Works: Stanislaw i Anna Oswiecimowie (Stanislaw and Anna Oswiecimowie), Op. 12;
Rapsodia litewska (Lithuanian Rhapsody), Op. 11;
Epizod na maskaradzie (Episode at a Masquerade), Op. 14 (completed by Fitelberg)
Although he left the merest handful of compositions at his seemingly accidental death in an avalanche while skiing, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz ranks among the most important Polish composers of his generation.
The final years of his brief career were taken up by a series of six symphonic poems, the third, fourth and sixth of which are included on this first disc of these works.
Alternating between fervent affirmation and brooding melancholy, these impressive late-romantic works are notable for their colourful and imaginative orchestration and fresh and original harmony.
“dedicated performances...maximum animation to the musical processes.”
Gramophone on 8.557980
Philippe Quint (violin),
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kirk Trevor
Works: Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 32;
Concerto No. 3 in E minor, Op. 44;
Concerto No. 5 in D major, Op. 55
One of the most distinguished violinists of his time, Bériot was the father of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing. His ten violin concertos display the youthful élan and high spirits of early romanticism.Bériot combined elements of the French School charm and taste with the new pyrotechnics pioneered by Paganini.
Bériot’s Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 show the immediate influence of Paganini with their brilliant displays of virtuosity and operatic melodies, while the Concerto No. 5 displays a more playful side. The excellent soloist on this disc is the acclaimed Philippe Quint, already a recognised star in the Naxos pantheon of artists.
“Philip Quint [sic], the Russian-born American violinist, is making his debut on CD. It’s a very capable performance in every way – look out for him again.” Gramophone on 8.559083, which was named Editor’s Choice by both Gramophone and The Strad
Philip Dukes (viola)1, Rachael Pankhurst (cor anglais)2
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,
David Lloyd-Jones
Works: Overture to a Masque (1940);
Concerto Grosso No. 1 in B flat major (1943); Pastoral Fantasia (1939)1 ;
Five Preludes (1927)*;
Tragic Interlude (1936);
Autumn Legend (1954)2;
Suite of Scottish Dances (1946)
*WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING
The Five Preludes are here presented in their world première recording.
William Alwyn composed some fifty works for the orchestra, including five symphonies, a sinfonietta, concertos for flute, oboe, violin, piano, harp, three concerti grossi, and many other descriptive shorter pieces.
The seven works on this recording show Alwyn responding in his own individual way to the various challenges presented to him in writing for the orchestra, from the early Five Preludes, in which one can sense already his keen ear for orchestral colour, through to the self-assured scoring of his maturity in the evocative Autumn Legend.
“The [RLPO’s] orchestral playing, too, is wholly admirable, full of vitality and, where required, infectious rhythmic snap… Mike Clements’s sound is, on the whole, very fine… in terms of muscular drive and satisfying logic Lloyd-Jones must now take the prize.”
Gramophone on 8.557649
Hsin-Ni Liu (piano 1-5), John Bradbury (clarinet)
James Cryer (piano)
Works:
Arnold BAX (1883-1953): Sonata; Edwin ROXBURGH (b. 1937): Four Wordsworth Miniatures; Gerald FINZI (1901-1956): Five Bagatelles, Op. 23; William HURLSTONE (1876-1906): Four Characteristic Pieces; Paul PATTERSON (b. 1947): Soliloquy, Op. 79;
William LLOYD WEBBER (1914-1982): On Frensham Pond; Air and Variations; Arthur BLISS (1891-1975): Pastoral
The clarinet is the most versatile of all wind instruments, able to express warmth, brilliance, passion and elegy.
All facets of the clarinet are represented here, unified by the English school.
Lloyd Webber and Edward German give us enchanting melody, Hurlstone uses drama and song whereas Bliss writes a lament.
Bax and Finzi deliver masterworks, now essential clarinet repertoire, and Patterson and Roxburgh add fire and fantasy to this collection.
John Bradbury is the principle clarinet with the BBC Philharmonic, based in Manchester.
“Clarinettist John Bradbury shows unstoppable virtuosity…” MusicRoom OMH
Works: Symphonic Variations, Op. 78;
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World’
This recording by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Marin Alsop is the first of three discs of Dvorák symphonies taken from live performances at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The most popular of all Dvorák’s works, Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ makes an immediate appeal by virtue of a seemingly inexhaustible flow of melody and sparkling orchestration.
