Works: Domenico Zipoli Toccata in d minor; Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco Missa Octavo Tono; Anon Sonata “Chiquitana” No.IV AMCh 264 (So 18)
Allegro, Andante, Minuete; Domenico Zipoli All’Offertorio; Roque Jacinto de Chavarría Fuera, Fuera! Haganles lugar!; Anon Siempre Piano from Sonata XIV in G major; Domenico Zipoli Canzona in g minor; Juan de Araujo Al Llanto mas tierno; Anon Aires me hielan al Niño; Diego Casseda Silencio, no chiste el aire; Anon Sonata AMCh 399 in a minor; Juan de Araujo Oh que bien se suspenden los Cielos; Sebastián Duron Al compás airecillos; Anon Salve a 8; Encore: Anon Naranjitay - Huaiño (Traditional folk tune) arranged by Luis Craff
Artists: Florilegium; Arakaendar Bolivia Choir and Florilegium – Directed by Ashley Solomon; Music transcribed by Piotr Nawrot; Solo Organ – James Johnstone
Welcome to our third volume of Bolivian Baroque music which was, unusually, recorded in three different
venues, in two different countries almost 6250 miles apart. This time the majority of the cd was recorded in
Holland during Arakaendar Bolivia Choir’s first tour of Europe with Florilegium in 2008. In addition we have
included a number of solo organ pieces from the Bolivian archives which James Johnstone recorded on the
restored anonymous 18th century Blockwerk organ in the Mission Church of Santa Ana de Chiquitos. This is the
first European recording on this remarkable instrument, its raw sound recorded here for posterity.
Director Ashley Solomon was awarded the 2008 Hans Roth Prize for his work in promoting and
publicising the music found in the musical archives of Bolivia.
Florilegium’s latest recording of Bach Cantatas with Johannette Zomer received an Edison Award
for best Baroque recording in 2008
Please note we are not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Works: 1 Speak, my Heart! (1902) 2 Is she not passing fair? (1886) 3 A Song of Flight Op. 31 No. 2 (1900) 4 The Shepherd’s Song (1892) 5 The Language of Flowers (1872) 6 After Op. 31 No. 1 (1900) 7 It isnae me (1931) 8 The Pipes of Pan (1900) 9 Shakespeare’s Kingdom (1924) 10 Rondel Op. 16 No. 3 (1894) 11 The Poet’s Life (1892) 12 A War Song Op. 5 (1884/1903) 13 The Torch Op. 60 No. 1 (1910) 14 The River Op. 60 No. 2 (1910) 15 Was it some golden Star? Op. 59 No. 5 (1910) 16 Through the long Days Op. 16 No. 2 (1885) 17 Arabian Serenade (1914) 18 As I laye a-thynkynge (1887) 19 Roundel (1897) 20 A Child asleep (1910) 21 The Chariots of the Lord (1910) 22 The King’s Way (1914)
Artists: Amanda Roocroft; Konrad Jarnot;
Reinild Mees
As we noted in the first volume of this survey of Elgar’s songs, like most composers his first attempts at composition were with anthems and small chamber and piano pieces, though unlike many young composers of his day, strangely Elgar wrote few songs until his various love affairs from his mid-twenties onwards. Elgar’s early life as a composer was one of constantly hawking salon music and popular short pieces round publishers – a situation that gradually changed in the 1890s as his early works for chorus and orchestra were heard. But it took Elgar a long time to become established, the Enigma Variations only appearing when he was 41. The earliest song presented here, indeed Elgar’s earliest surviving completed work, a setting of the American James Gates Percival’s The Language of Flowers dates from May 1872 when he was not quite 15. He dedicated it to his sister Lucy on her twentieth birthday. It remained unpublished and unknown until recently when it was printed in the Elgar Collected Edition. In the 1880s, in his late-twenties, Elgar tried to establish himself as a composer with various short pieces, salon music and songs which as we have seen he took round the many London publishers of the day.
