NOTE: If you find any broken links, please send me a PM and I will re-up the album(s)!

Note: New uploads will be made "along the way",
so you'll have to browse through the thread to pick up all the releases.
Suggestions for other discs/works or requests are are welcome as PM's. Enjoy!


COMPLETE LIST OF ALL THE POSTS IN THIS THREAD (up to and including #1216)
Initial compilation by hg007bb, updated by me:

https://mega.nz/#!h4xXULyY!7x5eNAkTDYU7CkqWjsVsT-a-nfzR6GLZAa_uZm3Nbvg
This is in PDF format: You can click on the links from within your PDF reader (like Foxit PDF, etc).

Have fun!


Note: The later uploads are also available in FLAC(lossless), but only
by PM request and only for a limited time. Those marked with "FLAC Link expired" are still availble
in mp3, but requests for those in FLAC will not get a reply!

If you can't see covers/photos, then it will be because you guys exhausted the bandwidth
with my free image server.



Because many of the original "depositfiles" links were dead (except where otherwise indicated),
I have re-upped the entire bunch to MEGA, and apart from the odd one that I may have missed they should
be up and downloadable for the foreseeable future. Everybody can use MEGA. Preferred browsers are Firefox 22+
(with a plugin the site asks you to install when you first open it), or CHROME 28.0+.

If you experience any problems with MEGA in Firefox (which sometimes occur after an update of the browser), try and
(re-)install the MEGA plugin for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/meganz/ - It always does the trick for me! :)

Have fun - and please click on "LIKE" if you downloaded
and enjoyed a release.


Please also note:

I have started a "Desert Island Discs" thread for everyone who loves classical music to post/upload their 5 favorite albums:

Thread 136063

Formats can be lossy (192kHz or better) or lossless. I'm hoping for a healthy response ...



Please read this first:

Film music (the symphonic "background variety" at least), as most discerning listeners would know, is more or less
a sub-genre/deviation (and all-too-often, rip-off) of a type of concert music commonly referred to as "program music",
i.e. music that seeks to depict a certain story, landscape or emotional state in musical terms. It originates in the 19th century,
invented by German-Hungarian composer Ferenc (Franz) Liszt. He wrote a lot of so-called "symphonic poems",
of which the most famous are Les Pr�ludes, Tasso, Mazeppa, and Prometheus. While most of his orchestral works are
rather dreadful, they helped to usher in a new phase of story-related music, which was the antithesis of the purported "absolute music",
aka "classicist music" - which had been the norm before. It was, in fact, the very embodiment of the "romantic age" in music,
first attempts in which date back to Schumann and Mendelssohn. As literary scholars will know, "Romanticism" in literature goes back
to the end of the 18th century ("Gothic"), but then, music is always a step or two behind. Most people agree that if Richard Wagner
had lived into the 20th century, he would have been a film composer, too.

Long story short, this thread will be devoted to so-called "program music" - which could have been film music
had the circumstances been different. It can be tone poems, ballet music, radio scores, incidental music written for stage plays,
and so-called "program symphonies". I think that film music devotees should take a peek into the works I'll be posting.

The uploads are meant for this forum, and this forum only! Please do not further share or upload them to other
boards/file sharing pages. This thread is supposed to spark your interest in certain composers and their work, and of course
concert music in general. Also, if you particularly like an album and want it in lossless, please consider buying it!

As a further perk, I won't be posting "You all know it" stuff like Smetana's "My Fatherland". I'm just that arrogant.

As a starter, please embrace this collection of Persian-themed orchestral poems by composer Behzad Ranjbaran.

No.1



"The Persian Trilogy"

Music Composed by Behzad Ranjbaran
Played by The London Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by JoAnn Falletta

[I]"Persian Trilogy is a collection of three orchestral works that were inspired by stories of Shahnameh,
the great Persian epic poem written by Ferdowsi (c. 940-c.1020). My artistic desire was to express
these dramatic and epic stories in a musical setting, using the color palette and power of the modern
symphony orchestra. The urge to compose these works was also fueled by my early fascination
with Persian legends and mythology, since I grew up in Tehran."

