No.169

Although a native of Bordeaux, where he was born on 18th April 1873, (Jean) Roger-Ducasse had
little of the southern temperament, cultivating a taste for independence and making no concessions to
the public or to interpreters. He had high artistic aims, with the result that certain works are wonderful,
but are difficult to interpret, and are, therefore, less well known. With the help of his family Roger-Ducasse
went to Paris to study at the Conservatoire, where he was in the harmony class of Emile Pessard, studying
fugue and counterpoint with Andr� G�dalge. In composition he studied under Gabriel Faur�, whose pupils
included Ravel, Enescu and Nadia Boulanger. He became a friend of Faur� and one of his most important
successors.

From 1910 dates another important work that marks the attachment of Roger-Ducasse to historical and
symbolical subjects, Sarabande, an orchestral and choral composition. The subject is the death of a prince,
accompanied by a lute-player. After this he produced in 1913 his masterpiece, first performed on 31st
January 1914 in St. Petersburg. Orph�e uses a text that Roger-Ducasse had written himself, based
on the Georgics of Virgil. In this he returned to the forms of early opera, with the chorus taking the parts,
mingled with the instruments of the orchestra. The parts of Orpheus and Eurydice are mimed and not sung.
Ida Rubinstein mounted this neo-classical mime-drama at the Paris Opera in June 1926.

The evocative Nocturne de printemps was written in 1920, a work that suggests, in its gentle
orchestral colours, the sounds of a spring night in the woods. Night-birds call and the gentle beauty of the
scene is conjured up with an orchestral palette that must remind a listener of the timbres employed by Ravel,
the sound swelling to a climax.

The Petite Suite, in three movements, is an older work, dating from the turn of the century. It is also
more southern in spirit, in particular in its melodic lines. It was first conceived as a piano composition for four
hands, an important memory for Roger-Ducasse, since this was the first of his compositions to be played in public.

Le joli jeu de furet, an orchestral scherzo, was inspired by children in the schools that Roger-Ducasse
visited as inspector of singing and originally this work, like Aux premi�res clart�s de l'aube, was for choir. The
symphonic version provides a fuller work. The theme of the children's round II court, il court, le furet, is heard
in snatches, giving the impression that the theme is built up gradually. Le furet, literally the ferret, an object
that in the game, Hunt-the-slipper, is passed from hand to hand, passes from instrument to instrument.



Music composed by (Jean) Roger-Ducasse
Played by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Conducted by Leif Segerstam

"This music is well worth discovering, with memorable melodies, superbly orchestrated
in mostly transparent textures. Segerstam leads his orchestra in detailed, sensitive
performances with well-balanced sonics."
American Record Guide



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No.170

Joaqu�n Turina was born in Seville on 9th December 1882. His first musical studies were in
the Andalusian capital with Garc�a Torres (harmony and counterpoint) and Enrique Rodr�guez (piano),
and in Madrid with Jos� Trag�. His long stay in Paris, from 1905 to 1914, was decisive in his
education. There he continued his piano apprenticeship with Moszkowski and studied composition
with d’Indy. This was a time for the absorption of influences and for human contacts, since Turina
then began his friendship with Debussy, Ravel and Florent Schmitt. His first works had a certain
modernist tendency, but the advice of Alb�niz encouraged him to have recourse to Andalusian
popular sources.

The Sinfon�a sevillana is Turina’s orchestral masterpiece and the first important work of this
kind to be produced in Spain in the twentieth century. Written in 1920, the influence of the Paris
Schola Cantorum predominates through an idealised Andalusian nationalism, although the rhythms
used really come from popular tradition. Given that, the work is very flexible in form and skilful in
its orchestration. The titles of the movements are indicative of the poetic inspiration that
characterizes the music. The first movement, Panorama, offers a general picture; the second,
Por el r�o Guadalquivir (By the River Guadalquivir), is possibly the most accomplished, with its
poetic climate and subtle orchestration, while Fiesta en San Juan de Aznalfarache offers an
authentic explosion of colour and rhythm. The Sinfon�a won Turina the Gran Casino de San
Sebasti�n prize. It was first performed in Madrid by the Madrid Symphony Orchestra under
Enrique Fern�ndez Arb�s on 11th September 1920.

Turina quickly wrote two versions of his Danzas fant�sticas, the more intimate piano
version and the orchestral, first performed on 30th December 1919. This latter is the most
widely known, with the colour and the symphonic dimension it stamps on the dance music.
The three movements are given in the score with quotations from the novel La org�a by
Jos� M�s, the author of stories set in Seville. The first, Exaltaci�n, is based on an Aragonese
jota, although transformed into something of greater profundity. Ensue�o (Dream) brings to
life the emotional heart of the work; it is a poetic romance that mingles Andalusian melodic
elements with the Basque rhythm of the zorcico. Org�a is a brilliant Andalusian farruca,
the melodic turns of which evoke flamenco. The Danzas were first performed by the
Madrid Philharmonic under Bartolom� P�rez Casas on 13th February 1920.

Turina wrote his ballet Ritmos with Antonia Merc� ‘La Argentina’ in mind, a ballerina
who had created a sensation in Spain in the 1920s and whom the composer greatly admired.
The work, however, was never staged as a ballet. It was first performed on 25th October
1928 in Barcelona by the Orquesta Pau Casals under Turina himself. Ritmos has music of a
strongly nationalist stamp, skilfully orchestrated; in the last movement the earlier motifs
are recalled, giving the work a cyclic character. At the time of the first performance it
was said that the different movements ran through a gamut of colours, from the darkest
to the brightest, but this interpretation now seems somewhat trite.

La Procesi�n del Roc�o, completed in 1912, was Turina’s first orchestral work and
the one that brought him to the attention of the wider public. It is a symphonic poem that
describes the procession celebrated once a year in the village of El Roc�o, in the marshes
between Seville and Huelva, adjacent to the present Do�ana nature reserve, a very
picturesque scene with its gathering of carts and horsemen.



Music Composed by Joaqu�n Turina
Played by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Antonio de Almeida

"Throughout the LP and CD era we have had collections of Spanish orchestral music featuring
one or other of Turina's exotic evocations, but this is the first proper historical assessment of his
achievement, and it immediately shows his extraordinary orginality and sensitivity to Mediterranean
atmosphere. Ravel's Spanish scene-painting is deflected through a prism of cultivated awareness;
a Frenchman travelling south and responding with a personal, very Gallic sensibility. But Turina was born
in Seville and the Spanish light was inherent in his very consciousness. Thus, the opening of the Danzas
fantasticas immediately brings a piercing shaft of sunlight from the violins, then the spirit of the dance
takes over. The mood of ''Exaltacion'' soon appears in the full orchestra, but there are kaleidoscopic
changes of mood and the close brings haunting distanced effects, as if everything were happening in
the imagination. ''Ensueno'' (the second number) opens dramatically, then evening bells toll gently and
woodwind intone the undulating dance music; the soft evening string perfumes drift in with echoing flutes,
and again the gently nuanced textures suggest a blissful dream. Even the energetic ''Orgia'', which opens
with thrusting lower strings and bravura horns, makes way for the most delicate woodwind imagery and
fragile violins.

La procesion del Rocio, Turina's first big success, was composed six years earlier, in 1913, and has a
comparable ambivalence between the opening energetic ''Triana'' with its seguidilla and garrotin dance
rhythms and the procession itself, which begins with flute and tabour and then reveals a tenderly yearning
tune in the lower strings. Following this the music moves on to describe a gaudy religious occasion,
full of Latin hyperbole.

The Sinfonia sevillana belongs to 1920, and brings even greater skill in placing atmospheric pictorialism
within a firm structural framework. The opening ''Panorama'' is self-descriptive, but the flamenco spirit
soon brings in the dance rhythms. In the evocation of the ''Por el Rio Guadalquivir'' (the river which runs
through Seville) an exquisitely delicate violin solo leads to a shimmering imagery of the sunshine on the
rippling waters, while the ''Fiesta'' finale errupts with exuberance and ends grandly.

Ritmos was written in 1928. Described as a ''Fantasia correografico'' it is neatly conceived, a joined series
of six vignettes of enormous character and charm. The titles speak for themselves. A solemn ''Preludio'' leads
to a measured ''Danza lenta''; then a ''Vals tragico'' acts as a foil for an engagingly scored ''Garrotin'', while a
delicate ''Intermedio'' anticipates the lighthearted closing ''Danza exotica'', which recalls earlier themes
in its vigorous coda.

The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra plays all this music with great distinction; full-bloodedly, yet with
appealing finesse. Woodwind solos (especially Turina's dark-eyed favourite, the cor anglais) are a constant
delight and Almeida ensures that the suffusing dance rhythms (Peterna, zapateado, garrotin, etc.) are all
glitter and be gay; yet when the composer's mood is vigorous, there is plenty of orchestral vehemence.
The recording is wide ranging, with the resonance adding a glowing bloom overall. It brings lustrous,
often translucent string sounds, and only occasionally masks detail a little when the ample lower
spectrum is at its most vociferous."
Gramophone



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Thank you very much for all these. Just fascinating.

You're welcome. Again, I'd invite suggestions or content from others (especially non-Naxos,
Japanese program music, of which I've got almost none).



No.171

In the generation that followed Jean Sibelius, the versatile Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947) was easily
among the most important Finnish composers. Like Sibelius, Madetoja composed symphonies that helped define
his stature: indeed, his three are still his most recorded works, even if they remain well outside the standard
repertory. His opera Pohjalaisia (The Ostrobothnians; 1923 - an orchestral suite from which is included here!)
has also received considerable attention, especially in his homeland, and his ballet Okon Fuoko (1930) and
many of his songs have rightly garnered acclaim as well.

Madetoja employed folk melodies from Ostrobothnia (the region of Finland where he was born), and many of
these divulge a modal or religious character in their somber and sometimes stern character. Madetoja wrote in
an accessible, though often dark style and was a master of orchestration, known for clarity of textures
and subtle instrumental color.



Music Composed by Leevi Madetoja
Played by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste

"Madetoja's symphonies have fared rather well on record, and it isn't undeserved.
Stylistically, the work is "anti-Sibelius" - in the sense that the composer was one of those
attempting to distance himself from the shadow of the older composers and ended up
sounding at least superficially rather like him. The closest comparison is, I think, the music
of Rangstr�m and Alfv�n - and maybe even more obviously composers like Roussel and
Magnard - and in terms of quality Madetoja's music also belongs to that group; it is
very well-crafted and rather inventive.

The third symphony, dating from the 1920s is atmospheric and quite memorable, full of
interesting, fully developed ideas. The couplings are the slightly more forward-looking ballet
music from Okon Fuoko and the memorable and strikingly atmospheric suite from his opera
"The Ostrobothnians" (for which an eminently recommendable complete recording under
Saraste also exists). Recommended."
Amazon Reviewer





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Not at all, thank you. The selections you make are absolutely brilliant. They encompass a lot of the fantasy and wonder that makes film music (until the millennium) so enjoyable. I like symphonic poem nature of your choices that makes classical music so evocative and powerful. I cant make any suggestions that would make your selections better, but I certainly would welcome more arabic, spanish, indian, romanian classical music if you have any. The colourful nature of these, especially spanish classical music, is so dynamic and enjoyable to listen to. Anything to do with the sea or with heavenly choruses I'd welcome, but thats just my personal preference. Keep opening our musical worlds matey....

There's a lot of Spanish and Latin-American music left to upload, actually, because in those regions, the "abstract symphony" played a secondary role to programmatic and theatrical music for long periods in the late 19th and 20th centuries. I just want to be as diverse as possible.

The Argento was a real find which I enjoyed immensely.
Many thanks!

Some of the next few uploads will be devoted to albums that include one or more works inspired by Cervantes' novel Don Quixote,
the ultimate romantic picaresque novel - proceeding from the least to the best-known.



No.172

Florencio Asenjo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied the various
tools of music making with the Spanish composer Jaime Pahissa. When Asenjo
began his musical life, he found overwhelming the monumental amount of repetition
that characterized much of Western music. Asenjo labeled his own approach maximalism,
the objective of which was to achieve a high density of content in constant change. It was
not that repetition was to be forbidden, merely used sparingly when really necessary.
Standard formal patterns were to give way to the pure relatedness of new musical
meanings brought about by their respective dynamics.

A Thousand and One Nights (2007) consists of ten impressions for clarinet
and orchestra attempting to describe the subjective reactions to ten stories from the
famous book. The clarinet represents Sheherazade’s voice guiding the events related,
events whose common moral is that the impossible does happen.

Three Images from Don Quijote (2008) are also subjective impressions from
three chapters of Cervantes’ book, a book which shows influences of “The Thousand
and One Nights.” Even though the “Nights” were not translated into European languages
until the XVIII century, they and their forerunners were known in Europe long
before, especially in Moslem Spain and Northern Africa where Cervantes and his
brother were slaves for several years. Also, just as Sindbad the Sailor and Sindbad the
Wise owe to “The Odyssey,” some scholars consider it a given that Boccaccio must
have known the story of “The Nights” to explain its similarities with “The Decamerone”
whose tales influenced so many authors including Cervantes.

The name Sinfonia Concertante has been used to describe different kinds of
musical works. Sometimes it refers to a concerto for one solo instrument in which the
orchestra has a greater role than that of merely accompanying the soloist; sometimes
it means a concerto for just a few designated instruments; here Sinfonia Concertante
(2008) gives more than a few instruments of the orchestra the opportunity to play solo
as they emerge from the ensemble.



Music Composed by Florencio Asjeno
Played by the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Kirk Trevor

"Although he has more than a half-century’s experience in teaching and writing about
mathematics, “music came first,” says Florencio Asenjo.

The mathematics professor emeritus’s current work in math and logic consists of writing
and occasional lecturing rather than regular classroom teaching, permitting more time for
Asenjo’s early love: composing.

As a teenager, Asenjo studied with Spanish composer Jaime Pahissa, with whom he honed
his skills in harmony and orchestration. Asenjo’s operatic, orchestral and chamber music
compositions have been performed in his native Argentina as well as in the United States and Europe.

The octogenarian’s most prolific output as a composer of neoclassical music has come in his retirement.
Since 2003, recordings of his compositions, all conducted by British conductor Kirk Trevor and performed
by various Eastern European symphony orchestras, have been released at a pace of about one each year.

Asenjo’s seventh recording with Trevor, released in 2009, includes Asenjo’s 2008 composition
“Sinfonia Concertante” as well as two works based on literature. His 2007 piece for clarinet and orchestra,
“A Thousand and One Nights,” is his interpretation of 10 stories selected from the Arabic folktale and “
Three Images from Don Quijote” represents Asenjo’s musical impressions of three scenes from Miguel
de Cervantes’s classic story.

Asenjo said he always has considered mathematics and music to be complementary. “They did not collide.
I jumped from one to another, no problem. It is just a natural thing to do,” he said.

In writing a score, “There is a pattern there, and the pattern is not arbitrary— almost as in the way a
proof of a theorem is organized.” Still, he finds it difficult to describe the connection between music and
mathematics. “I don’t think there is an explanation that serves. They are complementary activities,” he said."



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nothing of any break �what�s the matter with you?.Don�t speak for me

Dear guilloteclub, I don't know where or how you came to the idea I was speaking for anyone but myself. However, if I had your lack of eloquence and understanding I would gladly welcome anyone doing so.

No.173

This is an enganging collection of Kurt Weill rarities, including several background scores
he wrote for plays and revues in 1920s Berlin. The "Roaring Twenties" are written all over
these spry, spunky, often brusque compositions, and if you know the composer from his famous
operetta The Threepenny Opera or from Mahagonny, you get the same style here.
Some of the music are songs, the rest (like the Bastille Music or the Suite panam�enne)
are written for small orchestra.



Music Composed by Kurt Weill
Played by the Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt)
With Rosemary Hardy (soprano)
Conducted by HK Gruber

Tracks
1. Berlin im Licht, song for voice & piano
2. Slow Fox (Langsamer Fox) and Algi-song, foxtrot for piano with vocal refrain
3. Klops-Lied (Meatball Song, 'Ich sitze da un' esse Klops'), for soprano or tenor, 2 piccolos & bassoon
4. Ach, w�r mein Lieb ein Br�nnlein kalt, song for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn & bassoon (or piano; Frauentanz), Op. 10/3: Arr
5. Frauentanz (Ladies' Dance), song cycle for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn & bassoon (or piano), Op. 10
6. Bastille Music, suite for wind ensemble (arr. by David Drew from 'Gustav III')
7. �l-Musik (Oil Music), suite for voice & wind ensemble (arranged by David Drew from 'Konjunktur')
8. Suite Panam�enne for orchestra (arranged by David Drew from 'Marie Galante')
9. Cowboy Song ('Oh the Rio Grande'), for voice & piano (from 'Johnny Johnson')
10. Captain Valentine's Song, for voice & piano (from 'Johnny Johnson')
11. Die stille Stadt, song for voice & piano



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You have no idea how long I've been searching for a recording of the Frauentanz! Sooo many thanks!

No.174

The five works that make up this CD are all based on Cervantes’ masterpiece and all written by Spanish composers.
They give us a musical insight into a literary work that is still vibrant and relevant today, not only as an
entertaining, thought-provoking text, but also as a source of artistic inspiration. From Barbieri’s mid-nineteenthcentury
stage work (1861) to Jorge Fern�ndez Guerra’s new soundtrack for Pabst’s 1930s film (2005), from echoes
of Spanish song to the European symphonic tradition, Don Quixote has inspired musical creations and re-creations
ranging from the faithful to the utopian, from attempts at programmatic depictions of the knight’s thousand and one
tales to heartfelt idealisations — and never has the past seemed so present.

Francisco Asenjo Barbieri wrote the incidental music to Don Quijote de la Mancha, by Ventura de la Vega,
providing musical numbers for each of the three acts. Included here are an aria for tenor, a ballet sequence and a
finale with choir. This is typical mid-19th century romanticism, on the light side, especially in the ballet music.

The symphonic poem Don Quijote velando las armas by Gerardo Gombau Guerra (Salamanca 1906–Madrid
1971) was the composer’s entry for the Madrid Conservatory’s composition contest of 1945. Programmatic in nature,
it sets out to portray specific episodes from the novel, to which Gombau makes repeated references in his score.
Structurally it consists of a prelude followed by a sinfonia, whose first theme represents Don Quixote and whose
second portrays Dulcinea and which, after a development section in which various different episodes are depicted, closes
with an inverted recapitulation — in other words, we hear Dulcinea’s theme first, then Don Quixote’s.

Ausencias de Dulcinea (Dulcinea’s Absence) is another symphonic poem, this time for bass, four sopranos and
orchestra, written by Joaqu�n Rodrigo (Sagunto 1901–Madrid 1999) between December 1947 and January 1948.
The poem is structured in twelve numbers which feature constant changes of character and tempo to
express the shifts between the heroic and the romantic, a contrast defined right from the start by the treatment
of the voices and the orchestra.

Jos� Garc�a Rom�n (b. Granada 1945) composed La resurrecci�n de Don Quijote for string orchestra
between November 1993 and February 1994 in response to a commission from the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales
de Espa�a. A highly complex, dense, almost obsessive texture is created, with minimalist touches, a texture in
which the composer investigates timbre and creates a highly individual and poetic idiom, more tonal than in
his earlier works. The use of the Quixote theme is metaphorical, a very free re-creation in which Garc�a
Rom�n is trying to convey, in his own words “a way of expressing in music … the desire to see ride again all
those heroes."

Tres momentos de Don Quichotte Jorge Fern�ndez Guerra was written between August 2004 and
February 2005 and first given at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela on 14th April 2005 by the Orquesta de la Comunidad
de Madrid. What we have on this CD are three of the more than twenty numbers that made up a new score for a
screening of G.W. Pabst’s 1933 film Don Quichotte. A suite in three movements is presented here:
The first, letter J, represents Don Quixote’s first expedition: the hero wakes up Sancho and the two set off by night
for the country, though not without a delay so that Don Quixote can sing of Dulcinea. The nocturnal setting is
echoed in a musical Adagio. The second, letter V, represents the final exploit, which in Pabst’s film is the
attack on the windmills in which the knight comes off worst and which leads on to his death scene. The last of
the three, letter X, is the epilogue to the film, which shows the burning of the book in reverse, a rebirth from
the ashes. This long, ecstatic sequence is accompanied by Don Quixote’s final song.
liner notes



Music by Joaqu�n Rodrigo, Jos� Garc�a Rom�n, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri,
Jorge Fern�ndez Guerra & Gerardo Gombau
Played by the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid
Conducted by Jos� Ram�n Encinar

"Naxos has assembled an intriguingly diverse selection of music inspired by Don Quixote. The range of
styles represented here dictate that the CD will be of most interest to listeners with broadly eclectic
tastes because the music ranges from typically Romantic music from the mid-nineteenth century to
very challenging and uncompromising modernism. For the listener with open ears, all of the pieces
contribute something to an understanding of Don Quixote -- the novel is so universal in its humanism
and so catholic in the range of experience it describes that no single aesthetic could adequately
address it. Joaqu�n Rodrigo's 1948 Ausencias de Dulcinea (Dulcinea's Absence) is a quirky but hugely
attractive piece. Scored for orchestra, baritone, three sopranos, and one mezzo-soprano, it is a
melancholy meditation on Don Quixote's search for his ideal Dulcinea, who is given voice by the women.
This is brightly colored music, fragrant with the Spanishness that's typical of much of Rodrigo's work,
and it successfully evokes the poignancy of the Don's deluded quest. Despite its optimistic title, Jos�
Garc�a Rom�n's 1994 Le resurrecci�n de Don Quixote is relentlessly dark -- an agonizingly nihilistic
modernist nightmare that illustrates the hellish emptiness the humiliated Don would have experienced
when he realized the futility of his dream. Jorge Fern�ndez Guerra wrote a new score for G.W. Pabst's
1933 film Don Quichotte in 2005. It is very good film music -- it retains a relatively low profile, but is
colorful, inventive, and driven by a musical logic that is clearly not merely illustrative of what is going
on onscreen. Gerardo Gombau acknowledges his debt to Strauss in his1945 tone poem Don Quijote
velando las armas (Don Quixote keeps vigil over his armour), and while it is indeed Straussian in its
musical language, there is no danger if it supplanting Strauss' own Don Quixote.

The performances by Orquesta del la Comunidad de Madrid, conducted by Jos� Ram�n Encinar,
are consistently lively and committed, as persuasive in Francisco Asenjo Barbieri's 1861 Don Quijote
as in Rom�n's bleak existential soundscape. Naxos' sound is clean and full."
All Music


Barbieri, Rodrigo, Fern�ndez Guerra, Garcia Rom�n

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Sh,Sh!,say no more,you bored me "Mr Eloquence",go home

I find the remark above insulting. Ignore it and please keep providing us music-lovers with all these fine recordings. Thanks.

Thanks, wimpel, for the Weill (especially since it has the irreverent "Naly" Gruber participating in it) and also for the Don Quixote series, which is absolutely remarkable. My first Don Quixote musical picture was by Richard Strauss, followed by Oscar Espl�'s Don Quijote velando las armas, both during the good lp days.
Thanks again!

No.175

A collection of lively shorter orchestral works by some of the leading Belgian romantic composers of their time(s),
all based at some point or other in their lives in the beautiful city of Antwerp, which boasts a long and
rich musical history. Peter Benoit, the influential composer and teacher, was director of the local music
conservatory from 1867. Hence, several of the composers on this album are considered members of the
"Benoit-school". One of pupils, Lodewijk Mortelmans (whose Homeric Symphony I posted earlier),
later became director of the conservatory himself. His tone poem Lentedag (Spring Day/Idyll) does
not carry any specific program, but illustrates the lyricism, as well as the hustle and bustle of spring.
Bruiloftsfees (Wedding Feast) by another Benoit student, Flor Alpaerts, is even more vivacious
and dance-like; it's the final piece of a symphonic trilogy entitled Pallieter.

Jef van Hoof, who ultimately succeeded Mortelmans as director of the Flemish Music Academy, spent
a few months in jail during WWI, as we was suspected to have collaborated with the Germans. In prison,
he wrote the First Symphonic Suite, divided into five short character pieces (see below) that
alternate between lyricism and sarcasm. Milenka is a ballet-pantomime by Jan Blockx, of which the
second scene, Flemish Fair, was extracted by the composer as a separate symphonic poem in several
short episodes, which, as in the van Hoof piece, are played without intermission. The last piece on the
menu here is Song and Dance at the court of Mary from Burgundy by Daniel Sternefeld, the youngest
composer in this collection, and is a section from the ballet Salve Antverpia of 1975.



Music by Lodewijk Mortelmans, Flor Alpaerts, Jef van Hoof, Jan Blockx & Daniel Sternefeld
Played by the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels
Conducted by Alexander Rahbari

"The "Romantic Symphonic Music" on the companion disc is essentially, though not intentionally, slighter. Mortelmans's
Spring day is most agreeably lyrical, if a bit long, relying very much on washes of string tone. Alpaerts's "Wedding feast"
is the third part of an ambitious symphonic poem and is not unlike one of the Flemish rhapsodies. Van Hoofs Symphonic
Suite No. I is notable for the trickling evocation of its first movement, "On the brook" and a very Delian picture of the
countryside; the excerpts from Block's Milenka (a ballet-pantomime) offer pretty basic peasant dance music and a rather
agreeable love scene. Easily the most memorable music here is the awkwardly named suite, Song and dance at the
court of Mary of Burgundy, clever arrangements of fifteenth-century dance pieces by Susato and his contemporaries.
It is not unlike Respighi's Antiche danze edarie per liuto; piquantly scored and engagingly tuneful.

All this little-known repertoire is played with fine idiomatic feeling and a nice combination of enthusiasm and expertise by
the excellent Belgian Radio and Television orchestra, and Rahbari knows how to change tempo and mood spontaneously.
The well-balanced recording is perhaps at times a shade over-reverberant for the rumbustious tuttis of the rhapsodies,
but offers beautiful string tone (especially in the Spring day) and a fullbodied and natural concert-hall setting for
these colourful scores. The notes are exemplary."
Gramophone



Top: Mortelmans, Alpaerts - Bottom: van Hoof, Blockx, Sternefeld



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No.176

Lorenzo Palomo is a successful contemporary, neo-romantic Spanish composer who writes in an idiom
not too far removed from that of Joaqu�n Rodrigo. In his cantata Dulcinea, the composer approaches the
Don Quixote story with the focus on the knight errant's elusive "love interest". The libretto is included.

"Dulcinea is a cantata-fantasy in ten scenes, full of contrasts, exuberant rhythms and soaring lyricism. The
composer uses a richly varied palette of orchestral colours to create the different scenes, beginning in
spectacular fashion with the choral Molinos de viento (Windmills). The chorus and orchestra alternate as a
frenetic, almost wild rhythm develops. The sound of a galloping horse heralds Don Quixote’s arrival. Soft,
delicate harmonic textures then envelop his impassioned ballad. A series of contrasting passages succeed one
another and the scene culminates in one of the work’s most lyrical episodes. In Scene VII Don Quixote and
Sancho get embroiled in a minor disagreement, as the knight tries to convince his squire that he should learn to
love a woman as he himself loves Dulcinea. The stage is now set for Sancho to sing with great passion of how he
does love his Teresa. The choral Seguidilla and Abracadabra, meanwhile, bring rhythmic variety to the
work, making them undoubtedly two of its high points. Dulcinea appears as a vision in Scene IX. The
orchestral colours here are poetic and dream-like, her song ethereal and otherworldly – this is the most
magical part of the work. Finally, Dulcinea transforms her song into the reality of Don Quixote’s dreams,
greeting him with the words “All honour to Don Quixote. May he be welcome in my realm.”
Orchestration of the utmost delicacy accompanies the last cadences of the vision of Dulcinea as the music
gradually fades away into the land of dreams."
Lorenzo Palomo



Music Composed by Lorenzo Palomo
Played by the Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin
With Ainhoa Arteta (Dulcinea), Burkhard Ulrich (Sancho Panza), Arutjun Kotchinian (Don Quixote)
Conducted by Miguel Angel G�mez Mart�nez

"Lorenzo Palomo’s cantata, Dulcinea, is based on Miguel de Cervantes’ magnificent and influential literary
masterpiece “Don Quijote de la Mancha”. The novel has been adapted countless times into a ballet, a symphonic
poem and many others genres: You name it and you will almost certainly find it! So, do we really need one
more adaptation? I must say that at first, even before listening to the CD, I thought that we did not. Add to
this the fact that I am not a great fan of contemporary music - I continue to prefer the great classics - and
I dislike the Spanish language, which I find generally harsh and unpleasant to the ear. I convinced myself
that I was in for a couple of hours of disappointment. Well, I was wrong!

Dulcinea, a “Cantata-Fantasy for a Knight in Love”, as the composer calls it, was indeed a pleasant surprise
right from the beginning. Even before track three finished, I had been completely won over. The work is divided
into ten scenes and although based on Cervantes’ novel, it differs slightly from it. Palomo’s music is rather
visual; he uses the orchestra and choir to give us the images that emerge from Murciano’s rich poetry. For
example, the first scene of the Cantata, Los molinos de viento, effectively evokes the windmills through
whistling whispers of the chorus to resemble the noise of the wind on the sails. For the scene where
Don Quijote attacks the windmills, Palomo cleverly uses only the orchestra. He gives a very powerful
depiction of the scene, inviting the listener to use the imagination and become creative too. The score
is full of originality though deeply rooted in Spanish musical tradition, with all its vibrant colour, rhythm
and passion. Imaginative though Palomo’s music is, to my mind, the cantata becomes a truly great piece
due to Carlos Murciano’s exquisitely beautiful poems. Though based on the original Cervantes’ novel,
they exist as independent texts in their own right. Murciano keeps to the source but gives it a new,
fresh dimension not only by the sheer beauty and rhythmic flow of his words but also by daring to deviate
from the novel and go his own path. He nearly silences Teresa Panza - who talks too much in the original
- and gives a voice to Dulcinea; in the novel, she only exists in Don Quijote’s imagination. Murciano thus
creates what I think is the jewel in his elegant poetry for this piece: the Canto de Dulcinea (Ballad of
Dulcinea). If you understand Spanish, ignore the translations; good though they are, the full glory of
Murciano’s poems can only be truly appreciated if one reads them in the language in which he wrote them.

This Naxos CD is a live recording of the world premiere, which took place at the Konzerthaus Berlin,
Germany, on 15 May 2006. The performance was led by distinguished conductor Miguel Angel G�mez Mart�nez
with the excellent orchestra and chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and a quartet of outstanding singers.
I was a little doubtful about the casting of Armenian bass Arutjun Kotchinian as Don Quijote, purely because
I think that Kotchinian is a stage “animal”. I saw him as Count Rodolfo in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, at the
Deutsche Oper Berlin, in 2006, and he was magnificent. He stole every scene he was in even when superstar
tenor Juan Diego Fl�rez was present. Kotchinian is an exceptional singer with an incredibly charismatic
presence on stage and a superb actor. Although live on stage, he would be the perfect Don Quijote, I
wondered if he could bring the same kind of charisma in a purely audio recording. As I truly admire his artistry,
I am rather happy to say that I was completely wrong. His performance as Don Quijote is totally captivating.
His delicate phrasing, the poignant singing and the dramatic power, which he gives every word, make
Don Quijote’s lament very real and completely expresses the tragic, pathetic characteristics of the Knight.
Kotchinian is outstanding and must have been magnificent on stage."
Music Web





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WOW!!!
The Palomo is really interesting!
THANKS!!!

Thank you.
A huge amount of stuff here I've never heard of. I look forward to a good dabble and broadening my musical horizons.

Cheers

per adonai Nyarlatothep!!

I love Bax, especially Tintagel. Great selections here. Thanks... scott

No.177

Anton Rubinstein was more controversial in his day as a composer and educator than he was as a pianist
and conductor. Consensus in the nineteenth century ranked him with Liszt and von B�low in the keyboard realm,
and even if his works stirred debate, they were more widely performed than in the twentieth century, when his
reputation as a composer went into decline. Rubinstein wrote in most genres, turning out hundreds of solo
piano pieces, as well as several concertos for piano, violin and cello, various chamber compositions, operas,
ballets, and choral and vocal works. His output in many ways parallels that of Tchaikovsky, and recent
reexamination of Rubinstein's compositions augurs well for rehabilitation of many of them and a favorable
reassessment of his standing.

Don Quixote, a musical picture after Cervantes, was written in 1870, the year before Rubinstein's period
as conductor of the Philharmonic concerts in Vienna and a subsequent American tour with Wieniawski. The
work has a clear enough narrative intention, from the chivalrous ambitions of Don Quixote, his love for the
imagined Dulcinea del Toboso, through various mistaken adventures to his death, a moment of final pathos.

Rubinstein shows us Don Ouixote's awakening ambitions, as he reads romances of chivalry, dons his rusty
armour and mounts his steed Rocinante. A flock of sheep, mistaken for an army, is routed, and there is an
encounter with three village women, one of whom seems to Don Quixote to be his lady, Dulcinea. The women
laugh at him and run away, leading him to suppose that he needs to prove his valour further. Don Quixote
extends unexpected clemency to a gang of prisoners condemned to the galleys, and they repay him by
beating and robbing him. His complaints at the ingratitude of the criminals lead him to forswear chivalry,
and he returns home, to die in the presence of his friends, his niece and his house-keeper.

The musical portrait, Ivan the Terrible, is based on the work of Lev Alexandrovich Mey, the literary
source of four of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas and of numerous songs by the Five and by Tchaikovsky. In
particular Rimsky-Korsakov’s first opera, generally known as The Maid of Pskov, which bears the alternative
title Ivan the Terrible, is derived from a play by Mey recounting the story of the Tsar’s attack on Novgorod,
leading to the death of Tucha and his beloved Olga, the latter turning out to be the Tsar’s daughter.



Music Composed by Anton Rubinstein
Played by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Igor Golovschin

"Anton Rubinstein was born at Vikhvatinets in the Podolsk district of the Russian Empire, on the borders of
Moldavia, in 1829. A few years later his family moved to Moscow, and after early instruction on the piano from his
mother he took lessons from a teacher there, a certain Villoing, later to be the teacher of his brother Nikolay. He
gave his first public concert in Moscow at the age of ten. There followed four years of touring as a child virtuoso,
years that took him to Paris, to Scandinavia, Austria and Germany, and to London, where he played for Queen
Victoria. In 1844 the family settled in Berlin, where Rubinstein took lessons in harmony and counterpoint from
Glinka’s former teacher, the Prussian royal music librarian Siegfried Dehn.

In 1846 Rubinstein’s father died and the rest of the family returned to Russia, while he remained abroad in Vienna
and in Pressburg (the modern Bratislava), earning a living as he could by teaching and cynical about the support
that the ever-generous Liszt had seemed to offer, which took the form of a visit to his garret, with his entourage
of disciples. As a pianist Rubinstein was to rival Liszt in fame, and the latter speaks of him with grudging respect
as a composer and player, a clever fellow, but unduly influenced by the classicism of Mendelssohn, adding a less
charitable description of him as the pseudo-Musician of the future on the occasion of a visit to Weimar in 1854
for the first performance of his opera The Siberian Huntsman.

Rubinstein’s fortunes had changed as a result of a meeting with members of the Russian Imperial family during
the course of an earlier visit to Paris. On his return to Russia in the winter of 1848 he found support from the
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, a German princess and sister-in-law of the Tsar, and with her active encouragement
he established in 1859 the Russian Musical Society and three years later the St Petersburg Conservatory. His
brother Nikolay, whose childhood prowess as a pianist had had similar exposure, founded similar organizations
in Moscow. Tchaikovsky was to be among the first pupils at the St.Petersburg Conservatory and among the first
teachers on the staff of its humbler counterpart in Moscow.

The new Conservatory aroused immediate enmity, in particular from the nationalist group of composers, bullied
into collaboration by the eccentric Balakirev. Rubinstein had opened battle by attacking the whole notion of
national opera, pointing to the alleged failure of Glinka’s work. Balakirev, self-taught as a composer, objected
to formal German musical training, and it was left to following generations to benefit from a profitable synthesis
of the primitive nationalism of the Five and the cosmopolitan sophistication of the Conservatories. Rubinstein,
however, coupled technical assurance with a less overtly Russian approach, although by the time of his death
in 1894 he had come to a better understanding of Russian nationalism in music, while a younger generation
had come to understand the necessity of professional musical training.

Rubinstein remained director of the St Petersburg Conservatory until 1867, when he also gave up the
directorship of the Russian Music Society concerts, which now fell to Balakirev. He returned to direct the
Conservatory once more in 1887, towards the end of a career that had established him as one of the greatest
contemporary pianists and as a conductor of significant ability. As a composer he was prolific, leading his
younger brother Nikolay, when asked about his own compositions, to reply that Anton had written enough
for both of them. By the end of his life, however, he had lost the respect of the younger generation, so that
his name had become synonymous with kitsch - c’est du Rubinstein’ had become a familiar jibe. It is only now,
with hindsight, that we can begin to reassess his very remarkable and substantial achievement in opera,
orchestral and chamber music, and in his writing for the piano, so long remembered invidiously only
by the notorious Melody in F."



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No.178

Jes�s Guridi is regarded not only as one of the twentieth century’s foremost exponents of Basque nationalism
but also as one of Spain’s greatest operatic and orchestral composers. He lived and worked in an age of
many different and contrasting aesthetic trends, and absorbed elements of them all while declining to attach
himself wholly to the Viennese school or any other European musical current. His music combined rich
Romanticism with touches of modernity, thereby creating a very personal idiom which brought him
success and international renown. Previously I uploaded his Sinfonia pireneica.

In Madrid in late 1916 Guridi presented Una aventura de Don Quijote, the only orchestral work from
the period in which his creative energy was focused on the opera Amaya. Full of both energy and poetry, this is
one of his most fascinating works, with an obvious programmatic content. The thematic material
representing Don Quixote is largely drawn from Basque and Castilian folk-music and is skilfully woven
into the orchestral fabric alongside Guridi’s own original and clearly defined musical ideas.

The Diez melod�as vascas (Madrid, 1941) were another of Guridi’s masterpieces, indeed one of the
greatest orchestral works by any Spanish composer of the time, and made his name on the international stage.
The material is remarkable for its variety, intelligent instrumentation and brilliant orchestration into which
Guridi is not afraid to introduce touches of modernistic acerbity, while always remaining true to the essence of
the original melodies, their simplicity, emotion and light-hearted nature. The solemn Asiko naz, the
characteristic rhythm of the zortziko (a Basque dance), the warm Amorosa for strings, the grandeur of the
instrumentation in De ronda as well as the impressionistic effects in Narrativa combine to form an
exceptional work, classical and elegant, yet modern too.

Following the success of the Diez melod�as, Canta el gallo tempranero (Madrid, 8th March 1942) marked
the mature Guridi’s return to a typical form of Castilian folk-song: the albada. This was traditionally used
for scenes portraying young lovers caught unawares by the cock crowing at daybreak. Guridi’s original
composition, for soprano and small orchestra, including celesta, sets a text by Juan de Arozamena, and
in both its bipartite structure and its orchestral colour faithfully reflects the characteristic simplicity
of the traditional form.



Music Composed by Jes�s Guridi
Played by the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra
With the Conservatory of the Bilbao Choral Society
And Isabel �lvarez (soprano)
Conducted by Juan Jos� Mena

"The Ten Basque Melodies is regarded as Guridi’s masterpiece. It is more than an agreeable
orchestral setting of folk tunes, but could be heard as a ten movement suite or symphony, sometimes
reminiscent of Rodrigo in its eastern Iberian gaiety and lyrical tenderness. In other ways
it sounds like one of the Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances Suites, with the brief movements,
the characteristic modal texture of the tunes which brings a feeling of nostalgia, and the
brilliant orchestration. At moments we hear the same sense of oppressed nationalist feeling
that is found in Smetana and early Sibelius.

Guridi was choirmaster of the Choral Society before he was appointed organ teacher at the Madrid
Conservatory, noted for his skill in improvisation. Later he became director of the Conservatory and
was always very interested in classical themes and structures and did not limit himself to Basque cultural
sources or sounds. In a Phoenician Boat is based on the story of Telemachus, son of Odysseus. Here
we have again the typical brilliant orchestration, intricate counterpoint, martial fanfares and rhythms
and classical dramatic structure, although the opening passages are more reminiscent of Rachmaninov’s
Isle of the Dead.

What the Boys Are Singing is something of a chamber opera for children’s chorus, a brief scene where
the children pause in their games to sing about a playmate who died, but then they resume their
joyful playing. Besides the influences mentioned above we hear a little Bizet here and there. The notes
contain the text and translation only of this work, but texts are not included for any of the other
works in any language.

Don Quixote’s Adventure is a tone poem with a vivid sense of program although no scenario is given,
and was written at a time when Guridi was composing opera. The sound is again somewhere between
Smetana and Respighi, with a strong sense of operatic stage drama. One can almost see singing
characters moving on stage, and one of the big themes is the inversion of the Hussite hymn from
Smetana’s Blan�k.

The Cock Sings in the Morning is a wistful, lyrical soprano song accompanied by quiet strings and winds,
with no attempt at musical depiction of chickens. With no text, I had no clue as to what the
cock had on his mind.

I live in an area with a significant Basque minority, and I am surprised not to see any use of the
Basque language in this release with its appeal to Basque cultural identity."
Music Web



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No.179

Well, technically, Anton Garcia Abril's Monsignor Quixote (1984) is a television score. I'm saying "technically",
because the composer extensively reworked his score into an independent light orchestral suite a short while later.
Abril, one of the most successful "traditionalist" contemporary Spanish composers, wrote quite a number of film scores,
especially for domestically made horror films in the 1970s. Later, he almost exclusively composed for the concert hall.
The Monsignor Quixote Suite, for guitar and small orchestra,again looks back to Rodrigo as a stylistic role model.
The eleven individual short movements, the last being a reprise of the first, are entirely lovely, colorful and lyrical.
Although based on a Graham Greene novel that transposes the Quixote story to 20th century Spain, the character
of the original novel, as well as the colorful characters, show through in Abril's music.

I previously posted this music in the film music section in a separate thread, but that upload is no longer available.



Music Composed and Conducted by Anton Garcia Abril
Played by the English Chamber Orchestra
With Colin Downs (guitar)

"Ant�n Garc�a Abril was born in Teruel on 19 May in 1933. Between 1952 and 1955, he studied at the
Madrid Royal Conservatory of Music under Julio Gmez and Francisco Cales, and at the Accademia Chigiana
in Siena under Vito Frazzi (composition), Paul van Kempen (orchestral conducting) and Angelo Francesco
Lavagnino (film music). In 1964, he furthered his studies at the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome
under Goffredo Petrassi, on a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. In the following
year he won the Tormo de Plata Prize on the occasion of the IV Cuenca religious Music Week for Cantico
delle creature. With Luis de Pablo and Cristbal Halffter, he also represented Spain at the 39th International
Festival held by the International Contemporary Music Society (SIMC) in Madrid. He became lecturer in
Musical Composition and Form at the Madrid Royal Conservatory Music in 1974. Five years later his Hispavox
recording of Concierto aguediano granted him the Ministry of Culture Prize and in 1981 the Ministry of
Cultures Andr�s Segovia Composition Prize for Evocaciones and Cross of San Jorge (St. George)
awarded by the Teruel Provincial Authority.