“Without doubt the recording is a triumph, and must certainly go the top of recommended recordings of the songs. Amanda
Roocroft and Konrad Jarnot are excellent throughout, with impeccable diction, warmth of tone, and the sense that they
believe in the songs, and so they emerge as much finer works than they have sometimes been thought to be.” Elgar Society Journal for Vol 1
"Sound and presentation are absolutely first-rate. All in all, an encouraging start to what promises to be a fascination
enterprise. Roll on, vol.2” Gramophone for Vol 1
This monumental work of French Romanticism is one of the essential landmarks in the career of any conductor. The quality
of Berlioz’s orchestration and questions of timbre and the ideal instrumental forces lie at the core of the approach of Jos van
Immerseel and Anima Eterna Brugge, who are increasingly drawn to French composers and especially to their precise,
shimmering orchestral textures.
Over long months of preparation, the musicians steeped themselves in Berlioz’s music, his Treatise on instrumentation and
his Memoirs, and gradually formed an image of the construction of this masterpiece in which poetry, imagination, lyricism,
rhythmic invention and evocative power form the basis of a purely Romantic language of great subtlety.
The choice of period instruments and respect for the composer’s dynamics constitute the principal bases for the sound world of this interpretation,
which is at once refined in its Classical style and haunted by the pungent timbres of the brass and of those diabolical
clarinets, abyssal bells, and rattling death-march timpani.
‘The result may be regarded as surprising and unexpected. Every moment of the performance testifies to the musical and
technical mastery of the interpreters and their understanding of the grammar of this music, but also reflects their passion for
and fascination with it.’ Jos van Immerseel
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Works: Piano Concerto no. 3 in D major -
after Violin Concerto, op. 77
Live recording/World premiere recording
2 Rhapsodies, op. 79
Scherzo in E-flat minor, op. 4
Artists: Dejan Lazic
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Robert Spano
In his extended liner notes Dejan Lazic explains against the historical background why and how he worked on this major
project:
‘I started working on this project in early 2003 and completed it in 2008. The violin was always a favourite love, and I
continue to hold violinists in high esteem, realising just how wonderful their literature is. Thus far, I have been tremendously
lucky to have had many an opportunity to perform with some wonderful colleagues. And it is with a degree of pride that I
present – after Bach and Beethoven – the third “great B” in the present arrangement. Is one actually "allowed" to make such
an arrangement? With the benefit of hindsight, we know that Brahms made countless arrangements and transcriptions of his
and other composers' works. I am convinced these were more than justified; hence, I hope that Brahms himself would not
have anything against my idea. What lingers is the rhetorical question of what is a transcription, what makes an
arrangement, what may be defined as a new version. The key to this conundrum is that I sought to construct anew the violin
part, recomposing the voice in a thorough-going Brahmsian style and adding my own Cadenza. Throughout the piece that
was my thought: to imagine what Brahms would do. Of great import is that the orchestral score remains entirely unchanged!
With this arrangement - done solely out of respect and admiration for the composer - my main goal was to translate
Brahms's unique musical language into a new setting without losing any of its original musical value and, in addition, to give
pianists an equal chance to perform and enjoy this wonderful music the same way violinists do for exactly 130 years now.’
Dejan Lazic
Works: Sarabanda con Partite BWV 990
The Goldberg Variations BWV 988
Fourth Part of the Clavier Übung
Aria Variata BWV 989
Artists: Matthew Halls - harpsichord
Matthew Halls is one of the brightest sparks of the UK early music scene, who, as director of Retrospect
Ensemble, has rapidly established himself as one of Britain's most exciting young conductors as well as a
leading harpsichordist. ‘J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations’, features Bach’s popular masterpiece for
keyboard, plus Sarabanda con Partite and Aria Variata.
• The Goldberg Variations is a work that that continues to fascinate and astound performers and
listeners alike. The artistry and technique it demands is met with virtuosic skill and innate musical
understanding by Matthew Halls. The two earlier works, Sarabanda con Partite and Aria Variata, show the extent to which Bach had become the true master of this composition technique by the time he came to compose The Goldberg Variations.
• Matthew Halls is Artistic Director of Retrospect Ensemble, whose debut recording, ‘Henry Purcell: Ten
Sonatas in Four Parts’, was shortlisted for a Classic FM Gramophone Award in 2009.