Download Link: https://mega.co.nz/#!aVUUSaIT!L76mDWAHn8NdaidJcmb1QCOVM4vyRSMygwc0DcY xocM

Source: Delos CD (My rip)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 180 MB (incl. cover)

Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the original!

thanks again

Thanks wimpel69. You are providing quite the musical education. I'm really just getting to grips with certain parts of the story of classical music's evolution (I grew up in a musically deprived household - we had an LP of Souza marches that was never played and a casette tape of Holst's Planets, also rarely played, and that was it until I got my own soundsystem in 1997 and then couldn't afford anything until a few years ago, and still can afford very little) but I do listen to Classic FM and Radio 3 and get some education that way, but to hear most things, it's not easy. So what you're doing, it's wonderful. So thank you.

To say that Liszt 'invented' program music may be a bit short-sighted. Berlioz' symphonie phantastique comes to mind. Also to call his music 'dreadful'; I suppose that's a matter of opinion and taste. But I agree: there's so much more to be discovered.
And I think that if Mozart would have lived today he may have produced some astonishing works.

Paul Gilson was the "dean" of Belgian nationalist composers in the late romantic age,
and his symphonic suite "The Sea" (De Zee) actually predates Debussy's famous triptych.
Unlike Debussy, Gilson is more influenced here by Russian late 19th century romanticism.
It's an engaging piece, coupled to some other of his orchestral works. Very fine recordings indeed.

No.2



"The Sea" (De Zee/La Mer) and other works

Music Composed by Paul Gilson
Played by The Flemish Radio Orchestra
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins

"Belgian composer Paul Gilson is a missing link in French literature, a key transitional figure between French post-romanticism, as exemplified by Vincent d'Indy, and impressionism, a trend espoused in terms of style by Claude Debussy, though he hated the term. Proud owner of the 1889 Belgian Prix de Rome for his cantata Sina�l, Gilson managed to win this distinction despite the fact that he was an autodidact, and in a long career that lasted until World War II, Gilson produced more than 500 compositions. His work, however, remains practically unknown outside of Belgium, where his symphonic poem La mer (1892) has never dropped out of the concert repertory; during Gilson's lifetime it was heard everywhere. This Klara disc, co-branded with Dutch label Etcetera, contains that work, an Andante & Scherzo for cello and orchestra, and a charming ballet suite drawn from La Captive (1900).

The Klara disc features Martyn Brabbins and the Flemish Radio Orchestra and Chorus, and this is only the third time in the CD era that Gilson's La mer has been recorded; earlier readings were on the Discover International and Marco Polo labels. While both have their merits and faults, neither of the earlier recordings has the terrific sound of the Klara release, recorded in 2006. Brabbins clearly likes this music, and there isn't any reason why a conductor shouldn't, for Gilson exploits strong melodic themes and molds them through a widescreen, Technicolor orchestration. While the music of Wagner was an inescapable influence on d'Indy, Gilson, and Debussy, the further example of Rimsky-Korsakov and the Russians affected only the latter two. This is felt more strongly in the music for The Captive than in La mer. The "Chants et danses de matelots" is squarely in the camp of d'Indy and other late French romantics, a style forgotten outside of France apart from some works of Franck, Lalo, Chabrier, and Chausson. However, the final movement, "La Temp�te," looks forward rather than backward.

Many advanced classical listeners reach a point where one might think they have exhausted the reservoir of the best romantic orchestral symphonies. While the jury is still out on the value of Gilson's repertoire as a whole -- there is so much that it will take a long time to achieve a true understanding of it -- La mer is one major romantic work that is more than good enough to satisfy those who wonder "What's next?" Moreover, this Klara recording under Brabbins jumps to the top of what is yet a very small heap." (All Music)



Source: Klara CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 157 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!Mg1mBaKa!OHMy_0cU3_5MOy7JBOQkjEseft0ubT65NlPAnxX US9I

Enjoy! Don't share! ;)

Thanks for introducing me to new things.

Great idea for a thread. I hope to find enjoyment and discover new composers.

Thank you for something innovative! We'd appreciate your efforts!

Thanks for Gilson. Actually, the real 'dean' of Flemish music is Peter Benoit. And Flor Alpaerts and Arthur Meulemans are two other higly underrated Belgian composers one should take notice of.