In 1982 he became an elected member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid and
in 1985 he took the Tom�s Bret�n medal from the Association of Spanish Authors and Artists. Following an
international symposium held to discuss the figure of Valle-Incl�n in 1986, Abril was commissioned by the
National Institute of Dramatic Arts and Music (INAEM) to write an opera based on Divinas palabras, to be
pr�miered at the Teatro Real in Madrid after completion of its reconversion into an opera house. Between
1988 and 1989, he participated in the International Contemporary Music Festival, Festival of Peace, held in
Leningrad, the Ministry of Culture Board of Cultural Affairs and in the Hispano-Soviet Festival held in Georgia.
In 1993 he was awarded the Aragon Regional Authority Medal for Cultural Merit, the National Music Prize
and the Guerrero Foundation Spanish Music Prize."




On the set of "Monsignor Quixote", with Graham Greene (center)

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---------- Post added at 03:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:34 PM ----------




No.180

The most famous of all "musical illustrations" of Cervantes's novel completes our short survey:
Don Quixote is a composition by Richard Strauss for cello, viola and large orchestra.
Subtitled Phantastische Variationen �ber ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters (Fantastic Variations
on a Theme of Knightly Character), it was composed in Munich in 1897. The premiere took place in
Cologne on 8 March 1898, with Friedrich Gr�tzmacher as the cello soloist and Franz W�llner as the
conductor.

The score is 45 minutes long and is written in theme and variations form, with the solo cello representing
Don Quixote, and the solo viola, tenor tuba, and bass clarinet depicting the comic Sancho Panza. The
second variation depicts an episode where Don Quixote encounters a herd of sheep and perceives them
as an approaching army. Strauss uses dissonant flutter-tonguing in the brass to emulate the bleating of
the sheep, an early instance of this extended technique. Strauss later quoted this passage in his music
for Le bourgeois gentilhomme, at the moment a servant announces the dish of "leg of mutton in the
Italian style". All the "episodes" are taken directly from the novel.

Also included is Strauss's equally famous, but more compact tone poem Don Juan, one of the
composer's most admired, and most imitated (listen to the Max Steiner score!) symphonic works.
It emphasizes the lyrical and romantic aspect of the title character.



Music Composed by Richard Strauss
Played by the Wiener Philharmoniker
with Franz Bartolomey (cello)
Conducted by Andr� Previn

"Successful as pianist, composer, and especially as conductor, Andr� Previn has frequently
bridged the gap between popular and so-called "serious" music, and in doing so broadened the
horizons of both. His father was an accomplished pianist (though a lawyer by profession) and
determined that his son would follow in his musical footsteps. The talented young Andr� received
instruction on the piano at the Berlin Hochschule, and also absorbed music in a less formal
environment during the many private recitals given in the Previn home. In the mid-1930s the Jewish
family fled to France where Andr� continued as a scholarship student at the Paris Conservatoire.
In 1939, the Previn family relocated to southern California.

Life was difficult for the family (all their possessions had been left behind in Europe, and Previn's father
was qualified only in German law), and though barely ten years old, Andr� supplemented the family income
by accompanying films at movie houses and playing in jazz clubs. At 14 he started working at MGM (Charles
Previn, Andr�'s great uncle, was head of music at Universal Studios), orchestrating and arranging film music,
and slowly saved enough money to study composition with Castelnuovo-Tedesco. At 18 Andr� was asked to
compose his own full-length film score (The Sun Comes Up, 1949), which resulted in his first experience on
the podium in front of a real orchestra -- Previn quickly realized that his future lay in conducting, though he
understood the gulf between film music and serious conducting to be a wide one indeed.

Previn, who had taken U.S. citizenship in 1943, serving in San Francisco during the Korean War, where he had
the opportunity to study conducting with Pierre Monteux. Following discharge from the army, Previn left MGM,
but continued to compose, conduct, and arrange film music throughout the 1950s. He also recorded and
released a series of best-selling jazz albums (something he would continue to do sporadically throughout the decades).

In 1963, having won four Academy Awards in as many years, Previn found the courage to abandon Hollywood and
pursue his dream of becoming a respected conductor. His professional debut occurred that same year with the
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and he spent the next several years traveling around the country conducting
various little-known orchestras in an effort to gain exposure and develop his own skill on the podium. His first
big break occurred in 1967 when he was asked to succeed Sir John Barbirolli as music director of the Houston
Symphony. When offered the job of principal conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, Previn left
Houston. During his 11 years with the orchestra (1969-1979) a series of BBC television productions -- entitled
Andr� Previn's Music Hour -- made the LSO (and Previn) a household name around the world. Other conducting
appointments have included the Pittsburgh Symphony, from 1977 to 1985; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in
the 1985 and 1986 seasons; and, from 1987 on, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1993 he was named
conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and he continues to make frequent appearances around
the globe as a guest conductor."
All Music





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Wow , Monsignor Quixote , thanks

I really like Bax, especially "Tintagel". And Respighi has been a favorite ever since I heard "Feste Romane" back in high school (1967). Thanks for these other suggestions. Looking forward to sampling some of them... scott

No.181

English composer Arthur Bliss had a talent for theatrical music, evident in his several ballets and film scores.
These two albums cover his greatest work, A Colour Symphony, as well as two major ballet scores,
Adam Zero and Miracle in the Gorbals, in their entirety, plus several shorter works, including the familiar
15 minute suite from his influential film score Things to Come (1936), the firsth feature film score by a
leading English composer. Stylistically, Bliss's music presents an intriguing mix of Elgar and Stravinsky, with the latter
more prominent in his youthful works (like the Symphony), and the more regressive Elgar idiom of his autumn years.



Music Composed by Sir Arthur Bliss
Played by the English Northern Philharmonia & the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by David Lloyd-Jones and Christopher Lyndon-Gee

"After World War I, Bliss developed an interest in ballet, after seeing the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev in London.
Bliss composed Adam Zero for the Sadler's Wells Ballet, in collaboration with Michael Benthall[1] and Robert Helpmann
with whom he had seen success with Miracle in the Gorbals.

The ballet is an allegory of the cycle of man’s life; the world in which he lives is represented by a stage on which a
ballet is being created: Adam is cast as the principal dancer, Omnipotence is represented by the Stage Director
and Adam’s Fates by the Designer, Wardrobe Mistress and Dresser.

Adam falls in love, marries and achieves power. But his triumph is brief; his world crumbles about him, he is
stripped of his glory, and a new generation (Understudy) takes his place. He seeks distraction in dissipation
but everyone deserts him and he is left alone to face Death.

Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) is a one-act ballet choreographed by Robert Helpmann to a story by Michael Benthall,
with music by Arthur Bliss. The setting is the 1940s slums in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. It became a staple of
the Royal Ballet, performed each season from 1944 to 1950 and receiving a revival in 1958.

The idea for the scenario for Miracle in the Gorbals came to Michael Benthall while he was working on a gun site in
Glasgow. He worked on a detailed story and the characters, discussing the action with dancer and choreographer
Robert Helpmann. The next collaborator to be identified was the designer, Edward Burra. The composer Arthur Bliss
set to work on the score, with scenario and initial designs before him.[2] The Royal Ballet performed the ballet every
season from 1944 to 1950 and revived it in 1958,[3] but it did not perform it in Glasgow itself when touring
Scotland in 1945. They also performed the ballet in Paris.

Bliss wrote the music in 1943 after his return from the United States. He created a concert suite from the ballet
music, choosing seven of the fifteen numbers in the ballet, as well as the overture (The Street, The Girl Suicide,
The Young Lovers, The Stranger, Dance of Deliverance, Intermezzo, Finale: The Killing of the Stranger).

The front cloth shows a rainswept ship in a dry dock with vast cranes in the background. The first scene in the
slum is set in the afternoon, with a pub 'The Shamrock' on the left and on the right a fish and chip shop 'Mac's';
tenements crowd in on either side. Urchins are playing, but they run off when scolded by a minister. Evening
approaches, and the prostitute comes out, and young men follow her around. The official and the prostitute
meet; he turns away and she goes into a doorway with a young man. A girl enters, but goes off after seeing
a group of drunks. Two lovers come on and dance; the prostitute emerges and tries to entice the man, but
the re-appearance of the official foils her.

An old beggar and some children pass news around a gathering crowd; the official faces the audience. Two
men carry in the body of the suicide. The official crosses her hands and crowd feel the certainty of her death.
A stranger enters, the crowd parts and he is left with the suicide's body. After he bends over the body, the girl
rises, and she slowly warms to rebirth and starts dancing. The stranger is acclaimed, but the official is disturbed,
resentful of his loss of authority. The stranger blesses the crowd, and he leaves the scene with the revived girl.

The official sends a child to spy on the stranger, when the prostitute walks by. The official follows her up some
stairs as she glories in her success. The people return to the street in excitement at the miracle. The official
comes back down the stairs, and the two lovers say good-night. The urchin brings news back to the official,
and the stranger is sent to the prostitute's room on a supposed mercy errand. The official poisons the
thoughts of the people, predicting that the stranger will emerge from the prostitute's room. Although initially
stirred, the crowd are silent when the stranger re-emerges; only the beggar is aware of the plot and retreats
to a doorway. After the stranger has left, the prostitute appears in a more lyrical frame of mind, as if having
visions. The official next summons a gang of thugs, who loiter in dark alleys. As the stranger comes back,
he offers no resistance; they jostle him, slash him with knives and kick him to the ground, where the silence
is broken by the sound of a distant ship siren. The official realises the horror of what he has done. The beggar
goes to help the stranger, and he is joined by the prostitute and the suicide, before the two women leave
the beggar alone with the stranger."
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No.182

Since the first upload of two albums of "British Light Music" went down so well, here's another album,
this one by the king of light music, Eric Coates.

Coates was perhaps the most important composer of symphonic light music in the first half of the
twentieth century outside the Viennese sphere. He took the music genre and made it into as bona fide
and influential an art form as that created by any member of the Strauss family. He is often regarded
as the Mozart of a music world whose generally light emotional expression is colored by splashy
orchestration and perky rhythms. Yet, his music featured an elegance and aristocratic air and could
capture moods and, in stage works, story lines with deftly vivid imagery. The London Again Suite,
The Three Men Suite, Cinderella Fantasy, Summer Days Suite etc. are all entirely
characteristic of his style.



Music Composed by Eric Coates
Played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by John Wilson

"The name of Eric Coates has been synonymous with English light music for decades. These works have retained their
popularity worldwide over the years largely because of recordings like this and the Marco Polo British light music series.
Coates is primarily known for his London Suite (unfortunately not recorded here), but the London Again Suite is structurally
similar and may even be better. The second movement Elegie is absolutely gorgeous with its tolling bells, gongs, and organ-
like sonorities. The Selfish Giant reveals a remarkable and not-too-subtle thematic resemblance to a theme from Erich
Wolfgang Korngold's score for The Sea Hawk, composed several years later. Needless to say this fantasy has an
enchanting, wistful, and very civilized charm. There is even a brief moment of drama at the stroke of midnight in
the Cinderella fantasy.

And so it goes with this collection of delectable works. Recordings of Coates?s music have periodically surfaced over
the years, and most of them are quite good. If a conductor is interested enough to record it, the results are usually fine.
John Wilson and the orchestra take the music seriously, but always maintain a quicksilver light touch and never over inflate it.
The sound is excellent in every way. The orchestra is recorded in a natural concert hall setting with a realistic sense of depth
and none of the artificial instrumental spotlighting that you often hear in crossover collections and film scores. If you like
these charming miniatures and need a new recording, you certainly won?t go wrong here."
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No.183

Alberto Williams was born in Buenos Aires, in 1862. A maternal grandfather, Amancio Jacinto Alcorta, had been a
respected government and banking policy-maker, as well as a well-known composer of sacred music. Williams began
attending a local music school in early childhood and, at age 7, he performed in his first public concert. He received a
scholarship from the Argentine government in 1882 to study music composition at the Paris Conservatoire, where he
was mentored by pianist Georges Mathias and composer C�sar Franck.

The two substantial works on this album belong to the final period of creativity in Williams's life. Both appear to
be programmatic, but the "Eternal Repose" in the Seventh Symphony (1937) is more elusive than the four
concrete tone pictures that form the Poem of the Iguaz� Falls (1943). In the latter work, folkloristic Argentinian
elements are more prominent, though, on the whole, Williams's music harks back to the European tradition, more so
than that of his younger compatriot, Heitor Villa-Lobos.



Music Composed by Alberto Williams
Played by the Orquesta Filarm�nica de Gran Canaria
Conducted by Adrian Leaper

"These are world premiere recordings of works by a composer whose name I knew of but whose music was, until
now, a complete unknown. Williams was known to me from a reference in a battered copy of Slonimsky’s 1940s
book on South American composers.

The notes for this valuable CD are rather sketchy but they do provide some detail. They point out that Williams,
a native of Buenos Aires, wrote music falling into three phases: 1862-1890 reflecting the strong influence of
European models; 1890-1910: an approach to more nationalistic language. 1910-1952 back to more cosmopolitan
models. The works on this disc fall into the last period and are provocative for their musical language in a time of
world conflict. Perhaps some of that sorrow and tragedy appears in the flanking outer movements of the symphony.

The Seventh Symphony, like its disc-mate, is in four movements. The middle two are dance-lead, betraying
the influence of the ballet. The outer movements are more apocalyptic. The first is clearly striving for great
things. The language has something of Scriabin and even more of Miaskovsky. Its quietly chanting music in
La Piramide seems to suggest an enigmatic smile. The next is a fantasy dance movement making quite a
relaxation after the first. The spirit is of a grand age ball in a sophisticated Edwardian hotel. At 3:50 comes
a clearly delineated rhythmic theme of Baxian (Symphony No. 5) accent. By contrast, next follows a solo
violin serenade in which concert master Anatoli Romanov takes up the chattering Baxian theme and spins
it into a counterpart of Vaughan Williams’ Concerto Academico. The breezily vigorous Joueuses De Crotales
(a crotal is a rattle or small spherical bell) is in much the same spirit as the second movement. The finale
ives the symphony its title. Whether Williams had eternity in mind I do not know. It has some of the
enigmatic dreaminess of the first movement. Chant-like, the theme conjures up the image of some
great pagan cathedral. The mood is not too far away from Janis Ivanovs’ impressionistic Atlantis
symphony no. 4. It is also the longest movement at 13:27. This music tells tales of a world where
cold saps the warmth. The spell of these notes testifies to a composer of concentrated inwardness,
of mood and of imagination. This concentration is interrupted at 8:33 by a disruptive brass intervention
which impacts like a comet-strike on this chaste but vaguely threatening world. Then a gust of wind
blows the curtains followed by another militaristic miniature fanfare at 9:35. A stern resolute theme
emerges with a remorselessly marching tread. The symphony ends in jubilant uproar. Some of these
mood-shifts are unnervingly jarring but the moods themselves are quite captivating.

The Poema del Iguazu is a picture-suite of the river Iguazu. The first movement is Las selvas dialogan
con las cataratas (The forest converses with the waterfalls). The movement is low key; rather
light-spirited with snatches of Beethoven, D’Indy and Tchaikovsky. It is propelled along by a patterned
rhythmic theme of cheery Brahmsian/Straussian character. The regally flowing Barcarola sounds
decidedly French. It offers a superb long-breathed tune. Here the strings sound less than luxuriant but,
my, what a lovely theme. Next comes La Luna Ilumina Las Cascadas - a Nocturno. This has an
impressionistic magical feeling paralleling the enigmatics of the first and last movements of the symphony.
The shades and colours are very gentle - pastel darks and shades. I wonder if his apparently famous
Rancho Abandonado sounds like this. The finale depicts a great waterfall (The Devils Throat) with
vigorous panache. The mood is hunting and chivalric (like an Argentinian Froissart) with a full bow
in the direction of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4."
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No.184

Elliott Schwartz was born in 1936 in New York City and studied composition with Otto Luening and
Jack Beeson at Columbia University. He is the Robert K. Beckwith Professor of Music at Bowdoin College,
where he has taught since 1964, including twelve years as department chair.

This CD brings together five substantial pieces, three of which have been written within the space of four
years. The title piece, Voyager, was completed in 2002 and, as is implied, is associated with journeys -
- to the Netherlands, England, Japan and Iceland. In his characteristic way, Schwartz incorporates fragments
of older music on his travels -- traditional melodies, and brief quotations from pieces by composers from
those countries as far distant in time as Sweelinck and Josquin, to closer giants like Vaughan Williams,
whose symphonies were the subject of his 1964 book (published by Amherst). From its stirring opening,
Voyager glides over musical territories, rising and falling as if airborne, an impressive piece of
orchestral writing.

Mehitabel's Serenade (2001) is a concertante work for alto saxophone and orchestra (the agile
soloist is Kenneth Radnofsky for whom the piece was written) and this is another work that travels
through many moods with again one of the Schwartz trademarks -- the climactic build.

The short piece Jack O'Lantern was written in 2000 for the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra to
celebrate Halloween, and is representative of the Schwartz wit, starting and ending in darkness to leave
Jack grinning across the rear stage wall.

There are two slightly older pieces: Celebrations/Reflections: A Time Warp for orchestra, written
in 1985 to celebrate his own 50th birthday and 25th wedding anniversary, again uses fragments of past
pieces as well as a Victorian parlour song; and Timepiece 1794 for chamber orchestra, a suite of
three pieces written in 1994 to celebrate Bowdoin College's bicentennial and using fragments from
music of 200 years ago in a collage of wit and ingenuity.

Schwartz's music is obviously modern in technique, but it communicates very well (unlike oh-so-much
contemporary music) and is thus accessisble.



Music Composed by Elliott Schwartz
Played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra of Bratislava & Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Toshiyuki Shimada & Szymon Kawalla

"This is a most attractive disc. Unlike much modern music, in which one is made uncomfortably aware of
the compositional mechanisms involved, Schwartz has an unusual ability to write accessible, tonal music
while deriving his materials sometimes mathematically or through the use of serial techniques...
[The results]... are integrated into works of such delightful richness of texture amd harmonic invention
that one is not really aware of this at all, hearing instead warmly Romantic music with direct appeal to
the senses and emotions... One comes away from the whole with the impression of serious and expertly
written works by a composer who doesn't take himself too seriously, (and) who has a light, humorous
touch alongside his seriousness of purpose...."
International Record Guide



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Thanks for the British Light music, wimpel!
They make the perfect scenario for the weekend!

No.185

A tragic prelude to the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War brought hundreds of thousands of personal
tragedies, many of which touched the Spanish cultural world. The execution of the poet Federico Garc�a Lorca
is well known, but among the victims of the conflict was a promising young composer called Antonio Jos�
Mart�nez Palacios, known in musical circles simply as Antonio Jos�.

Mart�nez Palacios was born on 12th December 1902 in Burgos, then a small city far removed from the
cultural concerns of Madrid or Barcelona. Despite this, the young musician made a name for himself and before
he was twenty was awarded a grant to continue his studies in Madrid.

The Sinfon�a castellana gives us many clues to an understanding of the work of Antonio Jos�: borrowings
from folk-music, elegant orchestration, a taste for colour and elements taken from French impressionism.
Antonio Jos�’s opera El mozo de mulas, based on an episode from Don Quixote (Part One, ch. XLIII),
remained unfinished at his death. Begun in his M�laga years, the vocal/piano score was complete, but the opera
was only partially orchestrated, a task completed by Alejandro Yag�e in 1992. In 1934, however, the
composer had presented the Preludio y Danza popular (Prelude and Folk-Dance), two extracts from the opera
signalling his return to orchestral writing. They were first performed that same year in Madrid.

Evocaciones, a piece clearly rooted in folk-music, dates from 1928. Its principal theme is that of a song
from Burgos, Juan se llama mi amante (My lover’s name is John), from the Olmeda anthology. It first
appears as if from a great distance, then gradually builds up its presence, with a slow dance tune, until the climax,
underpinned by the percussion.



Music Composed by Antonio Jos�
Played by the Castile and Le�n Symphony Orchestra
With Alberto Rosado (piano)
Conducted by Alejandro Posada

"Sadly, this disc apparently contains just about all of the orchestral music that Antonio Jos� wrote.
His full name was Antonio Jos� Mart�nez Palacios, and he was executed in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War,
just 34 years old. He clearly was a talent to be reckoned with. Sinfonia castellana is gorgeous: a rich
amalgam of folk music, impressionistic harmony, and Falla's soulfulness in four ingratiating movements. Its
style is similar in character to Debussy's Nocturnes or Images for Orchestra, or perhaps Falla's Nights in the
Gardens of Spain, and if you love that music (and what sane person doesn't?), you'll have to own
this disc as well.

The other works all share this same basic vocabulary and so don't need to be described in detail.
Evocaciones, whose subtitle "Sketches of country dancing" certainly speaks for itself, is especially lovely.
At the time of his death Jos� was working on an opera, El mozo de mulas, which he completed in piano
score, orchestrating the two numbers included here. The March of the lead soldiers is a piano piece scored
in 1988 by Alegjandro Yag�e, while the Suite ingenua, for piano and strings, is a charming miniature in
three movements. The performances are all excellent. Alberto Rosado's piano sounds a touch tinny in the
Suite ingenua, but conductor Alejandro Posada makes a very persuasive case for the composer's creative
talent and is clearly inside the idiom. Vivid sonics illuminate Jos�'s real gift for evocative scoring. An
unusually beautiful disc."
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---------- Post added at 01:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 PM ----------




No.186

Philip Sainton was born into a successful musical family: his grandfather was the famous
French violinist Philippe Prosper Sainton who married Helen Dolby, the English contralto for
whom Mendelssohn wrote the contralto solo in Elijah. Sainton confined his creative output almost
exclusively to a series of short orchestral works and a number of songs. In 1956,
however, he completed an elaborate score for John Huston’s film Moby Dick. Today it comes
as a surprise to discover that his music was once widely played by orchestras such as the
HaII� Orchestra, BBC orchestras, Queen’s Hall Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra and
New York Philharmonic.

The tone poem The Island was dedicated to ‘my very good friend, Ernest Hall’ (the trumpet
player) and first performed in 1942 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a studio broadcast. Although
his favourite modern composer was Ravel, the overt influences on The Island are
Delius (Song of the High Hills) throughout, and in the powerful central development section
the Korngold of Die tote Stadt and especially the Suk of Ripening. The last two influences
are suppositions based on the music itself; research has yet to show how well Sainton
knew these works. The orchestration is rich and translucent, a lot like Bax. The opening
fanfare is hauntingly reminiscent of the Moby Dick main theme music.

Patrick Hadley was born in Cambridge where his father was Master of Pembroke College.
After studying at Winchester and Pembroke, he saw active service in France where injuries
sustained in 1918 necessitated the amputation of a leg below the knee. Whatever
the emotional scars Hadley retained, he never accepted any physical limitations. After the war he
studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music.

The melodic framework for Hadley’s Symphonic Ballad in A minor The Trees So High, is built on a
folksong from Somerset, which forms the basis of the four linked movements. All the thematic
material is derived from elements of the main melody. Hadley likened his technique in this
work to ‘three independent brooks which flow into one stream at the beginning of the finale’.
The melodic framework for Hadley’s earliest work on these two CDs, the Symphonic Ballad
in A minor The Trees So High, is built on a folksong from Somerset, which forms the basis
of the four linked movements. All the thematic material is derived from elements of the main
melody. Hadley likened his technique in this work to ‘three independent brooks which flow
into one stream at the beginning of the finale’.



Music Composed by Philip Sainton and Patrick Hadley
Played by The Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus
With David Wilson-Johnson (baritone)
Conducted by Matthias Bamert

"The two composers represented share a fine feeling for the orchestra. Sainton is more of a dramatist
and a poet of atmosphere. He is quite Baxian and The Island is a classic tone poem. The sea is a strong
presence, subtle in poetry but unmistakable in allusion. Green depths and the surge and swell of the main
are clearly conveyed. A Tintagel-like pulse can be heard at 4.34. The trumpet sings out strongly above
the orchestra, heroic and determined. This is a fine work - I have always thought so since encountering
it in an outstanding performance conducted by Charles Groves in a 1951 BBC broadcast.

Patrick Hadley was a scion of the Royal College of Music rather than the Sainton's Royal Academy. Hadley
had a gentle and pellucid orchestrational hand. When combined with the pastoral tradition, as here, his
music can be powerful indeed. As a symphonic ballad the work seems caught between symphonic gravity
and the piercing emotionalism of song. The work has been written of as ‘problematic’. I do not see the
problem. It is a work of Ravelian clarity, with the power to vibrate the heart strings, to draw tears. As Lewis
Foreman says, it has the grip of a piece written from internal compulsion rather than conscious contrivance.
Mr Foreman links it with Hadley’s experience of the Great War, a war which brought about amputation of a
leg below the knee. The same war also killed Hadley’s brother - a parallel here with Arthur Bliss whose
own brother Kennard was killed in the trenches and with Eugene Goossens whose brother Adolf was also
killed. Can anyone resist the gentle Delian flute song at 3.00. It is superbly nurtured and caressed through
to the solo violin at 3.25 in tr. 4. These earlier movements (trs 2-3) touch on another Haldey composition,
the deeply moving Scene from ‘The Woodlanders’. Hardy's power is certainly a presence here. The heaving
tortured climax at 1.33 in the penultimate track has a bombshell power that recalls the rousing eruptive
brass ‘shout’ in Shostakovich 15. The piercing shriek of the strings thrusts the message home with a power
that transcends gentle and soft-edged landscapes."
Music Web



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I heve been looking for it for a long time!
This will be a sleepless weekend!...:-)

No.187

Although George Chadwick began the Symphonic Sketches in 1895, the work was not completed
until 1904. Comprising four movements entitled ‘Jubilee’, ‘No�l’, ‘Hobgoblin’ and ‘A Vagrom Ballad’ respectively, it is,
in effect, the composer’s Fourth Symphony, although it departs from his earlier three symphonies in a number of
important ways, e.g. because of their somewhat programmatic content. Chadwick attempted to evoke moods
which reflect the lines of poetry that preface each movement.

Chadwick was finishing his studies with Josef Rheinberger in Munich when the Harvard
Musical Association, far back home, performed his Rip Van Winkle in December 1879. A
review appeared in the Musical Record, proclaiming the new overture ‘a treat… The
work is quite melodious, and is remarkable for its rich and full instrumentation. It achieved a
great success for its composer, who gives promise of a brilliant future.’ The review
continues, ‘While we accord the full credit to the Association for its recognition of this
composer’s ability, we wonder if this work would have been given by them if it had not
previously received the stamp of approval of Leipsic.’ Perhaps not, but the story behind the
piece, if not the music itself, is thoroughly American.

Two years after Chadwick returned to Boston, he began a series of overtures named
after the Muses, which he developed over the next two decades. Thalia, celebrating the Muse
of comedy, was the first, and it delighted the critics. Melpomene, representing the Muse of
tragedy, and first performed in 1887, departed from the American strain that had
marked some of Chadwick’s other recent works. The harmonies are chromatic, and there
is an unambiguous reference to the ‘Tristan’ chord near the beginning.

If Chadwick eschewed musical storytelling in his three overtures dedicated to the Muses
(Euterpe, in 1903, completed the set) he embraced it in his symphonic ballad
Tam O’Shanter. According to Chadwick’s biographer Victor Fell Yellin, Tam is best
understood as a ‘cultural statement’ as well as the most detailed tone poem the composer
ever wrote. ‘It was a reaffirmation of an ethnicity based on and supporting common
American–British values during a period of chaotic change in the United States,’ he writes.
‘The piece represents not only the work of the most identifiably American composer to date,
but also an English-speaking tradition that transcendes geographical boundaries.’



Music Composed by George W. Chadwick
Played by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Neeme J�rvi

"This collection gathers Neeme J�rvi’s previously released George Chadwick recordings on
one disc. Though Chadwick aimed to distinguish himself as a uniquely American composer, his
symphonic poems nonetheless reflect the influence of similar works by then-prominent Europeans.
Melpomene, for instance, owes much to Tchaikovsky in its dramatic sweep and emotionally intense
melodies, while Dvor�k’s nature-painting style can be discerned in Rip Van Winkle, and even more
so in the joyously frenzied Jubilee from the Symphonic Sketches, which replicates the Czech
composer’s Carnival overture. However, Chadwick moves away from continental influences in
Tam O’Shanter, which is steeped in the folk coloring of its Scottish subject.

Nevertheless, Chadwick’s skillfully constructed and handsomely orchestrated music is all his own,
and it exudes a vitality that’s quite affecting. J�rvi offers compelling interpretations and gets the
Detroit Symphony players to muster more enthusiasm and panache than they display on some of
their standard-repertoire recordings. Chandos presents it all in spacious, clear, and nicely reverberant
sound. If you’re new to Chadwick’s music, be prepared for a treat."
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No.188

An entertaining collection of French works for small orchestra, from Maurice Ravel's
Le Tombeau de Couperin over Claude Debussy's Danses sacr�e et profanes,
Gabriel Faure's playful Dolly Suite to Jacques Ibert's spunky Divertissement.



Music by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faur� & Jacques Ibert
Played by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

"Rivaled only by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Neville Marriner was one of the most important of the early
figures who spearheaded the reawakening of modern interest in Baroque and early Classical music.
In the 1950s, he founded Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the first British early music ensemble to
find a large international audience. Marriner has since become one of the most popular conductors in
the world, acclaimed for his interpretations of composers from Bach to Britten.

Marriner was first taught the violin as a child, by his father, and attended the Royal College of Music,
beginning at age thirteen. Wounded during World War II, he met future collaborator Thurston Dart
during his hospitalization. In 1948 he became professor at the Royal Academy of Music. As well as
joining the Martin String Quartet as second violin, he formed a violin-and-harpsichord duet with Dart,
and their performances led to the formation of the Jacobean Ensemble, an early music group that
recorded the Purcell trio sonatas in 1950. Around this time, he began studying conducting with Pierre
Monteux at Monteux's school in Maine. Marriner's reputation in general music circles also grew; in
1956 he was appointed principal second violin with the London Symphony Orchestra.

A turning point came in 1959, when Marriner was asked to supply music for the church of St.
Martin-in-the-Fields, in London's Trafalgar Square. Marriner formed a chamber orchestra which he
named the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The group's work attracted the attention of the Decca
imprint L'Oiseau Lyre, which recorded its performance of Couperin's Les Nations. Favorable reviews and
unexpectedly robust sales of this recording led to more recordings for L'Oiseau Lyre and its sister
label Argo, and by the end of the 1970s the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields had become the
best-selling chamber orchestra in recorded music's history. The group expanded from 13 players to
twenty or more, and performed Classical symphonic works and twentieth century British music as
well as Baroque material. The sound of Marriner's Academy recordings is crisp, with an extremely bright
sound, using period performance standards with modern instruments. Marriner's name remains closely
associated with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the group now has more than 300
recordings to its credit. These include the soundtrack for the 1984 film Amadeus, for which Marriner
selected, arranged, and directed works of Salieri and Pergolesi, in addition to Mozart.

In 1969 Marriner he organized the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and he later took this orchestra
on a tour of Europe. Additionally, he served as a guest conductor with leading U.S. orchestras, and
in England held an appointment as conductor of the Northern Sinfonia, based in Newcastle. In the
late 1970s and early 1980s, he spent most of his time in the U.S., primarily as music director and
conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. After being knighted in 1985, Marriner went back to Europe,
conducting of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1986-1989. Since then, he has
conducted around the world, including at the Op�ra de Lyon, and continues to record.

His conducting is known for its vitality and brightness, as well as precise ensemble technique, a
reflection of his violinist days. In a 1991 interview he said of his style: "I was never a potentate
swinging a scepter, but was always in a dialogue with my musicians."
Marriner bio






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The Faur� and Ibert are simply delightful!
Thanks a lot!

No.189

Gordon Getty is a neo-romantic contemporary American composer. And yes, as the name implies,
he's a member of the obnoxiously welathy Getty clan, so he does not have to compose music for a living.
However, he should also not be mistaken for a "hobby" or amateur composer. Nothing about his music
is amateurish. In fact, the two symphonic suites (Homework- and Ancestor Suite), as well as
Raise the Colors, The Fiddler, the Overture Plump Jack, and Tiefer und Tiefer,
are colorful, entertaining and appealingly scored. While Getty is best known for his inspired vocal works,
he proves himself to be a versatile and resourceful orchestral composer with this album.



Music Composed by Gordon Getty
Played by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

"Gordon Getty, who describes himself as “two-thirds a 19th-century composer,” is nevertheless a creative and
original one and, as this CD proves, the other one-third makes its presence felt often enough to provide
interest and flexibility.

The CD opens with the overture to his opera Plump Jack, based on Shakespeare’s Falstaff, and it succinctly
summarizes the fat knight’s journey from fellow mischief-maker of Prince Hal to his being banished by Hal
when the latter becomes King Henry V. As such, it does its job very well and thus can stand on its own as a
concert piece sans opera. If I have one reservation about it, in fact, it is that it seems to me to work better
as a tone poem than an overture. It goes through several tempo and key changes in its journey, shifting
its moods and story with interest and a rich palette of orchestral colors.

Ancestor Suite is a ballet loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, premiered in
Moscow in 2009. Here, Getty’s music is not so resolutely tonal, but rather points up the macabre aspects of
Poe’s story with relish. Divided into 11 sections, the suite focuses, appropriately, on dances (waltzes, a
Schottische, polka, gavotte, and march), but always with eerie overtones. In the opening waltz, for instance,
one hears a fragmenting of both the melody and its orchestration in a way that harkens back to Stravinsky’s
neoclassic period as well as Copland. The “Waltz of the Ancestors” has a sort of clumsy, galumphing
quality reminiscent of the “Dance of the Knights” in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. The Schottische dances
its way through ambiguous tonality (also like Prokofiev) while the Waltz-L�ndler has a fragmented, almost
uncertain quality to it. The theme representing Madeline Usher, the mad but pure member of the family,
has a tender but skewered quality to it, not unlike portions of Copland’s Rodeo. Getty’s music always seems
to be on the verge of a tune, but his restless and quite original sense of imagination keeps such tunes
from developing and thus running the risk of becoming cloying. Getty’s music is very “open,” both in
form and orchestration, which creates a moment-to-moment fascination, and even in this ballet score,
a wry sense of humor.

Tiefer und Tiefer (Deeper and Deeper), given here in Getty’s arrangement for string orchestra, is
also used in his Three Waltzes for Piano and Orchestra. Melodically, it is quite simple; harmonically, it is
quite discursive, composed of six-bar segments that shift tonality at or within almost every phrase. Homework
is an orchestrated version of one of his earliest piano pieces, written in 1964 while he was still a student.
One can hear quite clearly here his musical debts to Copland and Thomson, and if the music is less developed
than his later works it certainly has charm in abundance. The Fiddler of Ballykeel and Raise the Colors are
exuberant, outgoing, celebratory works in regular rhythms and full orchestral colors, a fitting conclusion
to this CD.

The performances by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields display this orchestra’s
metamorphosis from its chamber roots in the 1960s to its more robust sound today. PentaTone’s sound,
undeniably resonant as a result of SACD mastering, is nevertheless clear and transparent at all times."
Fanfare





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Thanks!

Thank you for your continued gifts. As a longtime fan of British pastoral music, I was particularly happy to finally hear the Butterworth /Coleridge-Taylor /MacCunn album I missed when ARGO released the series. Also thanks for the British Light.

No.190

Joly Braga Santos was born in Lisbon in 1924 and died there in 1988, at the height of his musical creativity.
Although he composed only six symphonies, he was undoubtedly the leading Portuguese symphonist of the
century and, in a way, of all time. Apart from an innate sense for good orchestration, his musical language
is based on a strong sense of musical architecture as well as drama, with long melodic lines and a natural
instinct for structural development as well as formal coherence. In his own words, he wanted to contribute
“toward a Latin symphonism and to react against the predominant tendency, of the generation that
preceded me, to reject monumentalism in music”.

The ballet Alfama justifies a personal note on my part. Having been a very close friend of Joly (as everyone in
Portugal still calls him), I was greatly surprised when, at the end of the ceremony held a year ago on the occasion
of the public deposit of his original manuscript scores at the National Library of Portugal, in Lisbon, I inspected
some of the works on display, and saw a large volume, clearly an orchestral score titled Alfama. It struck me that I
had never heard of a work by Joly named after the Arab neighbourhood surrounding the mediaeval Castle of St
George in the centre of Lisbon, part of which can be seen in the photograph reproduced on the front cover of this
booklet. Unable to open the score and look at the music, on my drive home I called Joly’s wife, Maria Jos�, and
asked her what kind of work it was, when it was written, and what it was like. “Oh”, she said, “forget it. When we
were about to get married, Joly was short of money, so he agreed to write the music for a ballet. He wrote it in haste,
and after a first performance he dismissed it, considering it bad, unworthy to be performed.” While this explained
why I had never heard of the work, Maria Jos�’s answer did not convince me. “Joly was unable to write bad
music!” I told her.
�lvaro Cassuto



Music Composed by Joly Braga Santos
Played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conducted by �lvaro Cassuto

"This is the first Braga Santos disc on Naxos and the first time—on disc—the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra have played it. Unsurprisingly, this is very assured all round with the orchestra sounding
unfussily good. They are caught in healthy sound at the acoustically dependable Henry Wood Hall
Glasgow by the reliable team of producer Andrew Walton and engineer Phil Rowlands.

The first work is the Symphonic Overture No. 3. That is a slightly dry title for an instantly appealing
work which while consisting of original themes clearly breathes Iberian air. As with so much Braga Santos,
there is strong melodic memorability here allied to open and effective scoring. After a slow introduction
the main theme flows with an appealing gallant sweep supported by an insistent side-drum and brass
flourishes. The essential mood is vivacious and joyful although the big climax a minute or so from the
end is impassioned and powerful. There is something faintly cinematic about the music but it sets out
to please and is wholly successful.

The earliest work on the disc comes next and is much more austere and indeed sombre. It is the
Elegy in memory of Vianna da Motta. Jos� Vianna da Motta was one of Liszt’s last piano pupils.
Quite what direct link inspired the Braga Santos composition is not clear but it resulted in an impressive
ten minute eulogy. The central section is a powerful lamenting cortege that builds over muffled drums
to an assertively emotional climax before sinking back to the musing opening—a lovely cor anglais
solo entwined with sonorous violas.

The longest work here receives its world premiere recording. It is a suite assembled by �lvaro Cassuto
from the ballet Alfama. It’s well-crafted, easy on the ear music that does the job required of it.

This disc encapsulates the ability of Naxos to produce discs of considerable technical, artistic and
musical merit of repertoire even knowledgeable collectors have never encountered before.

This is a high quality disc displaying an impressive range of musical styles."
Music Web



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Thanks for the opportunity of getting to know Gordon Getty's music!
An American original!

No.191

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

Daphnis et Chlo� is a ballet with music by Maurice Ravel. Ravel described it as a "symphonie chor�ographique"
(choreographic symphony). The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine from an eponymous romance by the
Greek writer Longus thought to date from around the 2nd century AD. Scott Goddard published a contemporary
commentary that discussed the changes to the story that Fokine made to prepare a workable ballet scenario.
The story concerns the love between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chlo�. The ballet is in one
act and three scenes.

Ravel began work on the score in 1909 after a commission from Sergei Diaghilev. It was premiered at the Th��tre
du Ch�telet in Paris by his Ballets Russes on June 8, 1912. The orchestra was conducted by Pierre Monteux,
the choreography was by Michel Fokine, and Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina danced the parts of
Daphnis and Chloe. L�on Bakst designed the original sets.

At almost an hour long, Daphnis et Chlo� is Ravel's longest work. In spite of the ballet's time length, a small
number of musical leitmotifs gives musical unity to the score.[1] [2] The music, some of the composer's most
passionate, is widely regarded as some of Ravel's best, with extraordinarily lush harmonies typical of the
impressionist movement in music. Even during the composer's lifetime, contemporary commentators described
this ballet as his masterpiece for orchestra.[3] He extracted music from the ballet to make two orchestral
suites, which can be performed with or without the chorus. The second of the suites, which includes much
of the last part of the ballet and concludes with the "Danse generale", is particularly popular. When the
complete work is itself performed live, it is more often in concerts than in staged productions.



Music Composed by Maurice Ravel
Played by the Berliner Philharmoniker
Conducted by Pierre Boulez

"Part I

A meadow at the edge of a sacred wood. In the background, hills. To the right, a grotto, at the entrance of which,
hewn out of the rock, is an antique sculpture of three Nymphs. Somewhat toward the background, to the left,
a large rock vaguely resembles the form of the god Pan. In the background sheep are grazing. A bright spring afternoon.
When the curtain rises, the stage is empty. Introduction and religious dance. Youths and girls enter, carrying gifts for
the Nymphs in baskets. Gradually the stage fills. The group bows before the altar of the Nymphs. The girls drape the
pedestals with garlands. In the far background, Daphnis is seen following his flock. Chloe joins him. They proceed toward
the altar and disappear at a bend. Daphnis and Chloe enter at the foreground and bow before the Nymphs. The dance
ceases. Tender emotion on seeing the couple. The girls entice Daphnis and dance around him. Chloe feels the first
twinges of jealousy. At that moment she is swept into the dance of the youths. The cowherd Dorcon proves to be
especially bold. Daphnis in turn seems upset. General dance. At the end of the dance, Dorcon tries to kiss Chloe.
She innocently offers her cheek. But with an abrupt motion Daphnis pushes aside the cowherd and approaches Chloe
affectionately. The youths intervene. They position themselves in front of Chloe and gently lead Daphnis away. One
of them proposes a dance contest between Daphnis and Dorcon. A kiss from Chloe will be the victor’s prize. Dorcon's
grotesque dance. The group sarcastically imitates the clumsy movements of the cowherd, who ends his dance in
the midst of general laughter. Daphnis's light and graceful dance. Everyone invites Daphnis to accept his reward.
Dorcon comes forward as well, but he is chased off by the group, accompanied by loud laughter. The laughter
ceases at the sight of the radiant group formed by the embracing Daphnis and Chloe. The group withdraws,
taking along Chloe. Daphnis remains, immobile, as if in ecstasy. Then he lies facedown in the grass, his face in
his hands. Lyceion enters. She notices the young shepherd, approaches, and raises his head, placing her hands
over his eyes. Daphnis thinks this is a game of Chloe’s. But he recognizes Lyceion and tries to pull away. Lyceion
dances. As though inadvertently, she drops one of her veils. Daphnis picks it up and places it back on her shoulders.
She ironically resumes her dance, which, at first more languorous, becomes steadily more animated until the end.
Another veil slips to the ground, and is again retrieved by Daphnis. Vexed, she runs off mocking him, leaving the
young shepherd very disturbed. Warlike sounds and war cries are heard, coming nearer. In the middleground,
women run across the stage, pursued by pirates. Daphnis thinks of Chloe, perhaps in danger, and runs off to
save her. Chloe hastens on in panic, seeking shelter. She throws herself before the altar of the Nymphs, beseeching
their protection. A group of brigands burst onstage, see the girls, and carry her off. Daphnis enters looking for Chloe.
He discovers on the ground a sandal that she lost in the struggle. Mad with despair, he curses the deities who were
unable to protect the girl, and falls swooning at the entrance of the grotto. An unnatural light suffuses the landscape.
A little flow shines suddenly from the head of one of the statues. The Nymph comes to life and descends from her
pedestal. The second Nymph. The third Nymph. They consult together and begin a slow and mysterious dance.
They notice Daphnis. They bend down and dry his tears. They revive him and lead him toward the large rock.
They invoke the god Pan. Gradually the form of the god is outlined. Daphnis prostrates himself in supplication.
The stage goes dark.

