Music for Joyful Occasions
Albany: Troy1006
 William Alwyn's Fanfare for a Joyful Occasion sounds more ceremonial than joyful (unless you find processionals to be particularly joy-inducing), but it's a fine example of British brass writing, with some interesting wind and xylophone interplay in the central section. Very different is Alwyn's Concerto for Flute and Eight Wind Instruments which finds the composer in a playfully pensive mood as he writes in a style that borrows equally from Stravinsky and Debussy. Flautist Mary Stolper handles the elaborate solo part with aplomb.
Constant Lambert's suite from Tiresias contains a number of dance pieces in which the propulsive rhythms impart an engaging energy, while the tonal angularity gives the music a rather tart taste. But it's quite interesting texturally, especially as Lambert makes clever and imaginative use of the piano.
Finally, Gunther Schuller's modernist Eine Kleine Posaunenmusik is the most challenging work on the disc, and not just for the listener. Essentially a bass trombone concerto, the piece makes great demands on soloist Charles Vernon--demands he meets with imagination and impeccable virtuosity. This, plus Schuller's brilliantly atmospheric writing make the piece a fascinating if not cozy-comfy listen. Under conductor Donald DeRoche the DePaul University Wind Ensemble plays magnificently throughout the program, adapting fully to each work's unique style and tone. The recording is top-notch--quite vivid and realistic. For fans of 20th-century wind ensemble music, this disc is a real treat.
Classicstoday.com – Victor Carr Jr.
http://classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=11823
Villa-Lobos: Choros Nos 1, 4, 6, 8 & 9
BIS: BIS-CD-1450
 The BIS survey of the 14 highly assorted works that Villa-Lobos called Choros continues with another heterogeneous selection, all composed in the 1920s. Three of the pieces here, Choros Nos 6, 8 and 9, are large-scale orchestral works, and they are interspersed with two of the shortest in the sequence, the charming Choros No 1 for solo guitar, and the fourth, for three horns and trombone, whose snatches of melody seem to evoke memories of some ancient village band, as remembered from the composer's Brazilian childhood. The big pieces are typically diverse too - the Sixth is an attractive but rather ramshackle symphonic poem coloured by Brazilian folk instruments, while the Eighth, with its pair of concertante pianos, and the Ninth are among Villa-Lobos's most impressive orchestral works, even if the opening theme of No 9 is uncomfortably close to the motto of Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. Villa-Lobos's textural inventiveness is a constant delight in both works, and the São Paulo Symphony's performances under John Neschling exploit it to maximum effect.
Guardian.co.uk -- Tim Ashley
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jul/25/classicalmusicandopera3
Piano Concertos
Rimsky-Korsakov; Pabst; Skryabin
Danacord: DACOCD660
 This is one of those discs that make you wish that the standard repertoire spread its net more widely than the usual Rachmaninovs and Tchaikovskys when it comes to Romantic Russian piano concertos.
Oleg Marshev, adding to his already extensive catalogue for the Danish label Danacord, plays three strikingly individual works, technically tricky while fascinating and gratifying in terms of musical impact.
The E flat Concerto by Pavel Pabst (1854-1897) is a monster of a piece, couched in a virtuoso tradition that owed its daring, flamboyance and phenomenal pianistic demands to the example of Liszt. Pabst does not hold back. The swaggering first movement offers a whole compendium of ways in which the piano (and the pianist) can display flexibility, dexterity and power.
The themes, while shapely, might not be particularly memorable, but the music's sheer energy carries you along with it. The central andante offers something more soulful and song-like, but the fleet, perky finale is full of rapid runs, arpeggios, trills and other mind-boggling effects that Marshev, well supported by the orchestra, invests with a sure sense that the whole exercise has been worthwhile.
Rimsky-Korsakov's C sharp minor Concerto, now seldom played but once espoused by no less a pianist than Sviatoslav Richter, is also indebted to Liszt, partly in the elaborate nature of the solo writing, but also in the way that Rimsky derives all three sections of the piece from a single melody, in this case a Russian folk tune. The music bred by this process of thematic metamorphosis broods, dazzles and enchants in equal measure.
Skryabin's early F sharp minor Concerto attests to his devotion to Chopin, though the score has a fluid harmonic palette and sensibility that are already distinctive. The aplomb and stylistic understanding of these performances bring all three works to life.