You're right, Benoit was the first of the nationalists, but Gilson was a teacher to many of the others and the most popular Belgian composer of his time. I'll get to Meulemans and other "Flemish romantics" later, be sure of it. :)



No.3

The cultural climate and economic situation in post-1949 China did no exactly invite new classical music composition
on any larger scale, and there are relatively few substantial symphonic works from the Mao era that suvive.
One of the grandest, in design at least, is Ding Shan-De's epic program symphony The Long March, which,
as the title implies, deals with the fight against and ultimate triumph of the Red Army under Mao and Zhou Enlai
over Chiang Kaishek's Kuomintang [Recent studies indicate that the march was far less heroic and triumphant than
what the Chinese Communist Party had lead people to believe, and that indeed the whole affair may have been
a fabrication of sorts]. Rather than delivering an all-out propaganda piece of marching tunes, Ding opted for a
musical journey that illustrates the path that the Red Army took by using folk melodies of the different peoples
whose lands the army went through. So there's a plethora of attractive pentatonic themes, some of them
intensely lyrical - which has lead some conductors to gloss over and santinize the more rugged aspects in the work.
Which is why I have chosen a recording that is more dramatic and direct, if probably not the best-played.
The musical language is a mix of late romantic Russian music with some aspects of 20th century technique
that Ding picked up from his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Think: Shostakovich without the sarcasm,
or a Chinese Khachaturian.



"The Long March Symphony"

Music Composed by Ding Shan-De
Played by The Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Mak Ka-Lok

"The Chinese composer Ding Shande was born in 1911 in Kunshan, Jiangsu. In his childhood he took an interest in music and studied traditional Chinese instruments, including the pipa. In 1928 he entered the preparatory course of the Shanghai School of Music, where he studied the pipa under Zhu Ying. He later transferred to the piano department and attended the classes of the famous Russian teacher Borodin Zakharov. He have his graduation piano recital in 1935 and was appointed piano professor at Tianjin Women's Normal College. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, he returned to the Shanghai School of Music to teach the piano. He also set up the Shanghai Music Centre, of which he was director. In the 1940s he turned his attention to composition and in 1947 travelled to France, where he entered the Paris Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Musique, studying conterpoint, fugue and other compositional techniques. At the same time he pursued advanced courses under Honegger and Nadia Boulanger. After graduation in 1949 he returned to shanghai to work at the School of Music, now the Shanghai Conservatory. There he has held the successive positions of Dean of the Composition Department and Vice-President of the Conservatory. He has served as a jury member of various international piano competitions and attended many international academic conferences on music. In the mid-1980s he resigned his administrative position, but remains Vice-Chairman of the China Musicians' Association and Honorary Chairman of the Shanghai Musicians' Association. He died in 1995. His important compositions include Long March, New China Symphonic Suite, Spring Symphonic Poem, Symphonic Overture, Piano Concerto in B flat major, String Quartet in E minor, Piano Trio in C major, the cantata Ode to the Huangpu River, a large number of piano pieces, including Variations on Themes of Chinese Folk-songs, a children's piano suite Happy Festival, Xinjiang Dances Nos. 1 and 2, and art-songs such as Blue Mist, My Husband gives Me a Sunflower, Ode to Orange. He has also written theoretical works, including Exploration of Compositional Technique."


Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai are having a picnic during The Long March. ;)

Source: Hugo CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s, DDD Stereo
File Size: 159 MB

Download Link (re-up): https://mega.co.nz/#!BkNH3YrI!Mje5bAxr06PMDn1OmY7qWHhEiyh-olO4s5baDg1IoS4

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

To say that Liszt 'invented' program music may be a bit short-sighted. Berlioz' symphonie phantastique comes to mind. Also to call his music 'dreadful'; I suppose that's a matter of opinion and taste. But I agree: there's so much more to be discovered.
And I think that if Mozart would have lived today he may have produced some astonishing works.

The Symphonie fantastique is indeed an early example of program music, as is, to a lesser extent, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. But the move away proper from "abstract" music towards programmatic works in any systematic way truly begins with Liszt, and leads to the splendor of Richard Strauss and the music of Sibelius etc.

Thank you very much for this great thread!! :)

No.4

Let's move away from politics for a bit and get to a composer whose career flourished under Mussolini. :)
No, I'm not suggesting that you don't know who Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) was, or that his most popular work
is a trilogy of symphonic poems (each, in turn, divided into four sections) about the grandeur of Rome.

Still, the Roman Trilogy (consisting of The Pines of Rome, The Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals) is
such a magnificent example of program music that I cannot ignore it even if most people will already have one or more
recordings in their collection. Respighi, a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, was one of the greatest orchestrators in
20th century music, and the three Roman tone poems are of the highest order indeed. Should you be as yet unfamiliar with
these works, I'd suggest that you turn to "Roman Festivals" first, which is the most ebullient and film score-like poem.