Part II

Voices are heard from offstage, at first very distant. Distant trumpet calls. The voices come nearer. A dull glimmer.
We are in the pirate camp. Very rugged seacoast. In the background, the sea. To the right and left, a view of large
crags. A trireme is seen near the shore. Cypresses here and there. Pirates are seen running to and fro carrying plunder.
More and more torches are brought, which finally illuminate the scene violently. Bryaxis commands that the captive be
brought. Chloe, her hands tied, is led in by two pirates. Bryaxis orders her to dance. Chloe’s dance of supplication. She
tries to flee. She is brought back violently. Despairing, she resumes her dance. Again she tries to escape. She is again
brought back. She abandons herself to despair, thinking of Daphnis. Bryaxis tries to carry her off. She beseeches.
The leader carries her off triumphantly. Suddenly the atmosphere seems charged with strange elements. In various places,
lit by invisible hands, little flames flare up. Fantastic beings crawl or leap here and there. Satyrs appear from every side
and surround the brigands. The earth opens. The fearsome shadow of Pan is outlined on the hills in the background, making a
threatening gesture. Everyone flees in horror.

Part III

The scene seems to dissolve. It is replaced by the landscape of the first part at the end of the night. No sound but the
murmur of rivulets produced by the dew that trickles from the rocks. Daphnis is still stretched out before the grotto of the
Nymphs. Gradually the day breaks. The songs of birds are heard. Far off, a shepherd passes with his flock. Another shepherd
cross in the background. A group of herdsmen enters looking for Daphnis and Chloe. They discover Daphnis and wake him.
Anxiously he looks around for Chloe. She appears at last, surrounded by shepherdesses. They throw themselves into each
other’s arms. Daphnis notices Chloe’s wreath. His dream was a prophetic vision. The intervention of Pan is manifest. The
old shepherd Lammon explains that, if Pan has saved Chloe, it is in memory of the nymph Syrinx, whom the god once loved.
Daphnis and Chloe mime the tale of Pan and Syrinx. Chloe plays the young nymph wandering in the meadow. Daphnis as
Pan appears and declares his love. The nymph rebuffs him. The god becomes more insistent. She disappears into the reeds.
In despair, he picks several stalks to form a flute and plays a melancholy air. Chloe reappears and interprets in her dance the
accents of the flute. The dance becomes more and more animated and, in a mad whirling, Chloe falls into Daphnis’s arms.
Before the altar of the Nymphs, he pledges his love, offering two sheep. A group of girls enters dressed as bacchantes,
shaking tambourines. Daphnis and Chloe embrace tenderly. A group of youths rushes onstage. Joyful commotion."





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Daphnis & Chloe inspired Goldsmith's score for LEGEND, along with La Valse and Ravel's operetta The Spellbound Child. Daphnis was also used for an Amtrak commercial many years ago. The best version, after years and years of collecting so many, is with Jean Martinon at the podium. A conductor with an uncanny affinity for Ravel and all things French (possibly being French helped a tad).


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There is no single "best" version of any of the standard repertoire pieces - there are just too many different ones.

I own the Martinon too (ORTF), but the playing of the orchestra does not stand comparison with that of the Berlin Philharmonic, nor do the 1970s French sonics. As such, the Martinon is not a reference version in those two regards.

Boulez, too, is a Frenchman of course, as is the third contender in the "Daphnis" field, Charles M�nch (an Alsatian).

Martinon version remains the best. ;-)

For simple, unmusical minds, yes it is. ;)

For people who actually LOVE classical music, there's a fresh breath of air every new day.

---------- Post added at 07:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------




No.192


Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

To some, Giuseppe Sinopoli wasn't even a professional conductor. Once, famously, the Berlin Philharmonic refused
to record a Mahler cycle with him - "not with that guy", an orchestra spokesman told a record company executive.
Eventually, he did record a Mahler cycle, but with different orchestras.

However, Sinpoli had a great sense for the theatrical (certainly the day he died, in the middle of a performance of
Carmen at the Dresden State Opera!), which served him well in a number of his recordings - especially on this album
of two superb programmatic works by Arnold Schoenberg, which the inventor of the 12-tone system
composed befoe he turned his back on tonality. As such, both the sprawling Pell�as and Melisande, based on
the play by Maurice Maeterlinck that inspired many an artist, and the super-subtle Verkl�rte Nacht (Transfigured Night -
originally set for string sextet, later re-arranged for full string orchestra, as recorded here), are prime examples of
fin-de-si�cle Viennese late romanticism. Sinopoli takes Pell�as to extremes, his version is the most leisurely on record,
but it always holds the attention - which is no mean feat in a work like this. Likewise, in Verkl�rte Nacht, the emphasis
is one the almost overripe beauty of the string sound, compared to the austere, sharper-edged sextet of the original.



Music Composed by Arnold Schoenberg
Played by the Philharmonia Orchestra
Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli

"Pell�as and M�lisande is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed
love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893.

The work was very popular. It was adapted as an opera by the same name and set to music by the composer Claude
Debussy, who had the first performance in Paris in 1902. The play inspired other contemporary composers, for instance,
Gabriel Faur�, Arnold Schoenberg, and Jean Sibelius.

Golaud discovers M�lisande by a stream in the woods. She has lost her crown in the water but does not wish to retrieve it.
They marry, and she instantly wins the favor of Ark�l, Golaud's grandfather and king of Allemonde, who is ill. She falls in
love with Pell�as, Golaud's brother. They meet by the fountain, where M�lisande loses her wedding ring. Golaud grows
suspicious of the lovers, has his son Yniold spy on them, and discovers them caressing, whereupon he kills Pell�as and
wounds M�lisande. She later dies after giving birth to an abnormally small girl.

The main theme is the cycle of creation and destruction. Pell�as and M�lisande form a bond of love, which, step by step,
cascades to its fatal end. Maeterlinck had studied Pythagorean metaphysics and believed that human action was guided
by Eros (love/sterility) and Anteros (revenge/chaos). The juxtaposition of these two forces brings about a never-ending
cycle of calm followed by discord and then change. Pell�as and M�lisande are so much in love that they disregard the
value of marriage, provoking the ire of Anteros, who brings revenge and death, which restores order."



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No.193


Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

I admit that picking American conductor Henry Lewis's London accounts of Richard Strauss's
famous tone poems Also Sprach Zarathustra (of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame).
Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks over heavy competition from Fritz Reiner,
Rudolph Kempe, Andr� Previn, Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, David Zinman and many others may
appear odd. Who remembers Henry Lewis? Well, actually, that's one of the reasons I selected these
mid-1960s recordings, made originally for Decca and briefly resurrected by Castle Communications in the
twenty years later.

Henry Lewis was the first African-American to hold a post as music conductor of a major US orchestra,
the New Jersey Symphony. Against the odds, his career took flight at the time these recordings were made,
when Lewis had already conducted all the "majors", like the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New
York Philharmonic, as well as important orchestras in Europe. His career outshined even that of the sole other
black American conductor of his time, Dean Dixon.

Lewis's versions of both Also Sprach Zarathustra and Don Juan are very good indeed, if maybe tey do
not command reference status. But the conductor's feeling for rhythm and his sense of humor really play dividends
in his Till Eulenspiegel, which is still my favorite among numerous other versions of that oft-recorded piece.
The mischief of the main character and the mix of comical and dramatic moments I have never seen realized quite
to that degree in any of the others. Also, Decca's trademark spot-miking for their mid-60s albums works fine here.



Music Composed by Richard Strauss
Played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Henry Lewis


"Henry Lewis, who broke racial barriers in the music world as the first black conductor and music
director of a major American orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and as the first black to
conduct at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 63.

The cause was a heart attack, his former wife, the mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, said.

Though suffering from lung cancer in recent years, he continued to serve as music director of
the Opera-Music Theater Institute of New Jersey and of the Netherlands Radio Orchestra, and
was a frequent guest conductor for opera companies and symphony orchestras in Europe and America.

Musically brilliant and a commanding figure with the baton, Mr. Lewis since the 1960's had conducted
nearly every major American orchestra -- the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the
Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic -- as well as orchestras and opera companies in
Milan, London, Paris, Tokyo, Copenhagen and dozens of other music capitals.

In a 47-year career filled with landmark events, Mr. Lewis, whom some critics likened to Jackie
Robinson, became the first black instrumentalist with a major American orchestra as a youth
in 1948, the first black to conduct a world-class orchestra, in 1960; the first black to become
music director of a major orchestra, in 1968, and the first black to conduct at the Metropolitan
Opera, in 1972.

Mr. Lewis was only 16 when he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Twelve years later, he made
his conducting debut with that orchestra. He then founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra,
and was engaged as a guest conductor by top orchestras across the country.

On the strength of his rapidly growing reputation, Mr. Lewis was selected in 1968, over 160 other
candidates and at the musically young age of 36, to become the conductor and music director of
the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. It was a landmark event in music, for few blacks had even
made it into the orchestra pit, let alone onto the podium. It made national headlines.

Over the next eight years, Mr. Lewis built the orchestra from what critics called an ensemble of
"avocational" musicians with a $75,000 budget and a season of 22 concerts, into a first-class
orchestra with a $1.5 million budget, a 100-concert season and a glow of prestige that took it
to Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington and other famed halls.

Based in Newark, a blighted city more concerned with survival than with symphonies, Mr. Lewis
and his orchestra began the climb by acquiring 92 top-flight professional musicians, recruiting
big-name soloists, including Misha Dichter and Itzhak Perlman, and vastly expanding the company's
repertory, schedule and outreach into New Jersey's ghettos as well as middle-class communities.

While continuing to perform at Symphony Hall in Newark, often selling seats for $1, the orchestra
undertook a grueling travel schedule to most of New Jersey's large communities, playing in town halls,
high school gymnasiums, parks and other acoustically difficult arenas.

Mr. Lewis saw it as his goal to take good music to the doorstep of ordinary people, and in his first
season he was not above drawing on the services of his wife to pull in the audiences. "I'll admit it," he
said at the time. "We hid behind Marilyn's skirts that first season."

He also took the orchestra into ghettos and working-class neighborhoods for outdoor concerts. Many
who attended were hearing classical music for the first time, and Mr. Lewis readily acknowledged that
he changed the repertory to suit the audience.

"You can't play down to them," Mr. Lewis said. "But you can't give them an all-Brahms program at first.
It's a question of building an audience. I'm not a believer in the old-fashioned attitude of a conductor and
orchestra playing for themselves and letting the audience listen as a kind of favor. We do everything
possible to make people feel they want to come."

Mr. Lewis was sometimes criticized for his relaxed style during a concert: he often talked to the audience,
for example. "I'm always talking, exploring, consciously trying to break down the barrier between us,"
he explained. "I tell the people that if they want to break in with applause after an exciting movement, that's fine."

Mr. Lewis was also criticized by some blacks who said that symphonies and the repertories of Western
European composers were not what impoverished black communities needed. Some more militant blacks
were harsher, charging that he was trying to purvey "white" music to black people.

Mr. Lewis did not apologize for his music, though he noted that not everyone had the background or
inclination to appreciate it. He said, however, that he was trying to fulfill the difficult, sometimes conflicting
goals of building an internationally respected orchestra while taking music to the people.

During his colorful, often tumultuous tenure with the New Jersey Symphony, acclaim followed almost
everywhere, and Mr. Lewis took on other high-profile appearances as a guest conductor.

In 1972, 17 years after the contralto Marian Anderson broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera
House, Mr. Lewis celebrated his 40th birthday on the podium there, conducting a performance of "La Boheme."
In a review for The New York Times, Donal Henahan wrote: "Mr. Lewis proved after a rather stiff beginning
that the Puccini style of broad lyricism was one he understood well and could command technically. Credit
the Met with good sense in engaging him, and credit Mr. Lewis with a highly satisfactory debut."

While the New Jersey orchestra's reputation and his career as a conductor were soaring, an economic slump
was hurting many of the nation's best musical ensembles, and Mr. Lewis's relationship with his members grew
increasingly strained as he pressed hard to maintain a grueling schedule and high-level performances.

When Mr. Lewis resigned in 1976 after eight years as the symphony's leader, critics and insiders alike called it a
case of irreconcilable differences. Mr. Lewis said he had imposed stern but reasonable demands, but members
called him tyrannical. In a three-week strike that preceded his resignation, the orchestra's negotiating committee
actually sought a contract clause stipulating that Mr. Lewis refrain from frowning at rehearsals and performances.

After leaving Newark, Mr. Lewis for many years was a guest conductor for major orchestras and opera companies
in the United States and Europe. He conducted the Metropolitan Opera tour of Japan in 1975. In 1991, he was
music director for the London production of "Carmen Jones." He also frequently conducted for recordings.

Henry Jay Lewis was born on Oct. 16, 1932, in Los Angeles, the only child of Henry J. Lewis, an automobile dealer,
and Mary Josephine Lewis, a registered nurse. His musical gifts were recognized early. His mother put him at the
piano when he was 5, and in parochial and later public schools he played with amateur orchestras.

But his father frowned on the prospect of his career in music, Mr. Lewis once recalled. "He wanted me to become
what he called 'a respectable professional man,' not a musician," he said. "There were no Negroes in classical music then."

In junior high school, he leaped at a teacher's offer of lessons on the double bass. "Double-bass players were rare,"
Mr. Lewis said. "I decided to master it." He also studied other instruments and voice. His talent at the double bass
won him a scholarship to the University of Southern California.

He did not graduate -- he took more than enough credits, but not in the right concentrations -- but made up for it
with honorary degrees later in life. At 16, he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming not only the
first black instrumentalist in a major American orchestra, but also the youngest.

He remained with the orchestra until 1954, when he was drafted into the Army. He then became conductor of the
Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, based in Stuttgart, Germany, where he remained until his discharge in 1957.
He then returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and became assistant conductor under Zubin Mehta.

In 1960, after a long friendship, Mr. Lewis married Ms. Horne, by then a well-known opera star. In her autobiography,
"Marilyn Horne: My Life," (Atheneum, 1983), Ms. Horne wrote that she received many warnings from friends and relatives
about problems she would face as the white wife of a black man, including one from her mother: " 'What do you want
to marry him for?' Mother said shortly. 'Why can't you just live with him? Be his mistress, for God's sake, not his wife!' "

The couple, who had a daughter, Angela, often appeared in musical performances together, and were the subject of
magazine articles that portrayed them as happy in their music and their marriage. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979,
but they remained close friends and colleagues, Ms. Horne said. Their daughter, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., survives.

"Henry Lewis was my prophet and my teacher and my right hand," Ms. Horne wrote in her book. "I certainly would have
had a career without Henry, but it was he who really led me into the paths of bel canto. He labored and sweated and
did everything he could to teach me the style."

In a 1970 Carnegie Hall appearance by the New Jersey Symphony, Mr. Lewis conducted and Ms. Horne sang an aria from
Rossini's "Siege of Corinth." In a review for The Times, Harold C. Schonberg wrote: "There was an animal yell from the
audience, then pandemonium, followed by a rising ovation. For almost five minutes, nothing could proceed."
New York Times obituary for Henry Lewis





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No.194

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

Pierre Boulez's analogue stereo versions of Claude Debussy's masterful tone poems La Mer and Nocturnes
have long been ranked among the best recordings available; they communicate a visceral excitement that sets them apart from the same
conductor's DGG remakes (through these too are of great quality), as well as Jean Martinon's subtle 1970s French version, which, as
always, was undermined by the poor ensemble playing of the O.R.T.F. orchestra. Indeed, there are very few truly bad recordings of
La Mer (Sergiu Celibidache's somnambulistic EMI account might be one), and quite a few excellent ones (like Baudo/LPO, Svetlanov/USSR,
Previn/LSO, and the recent Krivine/OSdL and Gatti/ONF) - and the same may be said about Nocturnes. This album also
features two of Debussy's lesser works, the suite Printemps (orchestrated by Henri B�sser) and Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra.



Music Composed by Claude Debussy
Played by the New Philharmonia & Cleveland Orchestras
Conducted by Pierre Boulez

"La Mer is a masterpiece of suggestion and subtlety in its rich depiction of the ocean, which combines unusual orchestration
with daring impressionistic harmonies. The work has proven very influential, and its use of sensuous tonal colours and its orchestration
methods have influenced many later film scores. While the structure of the work places it outside of both absolute music and
programme music (see below on the title "Three symphonic sketches") as those terms were understood in the early 20th century,
it obviously uses descriptive devices to suggest wind, waves and the ambience of the sea. But structuring a piece around a
nature subject without any literary or human element to it - neither people, nor mythology, nor ships are suggested in the
piece - also was highly unusual at the time.

As a young boy, Debussy's parents had plans for him to become a sailor. Debussy himself even commented on his fond childhood
memories of the beauties of the sea. However, as an adult composing "La mer," he rarely visited the sea, spending most of his
time far away from large bodies of water. Debussy drew inspiration from art, "preferring the seascapes available in painting and
literature..."[1] to the physical sea. This influence lends the piece its unusual nature.

Debussy called La mer "three symphonic sketches," avoiding the loaded term symphony. Yet the work is sometimes called a
symphony; it consists of two powerful outer movements framing a lighter, faster piece which acts as a type of scherzo. But
the author Jean Barraqu� (in "La Mer de Debussy," Analyse musicale 12/3, June 1988,) describes La mer as the first work to
have an "open" form - a devenir sonore or "sonorous becoming... a developmental process in which the very notions of
exposition and development coexist in an uninterrupted burst." Simon Trezise, in his book Debussy: La Mer (Cambridge, 1994)
notes, however, that "motifs are constantly propagated by derivation from earlier motifs" (p. 52).

Simon Trezise notes that "for much of La Mer, Debussy spurns the more obvious devices associated with the sea, wind,
and concomitant storm in favor of his own, highly individual vocabulary" (p. 48-49). Caroline Potter (in "Debussy and Nature"
in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, p. 149) adds that Debussy's depiction of the sea "avoids monotony by using a
multitude of water figurations that could be classified as musical onomatopoeia: they evoke the sensation of swaying
movement of waves and suggest the pitter-patter of falling droplets of spray" (and so forth), and — significantly — avoid
the arpeggiated triads used by Wagner and Schubert to evoke the movement of water.

The author, musicologist and pianist Roy Howat has observed, in his book Debussy in Proportion, that the formal
boundaries of La mer correspond exactly to the mathematical ratios called The Golden Section. Trezise (p. 53) finds the
intrinsic evidence "remarkable," but cautions that no written or reported evidence suggests that Debussy consciously
sought such proportions."
Wikipedia



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such a shame your opinion about Mahler�are you deaf? He opens a new world in music

No.195

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

B�la Bart�k's Concerto for Orchestra and The Miraculous Mandarin are both cornerstones of 20th century
music: the former a more august, "polished" masterpiece from the composer's final years, the latter a visceral, expressionistic
ballet that was taken off the stage following its scandalous 1926 Cologne premiere (by then-Mayor Konrad Adenauer!). While
the Concerto is not really a programmatic work, there's some element of parody in it (Bart�k mocks Shostakovich's Leningrad
Symphony). For a synopsis of the Mandarin ballet, see below.

Riccardo Chailly's versions with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are truly superb: subtle and exciting by turns,
flawlessly played and recorded; while there are many fine accounts of the popular Concerto (Fritz Reiner, Pierre Boulez, Georg Solti,
Iv�n Fischer, etc), the The Miraculous Mandarin hasn't been quite so lucky. Thus, the rare coupling of the complete ballet and the
Concerto, in these excellent performances, is an ideal introduction into the work of one of the greatest musical minds of the 20th century.



Music Composed by B�la Bart�k
Played by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Conducted by Riccardo Chailly

"After an orchestral introduction depicting the chaos of the big city, the action begins in a room belonging to three tramps.
They search their pockets and drawers for money, but find none. They then force a girl to stand by the window and attract
passing men into the room. The girl begins a lockspiel — a "decoy game", or saucy dance. She first attracts a shabby old
rake, who makes comical romantic gestures. The girl asks, "Got any money?" He replies, "Who needs money? All that
matters is love." He begins to pursue the girl, growing more and more insistent until the tramps seize him and throw
him out.

The girl goes back to the window and performs a second lockspiel. This time she attracts a shy young man, who also
has no money. He begins to dance with the girl. The dance grows more passionate, then the tramps jump him and
throw him out too.

The girl goes to the window again and begins her dance. The tramps and girl see a bizarre figure in the street, soon
heard coming up the stairs. The tramps hide, and the figure, a Mandarin (wealthy Chinese man), stands immobile in
the doorway. The tramps urge the girl to lure him closer. She begins another saucy dance, the Mandarin's passions
slowly rising. Suddenly, he leaps up and embraces the girl. They struggle and she escapes; he begins to chase her.
The tramps leap on him, strip him of his valuables, and attempt to suffocate him under pillows and blankets. However,
he continues to stare at the girl. They stab him three times with a rusty sword; he almost falls, but throws himself
again at the girl. The tramps grab him again and hang him from a lamp hook. The lamp falls, plunging the room into
darkness, and the Mandarin's body begins to glow with an eerie blue-green light. The tramps and girl are terrified.
Suddenly, the girl knows what they must do. She tells the tramps to release the Mandarin; they do. He leaps at the
girl again, and this time she does not resist and they embrace. With the Mandarin's longing fulfilled, his wounds
begin to bleed and he dies.

The score begins with an orchestral depiction of the "concrete jungle." The violins have rapidly rising and falling,
wave-like scales over the very unusual interval of an augmented octave. One of the central motives of the work is
set forward in bar 3—a 6/8 rhythm in minor seconds. This motive will reappear at the violent actions of the tramps.
The sound of car horns is imitated by fanfares on the trumpets and trombones. As the curtain rises, the violas play a
wide-leaping theme that will be associated both with the tramps and the girl. The 3 lockspiele are scored for the clarinet,
each one longer and more florid than the last. The old rake is represented by trombone glissandi spanning a minor
third, another very important interval. As the tramps throw him out, the minor second in 6/8 returns. The music for
the shy young man is a slow dance in 5/4, also interrupted by the 6/8 minor second as the tramps throw him out.
When the Mandarin is heard in the street, the trombone plays a simple pentatonic theme harmonized by 3 lines of
parallel tritones in the other trombones and the tuba. When the Mandarin enters the room, the trombones and tuba
play downward glissandos, again spanning a minor third. Three measures later, this interval is played
fortississimo by the full brass.

The girl's dance for the Mandarin contains both a waltz and the viola theme associated with her and the tramps.
When the Mandarin seizes the girl, the minor second is heard again. The chase is represented by a fugue, whose
subject also has a pentatonic flavor. The concert suite ends at this point. In the complete ballet, the 6/8 minor second
returns again as the tramps rob the Mandarin. The attempted suffocation and stabbing are illustrated with great
force in the orchestra. As the tramps hang the Mandarin from the lamp, the texture is blurred with glissandi on
trombones, timpani, piano and cellos. The glowing body of the Mandarin is represented by the entry of a chorus singing
wordlessly, once again in the interval of a minor third. The climax, after the girl embraces the Mandarin, is a theme
given out fortissimo by the low brass against minor-second tremolos in the woodwinds. As the Mandarin begins to
bleed, the downward minor-third glissando heard at his entry is echoed in the trombone, contrabassoon and low
strings. The work then stutters arhythmically to a close.

The scoring is generally heavy, and Bart�k employs many colorful techniques here, including chromatic scales, trills
and tremolos in the woodwinds; glissandi in the horns, trombones and tuba; cluster chords and tremolos on the
piano; scales and arpeggios on the piano, harp and celeste; and scales, double stops, trills, tremolos, and
glissandi in the strings. Other special effects include fluttertonguing in the flutes; muting the brasses and
strings, a cymbal roll a deux (a cymbal crash followed by scraping the plates together); playing the bass drum
with the wooden part of a timpani mallet; a roll on the gong; rolled timpani glissandi; string harmonics; col
legno and sul ponticello playing in the strings; scordatura in the cellos; and, at one point, quarter-tones
in the violins."
Wikipedia



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---------- Post added at 12:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------


such a shame your opinion about Mahler�are you deaf? He opens a new world in music

This thread is dedicated to program music (tone poems, program symphonies, ballets, other stage music). Gustav Mahler didn't write any, AFAIR - the only slightly on-topic work would be his Das Lied von der Erde, a symphonic song cycle which I considered including here. And, like other posters said before, please carry your hate elsewhere. As other posters have noted, your statements, as far as one can decipher your broken English, are odious and obnoxious.

---------- Post added at 01:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------




No.196

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

No, I am not a great admirer of Pierre Boulez - the conductor, much less the composer. It just so happens that the
Frenchman has delivered a number of fine recordings of works that are of particular interest in the "program classics countdown",
like Ravel, Debussy, and now, Igor Stravinsky. If I were to draw up a list of reference recordings of Mahler symphonies, e.g.,
none of Boulez's DGG versions would make it. As with Daphnis et Chloe, the accounts of Stravinsky's influential masterpieces
of ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps and Petrouchka presented here come from the conductor's later years, and are both
"remakes". The "youthful" (well, ...) vigour that infused Boulez's early to mid-1970s recordings with the NYP and NPO (see La Mer above)
has been replaced by a more analytical, colouristic approach - and again, there are many worthy alternatives (particularly the composer's
own, much-admired CBS version, in the same coupling, hampered by inferior playing and sound). So, this is a high level compromise,
if you will, between performances, playing, sound and combination of works.



Music Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Played by The Cleveland Orchestra
Conducted by Pierre Boulez

"The Rite of Spring, French title Le Sacre du Printemps (Russian: �Весна священная�, Vesna svyashchennaya) is a ballet
and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes company, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and stage designs and costumes by Nikolai Roerich. When the ballet was
first performed, at the Th��tre des Champs-�lys�es on 29 May 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a
near-riot in the audience. Nevertheless, Stravinsky's music achieved rapid success as a concert piece and became recognised as one of
the most influential musical works of the 20th century. It is very widely performed in the concert hall and is frequently
revived on the stage.

Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes. The Rite
was the third such project, after the acclaimed The Firebird and Petrushka. The concept behind The Rite, developed by Roerich from
Stravinsky's outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, "Pictures of Pagan Russia"; in the scenario, after various primitive rituals
celebrating the advent of spring, a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death. After a mixed critical
reception for its original run and a short London tour, the ballet was unperformed until the 1920s, when a version choreographed
by Leonide Massine replaced Nijinsky's original. Massine's was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world's
leading ballet-masters, which gained the work worldwide acceptance. In the 1980s, Nijinsky's original choreography, long believed
lost, was reconstructed by the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles.

Stravinsky's score contains many features that were novel for its time, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress
and dissonance. Analysts have noted in the score a significant grounding in Russian folk music, a relationship which Stravinsky
tended to deny. The music has influenced many of the 20th century's leading composers and is one of the most recorded works
in the classical repertoire."
Wikipedia



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No.197

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

While most of Olivier Messiaen's compositions are religious in inspiration, at the time of writing
the Turangalila Symphony the composer was fascinated by the myth of Tristan and Isolde, and the
Turangal�la Symphony forms the central work in his trilogy of compositions concerned with the
themes of romantic love and death; the other pieces are Harawi for piano with soprano and Cinq rechants
for unaccompanied choir. It is considered a 20th century masterpiece and a typical performance runs
around 80 minutes in length. When asked about the meaning of the work's duration in its ten movements
and the reason for the use of the ondes Martenot, Messiaen simply replied, "It's a love song."

Although the concept of a rhythmic scale corresponding to the chromatic scale of pitches occurs in Messiaen's
work as early as 1944, in the Vingt regards sur l'enfant-J�sus, the arrangement of such durations into a fixed
series occurs for the first time in the opening episode of the movement "Turangal�la 2" in this work, and is an
important historical step toward the concept of integral serialism.

The title of the work, and those of its movements, were a late addition to the project. They were first described by
Messiaen in a diary entry in early 1948.[4] He derived the title from two Sanskrit words, turanga and l�la, which
roughly translate into English as "love song and hymn of joy, time, movement, rhythm, life, and death", and
described the joy of Turangal�la as "superhuman, overflowing, dazzling and abandoned".

In writing about the work, Messiaen identified four "cyclic" themes that reappear throughout; there are other themes
specific to each movement.[7] In the score the themes are numbered, but in later writings he gave them names
to make them easier to identify, without intending the names to have any other, literary meaning.

L'ascension ("The Ascension") is a piece for orchestra, composed by Olivier Messiaen in 1932-33.
Messiaen described it as "4 meditations for orchestra".

The orchestral piece is in four brief sections:

1. Majest� du Christ demandant sa gloire � son P�re ("The majesty of Christ demanding its glory of the Father")
2. Alleluias sereins d’une �me qui d�sire le ciel ("Serene alleluias of a soul that longs for heaven")
3. Alleluia sur la trompette, alleluia sur la cymbale ("Alleluia on the trumpet, alleluia on the cymbal")
4. Pri�re du Christ montant vers son P�re ("Prayer of Christ ascending towards his Father")

Antoni Wit's account of Turangalila is distinguished by his rugged, hard-edged approach, and
his great command over the work's initricate rhythmic details.



Music Composed by Olivier Messiaen
Played by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
With Francois Weigel (piano), Thomas Bloch (ondes martenot)
Conducted by Antoni Wit

"Magnificent! Antoni Wit's new recording of Messiaen's phantasmagoric Turangalila Symphony
may lack the extreme orchestral virtuosity of versions by Previn, Chailly, or Salonen, but it beats them
all in sheer musicality and fidelity to the composer's minutely specified instructions. Consider three
quick examples. First, virtually all performances make a huge pause before the introduction of the
'flower' theme, but Wit notices that Messiaen has indicated only a brief comma, or 'breath pause'.
Second, all three alternative versions listed above play the finale at close to the tempo of the fifth
movement 'Joy of the Blood of the Stars', though Messiaen's designation for this movement is
'Moderately, almost lively, with great joy.' And that's exactly what we get here. Wit's slower tempo
gives the piece the symphonic weight that it needs to conclude this great cycle of 10 movements,
while the ability to take in all of its fantastic detail reduces the excitement not one bit--just the
opposite, in fact. Finally, the way that Wit hangs onto that last luminous chord, with the percussion
crescendo approaching the threshold of pain, proves that he understands the music's spirit as
much as he strictly obeys the composer's instructions.

Following the score along with this performance is an incredible delight. Wit ensures that Messiaen's
rhythms sound with exceptional clarity: the interplay of woodblock, maracas, cymbals, tambourine,
drums, and chimes never has made more musical sense. He balances the textural complexities of the
three 'love song' movements, especially 'Development of Love', with a supernatural sense of where
the primary melodic threads lie. The fulsome, swooning, lyrical themes have just the right ecstatic
intensity, the Ondes Martenot adding its characteristically sexy voice without undue spotlighting,
thereby avoiding blatant vulgarity."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10-3.gif



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Le Sacre. Th� all-time greatest work ever written, perhaps? Those Boulez-interpretations are remarkable, thank you. (and I still don't like Mahler)

Le Sacre. Th� all-time greatest work ever written, perhaps?

Certainly, it was the single most influential work in the first half of the 20th century. :)

OK it�s your loss

No.198

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

If you don't already have this version of Bedrich Smetana's "national Czech epic", My Fatherland, in your collection,
then you should add it wiothout hesitation. Libor Pesek is an incisive conductor and shapes each of the six
individual symphonic poems with unfailing subtlety and grace, the playing of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
is lovely throughout, and the warm, moderately reverberant acoustics fit the piece to a tee. Yes, there are
five different recordings by Pesek's compatriot Rafael Kubelik alone (of which I would give pride of place to
the Decca 1959 version, despite imperfect sound balance), as well as a number of other outstanding accounts,
but to my ears, the Pesek version has it all.



Music Composed by Bedrich Smetana
Played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Libor Pesek

"One would expect a Czech conductor to have insights into a nationalistic work that embodies so much
of the country's history - real and legendary - that others might not have, and it shows.

Right from the gorgeous harp theme which opens Vysehrad one feels involved and not just waiting for the
bits with the tunes in them as some performances become. In Vltava the sound picture is beautifully drawn,
the sense of movement being almost tangible from the rippling strings and woodwinds. The strings portrayal
of the shimmering moonlight before the rapids was especially noteworthy.

Sarka tells of the eponymous heroine whose revenge on men is the basis of the legend. With hints of only partly
explored themes it sounds like a blueprint for a longer, unwritten work. Alert strings, some fine brass playing
and busy percussion, make this piece in some ways the most interesting of the set. From Bohemia's Meadows
and Fields with its deservedly popular 'big tune' is an undoubted success. Supported by an ultra responsive
group of musicians Pesek is able to linger, as he does, over the well-known melody yet inject a lively tempo into
the polka-like passages. The orchestra really shines here with superb upper string playing and glowing woodwinds
and horns in the chorale.

Tabor and Blanik, the two final sections, are separate but with a musical link. Tabor's hushed, eerie opening and
heavy brass chording make a powerful effect prior to the first entry of the Hussite hymn tune which joins the
two sections. Blanik shows more beautiful wind and horn playing.

The recording is first rate, with depth in a natural sounding ambience, vividness and it shows off the R.L.P.O.
to great advantage. Highly recommended."
Music Web



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A very good version of Smetana, which doesn't eclipse the versions by Talich, Kubelik or Krombholc.
Still, one with excellent sound.
Thanks, wimpel!

---------- Post added at 06:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:22 AM ----------

Thanks for the Turangalila, wimpel!
It's a work I never tire of listening to and this version is one of the best (not to mention that Wit is,IMO, a very underrated conductor).

No.199

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

One of the most enduringly popular larger scale works of orchestral program music was, initially, not even an
orchestral work: Modest Mussorgsky wrote his Pictures at an Exhibition as a piece for solo piano,
and there are many recordings now of that original version, too. However, the sequence of highly imaginative
and colorful vignettes caught on with the general public when the French master Maurice Ravel orchestrated
the entire thing for symphony orchestra. It was not the first such adaptation, but has remained the most
popular version by a wide margin ever since, despite 200 or so further adaptations, often for wildly different
ensembles (see below). The reason is not hard to detect: the Ravel orchestration is the most sumptuous, subtle,
and incisive. A textbook on orchestration, really. Giuseppe Sinopoli's version takes full advantage of the color
palette, the NYP play with utmost virtuosity, and the sound is splendid. What's not to like?

Then there are the "miscellaneous" versions, two of which I uploaded: one for wind ensemble, arranged by
brass expert Elgar Howarth, and a very unique version for cellos and double basses alone, adapted by one
Ilkka P�lli for the low strings of the Lahti Sinfonietta.



Music Composed by Modest Mussorgsky (orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, Elgar Howarth & Ilkka P�lli)
Played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, The Wallace Collection & the Lahti Sinfonietta
Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli & John Wallace

"It was probably in 1870 that Mussorgsky met artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. Both men were devoted to the
cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends. Their meeting was likely arranged by the influential
critic Vladimir Stasov who followed both of their careers with interest.

Hartmann died from an aneurysm in 1873. The sudden loss of the artist, aged only 39, shook Mussorgsky along with
others in Russia's art world. Stasov helped organize an exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Academy of Fine
Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky lent works from his personal collection to
the exhibit and viewed the show in person. Fired by the experience, he composed Pictures at an Exhibition in six weeks.
The music depicts an imaginary tour of an art collection. Titles of individual movements allude to works by Hartmann;
Mussorgsky used Hartmann as a working title during the work's composition. He described the experience in a letter
(see photo, right) to Stasov in June 1874:

Mussorgsky's letter to Stasov, June 1874, written while composing Pictures.

"My dear g�n�ralissime, Hartmann is seething as Boris seethed, — sounds and ideas hang in the air, I am gulping
and overeating, and can barely manage to scribble them on paper. I am writing the 4th № — the transitions are good
(on the 'promenade'). I want to work more quickly and reliably. My physiognomy can be seen in the interludes. So far
I think it's well turned..."

Mussorgsky based his musical material on drawings and watercolours by Hartmann produced mostly during the artist's
travels abroad. Locales include Poland, France and Italy; the final movement depicts an architectural design for the
capital city of Ukraine. Today most of the pictures from the Hartmann exhibit are lost, making it impossible to be sure
in many cases which Hartmann works Mussorgsky had in mind. Musicologist Alfred Frankenstein, in a 1939 article for
The Musical Quarterly, claimed to have identified seven pictures by catalogue number. Two Jews: Rich, and Poor
(Frankenstein suggested two separate portraits, still extant, as the basis for Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle),
Gnomus, Tuileries (now lost), Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (a ballet costume design), Catacombae, The Hut on
Hen's Legs (Baba Yaga), and The Bogatyr Gates.

Mussorgsky links the suite's movements in a way that depicts the viewer's own progress through the exhibition.
Two "Promenade" movements stand as portals to the suite's main sections. Their regular pace and irregular meter
depicts the act of walking. Three untitled interludes present shorter statements of this theme, varying the mood,
colour and key in each to suggest reflection on a work just seen or anticipation of a new work glimpsed. A turn is
taken in the work at the "Catacombae" when the Promenade theme stops functioning as merely a linking device
and becomes, in "Cum mortuis", an integral element of the movement itself. The theme reaches its apotheosis
in the suite's finale, The Bogatyr Gates."
Wikipedia





Source: Deutsche Grammophon, Collins Classical & BIS Records CDs (my rips!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Sizes: 145 MB / 114 MB / 124 MB

Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel, re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!qkwlFCwR!RM-plwWSJFWrVnXluAM5-jPlI9ZAMQTvpRDgWrnJhmM
Mussorgsky (for brass ensemble, re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!kRYGkCAI!FsiJcUPGn5zyfTINV0yH0ixQszloH5qE1CffD1n YXWw
Mussorgsky (for cellos & basses alone, re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!4c42wYoT!Hls8SFc-iYTPcRoXc7EHBS9930ITlZs2rLnC-im3Hj4

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the originals! :)

No.200

Contrary to my initial intentions, I am now going to present 10 outstanding, potentially more familiar program
works in the countdown to post No.200, each one in a reference interpretation.

Which other piece could complete a list of ten outstanding programatic orchestral works presented on a film music board
but Gustav Holst's The Planets Suite? None. Again, there are dozens and dozens of fine versions to choose
from, including several by Adrian Boult, plus Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta (LAPO!), Vernon Handley, Herbert von Karajan, etc.
My own favorite is John Eliot Gardiner's account for Deutsche Grammophon, for several reasons: Gardiner, a conductor
better known for his "historically informed performances" of baroque and Viennese classicism with his own hand-picked orchestra(s), paces
the work beautifully, with a menacing "Mars", and a fleet-footed "Mercury", a swaggering "Jupiter", a grandiose "Uranus" to a subtle "Neptune".
The playing of The Philharmonia Orchestra is superlative throughout, the sound (so important in a brilliantly orchestrated piece
like this one) excellent. Plus, Gardiner throws in a wonderful performance of Percy Grainger's marvelously entertaining
ballet The Warriors, a piece that provides fascinating evidence just how much English composers loved Stravinsky's Petrouchka. ;)

Also featured is Holst's original version of The Planets for piano duet, played here by the well-known team
of David Nettle and Richard Markham.



Music Composed by Gustav Holst (& Percy Grainger)
Played by The Philharmonia Orchestra
With the Women's Voices of the Monteverdi Choir
And David Nettle & Richard Markham (pianos)
Conducted by John Eliot Gardiner

"The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between
1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding
astrological character as defined by Holst. With the exception of Earth (the centre of all yet influentially inert
astrologically), all the astrological planets known during the work's composition are represented.

From its premiere to the present day, the suite has been enduringly popular, influential, widely performed and frequently
recorded. The work was not heard in a complete public performance, however, until some years after it was completed.
Although there were four performances between September 1918 and October 1920, they were all either private
(the first performance, in London) or incomplete (two others in London and one in Birmingham). The premiere was
at the Queen's Hall on 29 September 1918, conducted by Holst's friend Adrian Boult before an invited audience of
about 250 people. The first complete public performance was finally given in London by Albert Coates conducting
the London Symphony Orchestra on 15 November 1920.

The concept of the work is astrological rather than astronomical (which is why Earth is not included): each movement
is intended to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche, not the Roman
deities. The idea of the work was suggested to Holst by Clifford Bax, who introduced him to astrology when the two
were part of a small group of English artists holidaying in Majorca in the spring of 1913; Holst became quite a devotee
of the subject, and liked to cast his friends' horoscopes for fun. Holst also used Alan Leo's book What is a Horoscope?
as a springboard for his own ideas, as well as for the subtitles (i.e., "The Bringer of...") for the movements.

The Planets as a work in progress was originally scored for a piano duet, except for "Neptune", which was scored for a
single organ, as Holst believed that the sound of the piano was too percussive for a world as mysterious and distant as Neptune.
Holst then scored the suite for a large orchestra, and it was in this incarnation that it became enormously popular. Holst's
use of orchestration was very imaginative and colourful, showing the influence of Arnold Schoenberg and other
continental composers of the day rather than his English predecessors. The influence of the late Russian romantics
such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov is also notable, as it is in Igor Stravinsky's great early ballets.
Its novel sonorities helped make the work an immediate success with audiences at home and abroad. Although
The Planets remains Holst's most popular work, the composer himself did not count it among his best creations and later
in life complained that its popularity had completely surpassed his other works. He was, however, partial to his
own favourite movement, "Saturn".

Holst's original title (clearly seen on the handwritten full score) was "Seven Pieces for Large Orchestra". The composer's
name was given as 'Gustav von Holst' — by the time he wrote "Mercury" in 1916 he had dropped the 'von', for he
signed the score of that movement separately as 'Gustav Holst'. The movements were called only by the second part of
each title (I "The Bringer of War", II "The Bringer of Peace" and so on). The present titles were added in time for the
first (incomplete) public performance in September 1919, though they were never added to the original score.

A typical performance of all seven movements lasts for about fifty minutes though Holst's own electric recording from 1926
lasted just over forty-two and a half minutes. Some commentators have suggested that the ordering is structural, with the
anomaly of Mars, Venus, Mercury, instead of the reverse, being a device to make the first four movements match the
form of a symphony."
Wikipedia





Source: Deutsche Grammophon & Saga Classics CDs (my rips!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD/AAD Stereo
File Sizes: 157 MB / 101 MB

The Planets (Gardiner, re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!5Rw2jKgb!ajIVdzueiaYudjcaSOh0wjI7SDQpd8kuMyImVW3 CHrQ
The Planets (for two pianos, re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!9chUmIAD!HesuIQfDuUjryLdxPPcLTCw2J0YSg3Cz2hSccUp u32s

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the originals! :)

No.201

And now let's return to some lesser known works ...

Richard Arnell was a master of larger and of shorter forms - and because of his proficiency in the latter,
he wrote a number of ballet scores. The most famous in its time was Punch and the Child, based on a
popular children's story. There were several recordings of the concert suite that Arnell arranged,
including one by Sir Thomas Beecham, one of the composer's staunchest advocates.

Harlequin in April is another colorful ballet, while the Concerto Capriccioso is Arnell's other,
"regular" violin concerto. More than 70 minutes of well-crafted, tonal yet unmistakably 20th century
British music in very fine recordings.

See also my earlier upload of Arnell's ballets The Great Detective and The Angels.



Music Composed by Richard Arnell
Played by the BBC Concert Orchestra
With Lorraine McAslan (violin)
Conducted by Martin Yates

"Listeners who have followed Dutton's series of recordings of the music of Richard Arnell may be interested in this disc
with three of the English composer's lightest-hearted works: the ballets, Punch and the Child, and Harlequin in April,
plus the Concerto Capriccioso for violin and orchestra. These are light works compared with the composer's much
more substantial symphonies, but the scores are full of eloquence and vivacity. Arnell was one of the more conservative
of English modernists -- compared with him, Vaughan Williams was a wild-eyed serialist [LOL!)] -- but he didn't lack
either skill or inspiration. In these works, Arnell plies the listener with enchanting tunes, charming harmonies, brilliant
colors, infectious rhythms, and buoyant tempos, until resistance is all but futile. Performed by Martin Yates and the
BBC Concert Orchestra with the same insight and enthusiasm as they've brought to Dutton's other Arnell discs,
these readings are uniformly convincing, particularly with violinist Lorraine McAslan's witty and infectious account
of the Concerto Capriccioso."
All Music





Source: Dutton Epoch CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 167 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!EAAjnQiS!JzPQuV2nK0i6Bwv6BfrDvjrg5b4-QCG78prmdG2Hh6A

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the original! :)

No.202

William Wallace (3 July 1860 – 16 December 1940) was notable as a Scottish classical composer and writer;
he first became an ophthalmic surgeon. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Music in the University of London.