Telegraph.co.uk -- Geoffrey Norris
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/arts/2008/08/02/bmclasscds102.xml
Mozart: Lucia Silla
Dacapo: 8.226069-71
 During his three Italian trips, from December 1769 to March 1773, the teenage Mozart received three big operatic commissions. The first was Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770) whose great success originated the next two: Ascanio in Alba (1771), composed for the wedding celebrations of the young Archduke Ferdinand with Princess Maria Beatrice d’Este of Modena; and Lucio Silla.
Mozart was still only sixteen when he composed Lucio Silla. He was forced to do it at speed, as he could not begin writing the arias until the singers were present and they arrived late. The opera was premiered on 26 December 1772 at the Teatro Regio Ducal, in Milan, and the primo uomo – castrato Venanzio Rauzzini – who would sing Cecilio, arrived at the end of November while the prima donna – Anna de Amicis – who played Giunia, was not present until early December. Add to this, the fact that the tenor, who ended up performing the title role, was a church singer, Bassano Morgnoni, with no stage experience, and one must wonder how young Mozart managed to cope and still produce a work of distinction.
The plot of the opera is based on the story of Roman despot Lucius Cornelius Silla (138-78 BC) who unexpectedly retired from his dictatorship. He was an interesting character and what should have been a fabulous role for a tenor. As it turned out, due to Morgnoni’s inexperience and late appointment, Mozart reduced the part considerably and the tenor was given only two arias, which vocally are not very demanding though pretty and pleasant enough. This is more the shame when one has a tenor like Germany’s Lothar Odinius singing Silla. Odinius is an excellent Mozart interpreter, with a clear vocal line, a good legato technique and an assured voice control. He delivers a pleasant Lucio Silla, excelling in the two arias, which he negotiates with ease and grace.
Lucio Silla is a rarely performed opera and possibly one of Mozart’s lesser-known works for the stage. It is therefore commendable that the Danish Radio Sinfonietta under the leadership of Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer decided to produce a recording of the opera. Fischer has a fresh approach to the work, leading the DRS in a colourful orchestral display, bustling with sparkling energy and youthful enthusiasm. He is, like his slightly younger brother Iván (founder of the Budapest Festival Orchestra), a distinguished and innovative conductor. Seldom has the music world been so lucky as to have two brothers with a similar talent and original approach to conducting. Adam Fischer is an expert Mozart conductor. His idea of reducing the recitatives for this CD version of Lucio Silla proved to be an insightful decision and one that fully achieves its objective: in Fischer’s own words to have “...more space to enjoy the arias with Mozart’s unique music”. This is true and definitely one of the reasons why the recording sounds so fresh and exciting.
As with most of Mozart’s earlier operas, in Lucio Silla there is a predominance of high voices, with arias that are often too long and with excessive passages of coloratura. Nevertheless, in this particular opera, this fact gives wonderful opportunities to four leading sopranos. In the principal female role, we have Simone Nold, a German soprano, who impressed me before with her performance as Sakontala, in the world premiere recording of Schubert’s unfinished opera of the same name. Here, she is equally excellent as Giunia, Cecilio’s bride, being wooed by the dictator Silla. Nold brings her clear coloratura and delicate sentiment to best effect in her duet with Cecilio, at the end of act one, and in the aria Ah se il crudel periglio. However, it is possibly in Parto, m’affretto, a very florid, difficult aria that her skill is at its best. She shows off her assured coloratura and gives a vivid, breath-taking rendition.
The two young Danish sopranos Henriette Bonde-Hansen as Cinna and Susanne Elmark as Celia, whom I had never heard before, are both a pleasant revelation indeed. Bonde-Hansen has a lyrical, rich, expressive voice with a wide range and Elmark a remarkably brilliant coloratura. I would like to hear her in the famous aria of the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, as she must sound striking. Besides the role of Silla himself, sung by Lothar Odinius, as mentioned above, there is another tenor role, Aufidio, Silla’s right hand, who is effectively sung by young Danish tenor Jakob Næslund Madsen. Leaving the best for last though, I must now come to the very impressive Swedish soprano Kristina Hammarström who sings Cecilio. This was the role that Mozart composed specifically for the celebrated castrato Venanzio Rauzzini. Of his voice it is said that not only did he have a brilliant coloratura but he was also capable of extreme leaps; a fact that clearly shows in the aria Ah se a morir mi chiama, during act two. Hammarström delivers it beautifully, demonstrating that she too possesses this quality. Her voice has a wide range, with great flexibility and a rare, touchingly warm tone, even in its highest register. All these combined are extremely effective in all of Cecilio’s appearances but most of all in the duet with Giunia, D’Elisio in sen m’attendi, at the end of act one.