He has enjoyed a busy and exciting career, playing with many of the world’s leading period
instrument orchestras, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, Orchestra of
the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Theatre of Early Music, Montreal and New York
Collegium.
• As a keyboard soloist he has appeared at the Cheltenham International Festival; Händel Festspiele,
Göttingen, Händel Festspiele, Halle; Enescu Festival, Bucharest; Ottawa International Chamber
Festival; Antiquarium Festival, Moscow, Lamèque Festival, Canada and Dias da Mùsica, Lisbon.
“Halls is a formidably talented young keyboard player, bursting with energy and inspiration.” Evening Standard
“His inventive and ebullient playing is a delight.” Daily Telegraph
Works: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Sonata for Two Violins
Artists: Pavel Haas Quartet
The Pavel Haas Quartet, one of the very finest chamber ensembles of the present time, earned for their first two
CDs of the quartets of Janácek and Pavel Haas numerous prestigious accolades (Classic FM Gramophone
Award, BBC Music Magazine Award, Cannes MIDEM Classical Award, etc.).
With the Prokofiev pieces featured on this album the Quartet has for the first time entered the field of the
Russian (or, if you will, international) repertoire. Prokofiev plunged into writing his first quartet in 1930 during his
first sojourn in America on the basis of a commission from the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
The “classical” sounding work blends the easily distinguishable inspiration by Beethoven’s quartets and the
typically Prokofievian pungency and lyricism. The duet, written in Paris, is an inconspicuous yet masterly smallscale
work of art and alongside Bartok’s 44 violin duets ranks among the paramount opuses of this genre.
The second quartet came into being in 1941 in the Caucasus, where the Soviet government had moved the
artistic elites and their families so as to protect them against the Nazi onslaught. Here Prokofiev came across
untouched folk material which he sensitively, humbly and with the precise degree of artistic stylisation
incorporated into the “Kabardinian” quartet.
Their sheer musicality and ferocious youthful energy make the Pavel Haas Quartet an ideal interpreter of these
gems of Prokofiev’s chamber oeuvre.
“Here is a performance of tremendous musical energy: robust, well characterised and exact. ” Anna Picard, The Independent
Works: Vaughan Williams Phantasy Quintet Huw Watkins Sad Steps (première recording) Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor
Artists: The Aronowitz Ensemble: Magnus Johnston & Nadia Wijzenbeek – violin, Jennifer Stumm & Tom Hankey – viola,
Guy Johnston & Marie Macleod – cello, Tom Poster - piano
The Aronowitz Ensemble was formed in 2004 out of the desire of seven outstanding young international artists to
explore and perform chamber music together in the highly adaptable combination of string sextet and piano.
• Previously members of the BBC's prestigious New Generation Artists scheme, the Aronowitz Ensemble's
performances have been regularly featured on BBC Radio 3. Broadcasts included concerts at BBC Proms,
Wigmore Hall, the Sage, Gateshead, and in Glasgow, as well as concerts at the Bath, City of London and
Tetbury Festivals and a residence at the Two Moors Festival.
• This is the Aronowitz Ensemble’s first CD release, featuring two key works of the British ensemble repertoire,
coupled with a premiere recording of a new work from Huw Watkins written specially for the Aronowitz
Ensemble, commissioned by the BBC and premiered at the BBC Proms in 2008.
• The Aronowitz Ensemble has recently been awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship.
Bohuslav MARTINU Symphonies Nos 5 & 6
SU 40072 CD
Antonín DVORÁK Songs My Great-Grandfather Taught Me
Jirí Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic follow up their critically acclaimed 2005 album of Martinu’s
Symphonies Nos 3 and 4 (SU36312), which was nominated for a Grammy award and hailed by critics as a
recording par excellence of these works. This eagerly awaited CD, the second in a planned complete set, presents the composer’s last two symphonies, both written during his post-war sojourn in America.