Wallace was greatly influenced by Franz Liszt, and was an early (though not the first) composer of
symphonic poems in Britain.

His compositions include the symphonic poem, Sir William Wallace (1905; based on his namesake, the
freedom fighter William Wallace, one of Scotland’s national heroes); a cantata, The Massacre of the Macpherson;
and an overture, In Praise of Scottish Poesie (1894). He also wrote a Creation Symphony (1899), influenced
by numerology. He was inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's play, Pell�as and M�lisande, to write music by the same name.

Maurice Maeterlinck published his symbolist drama Pell�as et M�lisande in 1892. Wallace’s Suite was first performed at
the New Brighton Tower with the composer conducting on 19 August 1900. It therefore predates Debussy’s
incomparable opera of the same name (completed and first produced in 1902) and Sibelius’s Suite (1905).
Only three of the five movements are included here—but the selection (the last three movements) is one
Wallace himself proposed. The movements omitted are ‘The Lost M�lisande’ and ‘The King’s March’.

The Creation Symphony was first performed at one of Bantock’s New Brighton concerts in 1899 and subsequently
in Bournemouth; but composition had started in 1896 when Wallace’s life-long love affair with Ottilie McLaren was
opening its first buds. Wallace thought of God’s Creation as a work of art. Ottilie was studying with Rodin in
Paris at the time; and Wallace, having shaken off the repressive influence of his father and changed from
medicine to music, was exulting in his own freedom as a creative artist. He and Ottilie felt a profound intimacy
with the whole idea of Creation, and Wallace even embedded the numerological values of his own and Ottilie’s
names into the structure of the work (see below and the ‘Note on Wallace’s Use of Numerology’).



Music Composed by William Wallace
Played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins

"Wallace’s major works are now well represented on this and Hyperion’s preceding Wallace disc.
There remain unrecorded only two of his six symphonic poems (one of which is currently lost); two orchestral
suites and an orchestral rhapsody; a bitingly satirical choral ballad, The Massacre of the MacPhersons,
which makes a ridiculous combination of snippets from Wagner’s ‘Ring’ and traditional Scottish themes;
and a choral symphony, Koheleth, which awaits rediscovery and may be unfinished. Wallace also published
several books on music theory and history. These include wide-ranging and challenging works analysing the
nature and development of the musical faculty in humankind, and studies of great insight into Wagner and
Liszt, whose influence on his own music is clear. Wallace died in 1940.

Stylistically, Wallace is much more radical than either Mackenzie or MacCunn, particularly in his freer development
of structure. Bantock was more splendidly blatant: and immediate symphonic predecessors were, like Bruckner,
more determinedly massive or, like Liszt and Mahler (Wallace’s exact contemporary), more emotionally ostentatious.
Wallace, instead, achieves his own magnificence by uniting passion and philosophy. His style is that of high
German romanticism, with only occasional references to Scottish traditional music. His chromatic harmonies are
unsympathetic to folk idioms; his melodies are driven by the harmonies rather than the other way about; and
his thematic development is thoroughly organic. In all but the last of these respects he is quite different from
his younger contemporary Carl Nielsen, yet Wallace’s meaning, notably in passages of the Creation Symphony,
looks towards the work of Nielsen (born in the same Protestant latitudes) rather than towards the great Austrian
and German symphonists. His conviction is not only intellectual and emotional: it has a moral force which is never
didactic and, though triumphant, there is no triumphalism in its beauty and splendour."



Source: Hyperion CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 170 MB (incl. liner notes) MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!JZpSDI4I!Q0zmCAtBnAfLkTODxKnZMlodMuJLQd1trQX4VqX OcOY

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the original! :)

Thank you very much for the overwhelming amount of music here!

Thanks for the Arnell & have a nice weekend!

No.203

In our increasingly transnational times, Paul Moravec manages to define his own firmly grounded space amidst
a musical scene that can often feel frenetic. Moravec’s work in many ways builds upon “The Great Tradition” of Western
Europe, reconfiguring some of its bedrock gestures into an aesthetic that is thoroughly of our day. Dubbed a “New Tonalist”
by critic Terry Teachout, Moravec writes with depth but does so with a light touch. He draws on craftsmanship so virtuosic
it seems easy. All this adds up to a composer who is simultaneously learned and accessible, tradition-based and
imaginative, profound and a heck of a lot of fun. In an era when pundits worry over the fate of the concert world
as a whole, Moravec’s music—and its deep-down integrity—speak of confidence and hope.

The Time Gallery, a chamber ensemble work in four movements, is among the latest installments in Moravec’s
rapidly growing opus. A “meditation,” as the composer puts it, on various aspects of time, whether temporal duration,
clocks, or human pulse, The Time Gallery also approaches “time” in the historical sense, glancing back to the Middle
Ages, with the pealing of bells at sunrise in a Benedictine monastery, and the Baroque, with the revered B.A.C.H.
motive. All this is refracted in the final movement, Overtime: Memory Sings, where the past is “reinvented”.

Moravec’s Protean Fantasy and Ariel Fantasy, two recent works for violin and piano, round off the disc.



Music Composed by Paul Moravec
Played by eighth blackbird
With Peter Sheppard Skaerved (violin)

"Paul Moravec’s The Time Gallery, scored for violin, piano, cello, flute, clarinet, and percussion, explores
various aspects of time–or more accurately, our relationship to it through the use of various time-keeping
devices. The first movement, Bells: The Devotional Hours, begins in a ringing panoply that easily could find
a home in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. Multi-layered clock ticking introduces the following Time Machine,
while a human heart sets the meter for the mercurial Pulse movement. The finale, Overtime: Memory Sings,
superimposes chimes over ticking clocks, setting the stage for the mysterious and meditative music to come.
This and the first movement form the slow bookends to the piece, while the inner movements feature a
bracing energy and rhythmic vitality similar to that found in Shchedrin’s Carmen Ballet. Moravec’s own
musical language is generally tonal–and although it’s not consistently melodic, it’s always accessible. More
than that, it’s highly engrossing, especially in this stimulating performance by the ensemble Eighth Blackbird.

Protean Fantasy and Ariel Fantasy present opposite poles of motion: serenely relaxed in the former and
nervously swift in the latter. Whatever the pace, both works require imagination and impeccable musicianship,
qualities that violinist Paul Sheppard-Skaerved and pianist Aaron Shorr provide aplenty. Naxos’ recording
captures it all in clear, vivid sound. Now this is a disc of new music most anyone can enjoy."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10-3.gif





Source: Naxos CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 131 MB (incl. cover, booklet)

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!RQp2WKIL!Mqcr_hsU11ock3UeX1XS5Gk2s0wfSJv6Jv0nkj6 rw2M

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the original! :)

No.204

The Seasons (Russian: Времена года, Vremena goda; also French: Les saisons) is an allegorical ballet in one
act, four scenes, by the choreographer Marius Petipa, with music by Alexander Glazunov, his Op. 67.
The work was composed in 1899, and was first performed by the Imperial Ballet in 1900 in
St. Petersburg, Russia.

The score for Marius Petipa's Les Saisons (The Seasons) was originally intended to have been composed
by the Italian composer and conductor Riccardo Drigo, who was Glazunov's colleague and close friend.
Since 1886, Drigo held the posts of director of music and Chef d’orchestre to the Ballet of the St. Petersburg
Imperial Theatres, while also serving as conductor for performances of the Italian operas in the repertory
of the Imperial Opera. Petipa's Les Millions d’Arlequin (a.k.a. Harlequinade) was also in its preliminary stages
at the same time as Les Saisons, and was originally intended to have had a score supplied by Glazunov.
Since Drigo and Glazunov had an affinity towards each other's assigned ballet, the two composers
agreed that Glazunov would compose Les Saisons and that Drigo would compose Les Millions d’Arlequin.

Petipa's Les Millions d'Arlequin was presented for the first time at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage
on 23 February [O.S. 10 February] 1900. Les Saisons premiered three days later. For both performances
the whole of the Imperial court was in attendance.

In 1907, Nikolai Legat staged a revival of Les Saisons at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. This production
was performed on occasion by the Imperial Ballet after the Russian Revolution, being performed
for the last time in 1927.

Tableau 1 — A winter landscape: Winter is surrounded by his companions: Hoar-frost, Ice, Hail and Snow,
who amuse themselves with a band of snowflakes. Two gnomes enter, and soon light a fire that causes
all assembled to vanish.

Tableau 2 — A landscape covered with flowers: Spring dances with Zephyr, flower fairies, and enchanted
birds. Upon feeling the heat of the sun, the assembly takes flight.

Tableau 3 — A landscape of flowing fields of wheat: Cornflowers and poppies revel in the light and warmth
of the sun. They take rest after their exertion. Now Naiads appear, who bring water to refresh the growth, and
the Spirit of Corn dances in thanksgiving. Satyrs and Fauns enter playing their pipes, and attempt to carry off
the Spirit of the Corn, but she is rescued by the wind of Zephyr.

Tableau 4 — A landscape in Autumn: The Seasons take part in a glorious dance (the well-known "autumn
bacchanale") while leaves from autumn trees rain upon their merriment. Apotheosis — The Sable sky
Constellations of stars sparkle above the earth.
Wikipedia



Music Composed by Alexander Glazunov
Played by the Minnesota Orchestra
Conducted by Edo de Waart

"This recording was my introduction to the music of Alexander Glazunov, and it remains one of my favorites.
It shows the composer at the top of his form, not only in terms of melodic inventiveness but also in his ingenious
harmonizations and colorful orchestration. One of Glazunov's first instructors was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, from
whom he learned orchestration and this work plainly reveals the positive effects of Rimsky's instruction. It is a bright
and colorful performance, and Edo Da Waart's thoughtful, tasteful interpretation of this work breathes new life into
a piece which inexplicably languished for years after Glazunov's death. I have heard several other interpretations
of The Seasons, but this one is by far the best. If you have no other works by Glazunov in your collection,
buy this one. Then start looking for his Fifth Symphony.... "
Amazon Reviewer





Source: Telarc CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 144 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!9NYnlawZ!CaUOABGf8gaMPApKynjl5Dp0Bx43r4MT3nizlrn R-w8

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the original! :)

No.205

Karol Szymanowski's unique brand of expressive, lyric modernism has found many admirers in the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Though his earliest music is perhaps too closely allied to that of his
childhood idol Chopin to fully stand on its own, his later work synthesizes the stylistic characteristics of
a wide range of composers (Scriabin, Strauss, Reger, Debussy, Ravel) into a highly individual new language.

The ballet-pantomime Harnasie, based on the story of the abduction of a bride on her wedding-day by
Harn�s and his robber band, the Harnasie, and on music of the mountain Tatra people, won success in Prague in
1935, and with new choreography by Serge Lifar was well received in Paris the following year. It was staged
in Hamburg in 1937 with choreography by Helga Swedlund and became part of Polish ballet repertoire
only in 1938. The ballet score Harnasie makes full use of the folk music that Szymanowski heard, presented with all the
richness of his imagination and including original elements deriving their inspiration from the primitive
music of the mountain people, with its irregular accentuation and vigorous character.

The short ballet Mandragora was designed for inclusion in the third act of Moli�re’s Le bourgeois
gentilhomme, the pretext of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. A pantomime in three scenes designed for
the Polish Theatre in Warsaw, the piece was staged there in June 1920. It is in the form of a commedia
dell’arte intermezzo in which a bored King and Queen are entertained by the court eunuch with episodes from
Columbine, Harlequin, the Doctor and the Captain, and finally Monsieur Jourdain himself.

The music for Prince Potemkin, left in manuscript at Szymanowski’s death, makes use again of
a version of a Tatra folk-tune, here transformed for an evocative dramatic purpose in music that has a valid
existence apart.



Music Composed by Karol Szymanowski
Played by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir
With Wiesław Ochman (tenor), Alexander Pinderak (tenor) & Ewa Marciniec (mezzo soprano)
Conducted by Antoni Wit

" In terms of subject matter Szymanowski’s magnificent choral ballet Harnasie is sort of the Polish
equivalent of Stravinsky’s Les Noces (The Wedding), although the idiom is squarely Szymanowski’s
own brand of luxurious late Romanticism—here spiked liberally with the punchy rhythms, earthy sonority,
and ageless tunefulness of folk music. It’s a work that deserves to be enormously popular. Probably
the need for tenor solo plus chorus in a work lasting a scant 35 minutes counts against it, but this
fabulous new performance by the always reliable Antoni Wit and Co. could do much to introduce new
listeners to this splendid piece. Think, if you will, of Daphnis et Chlo� meets Carmina Burana, and you’ll
have a good sense of the music’s unique combination of sensuousness and vital energy.

Mandragora is a another brief (27-minute) work composed as an insert for a performance of Le bourgeois
gentilhomme, but it stands perfectly well on its own. Comparatively speaking, the idiom is aptly lighter
and more neo-classical than the later Harnasie, but it’s no less enjoyable. Prince Potemkin started life as
incidental music, but yet again lives on as an independent concert piece. It has one of the sexiest final
chords in the entire orchestral repertoire, and Antoni Wit relishes every evocative sonority. As is so often
the case with this conductor, tempos tend to be moderate, but the energy level remains consistently
high thanks to incisive rhythmic pointing and clean, clear textures.

The playing and singing here are never less than world class in any case, and Naxos’ engineering is
extremely natural, like a good balcony seat in a warm, spacious hall. At first you might find the soft
bits a touch lacking in impact (not clarity), but once you get the volume set comfortably the big choral
climaxes fill the ample acoustic with real “you are there” immediacy, not to mention perfect balances
between singers and instrumentalists. There have been several excellent recordings of this music from
Polish labels in the past, and even Simon Rattle’s EMI recording was very good, but it would be hard to
come by finer performances than these, and if you don’t yet know a major masterpiece like Harnasie
then this reasonably priced edition is surely the one to own."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10-3.gif



Source: Naxos CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 154 MB (incl. cover, booklet)

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!4YwSyLoI!FIRIbTgbG8hgL8qybkP1ADFB021MNiKfYGzqNSm ebQI

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the original! :)

No.206

The music of Hugo Alfv�n has never been widely heard internationally, but in his native Sweden he ranks with
the most significant composers after Berwald. Although his period of greatest success pre-dates
the first ‘golden age’ of Swedish cinema, Alfv�n contributed to three feature films during the 1930s and
1940s. The first of these was for the film Synn�ve Solbakken (Synn�ve of Solbakken), based on the novel
by Bj�rnstjerne Bj�rnson and first screened in Stockholm on 22nd October 1934. Originally
comprising eighteen ‘complexes’ of music, Alfv�n reduced the score, with the assistance of Eduard
Hladisch, to a six-movement suite that fairly represents the character of the film. This concerns the gentle
Synn�ve and her love for the moody Torbj�rn, who is initially paralysed by a stab wound sustained in a fight
with his rival Knut, only recovering his mobility when his sees his father’s cart caught in an accident. The
feuding families are thereby reconciled, and the lovers happily brought together. As in his Fifth Symphony,
Alfv�n re-uses music from the ballet-pantomime Bergakungen, as well as Norwegian folk-tunes; aptly so
given the film’s setting and the fact that it had been a joint Norwegian-Swedish production (though the
Norwegian-language version was shot employing a rather different cast). Understandable, perhaps, that one
writer, while unenthusiastic about the film as a whole, judged its overriding merits to be “the cows, the
landscape, (the actor) Victor Sj�str�m and Hugo Alfv�n”.

Omens were favourable in 1944 for the production of a film based on Vilhelm Moberg’s novel Mans
Kvinna (the title literally translates as Man’s Woman but is usually given as A Country Tale) written a decade
earlier and already adapted as a stage-drama. Set in V�rend during the 1790s, it focuses on M�rit, married to
the farmer P�vel but attracted to a younger farmer H�kan. Their liaison given away by a maidservant
whom H�kan abandoned, P�vel puts his wife under confinement on the grounds she is his property. At the
close, the lovers elope across the fields in search of a freedom the community is sure to condemn. Once again
Alfv�n drew on music from Bergakungen in a score that comprises 23 ‘complexes’ of music (two of which were
omitted in the final cut).



Music Composed by Hugo Alfv�n
Played by the Norrk�ping Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Niklas Will�n

"Alfv�n is not a composer one might instantly associate with films, especially as his musical career lay
between the two Golden Ages of Swedish Cinema. But he wrote three major scores: the two recorded here
and the later (1949) one for Singoalla, also the subject of works by Natanael Berg and Gunnar de Frumerie.
Both Synn�ve Solbakken and En Bygdesaga have appeared on disc before.

Synn�ve of Solbakken is a sort of Village Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending. It was a Swedish-Norwegian
joint production and Alfv�n uses Norwegian folk tunes in the score as well as excerpts from his own ballet
The Mountain King. From this he fashioned a six-movement suite. Sunday Morning in the Forest appears
first here but was not originally the opening of the film, yet it serves this function well. Young Love is a demure
episode, appealing rather than passionate, but with sumptuous orchestration, including harps and piano.
The second half has some interesting development that one would not have predicted when the piece started.
The third section of the suite Poignant Grief-Pastorale is quite effective with its Norwegian fiddle sounds
contrasting with material from the first two sections of the suite. Torbj�rn and Synn�ve continues in the vein
of the second section. Langtan is the most effective movement in the suite, with a haunting violin solo. I Solbakken
was the music actually played for the opening credits of the film, but it’s Norwegian dances do just as well for the
end of the suite. All of the above is recorded rather closely, but in an unobtrusive way that emphasizes both the
emotions of the score and the playing of the orchestra. Will�n conducts in a less sentimental fashion than Alfv�n
sometimes receives and it is perfect for this film music. He also has an excellent sense of tempo.

More serious is the six-movement suite from the second and later film score En Bygdesaga. In spite of the
seemingly-benign name this is the story of M�rit, married to P�vel, but in love with H�kan. The suite concentrates
on the music associated with the characters and the important emotions that propel the film’s action. The Introduction
immediately and almost violently sets the emotional tone with resplendent brass chords giving way to a more gentle
section, still informed by the feelings of the opening. Dreams deals with the musical ideas associated with the main
characters and with certain objects that have symbolic value in the course of the film. Alfv�n takes this material into
increasing tense, and for him, dissonant territory, before reaching a quiet ending. Guilty love is even more violent as
it uses the lower notes of the orchestra to portray the feelings of the two main characters. This music is developed
into a chorale section with the upper strings playing other material. An excellent example of the composer’s orchestral
and contrapuntal skill. As if the previous section were not intense enough, Jealousy shows us the feelings of P�vel -
equally intense, though different in kind. This does not last long, changing into a pastoral section, but one in which
the tension is not totally dissipated. The composer uses the strings to make this transition in his usual accomplished
manner. After the previous sections, the Funeral March makes a good contrast and it is solemn enough, though not
totally convincing. The title of the final section, Baying of Wolves, refers to the social ostracism H�kan and M�rit will
face as they run off together. This is true music of flight, with elements of the joy of freedom mixed in. Again,
Will�n and Nork�pping handle every aspect of this complicated music with aplomb.

The El�gie is actually a tone poem written in memory of Emil Sj�gren, the great composer of lieder. It was originally
published for piano and then later orchestrated before being used in some incidental music Alfv�n wrote for a play
called We, finally becoming a part of the Gustav II Adolph Suite (op. 49) taken from the incidental music. Harmonically
and emotionally it is one of the strongest of his shorter orchestral works. In his development of the first theme
Alfv�n maintains some emotional distance, as if writing for a beloved public figure, while the second theme seems
more appropriate for a friend or colleague. The opening of the piece with its appropriately scored hollow chords
and the magical final notes frame a truly moving experience. The string playing by the Nork�pping players is wonderful
throughout and Will�n ably brings out the various emotional shades of the work."
Music Web



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I knew all Alfven's swedish rhapsodys and symphonies, but this filmmusic is new to me. Great!

No.207

American composer Jerome Moross is, of course, best remembered for his classic Western score The Big Country.
He did in fact write a number of orchestral works, too - like the Symphony featured here, which, despite the numbering,
remained his only entry in that genre. From a program music perspective, it's the ballet score The Last Judgement
that commands the attention. The style of the ballet is very much influenced by symphonic jazz, whereas the symphony is
clearly modelled on the Coplandian ideas on American music. The most brilliant piece on this album is, perhaps,
the concluding Variations on a Waltz.



Music Composed by Jerome Moross
Played by the London Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by JoAnn Falletta

"Full of popular dance accents of its day, The Last Judgment is an exceptionally entertaining symphonic piece.
Composer Jerome Moross (1913-1983) was never averse to using American folk and popular forms in his music.
This work is jazzy, full of suave and catchy melodies, and full of the Latin beats that were very popular in those days
just before the arrival of rock & roll. Moross wrote it for the ballet stage, but the planned production fell through.
The story is a witty take on the origin of Original Sin, of which Eve is finally exonerated. ("All very Women's Lib.
Twenty years before that became fashionable!" Moross wrote to Christopher Palmer in 1973.) In the story of the
ballet, Gabriel raises Eve from her grave, but denies her entrance into Heaven. First she must be tried for her sin
before St. Peter and a jury of 12 saints. Adam accuses her of being secretly corrupt and seducing a Benefactor,
Adam's friend who wants to help the young First Humans. When Adam interrupts them, he says, she destroyed
him by pounding him into the ground. Eve insists that the story can't be judged until this "Benefactor" appears
to reveal the truth. He turns out to be The Evil One, who tempts Adam with visions of power and glory. Adam
gives Eve to him and, as before, he corrupts her. But her loathing for what she is becoming leads her to destroy
Adam and reject the Evil One. The saints and St. Peter judge that she is worthy of entering heaven. The ballet
scenario fell into ten scenes, so Moross wrote ten short sections for the ballet score. Moross was one of the most
incredibly prolific of melody writers and provided a different new melody for every one of these scenes except the
last one, in which the opening scene's theme gets reprised. In addition, every scene has a main countertheme,
which is always a variant of the main melody of the preceding scene, often totally transformed and sometimes
readily recognizable. It is the unity that this structure imposes and the dazzling virtuosity of the way the layers
of themes combine that makes listening to the score a fascinating experience. Quite often the themes are jazzy,
or even blues-ish, though the scene depicting Eve and Adam in Eden before the Temptation has none of these
elements, therefore emerging as musically "pure." Moross' devotion to folk and popular themes usually led him
to avoid chromatic melodies, but here he uses a very chromatic tune to represent The Evil One. As this creature's
nature becomes more apparent, the dissonance level rises. As if to compensate, Moross here provides some of
the most colorful instrumental sounds, including a quasi-Caribbean texture with vibes and xylophone."
Joseph Stevenson, Rovi



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Le Sacre. Th� all-time greatest work ever written, perhaps? Those Boulez-interpretations are remarkable, thank you. (and I still don't like Mahler)


Mahler... as irritating as a handful of pennies in a clothes dryer! COMRADE! ;-)

Love all the British light music stuff----THANKS!

I never cease to be amazed by the variety of the posts!
Thanks for the rare Alfven and Moross!

I'm basically interested in all music composed after 1800; what went before largely leaves me cold.
A noticeable gap in my collection is, as mentioned before, Japanese music. I've got very little,
and almost exclusively Naxos.



No.208

Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941, like Frank Bridge!) was a French musician who was a distinguished performer on the flute,
a respected conductor, and a composer, again primarily for the flute.

Gaubert was born in Cahors in Southwest France. He became one of the most prominent French musicians between the
two World Wars. After a prominent career as a flautist with the Paris Op�ra, he was appointed in 1919, at the age of forty,
to three positions that placed him at the very center of French musical life, including that of principal conductor of the
Paris Opera. Despite the fact that his compositions for flute have enjoyed enduring popularity up to the present, his
orchestral music has fallen into neglect: all three pieces featured here are digital premiere recordings.

Of greatest interest to this blog are the marvellous Chants de la Mer, like the Debussy classic a descriptive three movement
work for orchestra, full of bold washes of color and intensely lyrical passages, though its style harks back to the Wagnerian late
romanticism that the more famous Frenchman avoided in La Mer. If you love symphonic seascapes, don't miss out on this one!

The Symphony is more conventionally structured, albeit well-crafted and skillfully orchestrated, as is the
concluding Concerto en Fa, which is essentially a concerto for orchestra.



Music Composed by Philippe Gaubert
Played by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Conducted by Marc Soustrot

"Flautists know Gaubert's name. For them he wrote both didactic music and display pieces as well as three
sonatas and a Sonatine. It will come as no surprise that he was a virtuoso of the flute standing in
succession to his teacher Taffanel.

The works featured here repudiate the low expectations engendered by the enervation of many of those
flute solos. Here we are in the heartland of the French late-romantic world.

The Symphony intrepidly treads the line between Franck and impressionism. The first movement is
poetically restless with the motion of the waves and the sea-swell. At least once the spinnaker shiver that
we hear in Louis Aubert's wonderful Breton sea portrait, Le Tombeau de Chateaubriand (1948) can be heard.
Then again we hear shades of Debussy, Rimsky and Borodin. In this sense there are affinities with the
work of the Belgian tone poet, Adolphe Biarent. There are some warmly lambent flute solos - as in the
faun-like voices of the second movement. The scherzo is cheery, fine-lined and light of foot. The finale
underlines the excellence of balance achieved by engineers Alain Jacquon and Jeannot Mersch. The brass
writing rings out with a mixture of the imperious and the tragic. If the massed violins sometimes sound
a mite steely the principals deliver their solos with sweet tenderness.

I first heard the three movement Les Chants de la Mer in Gaubert's own 1930 recording on Alpha 801
issued in 2006. Soustrot is noticeably slower than the composer but one can the better relish the delicate
hues of this impressionistic writing. It drifts in delight between the Franck of Psyche, the Bax of Fand
and Mediterranean and, inescapably Debussy's La Mer. There is a sovereign weight to the third and last
movement as well as mystical communion with far marine horizons. It is into the tremble and shimmer
of those horizons that the music finally evaporates. The Concerto in F is in three movements the first
two of which are radiant with warm poetic feeling and transparent textures. The finale skips smilingly
along, Vif et léger in folksy style and is rather like the scherzo of the Symphony. The work ends
in an exuberance that is both intricate and swept along with panache.

Indispensable listening for adherents of the melodic-romantic nationalism."
Music Web





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Irritating are you with your despective words and again I ask:you�re are deaf? please say no more and learn more about music.Mahler forgive him,he can�t know what is your genius!!

In memory of the twenty children mindlessly killed in Newtown, Connecticut,
and as a tribute to all the children who have been victims of violence and war:

No.209

"The children who were in Terezin were mostly alone and had to adapt to what was really a new life. Some of them
had their parents there, and for some it was just a transit station. When they remembered life at home and they were
hopeful they would return, they were inclined to reflect on their situation, in either words or pictures. Their art wasn't
organised by adults in any way, it was always an individual thing."

And Alena Munkova-Synkova would know, because she herself was in fact one of those child poets. Deported to
Terezin in 1942 at the age of 16, she was put in Girls Home L 410, which was under the supervision of a young
man called Willy Groag. She explains the major part he played in saving the children's poems and pictures.

"When the end of the war came Willy Groag, who was the head of one of the Girls Homes at Terezin, collected
everything that had been written by the children and was left there after they had gone. And all of their writings -
if the poems' authors had not survived (which was rare) and hadn't taken the poems back - were collected by
Mr Groag and he gave them to the Jewish museum in Prague. That's how they came to be saved."

Willy Groag went on to live a long life in Israel with his wife Madla and daughter Eva, who was born at Terezin. The work
he collected at the end of the war was later published, eventually reaching a wide audience under the title I Never Saw
Another Butterfly. Alena Munkova-Synkova is the only child whose poem appears in the book still alive today. She
takes up the story.

"In 1964 the first book of poetry and pictures by Terezin children was published. I think it was called Poems and Drawings
from Death Station. Then in the following years such books were published abroad, in many different languages.
Naturally there was a great reaction to them, and Mr Waxman wasn't the only musician to work with them. A lot of
musicians worked with those poems and put them to music, either individually or as part of a larger work."

Franz Waxman was a Jew who fled Hitler's Germany and settled in the United States, where he became a respected
composer, principally of film scores. In the audience at Tuesday's performance in Prague were his son and granddaughter.
John Waxman told me about the part his multilingual aunt played in the genesis of the Song of Terezin.

"My father received a commission from the Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest music festival in the United States, for a
composition for chorus and children's chorus and he was looking desperately for a work that would fit the requirements
of the commission. And one day my aunt, a German refugee who was working in New York for the McGraw-Hill publishing
company...her job was to find European books that were appropriate for publication in the States. And one morning she
called my father and asked him to order her a sandwich for lunch, because in a package from Prague, she said, had
arrived a book which she was sure would be a subject that he would compose. And it was of course the first publication
of I Never Saw Another Butterfly, which at that time was published by the state museum here in Prague."

The book I Never Saw Another Butterfly was named after a poem written on June 4, 1942 by a boy named Pavel Friedman.
He died at Auschwitz in September 1944. There is also a stage play of the same title based on the book. The Song of Terezin
was originally written in English, though there is also a German version: that is what was performed in Prague this week by
almost 300 singers and musicians from the Czech Republic and Austria. John Waxman attended the first ever performance
in 1965, two years before his father's death. Here he describes the work.

"The work is a song cycle of eight songs. The eight songs are each based on a poem. Many of them of course are serious
and reflect the conditions at Theresienstadt. A couple are very light-hearted and joyful, because after all children don't
sit around contemplating their fate all day - they're children. The Little Mouse for example is a piece that is not tragic at all."

Franz Waxman was an Oscar-winning composer who scored almost 150 films. Despite the many successes of his career,
would it be fair to say the Song of Terezin - his last great work - was a labour of love?

"Yes, yes it was. At the time of the commission my father got the flu and was confined to his apartment. And over a ten-day
period the majority of the piece was composed. Later in life, in fact five months before he died, he made a trip here to
Prague because he wanted to see for himself Theresienstadt, and frankly he should have been seeing doctors and had
an operation rather than coming here. But this was such a part of him by that time that he felt that fate had taken a hand,
and he had to actually come here and see for himself. And he said it was one of the most moving experiences of his life."



Music Composed by Franz Waxman and Erich Zeisl
Played by the Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin
And the Berlin Radio Choir & Children's Choir
With Deborah Riedel (soprano), Della Jones (mezzo), Michael Kraus (bass)
Conducted by Lawrence Foster

ON A SUNNY EVENING

On a purple, sun-shot evening
Under wide-flowering chestnut trees
Upon the threshold full of dust
Yesterday, today, the days are all like these.

Trees flower forth in beauty,
Lovely too their very wood all gnarled and old
That I am half afraid to peer
Into their crowns of green and gold.

The sun has made a veil of gold
So lovely that my body aches.
Above, the heavens shriek with blue
Convinced I've smiled by some mistake.
The world's abloom and seems to smile.
I want to fly but where, how high?
If in barbed wire, things can bloom
Why couldn't I? I will not die!
--Michael Flack, 1944

THE LITTLE MOUSE

A mousie sat upon a shelf,
Catching fleas in his coat of fur.
But he couldn't catch her- what chagrin!-
She'd hidden 'way inside his skin.
He turned and wriggled, knew no rest,
That flea was such a nasty pest!

His daddy came
And searched his coat.
He caught the flea and off he ran
To cook her in the frying pan.
The little mouse cried, "Come and see!
For lunch we've got a nice, fat flea!"
--Koleba 1944

BIRDSONG

He doesn't know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out.
He doesn't know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of loveliness.

When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth's aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.

Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.
--Anonymous 1941

THE GARDEN

A little garden,
Fragrant and full of roses.
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.

A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.
--Franta Bass



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No.210

In 1873, still suffering from the shock of defeat by Germany and of the Commune, France began
little by little to recover. The Empire had given way to a Republic that was not without its paradoxes.
On 24th May the Assembly thanked Thiers and then elected Marshal MacMahon, whose monarchist
sympathies were well known, as head of state.

Intellectual and artistic life too no longer dwelt under the traumatic shadow of Sedan. In the field
of music there had just been a notable initiative in the foundation by artists such as Camille Saint-Sa�ns,
C�sar Franck and Romain Bussine, of the Soci�t� Nationale de Musique, established on 17th November
1871. Under the motto Ars Gallica this last greatly assisted the growth of the golden age that then
opened for French music.

It was in this transitional period that Henri Rabaud was born in Paris, on 10th November. It is
difficult to imagine an environment better suited to the development of the child's musical gifts. He
was the grandson of the flautist Louis Doris, the great-nephew of the soprano Dorus-Gras, creator of
many r�les in the operas of Meyerbeer and Hal�vy, and the son of a well known cellist, a member of
the Soci�t� des Concerts, Hippolyte Rabaud. His mother had been chosen by Gounod for the part of
Marguerite at the first performance of his opera Faust on 19th March 1859.

When Henri Rabaud wrote his Divertissement sur des chansons russes in 1899, Russian music was
very much appreciated in Paris. In addition to the works of Tchaikovsky, since the Paris World Exhibition
of 1889 there had been music by the Five. There is no need to overload this attractive work with useless
commentary. We may see here rather a wink of the eye, amused and indulgent, from a French musician
at the public vogue for music of supposed peasant origin with its colourful orchestration and references
to the music of the people.

Apart from these fine pages of orchestral writing, the growing reputation that Rabaud enjoyed at the
beginning of the twentieth century relied for a great part on his activity as a composer for the theatre.
In 1904 he completed his first dramatic work, La Fille de Roland (The Daughter of Roland), with a libretto
by Ferrari based on the work of H. de Bornier, acclaimed by music-lovers. His great operatic success,
however, came in 1914 with M�rouf, Savetier du Caire (M�rouf, Cobbler of Cairo). This work in five acts,
with a libretto by Lucien N�poty inspired by the Arabian Nights, received an enthusiastic welcome when
it was first performed at the Op�ra Comique under the direction of Ruhiman.

M�rouf has now disappeared from the stage, but it is remembered thanks to the Dances. These are taken
from the second scene of the third act, with M�rouf, the Sultan and the Vizier, and the appearance of the
Princess. To understand music of this kind we should relate it to the taste for musical exoticism that had
arisen in the middle of the preceding century. After F�licien David's Le D�sert, Charles Gounod's La Reine
de Saba (The Queen of Sheba) or Georges Bizet's Djamileh, Henri Rabaud knew how to bewitch his public
with powerfully evocative music that, nevertheless, lacks vulgarity and, as Gustave Samazeuilh notes,
combines, with a very French sense of moderation and good taste, classical tradition and oriental colour.

In 1917 Rabaud embarked on a new collaboration with Lucien N�poty, now for the dramatic stage. The latter
had made an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and suggested that Rabaud should write
musical entr'actes. The composer accepted, but rather than write a completely new score, he adapted for
orchestra music from the English virginalists of the sixteenth century, William Byrd, Giles Farnaby and
anonymous composers of the period. Realised with great refinement and intelligence in the use of instrumental
colours, these transcriptions were later regrouped into Suite anglaises, of which two are here included.

Attracted by a seventh art still in its infancy, Henri Rabaud collaborated with the director Raymond Bernard
in 1924-25 with music far the Miracle des Loup and Joueur d'Echecs (Chess-Player), the first original music
written far silent films.

In 1928the Paris Op�ra staged M�rauf again and, probably stimulated by this public success, Rabaud turned
his attention to a lighter work, Rolande et Je Mauvais Garcon (Rolande and the Bad Bay), completed in 1933
and staged at the Palais Garnier in 1937.

After a tour of South America as a conductor the following year, Henri Rabaud returned to France. During the
second world war he became a member of the Executive Board the Comit� Professional de l'Art Musical,
established in 1943 by Alfred Cortot, with Germaine Lubin, Jacques Thibaud and Marguerite Long, and took
Albert Wolft's place as director of the Pasdeloup Orchestra. He died an 11th September 1949 at the age of
seventy-six, while still working on his last opera, Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard (The Game of Lave
and Fortune).



Music Composed by Henri Rabaud
Played by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Conducted by Leif Segerstam

"M�rouf, savetier du Caire (Marouf, Cobbler of Cairo) is an op�ra comique by the French composer
Henri Rabaud. The libretto, by Lucien Nepoty, is based on a tale from the Arabian Nights. M�rouf was first
performed at the Op�ra-Comique, Paris, on 15 May 1914. The premiere was a great success and
M�rouf became Rabaud's most popular opera. The score makes great use of oriental colour. The
United States premiere of the opera was given at the Metropolitan Opera on December 19, 1917
with Giuseppe De Luca in the title role, Frances Alda as Princess Saamcheddine, and Pierre Monteux
conducting.

The hen-pecked cobbler Marouf decides to join a group of sailors and travels to Khiatan where he
pretends to be a rich merchant awaiting the arrival of his caravan. The sultan is impressed and offers
him the hand of his daughter Saamcheddine. Marouf's deception is discovered and he flees, followed
by the princess, who has fallen in love with him. They find a mysterious ring which gives Marouf power
over a magician. The magician grants Marouf's wish for the caravan he boasted about to become reality.
The sultan is appeased, pardons Marouf and allows him to marry Saamcheddine."
Wikipedia



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Great Rabaud!
Thanks again, wimpel!

No.211

During his lifetime, Swiss-German composer Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882) was one of the
most popular symphonists, the number of performances and public esteem rivalling that of
Johannes Brahms. After Raff's death, however, all of that changed: His music fell into
oblivion almost instantly, his reputation being reduced to that of an "eclectic". For decades,
none of the symphonies were every performed, and the only work of his that stayed in the
repertoire was an unassuming, salon piece called Cavatina. Only in the past decade and a half
have the symphonies been resurrected, mostly in recordings.

Bernard Herrmann was a staunch advocate of Raff's music, and especially his program symphony
"Lenore" (Symphony No.5) decades before anybody else reappraised his body of work. He conducted
the symphony on his CBS radio program, and, in 1970, he made the first modern recording of
the work, for the small Pye label, and mostly at his own expense. To this day, it is still the best
performance of the symphony, and despite some untidy ensemble and a few sound distortions at climaxes,
it outclasses the later competition (Schneider, Stadlmair & Carthy) in excitement and color.



Music Composed by Joachim Raff
Played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Bernard Herrmann

"Up rose Lenore as the red morn wore,
From weary visions starting;
"Art faithless, William, or, William, art dead?
'Tis long since thy departing."
For he, with Frederick's men of might,
In fair Prague waged the uncertain fight;
Nor once had he writ in the hurry of war,
And sad was the true heart that sickened afar.

The Empress and the King,
With ceaseless quarrel tired,
At length relaxed the stubborn hate
Which rivalry inspired:
And the martial throng, with laugh and song,
Spoke of their homes as they rode along,
And clank, clank, clank! came every rank,
With the trumpet-sound that rose and sank.

And here and there and everywhere,
Along the swarming ways,
Went old man and boy, with music of joy,
On the gallant bands to gaze;
And the young child shouted to spy the vaward,
And trembling and blushing the bride pressed forward:
But ah! for the sweet lips of Lenore
The kiss and the greeting are vanished and o'er.

From man to man all wildly she ran
With a swift and searching eye;
But she felt alone in the mighty mass,
As it crushed and crowded by:
On hurried the troop, - a gladsome group, -
And proudly the tall plumes wave and droop:
She tore her hair and she turned her round,
And madly she dashed her against the ground.

Her mother clasped her tenderly
With soothing words and mild:
"My child, may God look down on thee, -
God comfort thee, my child."
"Oh! mother, mother! gone is gone!
I reck no more how the world runs on:
What pity to me does God impart?
Woe, woe, woe! for my heavy heart!"

"Help, Heaven, help and favour her!
Child, utter an Ave Marie!
Wise and great are the doings of God;
He loves and pities thee."
"Out, mother, out, on the empty lie!
Doth he heed my despair, - doth he list to my cry?
What boots it now to hope or to pray?
The night is come, - there is no more day."

"Help, Heaven, help! who knows the Father
Knows surely that he loves his child:
The bread and the wine from the hand divine
Shall make thy tempered grief less wild."
"Oh! mother, dear mother! the wine and the bread
Will not soften the anguish that bows down my head;
For bread and for wine it will yet be as late
That his cold corpse creeps from the grim grave's gate."

"What if the traitor's false faith failed,
By sweet temptation tried, -
What if in distant Hungary
He clasp another bride? -
Despise the fickle fool, my girl,
Who hath ta'en the pebble and spurned the pearl:
While soul and body shall hold together
In his perjured heart shall be stormy weather."

"Oh! mother, mother! gone is gone,
And lost will still be lost!
Death, death is the goal of my weary soul,
Crushed and broken and crost.
Spark of my life! down, down to the tomb:
Die away in the night, die away in the gloom!
What pity to me does God impart?
Woe, woe, woe! for my heavy heart!"

"Help, Heaven, help, and heed her not,
For her sorrows are strong within;
She knows not the words that her tongue repeats, -
Oh! Count them not for sin!
Cease, cease, my child, thy wretchedness,
And think on the promised happiness;
So shall thy mind's calm ecstasy
Be a hope and a home and a bridegroom to thee."

"My mother, what is happiness?
My mother, what is Hell?
With William is my happiness, -
Without him is my Hell!
Spark of my life! down, down to the tomb:
Die away in the night, die away in the gloom!
Earth and Heaven, Heaven and earth,
Reft of William are nothing worth."

Thus grief racked and tore the breast of Lenore,
And was busy at her brain;
Thus rose her cry to the Power on high,
To question and arraign:
Wringing her hands and beating her breast, -
Tossing and rocking without any rest; -
Till from her light veil the moon shone thro',
And the stars leapt out on the darkling blue.

But hark to the clatter and the pat pat patter!
Of a horse's heavy hoof!
How the steel clanks and rings as the rider springs!
How the echo shouts aloof!
While silently and lightly the gentle bell
Tingles and jingles softly and well;
And low and clear through the door plank thin
Comes the voice without to the ear within:

"Holla! holla! unlock the gate;
Art waking, my bride, or sleeping?
Is thy heart still free and faithful to me?
Art laughing, my bride, or weeping?"
"Oh! wearily, William, I've waited for you, -
Woefully watching the long day thro', -
With a great sorrow sorrowing
For the cruelty of your tarrying."

"Till the dead midnight we saddled not, -
I have journeyed far and fast -
And hither I come to carry thee back
Ere the darkness shall be past."
"Ah! rest thee within till the night's more calm;
Smooth shall thy couch be, and soft, and warm:
Hark to winds, how they whistle and rush
Thro' the twisted twine of the hawthorn-bush."

"Thro' the hawthorn-bush let whistle and rush, -
Let whistle, child, let whistle!
Mark the flash fierce and high of my steed's bright eye,
And his proud crest's eager bristle.
Up, up and away! I must not stay:
Mount swiftly behind me! up, up and away!
An hundred miles must be ridden and sped
Ere we may lie down in the bridal-bed."

"What! ride an hundred miles to-night,
By thy mad fancies driven!
Dost hear the bell with its sullen swell,
As it rumbles out eleven?"
"Look forth! look forth! the moon shines bright:
We and the dead gallop fast thro' the night.
'Tis for a wager I bear thee away
To the nuptial couch ere break of day."

"Ah! where is the chamber, William dear,
And William, where is the bed?"
"Far, far from here: still, narrow, and cool:
Plank and bottom and lid."
"Hast room for me?" - "For me and thee;
Up, up to the saddle right speedily!
The wedding-guests are gathered and met,
And the door of the chamber is open set."