As a perk for more seasoned collectors I have uploaded a very recent recording of Respighi's masterpiece, in opulent sound,
as well as a second album, which contains his less well known (but also frequently recorded) Church Windows and
a suite from Belkis, Queen of Sheeba. The booklets and cover art are included as well.




"The Roman Trilogy"

Music Composed by Ottorino Respighi
Played by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Josep Caball�-Domenech

"Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Trilogy (Onyx opts for “triptych”) never seems to go out of fashion, certainly not Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome. This is terrifically colourful and descriptive music, orchestrated with painterly mastery. All three pieces need a virtuoso orchestra, a conductor who can pump up the action and superb sound. All three are supplied here (save for the dynamic range being a little limited at both ends). The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is on top form, responding enthusiastically and sensitively to Josep Caball�-Domenech who relishes the fun and games that open Pines (1924) and then conjures gloom and grandeur from the following Catacomb section. Perspectives are well displayed, such as the distant trumpet. It’s no mean feat to highlight musical pictures of Italian landscapes in the potentially arid and microphone-conscious conditions of a London recording studio, but Caball�-Domenech (a near-neighbour from Spain) and the RPO achieve a lively and picturesque exhibition in what seem like long-take sessions (which might explain some irritating noises-off at various points throughout the pieces, not least around the 2’20” mark of track 2) and Walthamstow Town Hall is an ideal location for Respighi’s potent creations, the building being spacious yet focussed.

This account of Pines of Rome is blessed with magical clarinet solos, and even if the recorded nightingale probably owes to post-production the impression given is that it was warbling from the roof while the musicians created a fragrant nocturne. To close, the ghosts of Roman Legions marching along the Appian Way are a broody bunch, the performers managing black-and-white to Technicolor with aplomb (although the organ pedal is rather too prominent). Of Respighi’s triple-bill, Fountains of Rome (1917) is always the freshest in its romance and is gratefully without the bombast that can engulf Pines (although such is avoided here). The opening of Fountains is here a little lacking in quietude if not expressivity, enchantment then giving way to a bright day – this is a dawn to dusk piece –, quicksilver textures glinting in the rising sun before the full force of spray and heat hits us as the music climaxes brassily and resplendently (although, once again, the organ is too audible in the mix; it should be felt rather than being explicit) and Caball�-Domenech judges the gushes well. As we head to dusk there is some lovely radiant playing, but oh for a little more pianissimo. Roman Festivals (1929) receives a corking performance, exuberant and savage in its opening, Caball�-Domenech parading a Biblical epic that Cecil B. DeMille would recognise, with Pagan and animalistic conflicts (the organ’s presence now welcome) and eerie and monumental processionals. Then the mood changes to the joyful pealing of celebration and happy-go-lucky revellers – a mandolin maybe introducing courting couples – before night-time inebriation gets the better of the citizens and Respighi (surely consciously aping Stravinsky’s Petrushka) fires-up his orchestra for a grandstand finish, brilliantly brought off here to complete a terrific performance.

These very enjoyable and likeable performances – Roman Festivals is outstanding – offer strong competition to perhaps the best of more-recent versions of Respighi’s Roman travelogue, namely that by the Saint Cecilia Orchestra and Antonio Pappano on EMI (which has the bonus of Respighi’s very beautiful Il tramonto). Certainly the RPO and Caball�-Domenech can more than hold their own in such illustrious company."

Source: Onyx CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 152 MB

Download Link (re-up, with booklet) - https://mega.co.nz/#!O5YDUAAZ!YUJ8qgmXbyyK8FmlsaKj62jGqT9hxZlZtle80rs prHU




"Church Windows", "Belkis, Queen of Sheeba" (Suite), Overture "Belfagor"

Music Composed by Ottorino Respighi
Played by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy

"Because this disc serves as my introduction to each of these compositions I must talk in very general terms about the performances. For the uninitiated (yours truly) to these compositions, I found the performances to be extraordinarily compelling and with more to discover with each listen. My appreciation is undoubtedly handicapped by the fact that I don’t read Japanese and thus could not rely on the liner notes to provide some degree of insight. This can be (is for me) a real drawback with almost all Exton releases that I have. Nonetheless, immense enjoyment is readily accessible from all three compositions (“Belfagor” Overture, Orchestral Suite “Belkis, Queen of Sheba” and the main draw for many, Four Symphonic Impressions “Church Windows”.