Symphony No. 5 was finished in 1946 and reflects Martinu’s doubt and disenchantment over developments in
Czechoslovakia, the homeland to which he would never return. His last symphony, dedicated to his friend Charles Munch, then conductor of the Boston Symphony, was written during the years 1951–53. The wide-ranging and colourful orchestration of the “Symphonic Fantasies,” as Martinu himself titled it, marked a return to the symphonism and traditions of the late-Romantic music of the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
On this album, Jirí Belohlávek leads the Czech Philharmonic in a tribute to a composer on whose works he has
been focusing for decades.
(Symphony 6)“It's a first-class performance, especially in the central scherzo, which features an almost balletic grace but at the same time a curious melancholy that's extremely moving.” David Hurwitz, Classics Today
Works: Gypsy Songs, Op. 55 12:06
1. No. 1, ‘My song of love rings through the dusk’ 2:56
2. No. 2, ‘Hey! Ring out my triangle’ 0:54
3. No. 3, ‘All around the woods are still’ 2:22
4. No. 4, ‘Songs my mother taught me’ 2:10
5. No. 5, ‘Come and join the dancing’ 0:57
6. No. 6, ‘Wide the sleeves and loose the trousers’ 1:09
7. No. 7, ‘Give a hawk a fine cage’ 1:38
In Folk Tone, Op. 73: No.s 1 – 3 5:02
8. No. 1, ‘Goodnight’ 2:23
9. No. 3, ‘Oh nothing, nothing can change for me’ 2:39
Love Songs, Op. 83 12:53
10. No. 1, ‘Never will love lead us to that glad goal’ 1:48
11. No. 2, ‘Death reigns in many a human heart’ 1:55
12. No. 3, ‘I often wander past that house’ 1:04
13. No. 4, ‘I know that on my love to you’ 1:54
14. No. 5, ‘Nature lies peaceful in sleep and dreaming’ 1:24
15. No. 6, ‘Lonely in the forest I stand’ 1:47
16. No. 7, ‘When your sweet glances fall on me’ 1:36
17. No. 8, ‘Oh, my only dear one, but for you’ 1:25
18. Four Songs, Op. 82: No. 1, ‘Leave Me Alone’ 2:25
19. Lullaby, b194 1:46
Biblical Songs, Op. 99 23:00
20. No. 1, ‘Clouds and darkness are round about him’ (Psalm 97) 1:55
21. No. 2, ‘Thou art my hiding place and my shield’ (Psalm 119) 1:43
22. No. 3, ‘Give ear to my prayer, O God’ (Psalm 55) 2:40
23. No. 4, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ (Psalm 23) 2:25
24. No. 5, ‘I will sing a new song unto thee, O God’ (Psalm 144) 2:30
25. No. 6, ‘Hear my cry, O God’ (Psalm 61) 2:49
26. No. 7, ‘By the waters of Babylon’ (Psalm 137) 2:28
27. No. 8, ‘Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me’ (Psalm 25) 2:30
28. No. 9, ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills (Psalm 121) 1:59
29. No. 10, ‘O sing unto the Lord a new song’ (Psalm 96) 1:51
30. Moravian Duets, Op. 32: No. 11, ‘Captured’ 2:51
Artists: Josef Suk, violin and viola
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano
Two of the world’s greatest musicians appear together – for the first time anywhere – on
Toccata Classics, playing an hour of ‘new’ Dvorák. Josef Suk – the great-grandson of Antonín Dvorák – undertook these transcriptions of 30 Dvorák songs at the suggestion of Martin Anderson of Toccata Classics.
Josef Suk had Dvorák’s own viola restored for the recording sessions, which took place in
Prague at the beginning of September. Suk’s transcriptions turn the songs into exquisitely beautiful instrumental miniatures.
Josef Suk has been the leading representative of the Czech violin school for six decades. He has recorded an enormous amount of the music of his great-grandfather, Antonín Dvorák, and this album of song transcriptions is an extension of that work. In making them he has been faithful to the originals, especially in the Biblical Songs.
In the years since Vladimir Ashkenazy first came to prominence on the world stage in the 1955 Chopin
Competition in Warsaw he has built an extraordinary career, not only as one of the most renowned and
revered pianists of modern times but as an artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities
and continues to offer inspiration to music-lovers across the world.