She busked her well, and into the selle
She sprang with nimble haste, -
And gently smiling, with a sweet beguiling,
Her white hands clasped his waist: -
And hurry, hurry! ring, ring, ring!
To and fro they sway and swing;
Snorting and snuffing they skim the ground,
And the sparks fly up, and the stones run round.

Here to the right and there to the left
Flew fields of corn and clover,
And the bridges flashed by to the dazzled eye,
As rattling they thundered over.
"What ails my love? the moon shines bright:
Bravely the dead men ride through the night.
Is my love afraid of the quiet dead?"
"Ah! no; - let them sleep in their dusty bed!"

On the breeze cool and soft what tune floats aloft,
While the crows wheel overhead? -
Ding dong! ding dong! 'tis the sound, 'tis the song, -
"Room, room for the passing dead!"
Slowly the funeral-train drew near,
Bearing the coffin, bearing the bier;
And the chime of their chant was hissing and harsh,
Like the note of the bull-frog within the marsh.

"You bury your corpse at the dark midnight,
With hymns and bells and wailing; -
But I bring home my youthful wife
To a bride-feast's rich regaling.
Come, chorister, come with thy choral throng,
And solemnly sing me a marriage-song;
Come, friar, come, - let the blessing be spoken,
That the bride and the bridegroom's sweet rest be unbroken."

Died the dirge and vanished the bier: -
Obedient to his call,
Hard hard behind, with a rush like the wind,
Came the long steps' pattering fall:
And ever further! ring, ring, ring!
To and fro they sway and swing;
Snorting and snuffing they skim the ground,
And the sparks spurt up, and the stones run round.

How flew to the right, how flew to the left,
Trees, mountains in the race!
How to the left, and the right and the left,
Flew town and market-place!
"What ails my love? the moon shines bright:
Bravely the dead men ride thro' the night.
Is my love afraid of the quiet dead?"
"Ah! let them alone in their dusty bed!"

See, see, see! by the gallows-tree,
As they dance on the wheel's broad hoop,
Up and down, in the gleam of the moon
Half lost, an airy group: -
"Ho, ho! mad mob, come hither amain,
And join in the wake of my rushing train; -
Come, dance me a dance, ye dancers thin,
Ere the planks of the marriage bed close us in."

And hush, hush, hush! the dreamy rout
Came close with a ghastly bustle,
Like the whirlwind in the hazel-bush,
When it makes the dry leaves rustle:
And faster, faster! ring, ring, ring!
To and fro they sway and swing;
Snorting and snuffing they skim the ground,
And the sparks spurt up, and the stones run round.

How flew the moon high overhead,
In the wild race madly driven!
In and out, how the stars danced about,
And reeled o'er the flashing heaven!
"What ails my love? the moon shines bright:
Bravely the dead men ride thro' the night.
Is my love afraid of the quiet dead?"
"Alas! let them alone in their dusty bed!"

"Horse, horse! meseems 'tis the cock's shrill note,
And the sand is well nigh spent;
Horse, horse, away! 'tis the break of day, -
'Tis the morning air's sweet scent.
Finished, finished is our ride:
Room, room for the bridegroom and the bride!
At last, at last, we have reached the spot,
For the speed of the dead man has slackened not!"

And swiftly up to an iron gate
With reins relaxed they went;
At the rider's touch the bolts flew back,
And the bars were broken and bent;
The doors were burst with a deafening knell,
And over the white graves they dashed pell mell:
The tombs around looked grassy and grim,
As they glimmered and glanced in the moonlight dim.

But see! But see! in an eyelid's beat,
Towhoo! a ghastly wonder!
The horseman's jerkin, piece by piece,
Dropped off like brittle tinder!
Fleshless and hairless, a naked skull,
The sight of his weird head was horrible;
The lifelike mask was there no more,
And a scythe and a sandglass the skeleton bore.

Loud snorted the horse as he plunged and reared,
And the sparks were scattered round: -
What man shall say if he vanished away,
Or sank in the gaping ground?
Groans from the earth and shrieks in the air!
Howling and wailing everywhere!
Half dead, half living, the soul of Lenore
Fought as it never had fought before.

The churchyard troop, - a ghostly group, -
Close round the dying girl;
Out and in they hurry and spin
Through the dancer's weary whirl:
"Patience, patience, when the heart is breaking;
With thy God there is no question-making:
Of thy body thou art quit and free:
Heaven keep thy soul eternally!"
Gottfried August B�rger, "Lenore"



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I couldn't agree more that this is the best version of this symphony!
The fourth movement is chilly!
Thanks a lot!

No.212

Johan Svendsen, along with his exact contemporary Grieg, represents Norwegian Romanticism at its apex.
Outside of Norway, where his status has never been questioned, Svendsen, despite his eclipse by Grieg, has
nonetheless retained a cult of admirers and it may be only a matter of time before he receives the same belated
international interest accorded to Berwald and Nielsen.

In his music, Svendsen prolifically composed in all idioms. With his bent toward classical forms, he forms a yin and
yang of Norwegian Romantic music with the more overtly national Grieg. Yet there is a Nordic inflection present
in the language, much as Tchaikovsky's Russian-ism shows through in his selected Western models. As such, he
may rightly be placed in the august line of composers of the Nordic symphonic tradition. During his lifetime, the
popularity of the Norwegian Artists' Carnival eclipsed that of all his other works, a fact that embittered
Svendsen. Today, his other works enjoy wider exposure, such as the lovely four Norwegian Rhapsodies,
recorded here, or the "Legend" Zorahayda.



Music Composed by Johan Svendsen
Played by the Bergen Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Karsten Andersen

"Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 1840 – 14 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and
violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark. Svendsen's
output includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, and the Romance for violin, as well as a number of
Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra. At one time Svendsen was an intimate friend of the German composer Richard Wagner.

His father was a music teacher and Svendsen learned both the violin and clarinet from him. By the time he
finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a
violinist. In L�beck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible
for him to study from 1863-67 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Ferdinand David, but
problems with his hand forced him to switch to composition, which he studied with Carl Reinecke. He completed
his studies in Leipzig in 1867, receiving first prize in composition. During this period, Svendsen had a son out of
wedlock, Johann Richard Rudolph (1867–1933).

Gradually his attention turned to conducting. After spending time in Paris (1868–70) and Leipzig (1870–72), he
returned to Christiania. In the summer of 1871, he went to New York City to marry Sarah (Sally, later changed to
Bergljot) Levett Schmidt, whom he had met in Paris. He was conductor of the Musical Society Concerts in Christiania
(1872–77), then spent three years in Germany, Italy, England and France. He returned to teach and conduct in
Kristiania (1880–1883). In 1883, he was appointed principal conductor of the Royal Theater Orchestra in Copenhagen,
where he lived until his death.

In 1884, he and his wife separated, and she moved to Paris. Their relationship had been chaotic for several years.
A famous anecdote would have it that in 1883, in a fit of anger, she had thrown the only copy of his Symphony No.3
in the fire. This incident was used by Henrik Ibsen in Hedda Gabler. If anything was caught up in fire at all, it is rather
unlikely it was anything near a complete symphony. However, some sketches, most likely for a symphony were found
by conductor Bjarte Engeset in 2007. They were elaborated and orchestrated by Bj�rn Morten Christophersen and
premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Engeset in 2011. Following a divorce from Sarah (10 December 1901),
he married (23 December 1901) Juliette Haase with whom he had been living and had three children. His younger son
from this marriage was the famous Danish actor Eyvind Johan-Svendsen (1896–1946).

In stark contrast to his more famous contemporary and close friend, Edvard Grieg, Svendsen was famous for his skill of
orchestration rather than that of harmonic value. While Grieg composed mostly for small instrumentation, Svendsen
composed primarily for orchestras and large ensembles. His most famous work is his Romance for Violin and Orchestra,
Op. 26. He was very popular in Denmark and Norway during his lifetime, both as a composer and a conductor, winning
many national awards and honors. However this popularity did not translate into acceptance into the international
repertory of classical music. He died in Copenhagen, aged 70.

Svendsen's first published work, the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 1, achieved great popular success. He quickly followed
with the String Octet, Op. 3 and String Quintet, Op. 5, both of which added to his early fame. All of Svendsen's chamber
music was written while he was at the Leipzig Conservatory, yet these works are not considered student works. By general
consensus, Svendsen was regarded as one of the most talented students then at the Conservatory. His works won prizes
and received public performances to much acclaim."
Wikipedia



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No.213

A collection of very American orchestral suites, dealing in one way or another, with children. P.T.Barnum
was a famous impresario who ran a popular circus and sometimes provided rather bizarre attractions. Douglas Moore's
innocuous suite only hints to the darker aspect of that showmen of showmen. A popular piece in its time was John Alden Carpenter's
charming Adventures in a Perambulator which aims to gaze at the whole wide world from the eyes of a little child. Bernard Rogers
was a fellow professor of Hanson's at the Eastman Rochester School of Music. His suite Once Upon a Time is a collection of short tone
poems on some well-known fairy tales. McGuffey's Reader was a book used for young school children in the US for a very long time
since the 19th century, Burrill Phillips has picked some of its "educational stories" for lyrical and comic possibilities. A quintessential
collection for "The American Scene", performed with gusto by Howard Hanson and his players.



Music by Douglas Moore, John Alden Carpenter, Bernard Rogers & Burrill Phillips
Played by the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra
Conducted by Howard Hanson

"Readers who are interested in baby treatment may be interested to know that a symphony has been composed about a baby's outing
with his nurse in a pram. Saffy has prepared an introduction, and these are followed by the composer's own notes. I have used the beautiful
CD cover picture for the cover illustration of the 2001 edition of 'Dummy Discipline Digest'.

Recently while browsing a local record shop I came across a recording in the classical section that I thought would be suitable for adult
babies everywhere. The title of the piece is 'Adventures in a Perambulator', by an American composer called John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951).
I first became familiar with the piece several years ago, but this new CD is a modern recording and has the advantage of costing under a fiver!

Although a largely forgotten figure now, John Alden Carpenter was among the foremost American composers of his generation. Many of the
leading conductors and orchestras of the period performed his music. At the height of his fame in the 1920's he was even commisioned to
write a ballet for Dyagilev's Ballets Russe. 'Adventures in a Perambulator' was written in 1914 for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and
became an instant hit. The depiction of a day in the life of a baby, inspired by the composer's only child, Ginny, represented an unusual
scenario and the piece, in fact, was chosen by Walt Disney for an ultimately aborted sequel to 'Fantasia'.

There are six movements in total - each with a descriptive title:-

1. En Voiture; 2. The Policeman
3. The Hurdy-Gurdy; 4. The Lake
5. Dogs; 6. Dreams

In the first movement, En Voiture! (All Aboard!), the baby sets out with its nurse, and the limping syncopation of the celesta melody is
said to have been inspired by a minor defect in one of the wheels of Ginny's perambulator.

The second movement, The Policeman, introduces an Irish cop, who engages in a flirtation with the nurse before being interrupted by
the impatient baby.

In the third movement, the baby falls under the spell of a Hurdy-Gurdy player, whose repertory includes the 'Miserere' from 'Il Trovarore',
Eduardo Di Capuas popular 'Oh, Marie', and Irving Berlin's hit, 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. At the movement's conclusion, the cop reappears,
frightening away the player, and leaving only a memory of the "delightful forbidden music".

The fourth movement, composed in part while Carpenter was on holiday on Wisconsin's Lake Geneva, depicts the baby's impressions
of The Lake.

For the baby's subsequent encounter with Dogs, Carpenter quotes both Septimus Winner's 'Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone',
and 'Ach, du lieher Augustin'.

In the last movement, Dreams, the adventures of the day are recalled as Mother puts baby to sleep with a tune similar to the French
lullaby, 'Dodo, L'enfant Do'.

The music is very easy going and pleasant to listen to - recommended for adult babies everywhere!"


Douglas Moore, John Alden Carpenter

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Me too!

Bunnies!

well,well,you�re a really ignorant ,so I don�t ask you anymore.I can�t waste my time,and you better go to learn music-By the way ,if my english is too bad(and it�s no matter to me),what about your spanish,charlatan?

@ Guilloteclub: Despu�s de que ha sido mencionado por varias personas, incluido yo mismo, todav�a no parecen entender que la forma correcta de comunicarse no es la forma en que persisten en hacer. Por favor, comportarse de manera civilizada o callar.

---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:21 PM ----------

@Wimpel69, Running the risk of sounding repetitive: Thank you for continuing the musical cornucopia . I was under the impression I already had heard all of Herrmann's recordings but the Raff Symphony is another one of your welcome additions to my musical education.
I was however already familiar with the Hanson /Mercury album . Given that you mention Disney's attempt to include "Adventures in a Perambulator " in Fantasia (or rather what was planned as the follow up to the first movie) you might be interested to see the surviving story boards : Michael Sporn Animation - Splog � Perambulator (http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1294)

No.214

Julius Harrison, like Montague Phillips, is another English composer whose roots like in
the 19th rather than the 20th century, and whose works are often seen as British Light Music
in view of the late romantic style that the composers employed.

This album features two of Harrison's orchestral suites (always a popular form for
light music), the Worcestershire Suite and the Troubadour Suite. The Prelude-Music
for Harp and Strings is another charming, yet not insubstantial addition.

Hubert Clifford has enjoyed more exposure in recent years due to several high-profile
recordings on the Chandos label. Here, we can hear the lighter, more lyrical side of
his oeuvre, represented by the Serenade for Strings.



Music Composed by Julius Harrison
Played by the BBC Concert Orchestra
With Matthew Trusler (violin)
Conducted by Barry Wordsworth

"It's a tricky thing about twentieth century English orchestral music -- how exactly do you tell the difference
between "light" music composers and "serious" music composers? If you didn't know that Julius Harrison's richly
nostalgic Worcestershire Suite wasn't by Delius and his lushly bucolic Bredon Hill wasn't by Vaughan Williams,
would you know they were written by a light and not a serious music composer? Could you tell by their sprightly
tunes, striking orchestrations, warm colors, and honest earnestness that Harrison wasn't considered to be in
the same league as Finzi or Moeran? Probably not -- no more than you tell that the lovely and gracious Serenade
for Strings by Hubert Clifford that fills out the disc wasn't in the same league as Vaughan Williams' burley and
bumptious Partita for double string orchestra. In these world-premiere or CD-premiere recordings by Barry
Wordsworth leading the BBC Concert Orchestra, the scores of Harrison and Clifford come alive in deeply skillful
and profoundly affectionate performances. Wordsworth, the BBC Concert Orchestra's principal conductor,
seems to have no idea that this is light music; his interpretations here grant the composers the same aesthetic
due as his interpretations of Delius, Vaughan Williams, and even Wagner did for those composers in his earlier
recordings. And the BBC Concert Orchestra, which was in fact Clifford's orchestra for a time in the '50s, gives
performances here that are fully in the same class as the BBC's serious orchestras. Light or serious, anyone
who loves English music from the first half of the twentieth century will surely enjoy this disc. Dutton's sound
in this 2006 digital recording is warm, full, and round."
All Music





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Nice music!

Thanks for the continuing series of British (light or not) music!

It�s your loss,He�s a genius who open doors to the future,like Debussy but in different ways.To hearing Mahler you needa patient behavior to enter in his marvellous world.Take a chance

---------- Post added at 06:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:26 AM ----------

vaughan williams me aburre en sus sinfonias (salvo en su sinf.3 "pastoral" que el bella e imita todo el tiempo al gran Delius).Es bomb�stico sin nada que decir y no tiene el minimo nivel para juzgar nada menos que a Mahler-.V.W.esta bueno para lo pastoral como In the fen cuontry,the lark ascending,norfolk rhapsody,etc.

[/COLOR]Given that you mention Disney's attempt to include "Adventures in a Perambulator " in Fantasia (or rather what was planned as the follow up to the first movie) you might be interested to see the surviving story boards : Michael Sporn Animation - Splog � Perambulator (http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1294)

Thanks for the link!

---------- Post added at 11:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 AM ----------




No.215

David Stock was born in 1939 in Pittsburgh, where he continues to make
his principal home. He studied trumpet and composition with Nikolai Lopatnikoff
and Alexei Haieff at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (later Carnegie Mellon University),
where he received his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1962 and his master of fine arts degree
a year later. He earned another master’s degree at Brandeis University, studying with
Arthur Berger. He has also studied at the �cole Normale de Musique in Paris and at the
Berkshire Music Center.

Stock’s dramatic cantata for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra, A Little Miracle, has
been described by its librettist, Bess Weldon, as an “operatic monodrama.” The story is her
own creation, but it plays out against the very real and familiar theme of parent and child
hiding and attempting to escape during the German war of annihilation against Europe’s
Jews. Here, the tale is woven around the dual miracle of birth itself and of survival through
the faith and courage sustained by the memory of a mother’s song.

The title of Yizkor (lit., May He [God] Remember), Stock’s single-movement elegy
for string orchestra, refers to the name of the formal Jewish memorial service for specific
relatives (hazkarat n’shamot—remembrance of souls). This service is conducted communally,
but recited individually, among Ashkenazi Jews on four occasions on the liturgical
calendar—usually within the morning Torah service, before returning the scrolls to the ark.

Stock’s Tekiah [t’ki’a], is a three-movement work for trumpet and chamber orchestra.
The word tekiah translates from the Hebrew literally as “sounding,” but it is most commonly
associated with the sounding, or blowing, of the shofar and its required hearing on
Rosh Hashana (notwithstanding the various functions of the shofar on other occasions, both
historically and in contemporary usage). More specifically, t’ki’a is the name of one of the
three plaintive call patterns—mostly outlining the interval of a perfect fifth—according to
which the shofar is blown on Rosh Hashana and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

Y’rusha (Hebrew for “inheritance” or “heritage”) is a cleverly fashioned divertissement of unrelated
melodic and modal references, tune shards, and instrumental idioms derived mostly
from the perceived melos of eastern European Jewry and its immigrant generation in America.
Stock has imagined these as a single collective representation of one particular aspect of
Jewish musical y’rusha. The work, for clarinet solo and an ensemble of seven instruments, is
permeated by sighs, wails, slides, exaggerated portamento effects, and other clich�s emblematic
of the performance styles and techniques of 19thand early-20th-century Jewish wedding-band
musicians known as klezmorim (sing., klezmer).



Music Composed by David Stock
Played by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
With Elizabeth Shammash (mezzo-soprano), Stephen Burns (trumpet) & Richard Stoltzman (clarinet)
Conducted by Gerard Schwarz & David Stock

"The Pittsburgh composer David Stock (b 1939) is the subject of this installment of the Milken Archive of
American Jewish Music. In a departure of sorts from the Archive's usual formula, the program contains no
liturgical music, unless you count the insertion of the Ashkenazi tunes for Avinu Malkenu and Oseh Shalom into
Y'rusha, a clarinet concerto. The last three pieces are purely orchestral, and the first, A Little Miracle, is a
solo cantata for mezzo and orchestra. (In keeping with the Milken formula, the cantata is on Holocaust themes.)

Stock's preternaturally youthful music is simple and accessible without pandering too much to its audience;
this is the sort of music I'd feel good about giving to my less musically sophisticated relatives, who would
get all the musical references and maybe even be able to talk about the clear, neoclassical structures. As a
composer, Stock has the clarity (but not the austerity) of a latter-day minimalist like Part and Adams together,
and the heart of a Joe Sixpackstein; there's no fancy stuff, no hamhanded sophistication and pretentions, to
get in the way of the music's simple expression."
American Record Guide





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No.216

Canadian composer Godfrey Ridout was born in Toronto May 6, 1918 and died on November 24, 1984.
His interest in music was kindled early by being taken to concerts of the newly reformed Toronto Symphony
Orchestra. He received his musical education in Toronto under Ettore Mazzoleni, Charles Peaker and
Healey Willan. He was appointed to the staff of the Toronto Conservatory of Music (now the Royal
Conservatory) in 1939 and to the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, in 1948 where he was an
Associate Professor. He retired from the University's Faculty of Music in 1982.

Ridout’s approach to music was shaped by his instructors at Upper Canada College: Ettore Mazzoleni,
Healey Willan, Charles Peaker, and Weldon Kilburn. He loved the music of English composers of the 19th and
early 20th centuries. With Edward Elgar as his favourite, he also admired Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius,
Sir Arthur Sullivan, and Benjamin Britten. He also liked the works of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Ludwig van
Beethoven, and Johannes Brahms. He favoured music based on craftsmanship and was not a fan of music
that was overly showy.

Ridout’s career as a composer was an active one: his many compositions include Two Etudes for String Orchestra (1946),
Cantiones Mysticae (music set to Holy Sonnets by John Donne) (1953), Music for a Young Prince
(written to celebrate a 1959 visit to Canada by Prince Charles) and Fall Fair (1961), his best-known piece. In 1981,
he was involved in a full staging of the Canadian opera Colas and Colinette. For this project, he reconstructed a
full score and composed an overture.



Music Composed by Godfrey Rdiout
Played by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
With Joanne Kolomyjec (soprano) & Steve Dann (viola)
Conducted by Victor Feldbrill

"Godfrey Ridout was proud of his heritage as a Canadian. He was a fourth generation Torontonian, a descendant
of Thomas Ridout, the first Surveyor-General of Upper Canada in the Simcoe administration of the 1790s. He was also
enormously proud of his great-great grandmother on his mother’s side, Amoi Chun Bird, who had immigrated to Barrie,
Ontario from China in 1869, raising eight children largely by herself after the death of her husband four years later.
Amoi lived until 1923, long enough to leave memories in a small boy’s mind of a revered elderly woman who loved
cars, and ruled her large family as a traditional Chinese matriarch would have done.

Godfrey Ridout grew up in Toronto, and was educated entirely in Ontario. His early education was at Lakefield
College School, where regular participation in the local fall fairs provided later inspiration for his best known work.
Most of his secondary schooling occurred at Upper Canada College which had a very good music program, but his
final year of high school was spent at North Toronto Collegiate, to which he had switched in pursuit of the
opportunity to conduct student productions of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Godfrey’s father wanted him to go into banking or insurance, good jobs in the late 1930s, and traditional careers
in his family. Following an unsuccessful job interview with a bank manager who was looking for recruits who could
add strength to the branch hockey team, his family appears to have dropped its insistence on a business career,
leaving Godfrey to pursue musical studies at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (now the Royal Conservatory of
Music) and privately with teachers such as Ettore Mazzoleni and Healey Willan. You can learn more about Godfrey’s
musical education and his career from the article in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

At the Toronto Conservatory, Godfrey met the beautiful young soprano and pianist Freda Antrobus (1920-2005).
The daughter of English immigrants, Freda was born and raised in Coleman, Alberta, a coal mining town in the Crows
Nest Pass. The small towns and cities of depression era Alberta spawned a vibrant musical life that revolved around
lessons and competitive festivals, and examinations with examiners imported from the Toronto Conservatory. Freda
was headed for the Royal College of Music in London when war intervened, leading her to study in Toronto instead,
where she became a double gold medalist in voice and piano at the Conservatory. She was a cast member of a
popular radio show in Toronto singing as "Freda Clare", and later became a founding member of The Festival Singers
of Canada. She retired professionally after the birth of her third child, returning to part-time television work as an
actor after her husband’s death.

Godfrey and Freda were married in 1944 at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto. This high-Anglican
(Anglo-Catholic) church was home to Godfrey’s teacher Healey Willan, and had special meaning for Godfrey. The
mysticism of the traditional Anglican mass, the language of the Book of Common Prayer, the Sanctus bells and the
incense were outward characteristics of a spirituality that shows itself clearly in much of his work, particularly the
Cantiones Mysticae. Although Godfrey was a Churchwarden at St. James Cathedral for many years, his funeral
service was held at St. Mary’s.

The Ridouts had three children, Naomi (1948), Victoria (1951) and Michael (1957-1998). Family life was paramount
for both parents. Although Godfrey’s professional life, which involved composing and teaching at the Faculty of
Music, University of Toronto, conducting and teaching private composition students, took up much of his day,
there was always time for activities involving all the children. As small children, bedtime was signaled by a
thumping rendition of Elgar’s "Land of Hope and Glory" from Godfrey at the grand piano. Daily dinnertime was a
ritual event, with much conversation and at times heated discussions on just about anything. Sunday dinners
were a rather formal affair, usually with guests. Some were musicians passing though on tour with their wives,
such as Sir Isadore Godfrey and James Walker, conductors of the D’oyley Carte Opera Company. Frequent guests
included Kathleen Parlow, an elderly and formidable violinist, George "Papa" Lambert, Freda’s voice teacher and
Naomi’s godfather, and his wife Gretchen, Herman Voaden, teacher and playwright, and his wife Violet, and
Harvey Olnick, a transplanted New Yorker and musicologist who was Godfrey’s closest friend.

The children have fond memories of growing up in a family where they were included in their parents’ musical lives.
They learned from an early age to sit silently among empty seats in Eaton Auditorium, Massey Hall or in cramped
CBC Television studios during rehearsals for productions such as Edward German’s Tom Jones, or Gilbert and
Sullivan’s The Mikado. On rehearsal nights of the Festival Singers, Godfrey cooked wonderful omelettes for the
children while Freda was gone. They were also taken from an early age to "adult" concerts, ballets and plays,
on regular outings to Toronto Island, and for summers to England, to a cottage in Muskoka, or to Vancouver
(where Godfrey taught summer school at the University of British Columbia). This fairly tranquil routine was disrupted
in the early 1960s when son Michael developed a serious childhood cancer from which he nearly died. The intense
sadness and stress of that period is reflected in Godfrey’s work The Ascension (1961-2), which sets text by Bishop
Venantius Fortunatus (503-609) including the line "Rescue, recall in life those who are rushing to death". Godfrey
later said that this particular line provided huge comfort and the resources necessary to complete the work.

Godfrey had joined the staff of the Conservatory in 1940, moving to the music department of the University of
Toronto in 1948. Despite his lack of advanced degrees, he was true scholar of music history, teaching courses
ranging from introductory surveys for non-musicians to specialized music history. In his early career, he earned extra
money from directing the Eaton Operatic Society and the St. Joseph’s College School choir. He was also musical
director and conductor for a number of successful CBC television productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas
produced by Norman Campbell. In later years, he used both his scholarly knowledge and his teaching skills to write
the popular program notes for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. These were published after his death as A Concert
Goer’s Companion to Music.

When he wasn’t teaching, Godfrey was often at work in his home "studio", composing. The studio was off limits to
the children while he was work, sometimes for hours at a stretch. The family could hear phrases of now familiar
works such as Fall Fair being hammered out and revised on the upright piano."





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No.217

A characterful and expressive dramatic cantata by one of the leading French film composers,
Fr�d�ric Talgorn (Robotjox, The Fortress, Delta Force II): Vinum et Sanguinem,
or: Hymne � Saint Vincent.



Music Composed by Fr�d�ric Talgorn
Played by the Camerata de Bourgogne
With the Choeur de la Saint Vincent
Conducted by Michel Piquemal

"Fr�d�ric Talgorn (born July 2, 1961 in Toulouse, France) is a French composer for film and television.

He studied music at the Paris Conservatoire where his teachers included Sabine Lacoraet and Yvonne Loriod,
but he completed his studies on his own. In 1987 he moved to the United States where he began to compose
film music. He also wrote the official music to accompany the Olympic flame for the 1992 Winter Olympic Games.
Notable film scores include Robot Jox, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection, Heavy Metal 2000, and Fortress.
He also has an extensive catalogue of concert music, and has often conducted his own works in concert and
recording sessions. He has also conducted and recorded film scores of others with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra."
Wikipedia



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You are constantly delighting me with the length and breadth of your knowledge Wimpel. Thank you for educating me in the world of classical music. Of course I know the classics, but you have introduced me to some hidden and exquisite gems here. Your latest, Talgorn, is new to me, though I am fan of his film music (under-represented on CD).

No.218

Vitězslav Nov�k was born in 1870, the son of a doctor. His father died when his eldest son was twelve,
leaving him with some responsibility for the support of his mother and his younger brothers and sisters. In spite
of an earlier induced dislike of music, at the Gymnasium in the south Bohemian town of Jindrichuv Hradec (Neuhaus),
where the family settled, Nov�k overcame this, under the guidance of an inspiring teacher, to become a good
pianist and to start composing music of his own. His tendency was towards programme music, much influenced
by Mendelssohn, and later by Schumann and Grieg. He studied law at Prague University on a scholarship,
concentrating at the same time largely on musical studies at the Conservatory. He suffered harsh criticism
there from his harmony teacher, Knittl, and this was only overcome to some extent by his attendance at master
classes in composition given by Dvor�k. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1892 with his Violin Sonata and
continued piano studies for four more years, while continuing to attend courses at the University until 1895,
when he left without taking a degree.

The symphonic poem Pan, originally written for piano, is in five movements. It opens with a Prologue, an
evocation of the spirit of the ancientgod, delicately conjured up in a telling use of the orchestra, in which the
piccolo and then the flute suggest the shepherd pipes, rather as if Debussy had been born and bred in the same
country and studied with Dvor�k, never venturing to Paris. The rarefied air of the mountains is suggested in the
opening of the motivically related second movement, leading to music of greater majesty, but ending as it began.
The third movement, Sea, marked with some originality Allegro spumante, suits the music to the direction, a
romantic picture, again united to what has gone before by its thematic material. The next movement opens in the
stillness of the forest, recalling the first bars of the whole work. Pan ends in fernale caprice, impetuous in its
opening, then briefly and sweetly pleasing, moving forward to a swirling tarantelle, tantalisingly introduced by
the woodwind, but bringing moments of respite and nostalgic reminiscences of what has passed. The movement
brings to aserene and tranquil end a work of notable thematic unity, a sensuous evocation of nature.



Music composed by Vitězslav Nov�k
Played by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Zděnek B�lek

"Although the Czech composer Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949) called "Pan" (1910) a symphonic poem it is, in fact,
in five separate, though thematically linked, movements. Beyond the use of the flute and the piccolo in the first
movement there seems to be little connection with any myths concerning the Greek god. Instead, the music
seems to be a celebration of nature, in particular, mountains, sea and forest. The final movement, however
is, somewhat incongruously, a picture of "Woman". The music does not tell a story and could just as well have
been called a suite. Novak uses a very large orchestra and the late Romantic idiom is Straussian in its opulence,
though Novak cannot match the best Strauss for melodic memorability or concentration of incident. There is
also a dash of Impressionism in "Pan" and, if you think that Janacek was a totally original composer, you will
hear, in the ostinato patterns of the great "Sinfonietta", the influence of Novak. Also, listen to those shrieking
flutes and piccolo at 4 mins 33 secs in the Prologue to Novak's piece.

The Prologue contains the seeds of much of the music to come. The melodic material presented here is fairly
plain in itself. It is almost exclusively diatonic and tends to be rhythmically even or to alternate long and
short notes. Perhaps, in these chorale-like fragments, Novak wanted to suggest a pantheistic connection
between nature and religion.

As well as using material from the first movement, the second movement ("Mountains") introduces a new
melody (first heard on the oboe at 1 min 32 secs) and a longer chorale-like idea. A four note idea (in C major,
G,A,E,D) from the prologue is prominent and is presumably intended to suggest the majesty of the mountains.

If you know Novak's wonderful cantata "The Storm" you will very soon recognize the same composer in the
turbulent third movement ("Sea"). The G, A, E, D motif and a swinging eight (you may hear it as seven) note
tune from the first movement are extensively used. Later the waters settle somewhat but this is definitely
the most vivid picture of the four.

The fourth movement ("Forest") begins by referring directly to the opening of the prologue and then to music
from the "Sea" movement. (Perhaps the mountains run down to the sea!) A placid tune derived from an idea
in the Prologue is sung by the strings at 3 mins 12 secs. The forest is a deep and quiet one. This slow movement
is the most melodically generous of them all. By the end, the four note motif reasserts itself and a distant
cuckoo is heard.

The final movement is "Woman". To encapsulate such a complex subject in a mere 15 minutes of music is hardly
possible, of course. Novak, however, does his best. The first half of the movement is lightly capricious in mood,
the second half more romantic. Again, material from the first movement is much in evidence. Eventually, the
lyrical tune from the "Forest" movement begins to gain prominence. The piece ends quietly."
Amazon Reviewer



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---------- Post added at 11:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 AM ----------




No.219

The Airborne Symphony (also known as Symphony: The Airborne) is a work by American composer Marc Blitzstein
for narrator, vocal soloists, male chorus, and large orchestra. The symphony uses music that the United States Army Air Forces,
in which Blitzstein served during the World War II, originally commissioned for use in film.

Blitzstein began the war as a member of the U.S. Eighth Army Air Force's film division in London, England, working as a composer,
scriptwriter, and translator. He was chosen to score a film on the history of aviation through his promotion to corporal in January
1943. Blitzstein also began work on the orchestral poem Freedom Morning that summer for eventual performance in Royal Albert Hall.

Work on the Airborne score continued into 1944, with Blitzstein providing other services to the U.S. Army. By mid-1944, he had
been promoted to sergeant and became music director of the American Broadcasting Service. The original film project did not
come to fruition and Blitzstein, who composed his score for a large orchestra and male chorus, did not have the needed manpower
for a wartime concert.

Blitzstein returned to the United States in May 1945. His score of The Airborne had been lost en route from England, but he was
able to play sections of the work on piano for conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein enthusiastically arranged its premiere for
April 1946 and Blitzstein rewrote the score from memory. The original score was recovered, but Blitzstein preferred the newer version.

The symphony was first performed by the New York City Symphony Orchestra under Bernstein on April 1, 1946. Renowned
filmmaker Orson Welles served as narrator; Charles Holland was tenor soloist and Walter Scheff was baritone soloist with men
from the Robert Shaw Collegiate Chorale. The recording featured here a is a later one, but with the same
narrator and conductor.

Also included are the lovely suite from the ballet The Incredible Flutist by Walter Piston (which we already
encountered here in an earlier upload), plus a rather bland Prelude for Orchestra by Edward Hill, a n early
teacher of Bernstein's.



Music Composed by Marc Blitzstein, Walter Piston & Edward Hill
Played by the New York Philharmonic & Columbia Symphony Orchestras
With Orson Welles (narrator), Andrea Velis (tenor), David Watson (baritone)
And the Choral Art Society
Conducted by Leonard Bernstein

"Marc Blitzstein's Airborne Symphony is a fascinating bit of wartime Americana, and Bernstein, who
was a "little brother" to the older composer, recorded it twice. RCA Victor reissued his first recording of it
several years ago, and I am glad that Sony finally has reissued this one. While not necessarily better, it is
in stereo, and it features the sonorous voice of Orson Welles.

Blitzstein wrote the work for the United States Air Force. (Sony's annotations claim it was an Army commission.
Nevertheless, in 1943, when work on the Airborne Symphony began, Blitzstein was an officer in the Air Force,
and was stationed in London.) The composer frequently had to take shelter against air raids as he wrote
the symphony, which addresses both the positive and (most tellingly) negative aspects of mankind's ability
to fly through the air. He suddenly was called back to America, and he mistakenly left the incomplete score
behind. It was returned to him only after a long delay. In the meantime, Blitzstein (with Bernstein's
encouragement) reconstructed the symphony from memory and hand-written notes. When the original score
arrived, Blitzstein found himself to be more satisfied with the reconstructed version. He completed the
symphony, and it was premi�red in 1946, with Bernstein on the podium and Welles as the narrator (or
"The Monitor"). By then, the war was over, but fear was not. The first recording, made later that year,
substituted famed choral conductor Robert Shaw for Welles. Both have beautiful speaking voices, and both
treat Blitzstein's text histrionically. If anything, Welles is more restrained in this 1966 recording, which
also features excellent choral work. The important thing, though, is to give this work a try. Na�vely
swaggering, thoughtful and populist, it has the power to be a crowd-pleaser. I wonder why there hasn't
been more interest in it. Sony does not include texts (it did in the original LP release), but everyone's diction
is clear enough to keep this from being problematic. How many classical works do you know that include
the words "Snafu" and "Fubar"?

Bernstein studied harmony and counterpoint with Walter Piston at Harvard. The Incredible Flutist –
the suite is recorded here – is a ballet score that premi�red in 1938. The story that it tells is about
an itinerant flutist, a sort of Pied Piper, whose playing charms both women and snakes. It's not an
ambitious score and is less serious than Piston's symphonies and concertos. This recording was made
in 1963. Bernstein conducts his teacher's work with an appreciation for its dry humor; he resists the
temptation to exaggerate its effect.

Edward Burlingame Hill, born in 1872, was from an earlier generation than Piston. He taught the young
Bernstein orchestration, also at Harvard. The Pr�lude for Orchestra was written when he was in his 80s.
(He died in 1960, many years after Bernstein had become a star conductor/composer.) This 8-minute work
is a fairly unusual example – particularly at this late date – of American impressionism. Bernstein said
that Hill "was not a first rate genius, but a master of orchestration, a salty New Englander who loved
Debussy," an opinion supported by this Pr�lude. Bernstein recorded it (in mono) in 1953 with the
Columbia Symphony Orchestra.

This disc is another entry in Sony's "Bernstein Century" series. It seems that there is little that
Bernstein recorded for Columbia and CBS (for any other label, for that matter) which is not on CD.
That's something for them to be proud of."
Classical Music Net


Blitzstein and Bernstein, studying the score to "The Airborne"



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No.220

A diverse and colorful collection of miscellaneous orchestral works, some programmatic, some abstract,
by the moderately advanced Welsh composer William Mathias (1934-1992). A student of
Lennox Berkeley, Mathias had a very successful career as a classical composer in Britain, with many
commissions coming his way. His style could be broadly characterized as "neo-classical", but he
embraced neo romantic and even some avantgarde techniques as well. The opening Dance Overture,
e.g., might just as well have been composed by Malcom Arnold, while works like Vistas and Laudi
are more progressive. A lot of his music sounds very "cinematic", too.



Music Composed by William Mathias
Played by the London Symphony, New Philharmonia, English Chamber &
Welsh National Youth Symphony Orchestras
Conducted by David Atherton

"William Mathias’s love of life is the first thing that strikes the listener. This collection of shorter works from a variety
of sources (see title) reveals many facets of this composer’s imagination – indeed, this could serve as the ideal
introduction to Mathias’ music.

The exuberant Dance Overture evokes the Celtic spirit of the dance, with the LSO enjoying each and every accent.
It makes the ideal opener for the disc. The Divertimento, Op. 7 of three years previous is the student work that led
to a publishing contract with Oxford University Press. Of its three movements, it is the central Lento non troppo that
is the most memorable. It is the English Chamber Orchestra, here, that sets up a haunting, hypnotic atmosphere
(interestingly, in the Prelude, Aria and Finale for String Orchestra it is the ‘Aria’ that is the most affecting movement).
The unsettled undercurrent to the music of this Lento seems to introduce a new, deeper element, only to be banished
by the Bart�kian spiciness of the finale.

Concurrent with the Dance Overture, the Invocation and Dance, Op. 17 is made up of the purest joy. The very opening
is almost Coplandish (it sounds like the slower parts of Rodeo to me – this passage is what the composer described as
‘a broad-spanned summons to attention’) and indeed most of the Invocation is terrifically delicate (listen out for a
beautifully-realised oboe solo). The Dance is positively bursting with energy – once again, the LSO’s virtuoso side
is to the fore.

The Sinfonietta was written for a youth orchestra (the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra), so it is entirely
fitting that it is the 1975 National Youth Orchestra of Wales that is featured on the present recording. The influence
of jazz and blues can be heard, especially in the second and third movements. Mathias’s music is so obviously suited
to performance by young people that this emerges as one of the highlights of the disc. The recording is up-front
and exciting.

Mathias wrote a sequence of single-movement orchestral works that he described as ‘landscapes of the mind’.
The last two offerings are instances of these ‘imaginary landscapes’ (Helios of 1977 and Requiescat of 1978 are
further examples). Laudi, in accordance with its title, concentrates on prayer and praise. The scoring is masterly
– a Stravinskian influence is present that adds a most attractive (to this listener) edge to the music. Finally,
Vistas of 1975. Inspired by a visit to America, the music speaks evocatively of large open expanses."
Music Web



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No.221

An obscure composer even among the more obscure of the 20th century, Spanish Mar�a Teresa Prieto fled her homeland
in 1936 to escape the dangers of the civil war, never to return except for a brief trip when she accepted a prize for her 1958
Modal Quartet. Abroad, her music was conducted by the likes of Erich Kleiber and Carlos Ch�vez, but in Spain she remained
a virtual unknown. Her basically conservative oeuvre embraces folkloristic elements, stylistically it's broadly neo-classical,
with some impressionistic touches. This 2-CD album features her complete orchestral works, including both abstract
(Sinfon�a breve, Sinfon�a de la danza prima, Tema Variada y Fuga) and programmatic works
(Sinfon�a Asturiana, Impr�sion Sinf�nica, Chichen Itz�, El Pablo Verde, Cuadros de la Naturaleza).



Music Composed by Mar�a Teresa Prieto
Played by the Orquesta de C�rdoba
Conducted by Jos� Luis Temes

"Aunque casi completamente desconocida para el p�blico espa�ol (e incluso para el de Asturias, su tierra natal),
la figura de Mar�a Teresa Prieto nos aparece hoy como verdaderamente notable dentro la creaci�n musica
al espa�ola de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, y desde luego, como el de una de las dos o tres figuras mayores
de la historia de la m�sica asturiana. Toda su obra, y muy especialmente su producci�n sinf�nica, rezuma
la a�oranza de su Asturias perdida, lejana, recordada y amada desde su exilio en M�xico, pa�s que la acogi�
desde los primeros d�as de la guerra civil espa�ola.

Nacida en Oviedo en 1896, en el seno de una familia de la clase media asturiana de entonces —altamente
entusiasta de la m�sica, la poes�a y las artes—, estudi� Mar�a Teresa Prieto con el pianista y compositor asturiano
Saturnino del Fresno, quien sobre todo le inculcar�a la pasi�n que nuestra compositora mantendr�a durante
toda su vida: el magisterio de Johann Sebastian Bach, norte de casi toda su producci�n creadora. Qued�
hu�rfana de padre desde muy temprana edad, lo que acentuar�a el constante tinte de tristeza y nostalgia
que marcar�a toda su vida. Trasladada a Madrid, ser�a Benito de la Parra —su profesor en el Conservatorio
de Madrid— quien le introducir�a en un para ella nuevo mundo arm�nico: el sistema modal, tan presente
en buena parte de su obra.

Cuando apenas hab�a compuesto a�n sus primeras obras de c�mara, de corte a�n l�gicamente escol�stico,
el estallido de la guerra civil la colocar� en una situaci�n personal muy peligrosa ante las virulentas revueltas
en Asturias. Su hermano Carlos, que se encontraba en M�xico —y que disfrutaba all� de una cierta prosperidad
empresarial—, le aconseja embarque de inmediato hacia aquel pa�s. All� llegar� nuestra compositora el 1 de
diciembre de 1936 y all� esperar� la clarificaci�n de la situaci�n b�lica en Espa�a. Y all� tambi�n se encontrar�,
acogida con la generosidad que el gobierno del presidente C�rdenas dispens� a todos los exiliados espa�oles,
con otros exiliados del lado republicano, unidos por la tragedia com�n de la guerra. No puede afirmarse,
hablando con propiedad, que Mar�a Teresa Prieto fuera una exiliada pol�tica; m�s exactamente cabr�a calificarla
como transterrada (por seguir el t�rmino empleado por el fil�sofo Jos� Gaos) y desplazada a causa de
la guerra entre los espa�oles.