Based on a melody he had composed earlier for men’s chorus, ‘I am a fiddler’, the Symphonic Variations are one of the composer’s most beautifully crafted and beguiling works
“Alsop’s triumphant cycle of Brahms symphonies with the LPO comes to a climactic end with this hugely impressive account of the Fourth. She has that ability, vital in music as dense as this, to hurry nothing, to make the most of the moment, yet always to maintain a sense of impetus.”
The Sunday Times on Naxos 8.570233
Hsin-Ni Liu (piano 1-5), Gnesin Academy Chorus (6),
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitry Yablonsky
Works:
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908): Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, Op. 30 (1883)
KABALEVSKY: Rhapsody for piano and orchestra on the theme of the song School Years, Op. 75, ‘Dedicated to Young Musicians of the Volga region’ (1964); Poem of Struggle for Orchestra and Chorus
Kabalevsky's Third Piano Concerto, ‘Dedicated to Soviet Youth’, completes the trilogy of instrumental concertos for young people, preceded by his Violin Concerto and his First Cello Concerto (Naxos 8.553788). Like the Third Piano Concerto, the Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, based on the composer’s own song, School Years, is an optimistic, uncomplicated work depicting scenes of happy childhood.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto, built on a Russian folk-song collected by Balakirev, is an inventive and virtuoso work whose single unbroken movement structure is copied from Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto.
“[The music is] very enjoyable, and so are the performances.” Classics Today on 8.557683 Kabalevsky Piano Concertos 1&2
Alasdair Malloy (solo typewriter), Catherine Moore, (solo trumpet), BBC Concert Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin
Works: Harvard Sketches (Lowell House Bells – Freshman in Harvard Square – Widener Reading Room – Class Day Confetti Battle) (1939)*; Melody on Two Notes (1966)*; Mother’s Whistler (1940)*; The Penny Whistle Song (1951); The Phantom Regiment (1951); Plink, Plank, Plunk! (1951); Promenade (1951); Sandpaper Ballet (1954); Saraband (1948); Serenata (1947); Old MacDonald Had a Farm (1947); Seventy-Six Trombones (Willson/arr. Anderson) (1958); Sleigh Ride (1948); Suite of Carols for Brass Choir (1955); Wintergreen for President (Gershwin/arr. Anderson) (1932)*; The Typewriter (1950); A Trumpeter’s Lullaby (1949);The Syncopated Clock (1945)
*World Première Recording
· Leroy Anderson etched out his own unique place in American music – a composer rigorously trained in the classical tradition whose records topped the pop charts, a meticulous arranger of music whose own melodies were crafted with inventive precision. Here, in the first complete cycle of Anderson’s orchestral music, the Anderson family has made available several pieces that the composer did not release, with some first recordings scattered among the familiar and not-so-familiar titles.
· Volume Three includes the notorious musical gem The Typewriter, in which the machine is transformed into a relentlessly busy percussion instrument, the tasteful and soul-satisfying Suite of Carols for Brass Choir, and Anderson’s biggest hit, Sleigh Ride.
“Naxos's ability to come up with winning ideas at knock-down prices never ceases to amaze… everything here is easy on the ear and beautifully played. It all leaves a delightful aftertaste and excites anticipation of Naxos's next instalment.”
Gramophone on Vol 1
Rigoletto . . . Robert Merrill
Gilda . . . Roberta Peters
Duke of Mantua . . . Jussi Björling
Maddalena . . . Anna Maria Rota
Sparafucile . . .Giorgio Tozzi
Rome Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Jonel Perlea
Works: Rigoletto
Recorded 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th-22nd, 25th-26th
and 28th June, 1956 in the Opera House, Rome
· When this 1956 recording of Rigoletto was first released in Britain, the Gramophone reviewer commented:
“under Perlea, the orchestral playing is firm and dramatic, well balanced with the voice. The music is well paced. Björling’s tone is a constant pleasure. He sings elegantly. Merrill, too, is in fine voice: he sings the title rôle in correct and often impressive style… in short, this performance with Metropolitan stars offers an able, and therefore enjoyable performance of the opera”.
“Jussi Bjorling is in splendid voice as the Duke, holding high notes longer than Verdi would have approved, but who can blame him? It is part of his gorgeously flamboyant characterisation.” The Sunday Telegraph
“Bjorling's Duke finds him in wonderful voice, with a constant liquidity and brilliance to his tone: he is also alert to the text, the character and the situations.”
Opera Now
Works: CELESTIAL HARMONIES
Responsories and Antiphons from
Symphoniae armonie celestium revelationum
O cohors militiae; O successores; O vos imitators; O dulcis electe; O victoriosissimi
Triumphatores; O cruor sanguinis; O vis aeternitatis; O splendidissima gemma
· Now enjoying cult status since her ‘re-discovery’ twenty five years ago, Hildegard von Bingen, the tenth child of an aristocratic family, entered a convent at the age of eight and spent the remainder of her eighty years as a nun as well as a mystic, the latter half as abbess of her own convent.
