’s music where she played, inter alias, Haas’s Suite, Op.13 and the Allegro Moderato of 1938. She also provided the vital language coaching in this new disc.

None of these song cycles are so commonplace on disc that one can easily pass by this latest, focused disc. The Seven Songs in Folk Style are delightful miniature settings irradiated by the deft, often dappled piano writing, well brought out by Valešová. Both Anita Watson and the pianist prefer quite an expansive view of the songs, especially the slower ones. The baritone Petr Matuszek sang them with pianist Aleš Kaňka on Supraphon SU 3334-2 231 and they are altogether bluffer than the Resonus duo; more rustic, faster by far in almost all settings, and digging out the burlesque piano writing of the last setting with graphic wit. Even though he only sings two of the cycle Karel Průša’s old Bonton recording on a mixed recital disc adheres to the Czech tempo norms in this cycle. The Resonus team prefer a more melancholic, expansive view and are less tersely unsettled as a result.
Haas sets two lots of Chinese songs. His 1944 Four Songs on Chinese Poetry is the one that has been investigated more often than the much earlier Op.4 set of three songs. The wartime settings are again slower than the Czech pairing on Supraphon. Possibly this is a question of the naturalness of Matuszek’s singing of his native texts, but it’s also a question of conception. The Resonus team is more clement, preferring a lateral rather than a vertical response. It’s noticeable that the Czech team’s accents and articulation are that much more incisive, the word painting that much more involving – though neither James Platt nor Valešová is undramatic in any way. The difference in tempo in the third of the songs tells its own story: 6:16 for Resonance and 4:55 for Supraphon. To further contextualize this, baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber are similarly much faster in their recording on a marvellous DG disc [477 6546] that functions as a homage to composers incarcerated in Terezín.

The Op.4 set was composed in 1921 and is, as yet, not quite characteristic of his more natural settings of over two decades later, but does reveal subtlety in interpretation.

The big news is that we have here a world première recording in the shape of Fata Morgana, Op.6, a two-part, half-hour setting of Tagore composed in 1923. It’s written for voice, here Nicky Spence, string quartet and piano – which is to say the same combination as Vaughan Williams’ earlier On Wenlock Edge. This is a fascinating if somewhat over-extended work, saturated in eroticism – though not the erotic exoticism of Szymanowski, more the eroticism of a conflation between Debussian sensuous languor and Janáčekian urgency. The latter is hardly surprising, obviously, as Haas was one of Janáček’s best-known pupils and the little moments of quartet fluttering inevitably remind one of the Moravian master. This is a work that, despite its relative length, has a lot going for it – nocturnal wind motifs, the way each voice – the literal voice of the singer, as well as the piano and quartet - embody characteristics derived by Haas from Tagore’s hothouse poetry. Then there is tension through repetition, evanescent melancholy and echoes of The Diary of One Who Disappeared. Spence sings highly effectively and the Navarra Quartet really makes the most of its numerous opportunities for sensuality.

Questions of idiomatic textual declamation and tempo decisions aside this is a well selected disc, bringing to the table two of Haas’ most attractive cycles and that première recording. It sits splendidly in the current discography. (Jonathan Woolf)

Rautio Piano Trio MOZART Piano Trios KV 502, 542, 564

Mozart’s piano trios don’t come out to play as often as Haydn’s, despite being among his finest chamber works. (Similarly neglected are the string quintets, not counting the G minor, K516.) So a new recording of any or all of them is always to be welcomed. This disc adds interest by being performed on period instruments, making it something of a rarity in this repertoire.

The ear is immediately struck by the fortepiano, a 1987 Derek Adlam copy of an Anton Walter instrument from the mid-1790s, which formerly belonged to Christopher Hogwood. It’s beautifully set up, and remarkably little action-noise is captured in the Potton Hall recording. As delightful as it is to listen too, it is evidently a joy to play, and Jan Rautio leads performances notable for their buoyancy and vivacity.

I know from experience that piano trios are notoriously difficult to record and, much as the Rautio players extol the balance advantages of period instruments, this seems to be a problem that has not been entirely overcome. Cellist Adi Tal offers elegant support to the piano’s left-hand lines but Jane Gordon’s violin often dominates. (Neither string instrument is identified in the booklet.) Hers is a full-bodied sound, only occasionally warmed by vibrato, but can become oppressive as sustained notes reach the middle of the bow. Not only that, but Gordon fights shy of exploiting a true piano, meaning that quiet passages are rendered less tenderly than they might have been. The piano in many places is all but swamped by the string tone – which is a pity, as I liked the piano the best. (David Threasher / Gramophone)

Fidelio Trio RAVEL & SAINT-SAËNS Piano Trios

The unusual item here is Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Trio of 1892, of which the Fidelio Trio give a performance of terrific impetus and refinement. It would be all too easy to fall into the trap of inflating the opening movement – by far the longest of the five – since the busy, red-blooded piano accompaniment to the strings’ main theme can threaten to take on a life of its own. In terms of texture, though not by any means of thematic substance, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio, completed in 1882, comes to mind as a score that in realms of instrumental balance requires similarly careful thought. The Fidelio have done their thinking for the Saint-Saëns and the result is superb: you certainly know that the piano is working hard with all those arpeggios and rapid, keyboard-crossing chords, but the performance is all of a piece, with the violin and cello speaking with just as much authority and élan.

The whimsy of the second movement’s lopsided 5/8 rhythm is nicely etched in; the cello’s languid theme in the central Andante is beautifully done and finds a perfect match when the violin joins in. The lighthearted Grazioso fourth movement forms an emotional breather before Saint-Saëns returns in the finale to the mood of the opening movement with all his seriousness of craftsmanship and propulsive energy.

The Fidelio’s interpretation possesses admirable clarity and definition, polish and brio, qualities they bring also to a very different world of sound in the Ravel Trio. In both works their interpretative touch is secure, their rapport instinctive. Together with their eloquence and passion, this all adds up to something special. (Geoffrey Norris / Gramophone)

Robert Smith / Paolo Pandolfo THE EXCELLENCY OF HAND

Following on from his critically acclaimed recording of solo English viola da gamba works (Tickle the Minikin), founder member of Fantasticus, Robert Smith, returns with this album of English works for viola da gamba duo. Smith is joined in this collaboration by the prolific and celebrated gambist Paolo Pandolfo.

Featuring a selection of seventeenth-century repertoire from Christopher Simpson, John Jenkins & Simon Ives, this album is packed with divisions for duo, which are often intensely virtuosic. Also featured are a selection of preludes from Christopher Simpson’s The Division Viol and an additional Prelude in A minor by gambist Robert Smith.

'[...] gamba demons Paolo Pandolfo and Robert Smith (early music's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) have concoted an intoxicating brew of pieces that would surely convert the most hardened sceptic [...] Smith and Pandolfo enjoy a terrific rapport sharing an acute sensitivity to balance, ensemble, phrasing and nuance' (BBC Music Magazine)