Mar�a Teresa se establece en el caser�n de la familia Prieto en San �ngel. Ese caser�n ser� con el tiempo
punto obligado de reuni�n intelectual y musical, y en su perchero colgar�n su sombrero desde Stravinsky
hasta Erik Kleiber y desde Carlos Ch�vez hasta Darius Milhaud. Y por supuesto, todos los colegas de
transterramiento espa�ol en M�xico: entre ellos, Adolfo Salazar, que vivi� en la casa durante los �ltimos
a�os de su vida y que incluso falleci� entre sus muros.

Pocos meses despu�s de su llegada pasa Mar�a Teresa a estudiar composici�n con el maestro Manuel Ponce,
quien confirma su enorme talento para la composici�n. Desde dos a�os despu�s, ser� Carlos Ch�vez, otro
hito en la composici�n latinoamericana de la �poca, su nuevo maestro; �l, adem�s, dirigir� el estreno de la
mayor parte de sus obras orquestales.

Su tercer maestro trasatl�ntico ser� el citado Darius Milhaud, pero no estudiar� composici�n con �l en el propio
M�xico, sino en California, a cuyo Mills College, en Oakland, viajar� Mar�a Teresa durante dos cursos: 1946
y 1947. A partir de entonces, no hay grandes novedades en su vida: su amor por la soledad, sus horas y
horas en el torre�n de la casa familiar (adonde se le izaba incluso

la comida por un peque�o dispositivo ascensor, de manera que no sal�a de su cuarto de estudio ni siquiera
para comer), y su nunca asumida lejan�a de Asturias.

Mar�a Teresa Prieto no volver� ya a Espa�a —salvo alg�n viaje rel�mpago, uno de ellos para recoger el premio
Samuel Ross, que le fue concedido a su Cuarteto modal (1958)—, pues aunque invitada varias veces por el
r�gimen imperante en Espa�a despu�s de 1939, su talante estaba muy distante del de los vencedores.
Y el advenimiento de la democracia en 1975 correspondi� ya con una edad muy avanzada de la compositora,
que fallecer�a en 1982, a la edad de 86 a�os.

En ese caser�n familiar viv�a tambi�n un joven m�sico, hijo del hermano de la compositora, que inici� desde
temprana edad una prometedora carrera como violoncellista, y que gozaba de la ternura y simpat�a de ella:
era su sobrino Carlos Prieto, con el tiempo anfitri�n de los visitantes ilustres de la casa, hasta tal punto que
llegar�a a acompa�ar a Stravinsky en su regreso a Rusia, tras sus a�os de destierro. Muchos a�os despu�s,
nuestra protagonista dejar�a precisamente a su esposa Isabel la custodia legal de su legado compositivo,
que de su mano ha llegado as� hasta nosotros.

Pese a que Mar�a Teresa Prieto fue ajena a todo tipo de �xito social, y refractaria al �xito mundano de su m�sica,
no es menos cierto el que hubo varios ilustres m�sicos que lograron romper su habitual modestia y llevar su
m�sica a muy ilustres atriles: as�, el gran Erik Kleiber (valedor, record�moslo, de Alban Berg o de Anton Webern)
dirigi� el estreno de una de sus sinfon�as; Carlos Ch�vez, el del antes citado Adagio y fuga; Ata�lfo Argenta dirigi�
el estreno en Espa�a de su Sinfon�a breve y de Chichen-Itz�; etc...

(....) esta extraordinaria compositora, cuya producci�n entera, nost�lgica siempre de la Espa�a lejana y perdida,
est� presidida por la extrema sencillez y elegancia, ajena a todo abigarramiento. Hay incluso en su m�sica un
puntito de ingenuidad de una infancia nunca abandonada. Y sobre todo, por su pasi�n por la nobleza del
contrapunto y la fuga de Johann Sebastian Bach, a quien, como dijimos arriba, reconoc�a como su gran maestro."
Jos� Luis Temes





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No.222

Two ballet scores from the Ukraine. Reinhold Gliere, best remembered for his epic program symphony
"Ilya Murometz" (uploaded here earlier) wrote Taras Bulba when he was 76. His style hadn't changed much
since the early days of the symphony - his role models were still Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and the music of
the "Mighty Handful". Be that as it may, the ballet is very colorful and offers many incidental melodic
pleasures. Another Ukraine--born composer, Yevhen Stankovych, 67 years Gliere's junior, was a
student of Boris Lyatoshynsky, who, in turn, had studied with Gliere. The real-life Rasputin, obviously,
makes an excellent subject for musical drama, and Stankovych exploits the violence and grotesqueness
of his life's story in a chilling and vividly satirical score.



Music Composed by Reinhold Gliere & Yevhen Stankovych
Played by the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Hobart Earle

"ASV's list of recordings has shown pioneering spirit and risk-taking from its earliest years.
Its Soviet and Slav catalogue breaks much new ground and does so with flair using local
orchestras and conductors.

Gliere's Bulba ballet suite, running some 34 minutes, is old-fashioned for 1952. Borodin, Tchaikovsky
and Glazunov all serve as models. The music is never less than pleasing. Taras Awaits his Sons is
specially affecting as also is the heat-hazed sway of the baking steppe in The Boundless Ukrainian Steppe.
Gopak has that whirligig quality we know so well - how easy to visualise the Bolshoi dancers. The suite
ends in a wildly abandoned dance for the Zaporozhi.

This was the last of Gliere's ballets. The earlier, more famous counterparts were The Bronze Horseman
and The Sheep's Spring. Taras was never performed.

The Stankovych ballet suite is in four movements. The grand adagio is of awesome amplitude and breeds
an heroic horn theme. The absurdist Galop takes us back to Satie's machine age 1920s - raucous and
rambunctious in line with Parade and Love of Three Oranges. The Solo for Orchestra suggests a great
lake with strings of a radiant luminosity paralleling Valentin Silvestrov's fifth symphony. Altogether a
most striking series of pictures and a more approachable introduction to Stankovich than the Marco Polo
set of symphonies.

A safely recommendable collection, if short on time, Recorded with resonance and impact."
Music Web





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No.223

Tobias Picker (b. New York City, 1954), called �our finest composer for the lyric stage� by The Wall Street Journal,
is a composer of numerous works in every genre drawing performances by the world�s leading musicians, orchestras and
opera houses. Picker began composing at the age of eight and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School
and Princeton University where his principal teachers were Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt. His first
commissions occurred while still in his late teens and he quickly became established as one of America's most sought
after composers.

By the age of thirty, Picker was the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Bearns Prize (Columbia University),
a Charles Ives Scholarship, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. In 1992, he received the prestigious Award in Music
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1985-90, Picker was the first Composer-in-Residence of the
Houston Symphony. He has also served as Composer-in-Residence for such major international festivals as the
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Pacific Music Festival.

The Encantadas was commissioned by the Albany Academy in celebration of their 175th anniversary, and premiered by the
Albany Symphony Orchestra with Michael Arkin as Narrator, conducted by Julius Hegyi, on October 14 and 15, 1983, at the Troy
Savings Bank Music Hall and the Albany Palace Theatre. It has been recorded with English, German and Japanese narration
(by Sir John Gielgud (the version recorded here), Will Quadfleg, and Mariko Miyagi, respectively), performed in English,

The text was drawn from Herman Melville's vivid and poetic descriptions of the Galapagos Islands, originally written for
Collier's Magazine. Melville visited the Galapagos in 1841, as part of a whaling voyage he undertook to gather background material
for Moby Dick. Struck by the islands' fierce beauty and strange inhabitants, Melville wrote a series of literary sketches which were
ultimately published in Collier's. Herman Melville is the Albany Academy's most famous graduate. By setting Melville's prose as narrative
with music, Picker resuscitated the nineteenth-century genre of melodrama. Contrary to its sensational and dramatic connotation in
today's world, melodrama was a legitimate artistic venture in the nineteenth century. It mingled the spoken word, and sometimes
song, with independent music.

The album also contains the short, smooth tone poem Old and Lost Rivers, as well as Picker's reflection on a work
by 19th century German composer Robert Schumann, Romances and Interludes.



Music Composed by Tobias Picker
Played by The Houston Symphony
With Sir John Gielgud (narrator)
Conducted by Christoph Eschenbach

"Picker's The Encantadas is also a picturesque work, but a rich one that I've now heard several
times with pleasure. It lasts about half an hour, and it's for speaker and orchestra -- a combination that
is seldom successful but is here brought off. At the second performance, in Springfield, Picker himself recited
the text, with inflections and timing that made it seem part of the composition, not a distraction. The words
are descriptive passages from Melville's Piazza Tale, telling of the mysterious islands' desolation, of the
ponderous tortoises, of Rock Rodondo, rising towerlike from the sea, with its tiered population of birds.
The six movements are entitled Dream, Desolation, Delusion, Diversity, Din, and Dawn. Melville's charged
prose spins exotic metaphors of the human condition; Prospero, Caliban, and Ariel seem not far away.
Picker responds with romantic, colorful music. His materials are conventional, often Mahlerian in cut;
his use of them is fresh and imaginative."
The New Yorker



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No.224

Catalonian composer Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002) began violin lessons at the age of nine, around the
same time as his father's death and his move to Barcelona to live with his grandfather. This move later
allowed him to attend the Barcelona Conservatory and numerous concerts that greatly influenced him.
His teachers at the conservatory were Francisco Costa for violin and Enrique Morera and Jaume Pahissa
for composition. He himself became a teacher at the school in 1933. His first important works were the 1934
Tres impromptus for piano, for which he won the Rabell prize from the Patxot Foundation, and the Suite burlesca,
for which he won the Pedrell prize in 1936. Rejecting the legacies of Wagner and Richard Strauss that dominated
in Spain at the time, he was instead attracted to the works of Les Six and Stravinsky and made his first trip to
Paris around 1934. He also soon began writing musical criticism for local papers, eventually writing for the weekly
publication Destino for more than 30 years, as well as for La mat� and La Vanguardia. The 1940s were fruitful years
for Montsalvatge. He began a series of teaching jobs in prominent schools in Barcelona. He met fellow Catalan
composer Federico Mompou in 1942. He married Elena P�rez de Olaguer in 1947 and a son was born in 1949.
Compositions from the period include 19 ballets for the Paul Goub�/Yvonne Alexander company and the Album
de habaneras, songs he had collected in the West Indies. Cinco canciones negras of 1945-46, also with a West
Indian influence, and his first opera, El gato con botas (Puss in Boots), remain his most popular works. A daughter
was born in 1952, and the next year, both Henryk Szeryng and Alicia de Larrocha asked for concertos from him.
Through the next decades, he continued to write, teach, and compose, producing works in nearly every genre
and winning numerous awards and honors along the way. In the 1980s, he wrote an autobiography that was
published in both Spanish and Catalan, and in 1989, a piano competition was founded in his name. He retired
from his official positions in the early 1980s, but continued composing into the 1990s, becoming one of the
most respected composers of twentieth century Spain.



Music Composed by Xavier Montsalvatge
Played by the North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
With Rachel Barton-Pine (violin), Jenny Linn (piano), Lucia Duchonova (mezzo-soprano)
Conducted by Celso Artunes

"Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002) does not ring many bells among modern classical listeners over here in the States.
Why his music has not been exported very much I do not know. I only know that I too am not very familiar with his music.
So when I had a chance to review the disk produced for the centennial of his birth, Canciones & Conciertos (Hanssler
Classics 98.642), I readily accepted. It is a full disk of orchestral songs and concertos. The NDR Radiophilharmonie
takes the virtual stage here, Celso Antunes conducting.

From the evidence of this music, Montsalvatge has a somewhat eclectic stylistic range that he occupies with grace.
Often prominent is his use of the rhythms and tonalities of his native Spain--Catalonia, to be specific. There is an element
of neo-classicism a la Stravinsky present in the "Poema concertante," the "Cinco canciones negras" and "A la espanola,"
the latter a brief movement from his "Tres danzas concertantes." There is much to like in these three pieces.
Rachel Barton Pine handles the solo violin part elegantly for the first work; mezzo-soprano Lucia Duchonova convinces
on the song suite.

The final work, "Concerto breve" combines romantic bravura with Spanish rhythms and a touch of the modern harmonic
tang. Jenny Lin does a good job with her impassioned pianism, and there are passages that delight the listener with well
crafted melodic turns, stirring orchestral tuttis and lyrical atmospheric quietude. The occasional Rachmaninovian piano
bombasts to me mar what otherwise is some very interesting, captivating music.

So there is my take. This shows us a very good compositional craftsman with intimations of brilliance. The music is well
played and there is little doubt that here we have a modern Spanish composer who deserves to be heard more often."
Classical Modern Music Review





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You have the best classical posts ever. Thanks so much. :)

Thanks for the Montsalvatge!
Absolutely fascinating!

:zillawalk:



No.225

Havergal Brian is best known for his copious output of 32 symphonies (incl.the notorious "Gothic"),
but that series was not properly begun until the 1920s, when he was in his mid-forties. Before then
he had composed several orchestral works in different genres – overtures, suites, symphonic poems,
variation-sets and the like. Though afterwards his principal orchestral efforts were centred on the genre
of the symphony, he continued to produce a range of smaller orchestral works of varying characters.

Over a span of some fifty years Brian composed five orchestral suites that he designated
as English Suites Nos. 1–5. The fifth and final suite was not composed until 1953,
and Brian did not originally consider it a member of the English Suite sequence, titling it
instead Rustic Scenes. It was not long before his death that he acceded to the suggestion
that it was, in fact, English Suite No.5, retaining Rustic Scenes as a subtitle. Here again,
if only in memory, he revisits scenes of half a century ago in Shropshire and Sussex.
The work arose because a publisher (not, apparently, a representative of Schott & Co.,
who were looking after Brian’s scores at that time) suggested to Brian that he should write
something for publication that would be lighter than the taxing sequence of symphonies
and operas on which he was otherwise engaged and stand a better chance of performance.
Brian, who had recently completed his music-drama on Shelley’s The Cenci, and would soon begin
his Tenth Symphony, evidently thought an orchestral essay in the pastoral genre would
fit the bill, and Rustic Scenes was written very rapidly, between 12 and 27 June 1953.

The Latin phrase Ave atque Vale (‘Hail and Farewell’) comes from a real poetic elegy,
being the last three words of Catullus’ Carmen 101, written about 56bc, in memory of
his drowned brother. Brian chose it as the title of the short ‘legend for orchestra’ he
composed at the age of 92. Its seven-odd minutes crammed to bursting-point with
disparate ideas, Ave atque Vale stands at a curious angle to his last symphonies,
taking a sidelong departing look at their imaginative world. The lonely, haunted inner
landscapes of Brian’s mature symphonic music play host to an ironic kind of wake.
Sardonic, jovial, moving and disturbing by turns.

Like English Suite No.5, the symphonic poem Elegy did not originally bear the title
by which it is now known. It was only at the age of 94 that the composer evidently
decided that the title A song of sorrow was inappropriate – or too revealing – and
on 1 November 1970 he wrote to Graham Hatton, who was evaluating various Brian
scores for possible publication by his firm, Musica Viva: ‘I very much want to change
the title of this movement to Elegy’. This decision was probably well considered. Although
a mood of lamentation overtakes the music at certain salient points, it is considerably
more varied and active (certainly not ‘entirely adagio’) than the original title suggests.



Music Composed by Havergal Brian
Played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Garry Walker

"A feast of Brian rarities here, with two works (Legend: Ave atque vale; Elegy) listed as first
recordings, and two others as first professional recordings.

The Burlesque Variations on an Original Theme is the earliest of the lot. Dating from 1903, the “Burlesque”
in the title refers to the ironic treatment given innocuous themes. It would become a reoccurring aspect
of Brian’s work, notably in his pseudo-pastoral English Suite No.3: simple, pious melodies set against
dissonant imitative textures, dance motifs set in “wrong” registers or given a tonally chromatic treatment,
etc. Brian’s technical resources would develop greatly over the years, but his gifts for orchestration,
structure, mood painting, and inventive parody are all apparent in this early piece. Much like another
fine series of burlesque variations, Jerome Moross’s Variations on a Waltz, this work deserves to be far
better known than it currently is.

The English Suite No. 5 was composed 50 years later, in 1953, when it was originally titled, simply,
Rustic Scenes. “Trotting to Market” is in its way a miniature of the same burlesque procedures referred
to above: an innocuous lightly bouncing theme that gets pulled into odd keys, with sudden shifts of
mood and orchestration, as though whoever was doing the trotting stopped pleasantly along the way
to sample some delicious-looking mushrooms with evident side effects. By contrast, the “Elegy” that
follows comes close to the manner and expressiveness of Gerald Finzi, though the treatment is pure
Brian. “The Restless Stream” is a miniature tone poem of exquisite delicacy, a study of undulating
winds in counterpoint, with sparing percussion (especially brushed snare drum). It completely avoids
the bucolic associations such a title inspires. Finally, “Village Revels” does the unthinkable: It takes
a Holst-like reel (a fine tune, too) and, while driving it occasionally along Brian’s curious tonal paths,
treats it by and large in a conservative fashion. There are echoes of Grainger’s bigger-than-life
exuberance, and it forms a fine conclusion to an excellent suite.

The Elegy of the following year was considered by its composer “another symphony without a
number,” and so it is. Ranging through a host of expressive moods in six strongly related sections
(the last, among the most purely beautiful and moving things Brian ever wrote), it is both restless
and plaintive; but the title may come, I think, from its phrasing similarities to the scansion of the
traditional elegiac couplet.

Finally, Legend: Ave atque Vale derives from the most famous phrase in Catallus’s Carmen 101,
addressed to his drowned brother: “Hail and Farewell.” (By the way, the poem is written in elegiac
couplets.) It dates from the composer’s 92nd year. Though Brian disdained any autobiographical
element, its combination of so many elements of his musical personality, typically juxtaposed in
crazy-quilt fashion, points inevitably to a distillation of his personal style. No textural or expressive
frame is established but it is almost immediately swept away.

Were these merely competent performances, they would still be welcome for filling in the gaps of
one of the 20th century’s most interesting and imaginative composers. Fortunately, the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra is in good form, and Garry Walker is alive to the fluid pacing these pieces require.
There is never any loss to the forward pulse in the almost manic fluctuations in character of these works,
yet little sacrifice in the careful definition of each cell. The sound is moderately too dry to bring out the
richness Brian was capable of when he so desired, but there’s no lack of instrumental definition.

Little exists for comparisons, but those that do come out entirely in favor of this new release. The
Burlesque Variations can be heard on Campion 1331/32, where the Hull Youth Symphony Orchestra
displays considerable talent under Gerald Heald-Smith’s disciplined baton — while understandably not
in the same league as the BBC Scottish Orchestra. I don’t find any current competition to the
English Suite No. 5, also listed as a “first professional recording,” but I suspect this refers back to an
LP in my collection: Eric Pinkett conducting the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra, on CBS 61612.
Again, there’s much to praise, and Pinkett was a fine musician, but there’s no contest with the
present release.

Toccata Classics deserves a round of applause for championing Brian’s orchestral music, listed here
as Volume 1. Let’s hope it sells as well as it deserves, so there will be further volumes in the near future."
Fanfare



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---------- Post added at 12:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 AM ----------




No.226

Igor Stravinsky was one of the two most important 20th century composers (the other was Schoenberg), and
everybody knows Le Sacre du Printemps and Petrouchka (see earlier upload). However, he composed a
whole string of ballets, several of which are much less known. The include the three works featured here: Jeu de Cartes,
Agon and Orpheus, composed for Dhiagliev's former choreographer George Balanchine.

The first product of this association was Jeu de cartes, composed in 1936 and staged in New York by the so-called
American Ballet, with Stravinsky himself conducting, in April 1937. After Diaghilev’s death, Balanchine had tried to establish
himself as a choreographer in Paris, but in 1934 he had been invited to New York by Lincoln Kirstein to help him set up his
School of American Ballet—the first establishment of its kind in the United States. Stravinsky was not a poker-player, and
the scenario even suggests that he was a trifle vague about the rules. What poker gave him was the framework for an
abstract re-creation of the form of classical ballet, somewhat in the manner of Apollo, whose plot is so static and uneventful
as to be seriously hard to describe in narrative terms at all. Thus in Jeu de cartes, after the ceremonious Introduction
(which recurs at the start of each Deal), we get a Pas d’action, introducing the minor characters, the Entry and Dance
of the Joker, and a Waltz-Coda. In the second Deal, a March (hearts and spades) is followed by a series of solo Variations
and a Pas de quatre for the four queens, while at the core of the final Deal is the combat of spades and hearts, reminiscent
of the battle in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker (though it actually quotes Rossini’s Barber of Seville overture). This rather formal
approach to dance drama reflects Stravinsky’s recent interest in the concept of ‘modelling’. In the twenties, the approach
had usually involved some kind of style borrowing (Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky). But by the mid-thirties Stravinsky had
evolved an individual ‘neoclassical’ style of his own, and though the music of Jeu de cartes is broadly tonal, rhythmically
and metrically regular, and orchestrally conventional, it never really suggests anyone else’s style, even when it may seem
to quote (Beethoven, Ravel, Johann Strauss and Delibes have all been ‘spotted’, besides the unmistakable bit of Rossini).

Orpheus, once again, was the brain-child of Lincoln Kirstein, who specifically wanted a companion-piece for Apollo to
grace the second season of his new venture, Ballet Society. Stravinsky was not normally responsive to being told what
sort of music he should write; but he trusted Balanchine, whose idea the Orpheus story was, and he enjoyed working
with a choreographer who seemed to understand his music and whose native language was Russian. For the first time
they worked closely together from the start, deciding on the details of the scenario (‘with Ovid and a classical dictionary
in hand’, the composer later recalled), and agreeing on the essential tone, which would treat the well-known subject as
little more than a pretext for a kind of formal/musical/spatial geometry, endowed with significance by the merest
framework of narrative.

Though completely abstract and devoid of any stage narrative, Agon (the Greek word for a contest or competition)
clearly derives its musical design from the idea of a series of antique dances which explode into the twentieth century.
Kirstein had at one point sent Stravinsky a seventeenth-century dance manual with music examples, and the composer
plundered this volume for rhythmic and melodic ideas which, however, he mostly twisted beyond recognition. The idioms
survive in dances like the Sarabande-Step, Gaillarde and Bransle, while the Pas de quatre and Pas de deux are, in name
at least, echoes of the later classicisms we saw also in Jeu de cartes and Orpheus. But musically these pieces view the
past at best down a long tunnel of musical history. Listen to the violin solo in the sarabande, with its tortuous chromatic
embellishments, or try to catch the dance rhythm in the galliard, with its astonishing reinvention of the orchestra (double
basses with flutes at the top, thick cello and viola chords at the bottom, and in the middle a barely audible canon at
the fifth between mandoline and harp). The so-called ‘Coda’ to the galliard was Stravinsky’s first experiment in proper
twelve-note serialism, and bizarrely he modelled the solo violin writing here on the Violin Concerto of Berg, a composer
as remote from him aesthetically as one would think possible.



Music Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Ilan Volkov

"Ilan Volkov's dynamic readings of Igor Stravinsky's ballets Jeu de cartes, Agon, and Orpheus push the music in
unexpected and exciting directions, for these neo-Classical works -- with the serial Agon loosely described that way
-- are often treated with expressive coolness and intellectual detachment, but almost never with this kind of
pugnacity and edginess. Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at brisk tempos and sometimes
urges it on to some truly brusque playing, particularly in the more savagely sarcastic moments of Jeu de cartes,
but also in the sharply etched dances of Agon and in the nervously energetic middle sections of Orpheus. Whether
such vigor suits listeners who like their Stravinsky served dry without any twists, it certainly shakes up these
modern masterpieces and makes the music seem more spontaneous, volatile, and provocative. However, the faster
Volkov goes, some of Stravinsky's trickier rhythms come perilously close to being played inaccurately, and one
might well wonder how the fastest passages would synchronize with living dancers. Hyperion's sound is bold and
bright, and the cutting edge of the orchestra's timbres, noticeably in the woodwinds, is brought to high relief
in the mix."
All Music





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No.227

K�s�ak Yamada was the first great composer to emerge from Japan after it had begun to accept western classical music.
After studies with Max Bruch, Yamada was the first Japanese composer to write symphonies and operas. Nagauta Symphony
is an epoch-making work that attempts the fusion of western music and nagauta, Japanese traditional vocal music performed
with instruments including the three-stringed shamisen, fues (Japanese flutes) and percussion. In this work, Yamada takes
a classic nagauta piece of 1857 to which he adds his original orchestral music. Sinfonia ‘Inno Meiji’ is effectively a
symphonic poem which depicts Japan on the way to westernisation from the latter half of the 19th century through
to the early 20th century. It combines a big orchestra with the hichiriki, an ancient Japanese double reed wind instrument,
and other Asian instruments. The sumptuous Maria Magdalena, scored for a large orchestra and influenced by the
symphonic poems of Richard Strauss, was first performed in Carnegie Hall in 1919.



Music Composed by K�s�ak Yamada
Played by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Takuo Yuasa

"Born in 1886, Kosaku Yamada was one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, having written over 1500
scores, many destroyed in the Second World War. He had been trained in Germany with Max Bruch among his tutors,
and became known in his native Japan as the first native musician to form a symphony orchestra in the country. Though
he became a potent force there, introducing many Western works to his audiences, over the years he became increasingly
attracted to conducting in Europe. You do sense in his music a guilt complex that he had become Westernised, and to
counter that feeling tried to integrate the two very differing cultures. One such work was the Nagauta Symphony,
where he simply grafts on a symphonic backdrop to the 19th century composition,Tsurukame, played and sung by
musicians of Nagauta. Western ears are really sailing into uncharted territory with sounds that will provoke strong reactions.
I can only add that I respect Yamada's intentions with the fact that the Nagauta vocalists are part of Japanese culture.
I was pleased to reach the second track, Sinfonia 'Inno Meiji', and to be reunited with the Yamada I reviewed on a Naxos
disc back in June 1993, and who could write the most sensual music described as influenced by Richard Strauss, but in
which I find equal quantities of French Impressionism. The Sinfonia has a story of the journey Japan took from 1850 to
the creation of a new entity in the 20th century, and emerges as a most attractive score. Maria Magdalena was originally
intended as a three-act ballet based on the biblical story, but Yamada progressed no further than an orchestration of
second act from his piano draft. There is Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Strauss here in rather equal measures, and if
derivative, Yamada was so skilled in orchestration as to arrive at a highly attractive product. The disc seems to have
been derived from a concert, the Tokyo orchestra well versed in producing sensual beauty. Sound quality, which comes
from an outstanding Japanese team, is excellent."
David Denton



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This is my final pre-Xmas posting. Have a nice holiday! :)

Thank you wimpel69 for this unique and wonderful thread and especially for all the British music you have posted. See this site for more information on Havergal Brian's Orchestral Music Vol. One with some MP3 sound bites of the album and a great short article on Brian: http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0110

Thanks for all the wonderful posts!
Have a nice holyday and a great 2013!

Thanks and have a great holiday.

thank you again, wimpel.
I am looking forward to when I have the time to listen to these :-)

Thanks for all your holiday wishes! :)


No.228

Ernest Frederic Curzon, 4 September 1899, London, England, d. 6 December 1973, Bournemouth, England. Largely unknown,
but highly talented composer, who has contributed several important works to the light music repertoire. Curzon’s career began
accompanying silent films, but he decided that he would prefer to concentrate on the organ, and was one of the first in Britain
to play the ‘new’ electronic organ, giving many demonstration recitals. After 12 years at top London cinemas, in 1938 he decided
to specialize in composing, although he still accepted occasional offers to perform on the BBC Theatre Organ. This decision had
been prompted by the success of his ‘Robin Hood Suite’ (1937) especially the movement ‘March Of The Bowmen’ which appeared
frequently in broadcasts for the following 20 years. His other important works included ‘The Boulevardier’ - his best-known piece
which was published in 1941 although its fame was not assured until the Sidney Torch 1948 recording for EMI - Columbia,
‘Dance Of An Ostracised Imp’ (1940), ‘Punchinello’ (1948), ‘Bonaventure’, ‘Busybodies’, ‘Cascade’, ‘Chevalier’ ‘In Malaga’, ‘Over
The Hills And Far Away’, ‘Summer Souvenirs’ and ‘Galavant’ (1950).

Born in Bicester in 1931, Anthony Hedges studied music at Keble College, Oxford, and left university with a first class honours
degree and a post-graduate degree in composition. Following National Service as solo pianist and arranger with the Royal Signals Band,
he spent the next five years as a lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of music. Anthony Hedges is equally successful in many types
of music. His serious music has received wide critical acclaim; his light music enjoys numerous broadcasts, recordings and public
performances. He has also written much music for children and amateurs as well as having composed for film, stage, ballet and television.

The suite Four Breton Sketches was written in 1980, after a holiday that the composer had spent with his family in Brittany. Each
movement expresses a mood engendered by a location or an event, rather than depicting the place itself. The one obviously programmatic
element comes in the third movement, Promenade: � Dinard, where sounds of car hooters intrude on a relaxed saunter along the
sophisticated promenade.The overture Heigham Sound, written in 1978, was an extensive reworking and expansion of a short
1968 composition entitled A Holiday Overture. The earlier work had been broadcast several times when the composer came to feel that
it was too concentrated and brief for the materials it contained. To avoid confusion with the original overture, the second version was
retitled, following a holiday on the Broads in East Anglia, after a noted beauty spot there, which can be, according to time and season,
either bustling or tranquil. The outer sections of the overture reflect the lively holiday atmosphere, while the central section is, by
contrast, calm and relaxed.

In 1969 Anthony Hedges was among a number of composers who were asked at very short notice to submit sketches of possible
opening theme-tunes for a television series. Two themes were jotted down in one evening and although not eventually accepted
for the series, they were subsequently extended to form the Waltz and March of the suite Kingston Sketches, with the Romance
as a later addition. Each movement bears the name of a street in Kingston upon Hull, a city noted for its imaginative street names,
which even include The Land of Green Ginger. This short suite proved extremely popular and in the eight years following its first
broadcast in April 1971 by the BBC Northern Ireland Light Orchestra, under Havelock Nelson, it received 34 further broadcasts,
in addition to many concert performances.



Music Composed by Frederic Curzon
Played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Adrian Leaper

"The best-known piece here is the Dance of an Ostracised Imp, a droll little scherzando. But the Galavant is hardly less piquant
and charming, the delicious Punchinello sparkles with miniature vitality, and the Simonetta serenade is sleekly beguiling. Curzon
liked to write mock Spanishry, and several pieces here have such a Mediterranean influence. Yet their slight elegance and
economical scoring come from cooler chimes further north. Both In Malaga and the jolly Robin Hood Suite are more frequently
heard on the (military) bandstand, but their delicate central movements gain much from the more subtle orchestral scoring.
The performances throughout are played with the finessed and light touch we expect from this fine Slovak series, so ably
and sympathetically conducted by Adrian Leaper. The recording is admirable."
Penguin Music Guide



Music Composed and Conducted by Anthony Hedges
Played by the Radio Telefis �irann Sinfonietta

"Born in 1931, Anthony Hedges becomes the youngest composer to be represented in Marco Polo's
admirable British Light Music series. His name will probably be little familiar to light music followers generally,
and those expecting any of the radio and television themes that have popped up repeatedly throughout
this series will here be disappointed. Hedges's concentration on light music seems to have developed from his
30-odd years as Reader in Composition at Hull University, which provided the impetus to compose music that,
in the words of Grove, "presents no great difficulty to performer or listener". The Humberside area is specifically
celebrated in the Scenes from the Humber and Kingston Sketches, while Hedges's family holidays apparently
inspired the Four Breton Sketches and the lively overture Heigham Sound. This last, commemorating an East
Anglia beauty spot, is perhaps the most impressive item here, engagingly contrasting its bustling and tranquil
aspects. By contrast the delightfully uninhibited waltz "St Lunaire" (from the Breton Sketches) that opens
the collection is the piece one might most readily go away humming.

The various sets of geographical impressions do ultimately tend to be rather similar in style and lacking in
sharply defined characteristics. However, the disc as a whole should prove a welcome addition to the
collections of more adventurous light music enthusiasts looking for something slightly different. With the
composer at the helm, all is elegantly written, played and recorded."
Gramophone



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No.229

Lalo Schifrin composed this symphonic tribute to the country and people of Oman (essentially,
it's a program symphony) at the behest of their Sultan, and with support of the country's Ministry of Information,
which provided him with background information on its indigenous music. Nevertheless, Schifrin's own stylistic traits
are evident throughout.



Music Composed and Conducted by Lalo Schifrin
Played by the London Symphony Orchestra

"Best known for his "Mission: Impossible" theme song, Lalo Schifrin is an Argentinean-born composer, arranger,
pianist, and conductor, whose jazz and classical training earned him tremendous success as a soundtrack
composer. Born Boris Claudio Schifrin in Buenos Aires on June 21, 1932, his father was a symphonic violinist,
and he began playing piano at age six. He enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire in 1952, hitting the jazz scene
by night. After returning to Buenos Aires, Schifrin formed a 16-piece jazz orchestra, which helped him meet
Dizzy Gillespie in 1956. Schifrin offered to write Gillespie an extended suite, completing the five-movement
Gillespiana in 1958; the same year, he became an arranger for Xavier Cugat. In 1960, he moved to New York
City and joined Gillespie's quintet, which recorded "Gillespiana" to much general acclaim. Schifrin became
Gillespie's musical director until 1962, contributing another suite in "The New Continent"; he subsequently
departed to concentrate on his writing. He also recorded as a leader, most often in Latin jazz and bossa nova
settings, and accepted his first film-scoring assignment in 1963 (for Rhino!). Schifrin moved to Hollywood late
that year, scoring major successes with his indelible themes to Mission: Impossible and Mannix. Over the next
decade, Schifrin would score films like The Cincinnati Kid, Bullitt, Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry, and Enter the
Dragon. As a jazzer, he wrote the well-received "Jazz Mass" suite in 1965, and delved into stylish jazz-funk
with 1975's CTI album Black Widow. Schifrin continued his film work all the way through the '90s; during that
decade, he recorded a series of orchestral jazz albums called Jazz Meets the Symphony, and became the
principal arranger for the Three Tenors, which complemented his now-dominant interest in composing
classical music."
All Music





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Lo mejor de la musica inglesa son sus escenas sinf�nicas pastorales y su "light music"-Gran aporte del sello ruso marco polo!!

British Light Music....Thumbs way up!

No.230

Alla Pavlova was born on July 13, 1952, in Ukraine. As a girl she lived in Vinnitsa city, then
moved with her Russian-born parents to Moscow in 1961. In 1975 she received her Bachelor’s Degree
at the Ippolitov–Ivanov Music Institute. In 1983 she received her Master’s Degree at the Gnesin
Academy of Music in Moscow. Alla Pavlova has written a number of compositions for orchestra, including
eight symphonies. Her works combine classical, romantic and contemporary styles, and sometimes
include elements from gospel and popular genres.

Old New York Nostalgia, a suite for string orchestra, percussion, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
and trumpet, was written first for piano solo in 1994-1995 and first performed in March 1996 at the
Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall). Since then the suite has been performed many times in the United States,
and abroad in Russia, Bulgaria and Canada. The first version of the orchestration was made in 1998 and
recorded in 1999, together with the Second Symphony and Elegy for piano and string orchestra. The
present orchestration was made in the fall of 2002, at the time of the completion of the score of the
Fourth Symphony. It includes two new movements: From My Mom’s Photo Album and Lullaby for the
Twins, dedicated to the victims of 9/11.

The suite Sulamith, written in 2003 and 2004, consists of excerpts from the ballet Sulamith,
based on the story by the famous Russian writer Alexandre Kuprin (1908). It is a very dramatic and
touching lovestory between King Solomon and a poor girl, Sulamith, a servant from his vineyard,
and the only love of his life. The libretto also includes Assyrian and Egyptian scenes, and all the events
described have a historical basis, including the Great Mysteries of Isis and Osiris. The musical language
makes no use of folk-material. The present short version of the suite contains the Introduction and a
Ritual Dance to the Sun-God Ra, concluding the feast at King Solomon’s palace on the occasion of the
arrival of the Assyrian envoys. The dance is performed by Queen Astis, who is King Solomon’s wife and
a daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and the priestesses who serve the cult of Ra. At the end of the
dance the sun is rising, and the guests are astonished by the magic of Astis. The third movement is
the Duet of King Solomon and Queen Astis, in the King’s chambers. Astis, in desperation, begs
Solomon, who no longer loves her, for her love to be returned. This is followed by Night in Sulamith’s
room, a love duet between Solomon and Sulamith on the occasion of their second meeting, and the
ecstasy of their love. The fifth movement is In the Temple of Isis, which comes before the beginning
of the second part of the Great Mysteries dedicated to Osiris and Isis. Queen Astis persuades Eliab,
Head of King Solomon’s bodyguards, who is in love with her, to kill Solomon and Sulamith, promising
him her love and Solomon’s throne. In King Solomon’s Chambers brings the final love duet of
Solomon and Sulamith, who dies to save Solomon’s life.



Music Composed by Alla Pavlova
Played by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Rossen Milanov

"Much of this program falls into the category of light classical, or pops music. Alla Pavlova,
Moscow born and trained, now a resident of New York City, writes well-constructed material that is
drenched in nostalgia, and yet each work on this program has a distinct profile. Monolog is an homage
to the composer’s music-loving father, an amateur violinist. It is sweet and short, in just the right
proportions; the brevity of the piece keeps the sentimentality of the music from welling over into
sappiness. Old New York Nostalgia is also, at first blush, too simple and relentlessly tonal to have
any lasting impact, and yet there is an integrity and good old-fashioned craft at the core of this
writing that draws the listener in, and even encourages repeat hearings. Her memories tend to be
sweet with little bitterness; even the “Lullaby for the Twins,” a 9/11 tribute, oddly skirts any
intense emotions.

The centerpiece of the program is Sulamith, a ballet suite based on the Russian writer
Alexandre Krupin’s tale of a love affair between King Solomon and one of his servants, the
eponymous young waif. The oriental flavor of the music brings to mind Rimsky and Scheherazade,
less the soaring sumptuousness. That’s the rub; Pavlova, in all of the music on this CD, seems
determined to keep her emotional burners on low, even as she flirts with coy melodrama. Her
symphonies, which have also been recorded by Naxos, may tell a different story. Certainly,
her voice is intriguing enough to merit an audition.

Rossen Milanov is a young conductor of Bulgarian origin and seems to be one of the more promising
talents of his generation. He has become highly admired in Philadelphia, as the associate conductor
of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he has consistently displayed a sensitive ear for color and dramatic
shape, which are appropriate attributes in this music. The Moscow ensemble is gently sonorous,
warmly sympathetic to the music."
Fanfare



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No.231

Today the name of Edgar Bainton (1880-1956) is associated only with one church anthem,
‘And I Saw a New Heaven’; but during the fi rst half of the twentieth century Bainton
was a leading fi gure in Britain’s musical life – as composer, pianist, conductor,
examiner, adjudicator and lecturer, with his part-songs, piano pieces and works for
chorus and orchestra in print and frequently performed. It was his emigration in 1934 to
Australia, where he remained until his death in 1956, which turned him by default into an
Australian composer and removed him from the musical mainstream in the UK.

Throughout his years in Newcastle, Bainton loved walking the countryside around his
home in Stocksfi eld-on-Tyne, often in the company of friends such as the poet Wilfred
Wilson Gibson, whose words he would later set to music. On his travels, a book
was always with him and it is therefore not surprising to learn that many of his works,
particularly his orchestral works, were inspired by a literary idea of some kind. This
is especially so of The Golden River, which takes its inspiration from the short story by
the writer, art critic and Renaissance man John Ruskin. "The story tells of a rich treasure valley,
through which fl owed the Golden River, and which formed the territory of three
brothers. The two elder of these were ugly and evil, the younger, Little Gluck,
a blue-eyed, fair child. South-west wind devastated the country of the brothers,
on account of the evil ways of the two elders. The King of the Golden River
appears to Little Gluck and tells him how he may restore his fortunes. And the
valley and the river once more become a valley of rich treasure and a River of Gold."

While residing in Germany during WWI, Bainton wrote incidental music for productions
of two Shakespeare plays: The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1916, performed for the
playwright’s Tercentenary, and Twelfth Night in 1918. After his return from Germany in
December 1918 Bainton reworked some of this music into Three Pieces for Orchestra.

During the 1920s, Bainton was at the height of his success in Britain with a number of
premieres at the Three Choirs Festival and orchestral works performed at the ‘Proms’,
together with a great deal of lecturing and adjudicating, both in Britain and abroad. In
1925 the Oxford Orchestral Series issued the Pavane, Idyll and Bacchanal which Bainton
had completed on 30 June 1924. While such a series may have been designed for amateur
orchestras, Bainton makes no concessions. The ‘Bacchanal’ tops everything: a
vital and energetic 5/4 dance in A minor with irregular metrical emphases, contrast provided
by an eloquent E minor middle section in which the textures must be kept taut; the opening
music returns with the additional colour of the tambourine for a thrilling close.

The Concerto fantasia was awarded a Carnegie Prize in 1920, and by 1922 had
been published in both two-piano reduction and full score. With Bainton as the soloist,
Sir Dan Godfrey conducted the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in the premiere on
6 January 1921 – the same concert at which all Three Pieces for Orchestra were fi rst
heard. Judging by his surviving Australian recordings, Bainton was an excellent pianist,
and it is therefore no surprise to learn that he played the concerto frequently during
the 1920s; but at the performance of the Royal Philharmonic Society in Queen’s Hall
on 26 January 1922, the soloist was Winifred Christie, while Bainton conducted.
liner notes



Music Composed by Edgar Bainton
Played by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
With Margaret Fingerhut (piano)
Conducted by Paul Daniel

"Chandos has done well by Bainton. There are already two discs including a splendidly life-enhancing
recording of the Second Symphony (CHAN9757). The visionary-rhetorical Third Symphony has been
recorded by Dutton and the Genesis movement from the First Symphony is on Classico.

Here we start with two three movement orchestral suites. The Three Pieces reshuffle some music Bainton
wrote during his internment at Ruhleben camp: 1914-1918. The end result is three movements of Arden-like
pastoral pleasantry. This is the lighter Bainton but not as light as say Coates. This is music both gently
magical and bluffly celebratory - a touch of Korngold in the last piece. The Pavane is Tchaikovskian and
balletic yet with a touch of Binge about it. The Idyll is rather Debussian - the faun here being a flaneur
rather than a voluptuary. The Bacchanal has the bluff exterior of a Holst suite - Brook Green or St Paul's
or indeed of RVW's Concerto Grosso.

The earliest item here is the four movement suite from The Golden River. This is redolent of Massenet's
suites and Tchaikovsky's minor tone poems such as Hamlet or The Tempest with a whiff of Elgar's cigar
smoke in the Little Gluck movement. A chattering Mendelssohnian King of the Golden River movement flitters
and flashes along at speed. A real weight of utterance can however be felt in the lush sway and summery
heaviness of The Golden River movement which rises to an almost Baxian climactic at 4:51.

The Concerto-Fantasia - a work of staggering originality in comparison to the other pieces here was begun in
Ruhleben camp in 1917 and finished in 1920. It is in four movements and an epilogue. The long first movement
is almost half the length of the whole work. It begins with the piano solo in wreathes of smiling cadenza-like
flurries of crystalline notes. The redolences are of Bax's contemporaneous and statuesquely static Symphonic
Variations and the similarly coeval Scott First Concerto. It also recalls Dukas's sense of fantasy and
Scriabin's Piano Concerto yet has plenty of movement including an impudently Elgarian rhythmic grit which
carries over into the Scherzo. The finale reminded me a little of John Ireland but with more emotional
muscle and virility.