· Hildegard’s great musico-poetic collection was completed around the year 1150. Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Heavenly Revelations) is a collection of 77 songs and one music drama.
· The subjects of these songs are an idiosyncratic collection of individuals and groups – the pieces included on this recording are variously addressed to the Creator, the Redeemer, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist, Apostles, Confessors, and Martyrs.
“The Oxford Camerata are a group of 12 singers, strong on rhythm (other essentials too, but it is their rhythmic sense that keeps everything alert). There are some excellent voices among them… these are singers with feeling, and at certain moments… the listener catches from them, fresh, the composer’s inspiration.”
Gramophone
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Leader: Duncan Riddell), David Lloyd-Jones
Works: Symphony No. 6 in E flat major, ‘In honour of the life-work of a great artist: George Frederick Watts’, Op. 94;
Symphony No. 3 in F minor ‘Irish’, Op. 28
· Completed in 1887, Stanford’s ‘Irish’ Symphony enjoyed immediate and widespread success, continuing to be played well into the twentieth century. The ‘Irish’ subtitle indicates its frequent deployment of folk-tunes as melodic material, although the work never strays far from the Austro-German symphonic tradition.
· The 1905 Sixth Symphony, by contrast, received only two hearings before succumbing to an eighty-year oblivion. The subtitle, ‘In honour of the life-work of a great artist: George Frederick Watts’, is important: Watts (1817-1904) was among the most lauded British artists of his era and Stanford’s work, if not overtly programmatic, was influenced by instances of Watt’s legacy – for example the equestrian statue in Kensington Gardens, London.
“David Lloyd-Jones proves an undisruptive, clear-headed guide, while the playing of the Bournemouth SO has an extra finish, buoyancy and lustre that tip the scales in his favour.”
Gramophone on Naxos 8.570289
Madama Butterfly - Victoria de los Angeles
B. F. Pinkerton - Giuseppe Di Stefano
Suzuki - Anna Maria Canali
Sharpless - Tito Gobbi
Goro - Renato Ercolani
Kate Pinkerton - Maria Huder
Rome Opera House Chorus and Orchestra,
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Recorded 26th-31st July and 2nd-6th, 8th-9th, 11th and 23rd August, 1954 in the Teatro dell’Opera, Rome
Works: Madama Butterfly
· One of the finest ever recordings of Madama Butterfly, this 1954 taping has rarely been out of the catalogue.
· Victoria de los Angeles, never in finer or fuller voice, sings with radiant beauty, Giuseppe Di Stefano is a thrilling yet moving Pinkerton while Tito Gobbi brings unexpected depth and feeling to the rôle of Sharpless.
· The recording is further distinguished by idiomatic and characterful performances from the Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who was also a noted composer, author and musicologist.
“When Victoria de los Angeles appeared at the Edinburgh Festival [in the mid 1950s], she was in her prime, the voice as supple and sensitive as it was beautiful. Everything she tackled seemed to be touched by the magic of her attractive presence and glorious singing.”
Gramophone
Works: An die Musik, D547; Im Frühling, D882; Wehmut, D772; Ganymed,D544; Das Lied im Grünen, D917; Gretchen am Spinnrade, D118; Nähe des Geliebten, D162; Die junge Nonne, D828; An Silvia, D891; Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D774; Nachtviolen, D752; Der Musensohn, D764
Edwin Fischer (piano)
Recorded 4th - 7th October, 1952 in EMI Abbey Road Studio 1A
Works: Litanei auf das Fest Allerseele, D343; Die schöne Müllerin, D795 No. 7:Ungeduld
Gerald Moore, piano
Recorded 9th and 10th January, 1954 in EMI Abbey Road Studio 1
Works: Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Ah, perfido! – Concert Aria,Op. 65; Fidelio, Op. 72: Act I Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?
Philharmonia Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Recorded 20th September, 1954 in Watford Town Hall
· · Although best remembered in the operatic rôles of the Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Countess Madeleine (Capriccio), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf also enjoyed a highly distinguished parallel career as a Lieder singer, both in the concert hall and on record, a field to which she turned increasingly following her retirement from the stage.
· One of the greatest of Schubert Lieder interpreters, Schwarzkopf is heard on these recordings in her absolute prime.
· Her radiantly beautiful voice and prowess as an interpreter are further illustrated on this re-issue in the two Beethoven arias, neither of which she sang on stage or in the concert hall.
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