Works: Just believe it’s true (Love Sets the Seal);
Vilia (The Merry Widow);
Girls were made to love and kiss (Paganini);
Oh maiden, my maiden (Frederica);
You are my heart’s delight (The Land of Smiles);
Love was a dream (Giuditta);
Beautiful Italy (Paganini);
Patiently smiling (The Land of Smiles);
Love unspoken (The Merry Widow);
Friends, this is the life for me! (Giuditta);
Beneath the window (The Land of Smiles);
Farewell, my love, farewell (Frasquita)
Artists: Alfie Boe, tenor Orchestra of Scottish Opera,
Michael Rosewell (conductor
The award-winning star of the ENO and Covent Garden, Alfie Boe, has signed with Linn Records to
record his labour of love; an album of Franz Lehár songs inspired by the recordings of Richard
Tauber, his father’s favourite singer.
Franz Lehár (1870 - 1948) wrote some of the most instantly recognisable and beautiful music
in 20th century operetta producing songs that are charmingly lyrical and incredibly melodic.
Growing up listening to Richard Tauber Alfie discovered less frequently recorded repertoire
full of Lehár’s trademark drama and romance, included here alongside songs from the
famously popular Merry Widow.
Alfie recorded “Franz Lehár” ‘at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall with the respected
Orchestra of Scottish Opera and conductor Michael Rosewell, resulting in a delightfully live,
cohesive sound. Alfie Boe’s incredible voice has won him many awards: a Tony Award for his performance
on Broadway, the John McCormack Young Voice Award and the Lyric Tenor of the World
Audience Award. He was also the only artist to be nominated in two categories at the 2008
Classical BRIT awards. He has performed to critical acclaim at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the
Coliseum with ENO, at the Royal Albert Hall and Clarence House. In concert Alfie has
performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, RLPO, LPO, Ulster Orchestra, RPO, Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
“His performances have charm and grace, his singing is secure and polished, and his engaging personality make him as popular in the business as he is with the public.” The Telegraph
Works: 1 Antonín Dvorák (1841–1904)
Romance in F minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 11, B. 39 (1873–1877) 12:58
2 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G major, Op. 40 (c. 1802) 7:33
3 Johan Severin Svendsen (1840–1911)
Romance in G major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 26 (1881) 7:30
4 Zdenek Fibich (1850–1900)
Romance in B fl at major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 10 (1879) 5:42
(instrumantation Anatol Provazník)
5 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Sérénade mélancolique in B minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 26 (1875) 9:03
6 Ludwig van Beethoven
Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Op. 50 (c. 1798) 9:06
7 Henryk Wieniawski (1835–1880)
Romance (Andante non troppo) from Concerto No. 2 in D minor for Violin and
Orchestra, Op. 22 (1862) 4:59
8 Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
Reverie et caprice. Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 8 (1841) 8:47
Supraphon 1978 (1, 3-8), 1988 (2)
Artists: Josef Suk – violin (Stradivari, 1687)
Prague Symphony Orchestra / Václav Smetácek
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Václav Neumann
When the violin maestro Josef Suk, celebrating his 80th birthday this year, recorded for
Supraphon a CD of Antonín Dvorák’s and Josef Suk’s chamber works (SU 3976-2) last year,
the reviewers marvelled at the album’s intimate mood, tone and interpretational
directness. These attributes are also characteristic of his latest release, “Romance”. On
these 30-year-old recordings, Suk is backed by the two finest Czech orchestras. The album
is abounding in the very qualities synonymous with Suk’s illustrious name: the beautiful,
mellow and cultivated tone of his Stradivarius, sparkling technique and depth of feeling.
These pieces by Czech and foreign composers are as though tailored to Suk’s virtuosity.
Dvorák Romance... is played with his usual ineffable sweetness and lyrical reserve...He plays the G major Beethoven with gentility and humanity...(a disc) of gentle, unabrasive and charming felicity ” Jonathan Woolf, Music Web International
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