Paul Daniel, Margaret Fingerhut, the BBC Phil and Chandos have literally done the honours here and these
four premiere recordings inestimably enhance the Bainton catalogue. The notes are by Michael Jones
(who has written an article on Bainton for Musicweb) whose personally costly dedication to the Bainton cause
has been as richly rewarded as are the fortunes of the listener who encounters this fascinating music brought
back to us from the groves of oblivion."
Music Web



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No.232

Einar Englund's music evinces a variety of stylistic resources and a catholicity of spirit that rival those of
Igor Stravinsky, one of the composers who influenced him most. One of modern Finland's most renowned
composers, Englund was born on the Swedish island of Gotland in 1916, and lived there for much of his life.
He died in 1999. Englund's training included stints in both the U.S. (he studied with Copland at the Tanglewood
Festival) and the Soviet Union. He was noted as an educator and as a music critic for a Helsinki daily newspaper
as well as for his compositions. Currents of Bart�kian folk modalism, Stravinskian Neo-Classicism, and a very
Shostakovich-like confluence of irony and eloquence all flow through his music. Another influence he shares
with Stravinsky is that of jazz -- but whereas most European composers gained only a secondhand appreciation
of jazz, Englund got to know the music well, working as a jazz pianist in the 1940s and 1950s.



Music Composed by Einar Englund
Played by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Eri Klas

"Einar Englund’s incidental music to The Great Wall of China will delight and astonish music lovers looking for a
refreshing new experience. Its eight brief numbers include, aside from the usual Chinoiserie (signaled by plenty
of gong strokes), a delicious Rumba, a bluesy Jazz-intermezzo, and best of all, an absolute scream of a March
� la Shostakovich, which makes musical mincemeat out of the finale of that great composer’s Ninth Symphony
by applying to it the same over-the-top parody techniques familiar from his early, Socialist Realist ballets (The
Age of Gold, The Bolt, and The Limpid Stream). A more immediately appealing, witty, masterfully crafted score
hasn’t come my way in many a moon.

Englund’s Fifth Symphony, while written in a much more serious vein (the composer claimed that the work
embodies memories of the Second World War), stands as the most impressive single-movement work of its
type since Sibelius’ Seventh. While written from an entirely different stylistic perspective, the piece has a
similar organic coherence, every note growing inexorably out of the instantly memorable opening melodic
gestures. Englund effortlessly sustains the music’s intensity without ever overdoing the orchestral violence,
and the elegiac ending arrives with the inevitability of fate. How is it that we have had to wait so long
for this first recording?

The Fourth Symphony, on the other hand, already has enjoyed two previous outings on disc, though this
new version eclipses them all. The clock sounds of its mechanical second movement, marked “Tempus fugit”
(Time Flies), simultaneously recall Shostakovich (in the strings and percussion scoring), Penderecki (in the
music’s machine-tooled precision), and Bart�k, without really sounding like anyone other than Englund
himself. This marvelous score richly deserves all the exposure it can get, and not only do Eri Klas and
the Tampere Philharmonic offer performances as gripping, cogent, and virtuosic as the music ideally
demands (and make no mistake, Englund was one of the 20th century’s masters at writing for orchestra),
Ondine has captured them in stunningly realistic, impactful sound. Don’t miss this extraordinary
recording by any means!"
Classics Today



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I dislike intensely the music of Bartok,Hindemith,Cage(a mere snob),the last Stravinsky and all the neo-classics-In other words I like romantic music and more post romantic and colorful impressionistic music.It�s in the shape of human soul

I still can't thank you enough for all the fine (new) music. Happy holidays!

No.233

Colin McPhee (March 15, 1900 – January 7, 1964) was a Canadian composer and musicologist. He is primarily known for being the first
Western composer to make an ethnomusicological study of Bali, and for the quality of that work. He also composed music influenced
by that of Bali and Java decades before such compositions that were based on world music became widespread. His best-known
original composition is the "Toccata on Balinese Folk Tunes" Tabuh-Tabuhan, which greatly influenced later composers like
Philip Glass, Lou Harrison (1917-2003) and other so-called "minimalists".

Thus, Harrison's Suite for Symphonic Strings makes a good coupling. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg,
and K. P. H. Notoprojo. Harrison is particularly noted for incorporating elements of the music of non-Western cultures into his work,
with a number of pieces written for Javanese style gamelan instruments, including ensembles constructed and tuned by Harrison
and his partner William Colvig. The majority of his works are written in just intonation rather than the more widespread equal
temperament. Harrison is one of the most prominent composers to have worked with microtones.

The music of Cambodian-born composer Chinary Ung is on the other end of the modern spectrum, which might be called maximalism.
Her Inner Voices uses the full arsenal of contemporary techniques.



Music by Colin McPhee, Lou Harrison & Chinary Ung
Played by the American Composers Orchestra
Conducted by Dennis Russell Davies

"Harrison-Ung-McPhee was one of the finest recordings of contemporary music to appear on a
major label in the 1990s, a 1994 effort by the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies
that appeared on UK Decca's imprint Argo. It features the Suite for Symphonic Strings of Lou Harrison,
originally commissioned for the Louisville Orchestra in 1961 and first recorded under Robert Whitney
for the orchestra's own label. The Suite for Symphonic Strings is one of Harrison's characteristic suites,
cobbled together out of various movements ranging from throughout his career. However, this particular
suite is one of his most successful efforts in that vein, and Harrison utilizes tasteful percussion to underscore
imaginative tropes of old dance forms, ranging from French renaissance dances to the music evocative
of Pacific Rim cultures, though he does not directly invoke them here. The other older work is Colin McPhee'
s imaginative concerto Tabuh-Tabuhan (1936) based on Balinese music; at the time Davies recorded it for
Decca, this important work hadn't been seen on disc since Howard Hanson waxed it in the 1950s with
Eastman-Rochester. The third, and most imaginative choice of the program, is Inner Voices by Cambodian
composer Chinary Ung; this wildly colorful and strongly visionary piece is extremely flexible in its approach
to orchestration and while unconventional, something about it captures the ear.

Davies' Argo disc made a conspicuous number of strides in its time, among them, it demonstrated that
contemporary orchestral music need not be punishing or uncompromisingly repetitive to be fresh, and that
there is a sense of continuity from composers such as Harrison and McPhee to later developments, which,
in mid-century, were regarded as isolated and cut off. However, when Polygram merged with Universal Music
Group in 1998, the low-performing Argo line was one of the first labels trimmed from the roster, and this
fine disc disappeared along with it. It was reissued in 2008 by the small Phoenix label."
All Music



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Again, there will be a week-long break after this release, as I'll be travelling. All the best for the New Year!

Englund is truly an "original"!
Thanks and a Happy New Year!

I don't know how to thank you
for all this fine music, wimpel69.
This thread is unique!
I wish you all the best.

That's fine. Just keep interacting with me! :)


No.234

Musical compartments mean nothing to David Amram (*1930), whose compositions and activities have crossed
fearlessly back and forth between the classical and jazz worlds, as well as those of Latin jazz, folk, television,
and film music. In addition to his rare (to jazz) specialty, the French horn, Amram has also recorded on piano,
recorder, Spanish guitar, and various percussion instruments.

The album featured here focuses entirely on his classical works, which are influenced by the great tradition
of "Americana" that was originally created by men like Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson. The works are all
in some way America-themed, too, from the American Dance Suite, the Variations on the US traditional
Red River Valley, to the Travels for Trumpet and Orchestra and the concluding Three Songs for America
(one each for a fallen leader of 20th century US politics).



Music Composed by David Amram
Played by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
With Julius Baker (flute), Chris Gekker (trumpet) & James Courtney (bass)
Conducted by Richard Auldon Clark

"Four heartfelt, exuberantly tonal works on a Newport Classic CD catch us up with Amram's pursuit of folkloric
music. He's focusing on America here, the jewel being Theme and Variations on the traditional ''Red River Valley"
(1991) ... Two sumptuous three-movement suites with elegiac blues sections at their centers pack constant
surprises. There's an American Dance Suite (1986) with Cheyenne and Cajun inspirations, glowing and organically
spontaneous. Travels for Trumpet and Orchestra (1989), with Taos (Pueblo Indian) and Taxim (middle Eastern)
influences, pack a wealth of flowing rhythms into its journey...

The disc winds up with Three Songs for America (1969), plaintive and relatively traditional settings of texts by
JFK, MLK, Jr., and RFK.

All four works are sympathetically played by the very impressive Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, led by
Richard Auldon Clark.

Amram is a genuine original; he communicates honestly, unafraid of using jazz, ethnicity, or simple
exuberance as legitimate materials ... Recommended."
Philadelphia Daily News





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---------- Post added at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------




No.235

Evencio Castellanos (1915-1984) may well be considered one of the most significant and representative Venezuelan
nationalistic composers of the twentieth century. Born into a family of active musicians, he received his first musical
instruction in organ from his father. After furthering his musical studies in New York at the Dalcroze School of Music,
Castellanos embarked on a dynamic and active musical life in Caracas, becoming a member of the Orquesta Sinf�nica de
Venezuela.

The title of the work Santa Cruz de Pacairigua (1954) pays homage to the construction of a church in Guatire,
near the capital of Caracas, where Vicente Emilio Sojo was born and is perhaps Castellanosʼs best known and
most frequently performed composition. The main theme introduced by a solo trumpet invokes and paves the way
for the feast of San Pedro, when the folk dance to the rhythms of drums led by a principal dancer disguised as
Maria Ignacia (a historic black slave of the region) wearing a long-braided wig.

El R�o de las Siete Estrellas (The River of the Seven Stars), composed in 1946, was inspired by the poem
Canto al Orinoco (Chant to the Orinoco River) by the Venezuelan writer and poet Andr�s Eloy Blanco in 1943.
The poem is a fabled account of pre-colonial Venezuelan history leading up to its independence in 1821 during
which the protagonist tries to seduce the daughter of Cacique Yaruro (Indian chief). While she relates to him
the mythological events of her past, vindicating herself historically speaking, the protagonist invents a fable which
connects the Orinoco to the different historical events that took place in Venezuelan history.

The more eclectic Suite Avile�a, composed in 1947, is an impressionistic compilation of short scenes that
makes allusion to the coastal mountain of El �vila separating Caracas from the Caribbean shoreline to the
north. As the subtitle of the work suggests (“based on genuine popular motives”), most of the melodic material is
borrowed from popular Venezuelan songs and both the cuatro and maracas, two of the most typical folkloric
Venezuelan instruments, are used throughout the work.



Music Composed by Evencio Castellanos
Played by the Orquesta Sinf�nica de Venezuela
Conducted by Jan Wagner

"Evencio Castellanos is one of Venezuela's best-known composers, notable not least as one of the
groundwork-makers for that country's much-lauded "sistema" of music education. This album presents some
of his best-known works, idiomatically and enthusiastically performed by the Orquesta Sinf�nica de Venezuela
under Jan Wagner. All three works are nationalistic, with plucked strings stating popular Venezuelan rhythms
and melodies against various orchestral backdrops. The two more extended works at the beginning, colorfully
orchestrated, are said to be popular in Venezuela; they have elaborate programs that make sense if you
listen to the music but that could hardly be guessed independently. The real find is the Suite Avile�a (1947),
composed of five movements. These also have programmatic references, but the overall technique is more
impressionistic and less episodic, and the ways of handling the popular material are sharp and fresh. Check
out the Nocturno (track 5), with a guitar stating joropo rhythms against a tonally disjunct, almost Ivesian
background at first, resolving to full consonance later on. Nothing on the album is dull, and any of these
pieces could work on the sort of program, increasingly common in the Western hemisphere, that explores
and compares various national traditions. An enjoyable outing, but if you're buying it online in pieces, try
the Suite Avile�a first."
All Music





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MUY INTERESANTE ESTA M�SICA-Gracias

I met maestro Castellanos more than 30 years ago. He was a most generous and kind composer and gave me some LP's of his music conducted by him, dating from the 50's and the early 60's. I still have them and treasure them.
So, my heartfelt thanks to wimpel for bringing back the music of Evencio Castellanos in excellent sound and performances.
This will be my perfect gift for the "Dia de Reyes".
Thanks again!

Naxos has got the name of the orchestra wrong: it is simply Orquesta Sinf�nica Venezuela, based in Caracas and Venezuela's oldest orchestra.

I met maestro Castellanos more than 30 years ago. He was a most generous and kind composer and gave me some LP's of his music conducted by him, dating from the 50's and the early 60's. I still have them and treasure them.

Funny how small the world is! :)


No.236

"The present recording contains works that, in one way or another, are related to the Pacific region,
including Australia. They were written during the last thirty years of my compositional life.

In many ways, Australia is the one of the few places on Earth where one can honestly write quick
and joyous music. All the same it would be dishonest of me to write music that is wholly optimistic.
The lack of a common cause and the self-interest of many have drained Australian society of much
of its energy. A bogus national identity and its commercialisation have obscured the true breadth of
our culture. Most of the jubilation, I feel, awaits us in the future. We now need to attune ourselves
to the continent, to listen to the cry of the earth as the Aborigines have done for many thousands
of years. Earth Cry (1986) is a straightforward and melodious work. Its four parts are made up of a
quick ritualistic music framed by slower music of a supplicatory nature, and an extended coda. While
the work is very much in my own personal idiom, the treatment of the orchestra represents a new departure.
This is particularly noticeable in the way that instruments are doubled. First and second violins, for instance,
sing in unison for most of the work, and lower strings often sing with the lower brass. Furthermore,
in order to summon up broader feelings and a broader landscape I have added a part for didgeridoo.

During the period that my Piano Concerto (1983) was written, three of my closest friends died.
Furthermore I was involved in an almost-fatal accident. The work, however, is more concerned with
lifeaffirmation than with death, and if I have written more within the European concert tradition than is
my custom, this is because I felt that the genre demanded it. All the same, at one time I considered
calling the work ‘Pacific’. In one continuous movement, the work is in five sections: Grave - Animato -
Grave, Calmo, Animato - Risoluto, Come Notturno, Estatico. The first section is related to the third and
fourth sections, and the second, the longest, is related to the last, although motives from the opening
do appear in these two sections. Flutes and clarinets are omitted from the orchestra, so that the wind
instruments used form a reed choir, consisting of two oboes, two bassoons and a contra-bassoon.
It might be added that some of the musical ideas stem from both the ancient court music of Japan
and the Balinese gamelan.

From Oceania (1970/2003) is based upon the last part of my orchestral work, Music for Japan. The latter
was written for the Australian Youth Orchestra to play my Sun Music style, I thought of it as a present
to Japan from Australia. Unlike most of my music, it contains no melodic material and little harmonic
movement. Instead the orchestra is treated almost like a giant percussion instrument. In From Oceania,
I begin with percussion itself. Other instruments are gradually added, leading to a section marked Feroce,
ma ben misurato, and a climax consisting of a tone cluster spanning the entire orchestra. An E major
chord is then twice revealed, followed by a coda, most of which is unmeasured.

Kakadu (1988) takes its name from the Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia. An enormous wilderness
area, it extends from coastal tidal plains to rugged mountain plateaux, and the culture of the local tribe,
the gagadju, dates back for some fifty thousand years. Sadly, today there are only a few remaining
speakers of the language. The work, then, is concerned with my feeling about this place, its landscape,
its change of seasons, its dry season and its wet, its cycle of life and death. Basically the music is in
three parts. The outer parts are dance-like and energetic, with all the melodic material, as in much of
my recent music, suggested by the contours and and rhythms of indigenous chant."
Peter Sculthorpe



Music Composed by Peter Sculthorpe
Played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
With William Barton (didgeridoo), Tamara Anna Cislowska (piano)
Conducted by James Judd

"A magnificent collection of some of Peter Sculthorpe’s best works. Sculthorpe seems not to have gained
the recognition he deserves in the UK; especially having a UK-based publisher, Faber Music Ltd. This has
long struck me as a great shame. Sculthorpe’s music has a very immediate element to it, one that seems
instantly geographically linked to the wide spaces of Australasia.

Of course the use of the didjeridoo takes us immediately into the world of the aborigine. Earth Cry refers
to the need of Australians to listen to the sounds of their own, surrounding, nature in the way that the
Aborigines have always done. [Try the book Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan, a travelogue
of a Westerner who walked, memorably, with the aborigines.] The didjeridoo possesses this earthy sound;
indeed within its overtone-laden ‘voice’ is something that appeals directly to the primal in all of us. One of
the strangest and most prized recordings I own – it was only made, to my knowledge on cassette, is of
didjeridoo duets. Sculthorpe memorably juxtaposes the active didjeridoo of the opening with sudden,
glowering Romantic strings. Many of Sculthorpe’s characteristics are on offer in this short work including
motoric rhythms. He can generate tremendous excitement as well as real calm. I remain intrigued by
what sounds like a laughing hyena around 8’30; is it the soloist singing through the didjeridoo? But
most memorable aspect is the sense of a vast open space that appears later in the piece.

Memento Mori (literally, ‘remember to die’) is inspired by Easter Island and its great stone heads, a memento
mori for this planet. Much is made of an oscillation between the pitch-classes G and A flat, which the
astronomer Kepler believed to be the sound at which the earth itself resonates. The plainchant ‘Dies irae’
also forms part of Sculthorpe’s musical material. Strangely, and unexpectedly, Sculthorpe uses harmonies
that are almost English-pastoral (around 3’40ff); a sort of Down-Under Vaughan Williams. But what
resonates most is the hypnotic, slow-moving sense of the eternal. This is surely a reference to those
heads on Easter Island; they look as if they have been there since Creation.

The Piano Concerto omits flutes and clarinets from the scoring, leaving a ‘reed choir’ of two oboes, two
bassoons and a contra-bassoon to provide the wind element. Written in 1983 this was a reaction to a
time of Sculthorpe’s life when death seemed a recurrent theme. Several close friends died, and Sculthorpe
himself was involved in a near-fatal crash. The work serves to remind us - and him, probably - of life-
affirmation and its power.

In terms of the piano writing, the work seems mostly to be the antithesis of the conventional solo-vehicle.
Hypnotic, almost meditational from the off, not to mention hyper-gentle, every note drips with resonance.
The piano is frequently allotted obsessively-repeated figures. Harmonies can glow, but equally the climaxes
can be granitic; try around 4’40, with its keening trumpets and chord of marble from the excellent young
pianist, Tamara Anna Cislowska. The cadenza around twelve minutes is gripping, and for an example of
Sculthorpe’s ear for sonority just try around 17’24, where glittering piano figuration adorns a lonely
cello melody. Magnificent.

The short, percussion-dominated From Oceania is the final part of Sculthorpe’s Music for Japan, written
for the Australian Youth Orchestra to play at Expo ’70 in Osaka. As the composer puts it, ‘Composed in
my Sun Music style, I thought of it as a present to Japan from Australia’. There is surely a Var�se influence
here in the dense writing and the wind pitch-bends. Whatever the case, there is no doubting the fact that
this music travels a long way in a short space of time (5’32).

Kakadu is named after the Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia, a place of huge wilderness and home
to the gagadju people, a tribe that dates back around 50,000 years. Like the landscape, the music speaks
of vast things. Sculthorpe injects local colour by the use of indigenous chants in his melodic material. The
solo cor anglais, that crops up, memorably, on several occasions, is stunningly played here. Alas the player
is uncredited. Intimations of nature, primal rhythms and a sense of space conjoin to reaffirm Sculthorpe’s
importance. There seems to be no-one quite like him. This Naxos release, given its very freedom of
availability, should go a long way to propelling Sculthorpe to his rightful place in our contemporary
musical consciousness. Given Sculthorpe’s dedication to the powers of Nature and his evident belief that
music can speak in this regard much more eloquently than words, it would appear he has important
things to say. We should listen, and carefully."
Music Web





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No.237 (as per request!)

A native New Yorker, Jerome Moross began piano lessons at the age of five and was composing by the
time he was eight. In a feat of musical and logistical virtuosity, he held a Juilliard School of Music conducting
fellowship while finishing his degree at the New York University School of Music. Moross was awarded Guggenheim
Fellowships in 1947 and 1948. In his early career, he wrote extensively for the concert stage, including his
Symphony No.1 (which you'll find in this thread, too!), which was first performed by Sir Thomas Beecham
with the Seattle Symphony in 1943.

Moross’s music was distinctively American and remained tonal and melodic throughout his career. He loved
folk-tunes and popular songs of his day, and in his formative years continually sought out indigenous music influences.

The popular song Frankie and Johnny, based on an actual incident that occurred in St Louis in 1899 when a prostitute
named Frankie Baker shot and killed her pimp/lover following an argument, was first published in New York in 1904. As early as
1933, when Jerome Moross was only twenty, he told the New York Evening Journal that he planned to compose on the Frankie
and Johnny theme: "What I plan to do is to take the elements that make a good Broadway Show interesting, and add
them to opera. I will take Jazz and use it as a basis for true American Music."

In 1938, Chicago dancer-choreographers Ruth Page and Bently Stone formed the Page-Stone Ballet Company as part of the
Federal Theatre Project. At Aaron Copland’s suggestion (Moross had been a member of Copland’s Young Composers’ Group),
Ruth Page commissioned Jerome Moross to compose an original ballet score. Frankie and Johnny, the first ballet to be truly
"American" in form, content and creative personnel, was first given on 20th June 1938 at the Great Northern Theater in
Chicago. Ruth Page and Bently Stone danced the title characters, and most of the choreography was by the latter.
Reviewing the premi�re performance, a critic proclaimed it the "most arresting and vital dance production to have come
out of the Federal Theater [Project]."

Moross composed his Frankie and Johnny as a Ballet Suite for Orchestra, and also wrote the libretto, in collaboration
with Michael Blankford. He used a vocal trio of Salvation Army girls ("Saving Susies") in the manner of a modern-day Greek
Chorus, commenting on the action as they wander throughout the scenes playing tambourine, bass drum and cymbals. He
was amused that the Salvation Army girls, normally seen trying to save souls, would be found singing the narrative of what
was then considered to be a very naughty poem.

Those Everlasting Blues was composed by the nineteen-year-old Moross during the summer of 1932, begun
in Vienna and completed in Cagnes-sur-Mer in France. It was first performed in New York City on 4th November of that
year in a Pan American Association of Composers concert conducted by Henry Cowell, with the contralto Paula Jean
Lawrence as soloist. The works of the American poet Alfred Kreymborg were being set to music by several of Moross’s
colleagues, and he decided to set Those Everlasting Blues in a style reminiscent of the "Negro Popular Song." Still very
much influenced by the compositional language of his mentors Charles Ives and Henry Cowell, Moross periodically strays
into a jazz-like tangent.

Ballet Ballads, the first fruit of Jerome Moross’s collaborative partnership with librettist John Latouche (1914-1956),
was first given in the spring of 1948 and moved to Broadway in May of that year. The three one-act dance cantatas,
Susanna and the Elders, Willie the Weeper and The Eccentricities of Davy Crockett, combine dance, song and
story-telling in a through-composed dramatic form without any spoken dialogue. A planned fourth piece, Red
Riding Hood, was sketched but never finished.

The partners explained their concept in the production note for the Ballet Ballads score’s first printed edition:
"The Ballet Ballads were produced in New York as dance-operas; they were intended to fuse the arts of text,
music and dance into a new dramatic unity." The idea was "to so mix the singing and dancing that you didn’t
know where the singers began or where the dancers ended" said Moross in a 1978 interview.



Music Composed by Jerome Moross
Played by the Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra
With Diane Kesling (mezzo), John De Haan (tenor)
And Denise Edds & Melissa Barrick (sopranos)
Conducted by Richard Rosenberg

"The Naxos CD includes Those Everlasting Blues, an extended aria on the Alfred Kreymborg poem. Moross
wrote it in 1932 at the ripe old age of 19, a student of the radical Henry Cowell. There are jazz elements in it,
but highly abstracted, like a bit of newsprint in a Cubist collage or ragtime in an Ives sonata. I suspect many
even today would find it a rough ride. In many ways, it typifies young man’s music, especially in its desire
to be taken very seriously indeed. But Moross quickly changed. Naxos’s inclusion of it in the program shows
how very far, very quickly Moross went. By 1935, he hits on his trademark mix of blues, proto-jazz, vaudeville
songs, folk music, and camp songs. The new music has the efficiency, elegance, and geniality of Mozart,
never inflated to bathos. It entertains like a Broadway show.

For me, Willie the Weeper gives the most pleasure, not least because it’s new to me. As far as I know, it
gets its first-ever recording, definitely the first in its orchestrated version.

The Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra mixes, as a matter of mission, professionals with students,
and, to some extent, it sounds like it. Intonation is professional, but attacks aren’t particularly crisp.
Nevertheless, Rosenberg does a fantastic job getting inside Moross’s music. The student Festival Chamber
Chorus has voices a bit young, but the diction and characterization of the words leave many a professional
group in the dust. Everything has the happy energy of a Broadway show."
Classical CD



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---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:14 PM ----------




No.238

Think what you want about Mao Zedong's talents as a military leader in pre-1949
China, or his decisions and policies as the Communist head of state between 1949 and 1976:
He was a talented and polished writer of traditional Chinese poems (with an agit-prop bend),
many of which are of high literary and aesthetic value. Which is why, in addition to the liner
notes, I have also uploaded the English translation of the poems featured in this cantata.

Written by Zu Jian-Er, one of the most prominent post-1949 Chinese composers, the symphonic cantata
The Heroic Poems is a grand vocal-instrumental setting of Ma's poems. After years' of original conception,
the composer wrote the first note on the score in 1959. In the following year he finished the cantata and
submitted it as his graduation creation to Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music, where he spent five
years studying musical composition. In 1962 its complete version was premiered at the Third Shanghai Spring
Music Festival. In 1964, it was staged at the Fifth Shanghai Spring Music Festival for the second time and
called forth warm response among the audience as well as the musical experts. After 30 years the composer
made a revision of it, especially added to it Loushan Pass, a movement of baritone solo, thus further
deepening its connotation and enriching its colour and contrast.

The Heroic Poems must be seen as a product of its time, and in fact the composer's style has
changed a lot since then, progressively moving towards a Chinese interpretation of Western atonal avantgarde.
This early work is much more direct, clearly intended as propaganda, and obviously tonal. Nevertheless,
it's a force- and colorful symphonic cantata, and those who like The Long March Symphony by Ding Shan-De
or the Yellow River Cantata by Xian Xinghai will like this characteristic mid-20th century Communist work as well.


"Chairman Mao on Jinggang Mountain", by Luo Gongliu (1961)

Music Composed by Zhu Jian-Er
Words by Mao Zedong
Played by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
Conducted by Cao Peng (Ding)

"All of Mao's poems are all in the classical Chinese verse style, rather than the newer Modern Chinese poetry style.
Though Mao may not be one of the best Chinese poets, his poems are generally considered well-written and of
high literary quality.

As did most Chinese intellectuals of his generation, Mao received rigorous education in Chinese classical literature,
and thus his skill in poetry is of little surprise. His style was deeply influenced by the "Three Lis" of the Tang Dynasty:
poets Li Bai, Li Shangyin, and Li He. He is considered to be a romantic poet, in contrast to the realist poets
represented by Du Fu.

Many of Mao's poems are still very popular in China. They are frequently quoted in popular culture, literature and
daily conversations. Some of his most well-known poems are "Changsha" (1925), "The Double Ninth" (1929.10),
"Loushan Pass" (1935), "The Long March" (1935), "Snow" (1936.02), "The PLA Captures Nanjing" (1949.04),
"Reply to Li Shuyi" (1957.05.11), and "Ode to the Plum Blossom" (1961.12). General consensus is that his
pre-1949 works are superior."
Wikipedia




"Marching towards the Jing Gang Mountain" (artist unknown)

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No.239

Archibald James (Archie) Potter (1918-80) was the son of a blind Belfast piano tuner. Brought up by relatives
in Kent, he ‘got the only education then open to penniless boys – choir school followed by public school’. He also
won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied composition with Vaughan Williams. After colourful
wartime service he settled in Dublin and gained his Doctorate in Music from Trinity College Dublin in 1953. From 1955 to 1973 he
was Professor of Composition at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. His Missa Brevis won the Festival of Britain
(Northern Ireland) Prize in 1951 and he won the Radio �ireann Carolan Prize in 1952 and 1953. For many years
he was a popular radio broad-caster on music.

He was a very prolific composer, whose eclectic style encompassed a wide range of techniques which were used
to suit the style of a work to its purpose. His orchestration in particular is outstanding. The sensitivity that lay
behind the ebullience of his personality, and his passionate concern about injustice and intolerance, are all
evident in his best works.

The works on this album vary between the rollicking, folkloristic Finnegan's Wake, Overture to a Kitchen Comedy,
Gaelic Fantasy No.1 and the Variations on a Popular Tune and the more sombre, complex (but still very approachable)
Sinfonia "De Profundis". This is all very well crafted, middle of the road professional light & concert music.



Music Composed by A.J. Potter
Played by the RT� National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Conducted by Robert Houlihan

"Marco Polo’s innovative series of the music of Irish composers has been one of its more notable achievements of
recent years. For a country of small population, and culturally dominated by its large neighbour for so many years,
Irish composition has always managed to be a remarkably strong feature of the cultural psyche. Indeed, even at
the height of British domination, the sense of ‘Irishness’ was never far from the heart of compositional activity of
composers working in that country. A J Potter, born in Belfast in 1918, grew up in a firmly British dominated part
of Ireland and undoubtedly absorbed much of what was best in British composition in the first half of the 20th
century. But he also managed to carve out a niche as a successful arranger of Irish tunes for orchestral performance
as well as achieving some remarkably original thoughts in serious composition.


Both aspects of this activity are represented on this Marco Polo disc, which finds the National Symphony Orchestra
of Ireland in particularly fine form under Robert Houlihan. In the 1950s the Minister in charge of broadcasting in
Ireland, the redoubtable Erskine Childers, made much funding available for the commissioning of high-quality orchestral
and choral arrangements of Irish folk music to be broadcast by the state broadcasting organ Radio Telefis �ireann
(RT�) and many of these were entrusted to Potter. His dynamic abilities as an orchestrater shine through in works
like Finnegan’s Wake - originally written for wind and percussion, but further arranged in several versions including
that for full orchestra recorded here. From the same era come the Gaelic Fantasias; tone poems making much
use of well-known Irish airs.


The major work on this disc is from a later period and has quite different feel. Written in 1968, and first performed
to unanimous acclaim the following year, the Sinfonia “De Profundis” is a major serious work that his well worth
more frequent performances. This shows Potter not just as a colourful weaver of folk song orchestrations but also
as a major symphonist with a broad sweep of outlook and a commanding control of structural unity. The title is
that of psalm 130 “Out of the deep have I cried unto thee, O Lord; Lord hear my prayer” and this sense of the
despairing individual provides the psychological basis for the whole work. Even the second movement waltz is
precarious dance. Throughout the five movements the old tune Remember God’s goodness, O thou man provides
material for variation, which, at the climax of the epilogue, is transformed into the tune of the metrical psalm
124 Nisi quia Dominus “If God had not supported us”.


This climactic epilogue forms the high point of the whole disc and produces some startlingly powerful playing
from the National Symphony Orchestra, a group who can be very good when they are good, but can also produce
some quite indifferent playing when they are not. Robert Houlihan has a fine grasp of the architectural dimensions
of this work and, while the playing in the earlier pieces is also fine, it is undoubtedly the sinfonia that allows him to
bring the best out of the orchestra. This is very impressive and Marco Polo deserves success for the commendable
efforts made to bring this all too infrequently heard composer to a wider audience."
M Station



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No.240

The present collection of Swedish Orchestral Favourites includes works by six composers. The first of these,
August S�derman, is regarded as the leading Swedish romantic composer. He worked extensively as
a theatre conductor and later as chorus- master of the Stockholm Opera House, dying in 1876 at the age
of 44. His principal compositions consist of incidental music. Of special interest are Br�llopet p� Ulv�sa
(Wedding at Ulv�sa), Marsk Stigs d�ttrar (Lord Stig's Daughters) and Peer Gynt, the last written five years
before Grieg's music for Ibsen's drama. In 1858 he wrote an overture for the play N�gra timmar till p�
Kronobergs slott (A Few Hours More at Kronoborg Castle), with a text by a member of the Swedish
royal family, and this, two years later, was also used at a performance of Schiller's The Maid of Orleans.
For some years now this piece has been known as Svenkst festspel (Swedish Festival Music). It must be
regarded as S�derman's finest orchestral work and bears witness to his skill in orchestration and his
stylized approach to Swedish folk-music.

Wilhelm Stenhammar, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger and Hugo Alfv�n were all born within
a short time of each other in the final years of S�derman's life and made their names in the last decade of the
nineteenth century, showing various degrees of national influence, although differing markedly in their musical language.

The least Swedish of the three is Wilhelm Stenhammar, a composer who seldom makes direct use of folk-music,
although there is an undoubted nordic element in his music, apparent in the interlude from the
cantata S�ngen (The Song). This has a text by Stenhammar's slightly younger colleague, the composer
Ture Rangstr�m, and was written in 1921 for the 150th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Music Academy. It was
Stenhammar's last major work and is seldom performed in it entirety, although the central Interlude
that joins the two disparate parts of the cantata is often heard.

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger wrote many symphonies and operas but is remembered today in Sweden mainly as
a feared music critic and as a composer of some songs and of 21 piano pieces which form part of the three
books of Fr�s�blomster (Flowers from Fr�s�n). The model was apparently the Lyric Pieces of Grieg.
These pieces have become supremely popular with musicians and audiences alike, melodies, humoresques
and idylls expressly regarded by the composer as music for the many. They appear in many guises, not
only for solo piano, evidence of their popularity.

The Swedish landscape was a continuing source of inspiration to Peterson-Berger, especially that of the district
of J�mtland, where, in 1919, on the island of Fr�s�n, he had a house built. This brought his Int�g i Sommarhagen
(Entry into Sommarhagen), the name of his house, his Vid Fr�s� kyrka (At the Church of Fr�s�n), with its
stunningly beautiful view of the Lake of Storsj�n and the mountains to the West. In Sommars�ng (Song of Summer)
it is easy to imagine Peterson-Berger wandering across the meadows of the island. Gratulation (Congratulations)
is an elegant piece of drawing-room music with the rhythms of a fast gavotte and a musette.

Outside Sweden Peterson-Berger is hardly known, even by name. Hugo Alfv�n, however, soon made an international
reputation. His first great success was Midsommarvaka (Midsummer Vigil), in 1903. This is a rhapsody of freely
adapted folk- tunes and dances, shaped like a symphonic poem. In brilliant orchestration Alfv�n captured his
impressions of the magic of the long, light Midsummer Night, as he himself experienced it during many summers
on the Stockholm archipelago. A shortened version, arranged by Percy Faith, became known throughout the world
as Swedish Rhapsody No.1.

The 300th anniversary of the death of King Gustavus Adolphus II was commemorated at the Royal Opera House in
Stockholm by a performance of a play called Vi (We). The drama has long been forgotten, but the music commissioned
for it from Alfv�n lives on. At funerals you may hear the Elegy that was originally background music to the poignant
scene between Gustavus Adolphus and a nun on the eve of battle.

The last significant work of Hugo Alfv�n was the ballet Den f�rlorade sonen (The Prodigal Son), first performed in
Stockholm on the composer's 85th birthday, in 1957. Folk paintings in Dalecarlia treat scenes from the Bible as if
they took place in the eighteenth century. This inspired Alfv�n, who, as he said, looked for folk-tunes that would
suit these paintings from Dalecarlia and when there were not enough of them composed some himself. One of
these pieces was Polka fr�n Roslagen (Polka from Roslagen), which won very wide popularity.

Among Swedish composers only Lars-Erik Larsson can rival Alfv�n in popularity and this principally with
compositions from the late 1930s, in particular his Pastoralsvit (Pastoral Suite). At this time Larsson was
employed by Swedish Radio and among his duties was the task of writing music for special occasions. In 1938
he was asked to compose vignettes for a programme called Dagens stunder (Times of Day), in which the music
was used as interludes to poems by Swedish writers. Three of these vignettes were put together to form the Pastoral Suite,
with the middle movement, Romans, probably the most frequently played of all Swedish classical compositions.



Music by August S�derman, Lars-Erik Larsson, Wilhelm Stenhammar,
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Dag Wir�n and Hugo Alfv�n
Played by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Okko Kamu

"This enjoyable concert gets off to a bracing start with the August S�derman piece, its raucous fanfares and rhythms
reminiscent of those in Rossini's William Tell Overture. Wilhelm Stenhammar's radiant, lyrical interlude is a good change
of pace, followed by the simple, folk-inspired compositions of Lars-Erik Larsson. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger is
remembered more as a feared music critic than as a composer; what a surprise, then, to discover four charming
pieces from his collection inspired by Grieg's Lyric pieces. Dag Wir‚n's Serenade for Strings bubbles over with good
humor, particularly evident in its joyous final movement. Hugo Alfv�n was the best-known composer outside his
own country and is represented here by his most famous work, the Midsommarkava (Midsummer Vigil), and a
few lesser-known pieces.

Conductor Okko Kamu won the Herbert von Karajan conducting competition when he was only 22. It's good to
have new recordings from him, as he is a conductor of great energy and insight. This is a beguiling collection,
and it shouldn't matter if you already have a recording of the Midsommarkava: this extremely rambunctious one
(with a soulful, lyric central section) will give another compelling view. The sound is very good, offering a
mid-hall perspective, clear definition, and a lot of warmth. And all these pluses are offered at budget price."
Classics Today


Peterson-Berger, Larsson, Stenhammar

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No.241

All three works in this appealing and intriguing collection were commissioned by Princess Edmond de Polignac,
whose maiden name had been Winnaretta Singer (daughter of the inventor of the sewing machine). Through
a "marriage blanc" to the French aristocrat de Polignac, whose family was one of the oldest and grandest
in his country, she was able to draw around her a large coterie of writers, painters and composers. She
was a generous supporter of the arts, e.g. she contributed major sums to Diaghilev's Ballet Russe.

Many first performances of works she had commissioned took place in soir�es at her house, including
Manuel de Falla's El Retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Pedro's Puppet Show), which is indeed
an "opera for marionettes" that Falla wrote for de Polignac's own puppet theatre! Its story concerns
Don Quixote, who spends an evening in an inn, watching Pedro's marionettes. There is a strong Spanish
folk element in the score, but both the neo-renaissance and the Stravinsky influences on Falla are
noticeable, too.

Darius Milhaud had long been thinking about a work based on the story of Orpheus, which he finally
set for a quartet of voices and chamber orchestra upon the invitation of de Polignac. In Milhaud's version,
Orph�e is a healer of men and animals, not a poet or musician, who is killed by Eurydice's vengeful sisters.
Eurydice herself is a gypsy girl who dies from an illness after having sought refuge with Orpheus in a wood.
Despite the changes in the story, the themes and motivations are close to the source.

Diaghilev was furious when he heard that de Polignac had commissioned a work from Igor Stravinsky,
the "barnyard fable" Renard. He thought that no one else but him was allowed to work with the
Russian composer, but he did turn up at the salon for the premi�re of Renard. Stravinsky's orchestration
in this folksy music includes an Hungarian cimbalon.



Music by Manuel de Falla, Darius Milhaud & Igor Stravinsky
Played by the Matrix Ensemble, with vocal soloists
Conducted by Robert Ziegler

"El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show) is a puppet-opera in one act with a prologue and epilogue,
composed by Manuel de Falla to a Spanish libretto based on an episode from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.
The libretto is a faithful adaptation of Cervantes's text, from Chapter 26 of the second part of Don Quixote, with
some words edited. Falla composed this opera "in devoted homage to the glory of Miguel de Cervantes" and
dedicated it to the Princess de Polignac, who commissioned the work. Because of its brief length by operatic
standards (about 27 minutes), it is not part of the standard operatic repertoire.

Otto Mayer-Serra has described this opera as a work where Falla reached beyond "Andalusianism" for his immediate
musical influence and colour and began the transition into the "Hispanic neo-classicism" of his later works.

In 1919 Winnaretta Singer, aka la Princesse Edmond de Polignac, commissioned from Falla a piece that could be
played in her salon, at her own elaborate puppet theater. (Her other commissions included Igor Stravinsky's
Renard and Erik Satie's Socrate, although neither of those works had its premiere in her private theater.) The
work was completed in 1923. Falla decided to set an episode from Cervantes's Don Quixote that actually depicts
a puppet play. He wrote his own libretto, cutting and splicing from chapters 25 and 26 of Part II. The protagonist
watches a puppet show and gets so drawn into the action that he seeks to rescue the damsel in distress,
only to destroy poor Master Peter's puppet theater in the process.

Falla's original plan for the Princess's theater was a two-tiered, play-within-a-play approach – large puppets
representing Quixote, Master Peter, and the others in attendance, and small figures for Master Peter's puppets.
The three singers would be with the orchestra in the pit, rather than onstage. After a concert performance cum
dress rehearsal in Seville in March 1923, that is how it was performed with the Princess's puppets in the music
room of her Paris estate in June that year, with Vladimir Golschmann conducting. Hector Dufranne sang Quijote
(Quixote), Wanda Landowska played the harpsichord (Falla composed his Harpsichord Concerto for her in
appreciation), and Ricardo Vi�es and Emilio Pujol were among the artists and musicians serving as stagehands.
Also at the premiere was Francis Poulenc, who met Landowska for the first time; she asked him to write a
harpsichord concerto for her, and his Concert champ�tre was the result."
Wikipedia


Modern performances of "Maese Pedro" and "Renard"



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A most varied and appetizing menu for the weekend!
Thanks for all the goodies!

No.242

Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (1847-1917) was a German composer
and teacher of music. He was the older brother of Xaver Scharwenka.

He was born in Szamotuły (Samter), Grand Duchy of Posen. Like his younger brother Xaver he received his first intermittent
musical instruction in Posen. After the closure of the Gymnasium (college) in 1865 he studied music theory together
with his brother under Richard W�erst and Heinrich Dorn at the new Musical Academy in Berlin where, from 1868, he
himself was taken on as teacher of Theory and Composition. In this period his own first compositions appeared.
In 1874 he brought out an overture and a symphony for the first time in a concert of his own.

In contrast to his brother's very extrovert compositions, Philipp's many-sided work has dreamlike and thoroughly moody
inflexions. This is certainly true of the three programmatic works recorded here: the multi-movement Arcadian Suite, as
well as the single-movement tone poems Fr�hlingswogen (Spring Waves) and Liebesnacht (Night of Love).
Scharwenka's music is typical of German "Hochromantik" (high romanticism) of Schumann, which is the link between
the earlies romantics (like Weber and Mendelssohn) and the freely tonal late-romantic music of Richard Strauss.



Music Composed by Philipp Ludwig Scharwenka
Played by the G�vle Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Christopher Fifield

"The Swedish Sterling label, when it is on task and the music it uncovers is worthwhile, is really
capable of unearthing some stunning treasures from the vaults of Western music's less-vaunted past.
Polish composer Philipp Scharwenka was elder brother by three years to Xaver Scharwenka, one of the
most celebrated piano virtuosi in the latter days of the Romantic era and a composer whose works have
enjoyed a second-tier status. His piano concerti and certain short piano pieces have been widely recorded.
The fate of brother Philipp's compositions doesn't even rise to the second tier; the 20 (of at least 120)
or so works that have been recorded have only been done one time, mostly on short-lived releases.
Conductor Christopher Fifield and the G�vle Symphony have taken up the gauntlet for Philipp Scharwenka's
orchestral work, following in the footsteps of an earlier Sterling release that essayed some of Xaver's
purely orchestral music that in itself is somewhat dwarfed by his output for the piano.