The orchestra of the Danish Radio Sinfonietta and the Vocal Group Ars Nova, under the expert direction of Adam Fischer, give a wonderful, lively performance of this seldom heard opera. They accompany the soloists beautifully and express vividly the various moods of the work, ranging from the sombre to the gloriously happy. It all comes together in Mozart’s fantastic finale, brilliantly written in the form of a chaconne, with alternating verses, for the soloists and the chorus.
Though Lucio Silla is an early Mozart opera, there are certain aspects that already announce the perfection that the composer was to achieve in his later works. For this alone, it deserves a place in any opera collection. However, this recording also makes a compelling case for the opera to be performed live more often, as part of the regular repertoire of any great opera house. All soloists, together with the DRS, Ars Nova and Adam Fischer must be congratulated. Theirs is a considerable achievement in this enjoyable, beautifully recorded interpretation of a great work by a then still adolescent Mozart.
MusicWeb International – Margarida Mota-Bull
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Aug08/Mozart_Lucio_Silla_8226069.htm
Joseph Marx:
Six Pieces for Piano; Herbst-Legende; Carneval; Canzone; Die Flur der Engel
Chandos: CHAN10479
 Tonya Lemoh has brought some intricate and fascinating music back to life in this recording of Joseph Marx’s Six Pieces for Piano from 1916. A staunch conservative, Marx became one of Vienna’s most respected theory and composition professors after the Second World War, but his music, except for several collections of songs, would take some years to come to light. His monumental Eine Herbstsymphonie was premiered by no less a master conductor than Felix Weingartner in 1922, and lay inexplicably silent until 2005.
An unashamed romantic, Marx was completely convinced, contrary to his contemporary Arnold Schoenberg, that traditional western tonality still held the key to artistic expression through music. With the explosion of the twelve-tone system of composition between the world wars, Marx found himself on the receiving end of frequent criticism for his conservatism. Only in the years since his death has his music come to be appreciated for its original and highly polished compositional style.
The Six Pieces open with a Rhapsodie, cast in three sections. Structurally, we are reminded of Brahms, and harmonically one can hear Reger and even Mahler, except in the case of Marx, the ideas are kept in tighter control and the listener has a definite feeling of actually going somewhere. The Prelude and Fugue are remarkable for their contrapuntal intricacies. The Arabeske was undoubtedly influenced by Ravel and Debussy with its dreamy arpeggios and its somewhat elusive and jazzy harmony. The Ballade is a serious and somewhat melancholy work, very Lisztian in its virtuosity. The closing Humoreske is quirky and rife with odd-ball twists of harmony and rhythmic jauntiness.
The recital is rounded out with four unpublished and undated works: a solemn and surprisingly dramatic Herbst-Legende; a delightfully dreamy little night-piece deceptively named Carneval;a beautifully lyrical Canzone that is reminiscent of Chopin and Die Flur der Engel, a quiet and beautiful miniature tone poem for piano.
Australian-born Tonya Lemoh has thought this music through thoroughly and has arrived at interpretations that are the perfect complement to the works. She delivers deft and fleet finger work where necessary, is very conscious of balance and voicing in the contrapuntal works, and for the sheer romantic pieces, she provides a rich, sonorous tone. This music is a real find, and Ms. Lemoh is an outstanding ambassador for it.
MusicWeb International -- Kevin Sutton
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Aug08/Marx_CHAN10479.htm
John Ireland: Piano Music, Volume 3
Naxos 8.570461
 2008 brings us the long-anticipated sequel to 1999's second volume in Naxos' John Ireland piano music cycle. Since he began this project in 1995, pianist John Lenehan has grown more responsive to Ireland's impressionistic yet skillfully contrapuntal idiom, noticeably expanding his palette of nuances, colors, and articulations. Note, for example, how he focuses on On A Birthday Morning's emphatic melodic lilt and treats the thick chordal accompaniment as smooth, supportive padding. The Debussy-like passages throughout The Almond Trees and Amberly Wild Brooks (the second of the Two Pieces) are firmly etched and defined yet never at the expense of the long line, and that also applies to Lenehan's thoughtful animation of Equinox's swirling textures. As for the Piano Sonata, I waver between Lenehan and Eric Parkin. I admire Lenehan's ardent sweep and more generous pedaling in the outer movement's climaxes, yet gravitate toward Parkin's more luminous lyricism and superior legato touch in the slow movement. But that's splitting hairs. Besides, you can't disparage Naxos' price tag and first-class engineering, along with Lenehan's committed artistry. In all, a lovely release, warmly recommended.
Classicstoday.com – Jed Distler
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=11867
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