Grove's notes that Philipp Scharwenka was a "competent, dedicated composer and teacher"; both during his
lifetime and in posterity, the elder Scharwenka exists in the shadow of his younger brother. Part of the neglect
results from the sheer reality that Philipp Scharwenka's music, at least judging from what is included here, is
strongly derivative of styles and composers around him, particularly that of Wagner and Grieg, the latter
most obviously in the Fr�hlingswogen that opens the disc. Strong echoes of what seems to be Humperdinck
and Tchaikovsky are heard at various points, but Philipp Scharwenka's compositions precede and do not
antedate such "models." Moreover, the quality of the music is very high; despite its close relationship to
Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Scharwenka's Liebesnacht, a symphonic poem based likewise on the Tristan
legend, is extremely listenable -- hard to put down, even. It has a nice and consistent sense of forward
flow and enough genuine inspiration that it makes Grove's weak assertion that Scharwenka was merely
"competent" seem a little stingy."
All Music



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No.243

Einojuhani Rautavaara is one of the most colourful and diverse figures in Finnish music.
He is an artist of exceptionally broad scope, at once Romantic and intellectual, mysticist and
constructivist. He has gone through a great many stages in his stylistic development, yet he
has combined different stylistic elements in post-modernist fashion within individual works.
Rautavaara began his career under the influence of post-war Neo-Classicism; in the 1950s,
he began to apply twelve-tone procedures and progressed in some works to quite a modernist
idiom. On the other hand, even works written close to each other in time could differ widely in
their approach; for instance, in his Third Symphony, written in the middle of his twelve-tone
period, he gave free rein to the luscious romantic emotion that came to dominate his music
from the late onwards. Since the late 1970s, he has been creating a synthesis of various
stylistic influences. Rautavaara's extensive and versatile output contains several operas,
seven symphonies, other orchestral works, concertos, chamber music, piano music and
vocal music. Rautavaara has been a major Finnish composer since the 1950s, and has
been steadily gaining in international esteem, especially in the 1990s.

The Cantus Arcticus was commissioned by the ‘Arctic’ University of Oulu for its
degree ceremony. Instead of the conventional festive cantata for choir and orchestra, I wrote
a 'concerto for birds and orchestra'. The bird sounds were taped in the Arctic Circle and the
marshlands of Liminka. The first movement, Suo (‘The Marsh’), opens with two solo flutes.
They are gradually joined by other wind instruments and the sounds of bog birds in spring.
Finally, the strings enter with abroad melody that might be interpreted as the voice and mood
of a person walking in the wilds. I"n Melankolia, the featured bird is the shore lark; its twitter
has been brought down by two octaves to make it a 'ghost bird'. Joutsenet muuttavat
(‘Swans migrating’) is an aleatory texture with four independent instrumental groups.
The texture constantly increases in complexity, and the sounds of the migrating swans
are multiplied too, until finally the sound is lost in the distance.

"When the Finnish Broadcasting Company proposed in 1971 that I should conduct one of
my own works in a concert (the title of the concert series being ‘Conducting composers’),
I had an idea for a work that could be different in each performance, created anew by each
conductor. At about the same time, I visited an exhibition by architect Reima Pietil� entitled
Tilatarha (Garden of Spaces), where the title ‘Regular Sets of Elements in a Semiregular
Situation’ stuck in my mind. It was like something right out of the textbook of the
musical avant-garde of the time, as structuralism was waning and aleatorics was
making an entrance. The units of music in this piece would be regular, precisely notated, but
their action, position and function in the overall structure would be free. Thus, the
orchestra is divided into groups, each of which enters when, and only when, the conductor
cues them in." (Einojuhani Rautavaara)



Music Composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara
Played by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
With Richard Stoltzman (clarinet)
Conducted by Leif Segerstam

"This marvelous disc contains what unquestionably is the finest available performance of Cantus Arcticus,
Rautavaara’s most popular piece and one of the very best marriages of an orchestra and taped sounds.
For this recording, the birdsong tape seems to have been cleaned up, giving the timbres additional clarity
and purity, and the balance between orchestra and electronics is perfectly judged. The result is simply
gorgeous. I was also struck very strongly by the harmonic resemblance between the finale and the
opening movement of Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Listen for yourself and see if you don’t agree!

Garden of Spaces is a sort of sonic sculpture, fully notated but permitting various sections of the
orchestra to time their entrances differently at each performance. Rautavaara has created thematic
material, unlike so many such pieces, that seemingly makes sense given these parameters, and so
the music comes across as coherent, shapely, and quite haunting.

But the outstanding work here is the new Clarinet Concerto for Richard Stoltzman. Rautavaara seems
to have a special feeling for the instrument. In the score of his opera Aleksis Kivi, the composer restricts
the woodwind contingent to two clarinets, used to magical effect, and this concerto certainly ranks among
the most successful in the modern repertoire. While full of virtuosity and some incredibly difficult-sounding
writing in the clarinet’s highest register, the most memorable moments occur where Rautavaara exploits
the instrument’s unparalleled ability to sing in tones of liquid lyricism. The central slow movement in
particular must rank as one of the most purely beautiful in Rautavaara’s (or anyone else’s) entire output.

It goes almost without saying that as the dedicatee Stoltzman plays with total commitment, and as usual
in this series the contributions of Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic are ideal. Excellent sonics,
warm and well-balanced (in the concerto) round out another magnificent contribution to the
Rautavaara discography."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/ct_disc-of-the-month_zpsadae7f02.gif





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Still thanks for all your efforts, and a happy new year maestro!

No.244

The album's moniker, Reflections of the Northwest, points to the lifelong fixation of composer/producer
Gregory Short with the music and art of said area, but the subtitle is even more telling: "American
Orchestral Music Influenced by Howard Hanson". In fact, George McKay's Symphony for Seattle is
particularly characteristic of the big-hearted, Nordic neo-romantic Americana style propagated by Hanson.
Short's own contribution, The Raven Speaks, is more eclectic and "modern" - inspired by Native American songs.
Like McKay, William Bergsma was a student of Hanson's Eastman School of Music (Hanson recorded Bergsma's ballet
suite Gold and the Senor Commandante for Mercury), his serenade To Await the Moon is typical of this
composer's essentially lyrical style.



Music by Gregory Short, George Frederick McKay & William Bergsma
Played by The Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Seattle
Conducted by Anthony Spain

"The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School
is a professional school within the University of Rochester. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and
philanthropist George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company.

Today, there are more than 900 students enrolled in the collegiate division of the Eastman School
(approximately 500 undergraduate and 400 graduate students). Students come from almost every state
of the United States, and approximately 25% of students are from foreign countries.

Each year about 260 new students enroll (approximately 135 freshmen and 125 graduate students),
selected from more than 2,000 applicants. Only about 13 percent of applicants are admitted.

About 1,000 students (ranging in age from 18 years to over 80 years of age) are enrolled in the
Eastman School’s Community Music School.

In the 1997 and 2004 surveys conducted by U.S. News & World Report, the Eastman School was
ranked first among graduate school music programs in the United States. In 1994, Eastman tied
with The Juilliard School and the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University among the
top graduate programs in music."


George Frederick McKay, Gregory Short, William Bergsma

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No.245

Let's turn to something that should be more familiar, especially since James Horner set out to
popularize this composer's music in the US back in the 1980s. ;)

Together with Prokofiev (another Russian composer whose popularity greatly benefited from the advocacy of James Horner)
and Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978) was one of the leading composers of
the Soviet Union and the most celebrated Armenian composer. His earliest musical influences came from hearing
folk music in his home town of Tbilisi, Georgia, and for the rest of his life his compositions remained firmly rooted
in Armenia’s cultural traditions. Regional folk melodies and the rhythmical patterns of local dances were a
constant element in all his work; indeed, Khachaturian once said that his harmonic language came from ‘imagining
the sounds of folk instruments with their characteristic tuning and resulting range of overtones’1. His music was
one of the bridges that most effectively connected European and Eastern traditions during the 20th century.

In 1942, he began work on his second ballet, Gayaneh, which reused much material from Happiness.
This richly colourful work was an immediate success, with its unusual instrumentation and choreography successfully
combining aspects of both folk and classical traditions. The composer was awarded the coveted Stalin Prize for the
ballet in 1943. Conceived as a ballet in four acts and six scenes, Gayaneh is a deeply patriotic work, displaying the
composer’s strong sense of Armenian nationalism together with his communist ideals.

The story takes place on a collective farm, where Gayaneh, a young Armenian woman, is married to the
disreputable Giko. She soon discovers he is about to commit treason, which tests her patriotic beliefs against her
personal emotions. However, by the end of the ballet, Giko has been sent to prison, leaving Gayaneh free to marry
the leader of the Red Army Border Patrol, with whom she has fallen in love. In later years, however, the plot was
modified several times, to emphasise romance rather than nationalist zeal.

Their marriage, however, gives Khachaturian the opportunity to include several celebratory dances from
Armenia, Georgia and the Ukraine – including the work’s final whirling, irresistible and well-known Sabre Dance.
By the time Khachaturian started work on his next ballet, Spartacus, in 1950, he had just embarked upon a
conducting career, travelling to over 30 countries giving concerts of his own music. He had also been appointed
to teach composition at both the Gnessin Institute and Moscow Conservatory – so, perhaps unsurprisingly, the
ballet was put on the back burner and took four years to complete.

Spartacus was apparently inspired by an Italian holiday the composer took in 1950, which included a visit to
the Roman Coliseum, where Khachaturian was deeply moved by the life of the gladiator Spartacus. Captured and
enslaved by the Romans in about 74 BC, Spartacus had led an uprising against the Romans and defeated numerous
Roman legions and generals, before finally being killed in battle. Like Gayaneh, however, the ballet is also a love
story, with Spartacus successfully defeating the Roman general Crassus in order to free his enslaved wife Phrygia.
The ballet is one of the composer’s most important post-war works.



Music Composed by Aram Khachaturian
Played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Kirill Karabits

"Sometimes there is a perfect match between repertoire, conductor, and orchestra: this album is one such example.
Featuring the music from two ballets by Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian, it is very accessible to those who
claim they do not like classical music, as its 20th century tonalities and film score-like qualities completely draw the listener
in. The first track is dramatic and grand, worthy of a gladiator like Spartacus, and it leads into an adagio that is ethereal
with cellos and harps. Conductor Karabits gets a lush expressiveness from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,
teasing out long, sweeping lines in the violins and creating extremes in mood and emotion. Expansive musical moments
are indeed expansive, and poignant moments are appropriately lyrical and tender. Some of the tone color is reminiscent
of Ravel's orchestral works, and there are strong dynamic contrasts that keep the listener attentive. It does not take
a great stretch of the imagination to visualize the dancers playfully leaping in a bacchanal here, posing in an arabesque
there, or even Baryshnikov pirouetting and tumbling. In Gayaneh, Khachaturian's interest in folk music is more evident
(like Bart�k, he drew on folk melodies for inspiration). Khachaturian fans may recognize the tune from the B section of
"Sabre Dance" (which actually appears in its entirety later in the album), which is from an Armenian folk melody. The
album concludes with a regal-sounding procession that is indeed a fitting ending, but it surprises the listener by letting
loose into a carnivalesque romp that ends rather suddenly, almost unresolved. One could argue that there is an abundance
of beauty and emotion in this album -- dare one go so far as to say schmaltz? -- much like in the music of Hollywood
films in their golden age of the 1930s and '40s. But sometimes the world needs that abundance, especially when it is
played so movingly by a musically sensitive orchestra and conductor."
All Music



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Cheers for the Spartacus, although for those of us of a certain age one theme always says "sailing ships" rather than "gladiators"...

Cheers for the Spartacus, although for those of us of a certain age one theme always says "sailing ships" rather than "gladiators"...

Yeah, I liked The Onedin Line a lot, too. :D

No.246

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was one of the most prolific Italian composers of the first half of the twentieth century.
He had established a career as a composer in a number of genres, including chamber music, vocal and choral music, opera,
keyboard music, and orchestral music, before fleeing Europe to escape Nazi persecution. His later years in the United Stated
were devoted largely to writing film scores.

That said, you won't find his credit except on a handful of movies, like the classic And Then There Were None (Ren� Clair, 1945) -
that is because he was mostly employed to elaborate the sketches of lesser, but more prominent Hollywood composers
(like Herbert Stothart's on The Picture of Dorian Gray), so he did a lot of work in Tinseltown anonymously.

Be that as it may, his Violin Concerto No.2, entitled "The Prophets", will delight everybody who loves Jerry Goldsmith's score for
Masada - and, honestly, who doesn't. It's big, broad, with bold gestures and a big-hearted romanticism, steeped in local melody,
that makes it appear positively "cinematic".

Also featured, as an intriguing coupling, is Ottorino Respighi's best concerto, the Concerto Gregoriano (for violin and
orchestra). While it is less "picturesque" than the Castelnuovo-Tedesco, the neo-baroque, colorfully orchestrated music will no
doubt appeal to film music lovers as well.



Music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ottorino Respighi
Played by the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra
With Jos�-Miguel Cueto (violin)
Conducted by Vladimir Lande

"Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto “I Profeti” and Respighi’s Concerto Gregoriano share a
predilection for the religious ethos of the past; Castelnuovo-Tedesco attempted to evoke a Biblical ethos;
Respighi, according to Nancy Rold�n’s notes (pianist Rold�n has performed “extensively” with Cueto), strove to
free the Gregorian melodies from the Roman Liturgy (given the hand-in-glove fit of the chant to its texts—
which protected it numerous times from attacks within the Church—that might be considered by liturgical
experts an explosive task like separating the oxygen and hydrogen in water).

Violinists of the “golden age” didn’t take up Respighi’s Concerto, though Ingolf Turban recorded the composer’s
Second Concerto, “all’Antica” (Claves 50-9017) and Ruggiero Ricci played the Poema Autunnale on Reference 15.
Takako Nishizaki’s reading of the work with the Poema Autunnale on Marco Polo 8.220152 made it available on CD,
as did Lydia Mordkovich—who also included the Poema Autunnale—on Chandos 9232 (Kurt Stiehler had recorded it
on LP, Urania URLP7100, and Paul Richartz made perhaps the earliest recording on Polydor 1511/4S). My first
impression of the work more than 40 years ago, when I first heard it and borrowed the sheet music from the
library, seemed to be confirmed by relatively more recent reactions to it as somewhat sprawling and lacking in
dramatic force (pace Roger Dettmer, who wrote about the Concerto with vivid thoroughness in 8:1, comparing
it more than favorably with Goldmark’s, Glazunov’s, and Conus’s), though its violin part seems idiomatically
conceived. If it succeeds in incorporating the liturgical melodies it cites in a rich harmonic context, it doesn’t
achieve the same hypnotic effect as does the stylized chanting in the Catacombs in I Pini, though it employs
on occasion similar melodic and harmonic turns. As he does in Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto, Cueto seems
to succeed more as a violinist in this work than as a declaimer of sacred texts...If Respighi’s bold and splashy
orchestration doesn’t quite fit the essentially contemplative spirit of the chants he’s borrowed, that’s not
Cueto’s fault—nor that of Lande and the Orchestra.

Cueto arranged Carlos Guastavino’s haunting song, “La rosa y el sauce,” for violin and orchestra, and its nearly
five minutes contain a great deal of the entire program’s poetry and immediately appealing, rich lyricism.
Somewhat in the manner of the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, both
of which it resembles in its ardent simplicity, it achieves its effect with seeming effortlessness—and
so does Cueto.

Cueto, Lande, and Orchestra recorded their program in the Melodia studio, St. Katherine’s Church in
St. Petersburg; but the clear and clean recorded sound doesn’t reveal any swaddling reverberation."
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No.247

Masao Ohki was born on 3 October 1901 in Iwata, a small provincial city on the Pacific coast in
central Japan, and grew up in the larger nearby city of Shizuoka. His father was a teacher at a girls' high
school and he spent his childhood during a period when westernisation was bringing an interest in
western music. After completing his junior schooling in 1910, Ohki went on to technical senior high
school in Osaka and majored in chemistry. He was now able to study the shakuhachi with master-players,
and formed a male choral group with his classmates. At the same time he had an opportunity to hear
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky's '1812' Overture. This was his first encounter with
full-scale orchestral music. Deeply impressed by these works, he wished vaguely to write orchestral
music, but lacked the means to pursue this ambition. He therefore started by studying vocal music
more minutely and by writing nursery songs.

The 1930s saw drastic and rapid changes in political affairs. In the wake of the Depression, Japan tried
to form a Japan-centred economic bloc in Asia, which gave rise to militarism and nationalism. Democracy
and international socialism were gradually replaced by the idea that eliminating political influences from
Europe and the United States would bring happiness to the people in all Asian countries as well as in
Japan. In the latter half of the 1930s Ohki came to sympathize with this. His inclination to Japanese
traditional and popular music was, despite his attachment to shakuhachi music, not so much to be
linked with his concern for Japanese labourers and peasants, oppressed by the upper class, as with
his sympathy with Asian people oppressed under colonialism by Europe and the United States.

The Japanese Rhapsody was composed at the request of NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai/Japan
Broadcasting Corporation) and was first given in a radio programme on 18 May 1938 by the Japan
Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra (the New Symphony Orchestra, later to become the NHK
Symphony Orchestra) under the composer. The scoring includes double wind, celesta, piano and
various percussion instruments. Here Ohki tried to express the optimism of the Japanese people,
who were going to spread their wings in Asia. The two main themes are drawn from Japanese folk
melodies. One is dance music for a summer festival in Iwakidaira of the Tohoku district, based
on the pentatonic Ritsu scale (E - F sharp - A - B - C sharp), the other is taken from Kisobushi,
a folk-tune from the mountainous district of central Japan, based on a pentatonic Ryo scale (E -
F sharp - G sharp - B - C sharp). The work is in three parts, an Allegro, with a slow introduction,
using elements of Kisobushi, a first theme from the dance music of Iwakidaira, and a second
theme using Kisobushi. This main part is repeated, with variants suggested, and the third part
is a free recapitulation. The work reflects the influence of Stravinsky's L'oiseau de feu and Petrushka.

Dissatisfied with this line of thinking, he turned again to socialism, opposing the oppression of
the working class at home or abroad. For him the atomic bomb was a symbol of modern imperialism,
which had hindered realisation of the happiness of the labouring class. The full horror of what
had happened at Horishima and Nagasaki was finally revealed with the end of the American
occupation in 1952. The work of the painters Iri and Toshi Maruki and their The Hiroshima Panels
were very good models for Ohki in his desire to express in music the r�le of the atomic bomb in
blocking the way to human freedom, to the future of mankind and to the realisation of the
dream of liberating the labouring class. The paintings, rich in subtle shadings, corresponded to
Ohki's inclination to 'cloudy' sonority. He took up all the six paintings published by 1953 and
by adding Prelude and Elegy to the six movements based on the six paintings, he completed
an eight-movement symphonic fantasy To The Hiroshima Panels in 1953. The work, which
was later renamed Symphony No. 5 'Hiroshima', was first performed by Masashi Ueda
conducting the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra on 1 November of the same year. The Hiroshima
Symphony had a striking impact on Japanese audiences, establishing Ohki as a left-wing
composer fighting against imperialism. He died in 1971.



Music Composed by Masao Ohki
Played by the New Japan Philharmonic
Conducted by Takuo Yuasa

"The composer wasn’t to know, in 1953, that survivors would suffer illnesses even into
subsequent generations, or that bigger and deadlier bombs would be developed within years.
As we face a world still fond of sabre-rattling and leaders who haven’t learned, the message of
Hiroshima is, if anything, even more important. This is a deeply felt symphony, all the more
moving because of its objectivity and universal qualities. It should take its place in the
repertoire of music written in response to war and its devastation. "History repeats itself
for those who don’t listen".

It is all the more fascinating as a human document of Ohki’s personal development. Like most
Chinese and Japanese composers of his time, he was far more influenced by Russian, and
French composers than by the Austro-Germanic style. This isn’t the place to analyse why,
save to say that understanding Russian and French idiom is a key to understanding East Asian
music in this period. This disc therefore usefully transposes the Hiroshima Symphony with Ohki’s
earlier Japanese Rhapsody. This was written in 1938, at the height of the Japanese war against
China. While it’s not military music by any means, its confident handling of "Russian" mainstream
influences and Japanese traditional style, seems curiously archaic now. It is very much a piece
of a bygone, less questioning age. It shows just how far Ohki travelled, both as musician and
as human being. In later years, he would return wholeheartedly to his socialist, pacifist values
with subsequent works such as his Vietnam Symphony. It is to be hoped that this too will
eventually be recorded and released."
Music Web



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From gladiators to A-boms!
What a way to begin 2013!
Thanks, wimpel!!

Enjoying the Ohki tremendously. Thank you.

No.248

Please note that despite the "innocuous" titles, Borup-J�rgensen's music is a modern*, Western-avantgarde
interpretation of pastoral music. It is very different from the Swedish romantic pastorales uploaded before!

Axel Borup-J�rgensen was born in Hjrring. Denmark, in 1924, but the family emigrated to Sweden in 1927. After taking his
university entrance exam in Linkping and doing his national service, he returned to Denmark where, from 1946 on, he trained as a
piano teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He also attended courses in instrumentation with Poul Schierbeck and
J�rgen Jersild. Apart from this he is a self-taught composer.

The Swedish cultural milieu, which was open earlier than the Danish to atonal Central European Modernism, was a decisive
factor in the development of Borup-Jrgensen's lyrical-expressionist style. In fact, in Sommasvit for string orchestra, composed
in 1957, the Swedish background is very close. The title is Swedish (Sommasvit = Sommen suite), the nature scenes have precise
references and specific experiences as background. Sommen is a large, forest-fringed lake area in northern Sm�land, with an inland
archipelago of about 300 islands. On one of these the composer had spent his holidays since his schooldays and had gone on long
excursions by rowing-boat through the spacious lake landscape. The five brief movements of the suite link nature scenes and
weather with the stages of the day.

Sommasvit still has a residue of melody in the form of characterizing motifs. In Nordisk Sommerpastorale (Nordic Summer
Pastorale) of 1964 this has been reduced to just a few passing hints, only to disappear completely in the last two works on
this CD. In 1965, the pastorale, much of it written in the open air in the Swedish summer landscape, won first prize at a
composing competition held by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. With a bright ensemble the composer wanted to create an
"immediately beautiful" music, an "impressionistic morning mood", passive and immutable in its atmosphere, without drive or
expression, like lying on one's back and calmly watching drifting summer clouds. It is all about timbre.

Borup-J�rgensen's painterly orchestral style culminates in Marin. This was composed in 1963-70 - for once for a large
orchestra - and can without reservation be called a major work in his oeuvre. The Swedish title means "seascape". The treatment
of the orchestra is "painterly" throughout, as the finely-honed derails are completely absorbed in the mass effects of flowing
colour and movement. But unlike the pastorale, MARIN is dramatically active music with a developmental form saturated
with contrasts.

For a decidedly Nordic nature lyricist like Axel Borup-J�rgensen the dark sides of the seasons and the climate are at least as
important as summery idylls. Among his works are innumerable winter scenes, and Musica Autumnalis of 1977 depicts
the moods and light of late autumn. The techniques are on the whole as in the two preceding orchestral works, the effect
something quite different. Particularly characteristic is the use of the electronic organ, played partly with the keys in fixed
registers, but just as often in the opposite way, the keys remaining fixed while timbres and intensity are varied by
changing the stops.

* - Actual modern music, not the infantile, Rock-patterend, regressive synth+orchestra drivel by e.g. the
Zimmer factory that some inexperienced listeners erroneously identify as modern!



Music Composed by Axel Borup-J�rgensen
Played by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Leif Segerstam

"Theocritus's Idylls include strophic songs and musical laments, and, as in Homer, his shepherds often play the syrinx,
or Pan flute, considered a quintessentially pastoral instrument. Virgil's Eclogues were performed as sung mime in the
1st century, and there is evidence of the pastoral song as a legitimate genre of classical times.

The pastoral genre was a significant influence in the development of opera. After settings of pastoral poetry in the
pastourelle genre by the troubadours, Italian poets and composers became increasingly drawn to the pastoral. Musical
settings of pastoral poetry became increasingly common in first polyphonic and then monodic madrigals: these later
led to the cantata and the serenata, in which pastoral themes remained on a consistent basis. Partial musical settings
of Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il pastor fido were highly popular: the texts of over 500 madrigals were taken from this
one play alone. Tasso's Aminta was also a favourite. As opera developed, the dramatic pastoral came to the fore
with such works as Jacopo Peri's Dafne and, most notably, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. Pastoral opera remained popular
throughout the 17th-century, and not just in Italy, as is shown by the French genre of pastorale h�ro�que,
Englishman Henry Lawes's music for Milton's Comus (not to mention John Blow's Venus and Adonis), and Spanish
zarzuela. At the same time, Italian and German composers developed a genre of vocal and instrumental pastorals,
distinguished by certain stylistic features, associated with Christmas Eve.

The pastoral, and parodies of the pastoral, continued to play an important role in musical history throughout
the 18th and 19th centuries. John Gay may have satirized the pastoral in The Beggar's Opera, but also wrote
an entirely sincere libretto for Handel's Acis and Galatea. Rousseau's Le Devin du village draws on pastoral roots,
and Metastasio's libretto Il re pastore was set over 30 times, most famously by Mozart. Rameau was an
outstanding exponent of French pastoral opera.[6] Beethoven also wrote his famous Pastoral Symphony,
avoiding his usual musical dynamism in favour of relatively slow rhythms. More concerned with psychology
than description, he labelled the work "more the expression of feeling than [realistic] painting". The pastoral
also appeared as a feature of grand opera, most particularly in Meyerbeer's operas: often composers would
develop a pastoral-themed "oasis", usually in the centre of their work. Notable examples include the shepherd's
"alte Weise" from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, or the pastoral ballet occupying the middle of Tchaikovsky's
The Queen of Spades. The 20th-century continued to bring new pastoral interpretations, particularly in ballet,
such as Ravel's Daphis and Chloe, Nijinsky's use of Debussy's Pr�lude � l'apr�s-midi d'un faune, and
Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps and Les Noces.[7]

The Pastorale is a form of Italian folk song still played in the regions of Southern Italy where the zampogna
continues to thrive. They generally sound like a slowed down version of a tarantella, as they encompass many
of the same melodic phrases. The pastorale on the zampogna can be played by a solo zampogna player, or in
some regions can be accompanied by the piffero (also commonly called a ciaramella, 'pipita', or bifora), which
is a primitive key-less double reed oboe type instrument."
Wikipedia



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No.249

C�sar Franck is an important composer from the latter half of the nineteenth century, particularly in the realms
of symphonic, chamber, organ and piano music. His stage works were uniformly unsuccessful, though his choral
compositions fared somewhat better. Born in Li�ge (in the French region which in 1830 became part of a new
state, Belgium), on December 10, 1822, he led a group of young composers, among them d'Indy, Duparc, and
Dukas, who found much to admire in his highly individual post-Romantic style, with its rich, innovative harmonies,
sometimes terse melodies, and skilled contrapuntal writing. This group, sometimes known as "la bande � Franck,"
steered French composition toward symphonic and chamber music, finally breaking the stranglehold of the
more conservative opera over French music.

Individual and instantly recognizable though his music was, it owes a debt to Liszt and Wagner, especially to the
latter's Tristan und Isolde and several other late works. He tended to use rather quick modulations, another
inheritance from Wagner, and shifting harmonies. Featured on this album are three distinguished tone poems,
of which the multi-movement Psych� ist probably the most beautiful.



Music Composed by C�sar Franck
Played by the Basel Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Armin Jordan

"This recording by Armin Jordan and the Basel Symphony dates from 1986 and is a solid entrant with much to recommend it.
Jordan and his orchestra perform with sensitivity and expression. The "Sleep of Psyche" (track 3) is a long and slow piece
that is performed with refinement and precise ensemble by the group. "The Accursed Hunter" (track 1) is a more showy
piece that receives a well-paced, technically proficient reading that avoids some of the bombasm this work
can sometimes generate. Those are just two of the extremes within an accomplished set of performances."
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No.250

Of all the early twentieth century American musical revolutionaries, perhaps composer Henry Cowell wielded the most vivid
and far-reaching influence. Born in 1897 to a rural California family, Cowell began to study the violin at age five,
though his parents' hopes of creating a prodigy on the instrument remained unfulfilled when the lessons had to
be stopped on account of the boy's poor health. Until he began musical studies with Charles Seeger at the University
of California at Berkeley in 1914, Cowell remained a basically self-taught musician, as well as a young man who had
never spent so much as a day in school in his life. Seeger was impressed by the young Cowell's output -- over 100
compositions of varying quality by 1914 -- but was much more interested in the young composer's hyper-creative,
open-minded musical personality.

Concert appearances throughout North America and Europe during the 1920s earned Cowell countless friends and
enemies throughout the musical establishment. Although he had earned the respect of such luminaries as Bart�k
and Schoenberg, his concerts frequently caused audience riots and invoked the wrath of critics who wondered if
Cowell's headstrong independence disguised a lack of true musical craftsmanship. Later music, such as the Amerind
Suite for piano (1939) and the 26 Simultaneous Mosaics (1964) incorporate generous helpings of indeterminacy,
though from the 1930s onward, Cowell's compositional language grew increasingly tonal and rhythmically simplified.
Cowell died after several years of serious illness.

Included on this album is Atlantis, a suite for chamber ensemble and three vocalists (treated like instruments),
originally intended as a ballet. There are several miniatures (Sound Form No.1, Ritournelle, Reel No.2, Dance of Sport,
Four Combinations, etc.) for various instrumental combinations, all testament to Cowell's formal and timbral ingenuity.
Most of the music was conceived in collaboration with various choreographers (hence the monicker), including Martha Graham.
While this may not be the most approachable music, surely it holds no more terrors for a 21st century audience. ;)



Music Composed by Henry Cowell
Played by The Californian Parall�le Ensemble
Conducted by Nicole Paiement

"Some of the most revered compositions of the twentieth century arose from the collaboration of composers
and choreographers. Henry Cowell sought solutions that would treat both art forms with equal respect.

Works on this disc-the majority of which are recorded for the first time, many from unpublished manuscripts-
were composed for Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman (Dance of Sport), Bonnie Bird, and Martha Graham
(Heroic Dance and Suite for Woodwind Quintet).

Atlantis was envisioned as the prologue of a three-part drama on a libretto by Alice Pike Barney to be
choreographed by Doris Humphrey. The three singers are treated as colorful instruments within the
orchestral fabric, the singers enunciating only moans, wails, sighs, grunts, and squeals of ecstasy.

The three piano Ritournelles stem from a performance of Marriage at the Eiffel Tower (text by Jean Cocteau),
choreographed and produced by Bonnie Bird at the Cornish School in Seattle in 1939. John Cage
organized the music for Marriage on the model of Les Six's 1921 collaboration in Paris, but in this case
with only Les Trois: Cowell, George McKay of the University of Washington, and himself.

Sound Form No. 1, a short quintet for woodwinds and percussion, was intended to accompany the 1937
article in the Dance Observer in which Cowell first proposed the use of elastic forms in the first place.

The recording is completed by the delightful Reel No. 2 (1934), evoking Cowell's Irish heritage, and by
two pieces not specifically associated with dance: Four Combinations for Three Instruments (1924) and
the Suite for Small Orchestra (1934). The title of Four Combinations refers to the work's diverse scoring:
violin and cello in movement 1, violin and piano in movement 2, cello and piano in movement 3, and all
three instruments in movement 4. Both this composition and the compelling Suite for Small Orchestra
show Cowell's more serious side. His use of dissonant counterpoint in these works may well reflect
his studies with Charles Seeger, who pioneered this approach to polyphonic expression.

Program notes are from noted musicologist, Cowell scholar and flutist Leta Miller, who also
organized the project and repertoire."





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No.251

Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, Elevator Music, Inflight Entertainment… just reading the titles, you
would not suspect that this is ‘classical’ music at all. It is exactly the irony Austrialian composer Graeme Koehne
intends, for while he deeply appreciates the history and techniques of ‘classical music’, he laments the
separation and exclusion of influence between popular entertainment and classical tradition which has
developed since the early twentieth century. Indeed, there is a polemical intention behind the use of titles like
these, aimed at undermining the modernist stylistic hegemony over contemporary classical music.

Koehne declares as formative musical influences the music of the Bugs Bunny Show, the whole gamut of
1960s American television and the James Bond movies, and he rates their best composers as masters of
twentieth century music, Carl Stalling, Raymond Scott, Henry Mancini and John Barry chief among them.

The four works recorded here cover a period of more than ten years in the development of this musical
individualism. Unchained Melody (1990) grows immediately out of Graeme Koehne’s feeling that
contemporary music lacked the excitement and enjoyability of pop music. He wanted to seek a way of
fixing the exuberance of this music to the symphony orchestra. To prepare for it, he turned away from his
counterpoint and orchestration texts and studied instead the specialist magazines of pop guitarists, drummers
and keyboard players, and adapted rhythmic and melodic concepts gleaned from these sources.
For this piece, he took the title from an old, and, at the time, relatively obscure, 1950s pop song. He liked the song,
especially admiring its construction, without realising that it had been penned by a composer of outstanding
classical credentials, Alex North, but mostly he liked the association of ‘letting go’ which the title conveyed.

Koehne’s next work in the trilogy, first performed by the Sydney Symphony in 1993, would move further
away from contemporary compositional models, this time germinating from a Rumba rhythm, as he has long
been a fan of the early Latin band-leader, Xavier Cugat. The title, Powerhouse, was chosen in homage to
Raymond Scott, the uniquely humorous and inventive composer featured in many Bugs Bunny soundtracks.
Though there is little trace of Scott’s actual music about the piece, Koehne speaks of aiming to capture a spirit of
bright humour and rapidly varying character for which Scott provides a model.

The final piece of the orchestral trilogy, Elevator Music (1997), grew from Graeme Koehne’s admiration
for the music of John Barry, Henry Mancini and Les Baxter. Here the textures are darker, more dramatic, the
rhythmic power intensified, undercutting the deprecatory ‘elevator music’ tag. In citing the
inspiration of the three popular orchestral composers, Koehne was drawn by their interest, during the 1950s,
in ‘The Beat’, a feeling for driving rhythm responding to rock’n’roll.

The productive association between Graeme Koehne, the Sydney Symphony, its Chief Conductor
Edo de Waart and Artistic Administrator Timothy Calnin during the course of the 1990s culminated in the
concerto for amplified oboe and orchestra, Inflight Entertainment (1999). The piece belies all expectations
of this form, or its title. It is a concerto of symphonic proportions, a showpiece for orchestra as well as the
brilliant soloist for whom it was written, Diana Doherty.



Music Composed by Graeme Koehne
Played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
With Diana Doherty (oboe)
Conducted by Takuo Yuasa

"Graeme Koehne admits the influence of several film composers, such as Raymond Scott,
Henry Mancini and John Barry, on his own music-making. Though this may be true to a
certain extent, this should not imply that Koehne considers himself as a “musical illustrator”.
However this nevertheless gives a fairly indication of what Koehne is aiming at. His music is
often tuneful, colourful, expertly scored and directly expressive, without any attempt at
plumbing any great depth. This is music to entertain and to be enjoyed for all it’s worth.
True, it may sometimes sound eclectic, but in much the same way as that of Leonard Bernstein;
another name that comes to mind when listening to these pieces, and one that he does not
mention as another possible model. The music, too, is often set in movement and sustained
by powerful rhythmic ostinati, that might sound as a bit too single-minded, at least for some tastes.

Four beautifully crafted, attractive and unpretentious works by a composer who obviously knows
how to handle orchestral forces to great effect. Very fine performances and recording all round.
A quite enjoyable release."
Music Web



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The Cowell is a welcome rarity!
Many thanks!

And i never heard about the existence of this thread, fuck!

Starting downloading...

Thanks wimpel!!

I really hope people will give some of these uploads a try. There's a lot of variety in classical music, really. One should not forget that what many fans identify with Hollywood film scores really originates in European concert music. I myself "grew" into classical from film music. My first two vinyls, as I recall, were a Henry Mancini sampler that included a few pieces from "The Thorn Birds" (well, ahem!) and John Williams's The Empire Strikes Back. The latter in particular was an inspiration to discover the many different styles in concert music. ;)




No.252

Everybody knows Aaron Copland. Either for his distinguished, if relatively few, film scores (The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men,
The City, Our Town, etc.), or, even more likely, for his popular ballets in the "Americana" style: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo,
Billy the Kid. But not too many will be aware of his other works, from the Jazz-influenced pieces of his younger years (like the
Piano Concerto) to the somewhat arid dodecaphonic works with which he, unsuccessfully, tried to reconnect with the avantgarde,
of the 1960s. The two ballets featured here, Grohg and Hear Ye! Hear Ye!, the first purely orchestral, the second with choir
and orchestra, will probably be unfamiliar to many listeners.

Grohg, composed during the time Copland spent in Paris, studying with Nadia Boulanger, was composed in the 1920s inspired
by Murnau's vampire movie classic Nosferatu. The music betrays influences of jazz and of Stravinsky's ballets, naturally.
At the time (1924), the music fell into oblivion, and was never performed/recorded until this version prepared for Oliver Knussen
and the London Sinfonietta in 1992! The composer did, however, recycle some its material in later works like the Dance Symphony.

Copland's 1934 Hear Ye! Hear Ye! was created in collaboration with choreographer Ruth Page. The ballet is a courtroom travesty,
with vocal parts for the witness, attorneys and judge.



Music Composed by Aaron Copland
Played by The London Sinfonietta & The Cleveland Orchestra
Conducted by Oliver Knussen

"Those who adore Copland's music are certain to welcome these first recordings of the early ballets "Grohg" (his first
symphonic score, undertaken during studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris) and "Hear Ye! Hear Ye!," written as a
rush-job for the late choreographer Ruth Page.

Inspired by the classic horror film "Nosferatu," "Grohg's" scenario is morbid stuff, all about a sorcerer-vampire
who brings the dead back to life for his amusement. Copland failed to get his 1922-25 ballet staged and later
recycled the best portions in his "Dance Symphony." Early Stravinsky, jazz and ragtime are the central influences,
skillfully put together by a brashly talented young "modern" clearly out to shock the pants off the establishment.
Not typical (or major) Copland, perhaps, but essential to an understanding of his musical roots. The Cleveland Orchestra
plays it with great rhythmic bounce and snap.

Copland inserted a small portion of "Grohg" into his 1934 courtroom burlesque, "Hear Ye! Hear Ye!," a throwback to his
1920s jazz style, closely bound to the events of its farcical narrative but drolly inventive and entertaining when
listened to as pure music-especially in its jazz-orchestra evocations of cabaret dance.

Knussen and his London ensemble have a great time with the score as well as with the 1924 Prelude, a
chamber-orchestra reworking of the opening movement of Copland's First Symphony. Hats off to Argo for filling the
remaining gaps in the Copland catalogue so enterprisingly, and for their first-rate recording, too."
Chicago Tribune





Source: Decca "Argo" CD (my rip!)
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File Size: 157 MB

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No.253

Russian composer Aaron Avshalomoff (1895-1964) spent nearly thirty years in China, drawn there
by the sounds of its street music, its ancient opera, costumes and legends, all encountered as a child in the
Chinese quarter of Nikolaievsk, his Siberian birthplace. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution he escaped,
travelling through north China, bound for the USA. But finding life there hard and with the sounds of China
still in his head, he decided to return to the Orient in 1918.

Between then and 1947 Avshalomoff worked to evolve a synthesis of Chinese musical elements with Western
techniques of composing for symphony orchestra and theatre. Making his living primarily as a bookseller, the
self-taught composer wrote and produced his first opera, Kuan fin (Goddess of Mercy) in 1924. During a sojourn
in the USA, from 1925 to 1929, he was able to get it mounted at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.
A second work, The Soul of the Ch'in, was performed in Portland, Oregon. Returning to China he continued
composing in the Chinese vein - adopting the full panoply of Chinese percussion instruments and ornaments,
such as grace-notes and slides, which he used to create a considerable body of highly personal works,
brilliantly scored.

The Soul of the Ch'in is a ballet pantomime composed in 1926. The suite presented here follows the general story:
I. Guo Chai's War Cry. Brass instruments sound the rebel's victory over the Emperor, Yien Wang. To cut off his retreat
Quo Chai lies in ambush by the lake shore. II. Ming's Despair. The Emperor has abandoned his castle, accompanied by
Kinsei. This aged favourite musician has brought as a gift a thirteen-stringed Ch'in harp, which has the power to enchant.
In their desperate straits he urges the Emperor to escape across the Lake. III. The Fight (Not in the Suite). IV. Sai Ho's
Dance. On the troubled waters of the lake, the Soul of the Ch'in appears as a girl dancing in a robe with long scarved
sleeves. She lures Guo Chai into the lake and he sinks. V. The Death of Kinsei. In the starlit silence, the wounded
spirit of the forlorn musician is portrayed by a melody rising like the smoke of incense. As Kinsei falls, the Emperor
comforts him. Kinsei reveals that it was the Harp that saved him from Guo Chai. As Kinsei dies, the Emperor's
tears slowly fall.

Avshalomoff's Violin Concerto, also indebted to Chinese pentatonic music, was composed in 1937 when, in July,
Shanghai was under Japanese aerial bombardment. The radiant, often serene beauty of the work belies the conditions
of its creation. Its chamber-orchestra accompaniment is generally transparent, but sonorous in the tuttis. Like
several others, it is dedicated "To Kotka" (kitten), his second wife, Tatiana. Mario Paci led the premi�re on 16
January 1938, with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

The sounds and images of old Peking are evoked in the tone-poem The Hutungs of Peking as we are led through
its byways and broadways, from dawn to dusk. The ancient city awakens gradually to the cries of street-vendors,
the signals of itinerant barber and knife-grinder, and the sing-song of tradesmen at their booths - all growing louder
as they intertwine.



Music Composed by Aaron Avshalomoff (Avshalomov)
Played by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra
With Rodion Zamuruev (violin)
Conducted by Jacob & David Avshalomov

"Aaron Avshalomoff's biography is one of the most interesting in contemporary music. Born in 1895 in
Nikolayevsk, Siberia, he escaped the Revolution of 1917 through north China before settling in San Francisco.
Previously, he had attended the Stern School of Music in Zurich. Profoundly influenced by the music of China,
he established himself as a bookseller in Beijing, where he began a systematic study of all aspects of Chinese
music. Between 1933 and 1943 he premiered numerous works, many of them recorded here, and worked to
create a musical identity for China distinct from Western influences. He spent the Second World War under
house arrest and finally emigrated to the United States in 1947, where he died in 1964.

His compositions reflect his diverse background. Chinese music prevails, but one can also hear American and
Russian influences. His concertos are his most satisfying works, the Flute Concerto (1948) being a particularly
fine example of his idiom. The flute is well-suited to the melodies Avshalomoff employs and the delicacy of its
tone keeps the orchestration lighter than on some of the other works recorded here. The flute's material
seems to float above the orchestra, occasionally entering into a dialog with the oboe or the cor anglais, but
never engaging the entire ensemble. Avshalomoff's development is somewhat unorthodox, partly due to the
nature of the pentatonic melodies inherent in Chinese music, which, as Jacob Avshalomoff suggests, led the
composer to experiment with remote modulations and an episodic structure. Classical Chinese music is often
quite percussive and all these works have passages of great rhythmic drive, especially in the finales.

Avshalomoff enjoyed some recognition in the United States, with performances of some of his shorter works
given by Stokowski, Monteux, and Koussevitzky, who commissioned a work. I suspect he also may have
influenced a generation of Hollywood film composers. However, he never reached the level of popularity he
had in China, and even in China he seems to have become persona non grata after the revolution."
Classical Music Review



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File Size: 154 MB (incl. cover, booklet)

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