One thing that is clear to me is that the DNA of the Roman Trilogy is all over these compositions (or the other way around?). If you like a well done trilogy you will most certainly like these compositions. But threadbare “sequels” these are not. And while I find all three of them to be artistically unique and essential compositions on the merits, “Church Windows” is forcibly striking and not just for its cataclysmic (or perhaps, triumphant) finale but for its inventiveness throughout. Respighi’s juxtaposition of silence to climax masterfully emphasizes contrasts, most notably in “Church Windows” at the conclusion of the 2nd and 3rd movements(perhaps helped along a bit by wide spacing of the tracks between movements).

It is also clear that only an orchestra of a very high level of musicianship need apply to take on these works. These are not easy works for the conductor or the orchestra. In fact, I would say they are rather difficult requiring notable virtuosity, discipline, and stamina. All sections of the orchestra are spot lit at some point during these performances and weaknesses would be shamelessly exposed. For sure, Ashkenazy and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland are an emphatic success.

And the recording(s) are exceptionally well done. The vivid contrasts noted above and dynamic range are extraordinary if not startling in places. The frequency bandwidth is extremely wide from top to bottom. The bass is extremely “taut”. That is, the bass was *very* tight as if purposely damped, if not slightly overdamped. And while very deep it seems that perhaps a quarter of an octave or so is sacrificed in favor of tightness. I like it, even if it took a bit of getting use to. The multi-channel, especially, sense of space and scale are among the best I have encountered. This is accomplished even though the center channel is underutilized.

I highly recommend this disc for both sound and performance (again with the caveat that these are the only performances with which I am familiar)."

Source: Exton CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 145 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!n8B0VA7Q!UmXv5x6OzHpE8RjszSn3I2C1L4kKlWlcZ3YR7PW HLqA




Enjoy! Don't share! ;)

No.5

Nowadays there are many albums with music by British composer Arnold Bax to choose from,
but if there is such a thing as the "No.1 Bax disc", it is this one: Sir Adrian Boult's
collection of symphonic tone poems by Bax on Lyrita Records, including his most
beloved work, Tintagel. His tone poems are infused with a Celtic spirit (the composer
himself would have preferred to be Irish rather than English) and a musical language
somewhere between Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninov and Jean Sibelius.
Bax's reputation soared in the 1920s and peaked in the early 30s. He later servered
as "Master of the Queen's Musick" (no typo!) until his death in 1953.

This is superb program music, conducted by a great master who had a special way with
music by his own countrymen which was never duplicated by anyone else, not even his
pupil Vernon Handley.



Music Composed by Arnold Bax
Played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

"I still remember how exciting it was to discover these marvelous tone poems: the mysterious darkness of November Woods,
the watery depths of The Garden of Fand, and of course the magnificent vistas revealed in Tintagel. This last was the most familiar,
from a classic Barbirolli recording for EMI of English overtures and symphonic poems, but I suspect that this was the next Bax
disc that most collectors added to their libraries, assuming they could find it. The performances remain all that one could want:
atmospheric, very well played, and beautifully engineered. We’ve come a long way in our knowledge of this fine composer since
the days when Lyrita alone carried the torch for Bax, but these recordings wear their years very lightly and still offer as much
listening pleasure as when they were new. For a single-disc collection of the major tone poems, you can’t do better than this."
Dave Hurwitz, ClassicsToday http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10.gif



Source: Lyrita CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), ADD Stereo
File Size: 145 MB

Download Link - https://mega.co.nz/#!booBnB5Z!fMhUD2SrWXU3WsIhiS-rplyKMHNN-OwhGU2IquMRIw4

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No.6

Once the Belgian nationalist movement was under way there was no shortage of emerging composers in the early decades of the 20th century,
Of these, Arthur Meulemans was probaby the most distinguished, and much of his work is still awaiting re-discovery. His most
popular tone poem, Plinius Fontein (Plinius' Fountain), recorded here, oscillates between post-romantic and impressionistic elements,
and, as such, is typical of the composer's work. Flor Alpaerts, a student of Jan Blockx, and Georges D'Hoedt are, if anything, even less well
known in the eyes of the general classical music public. Enjoy their engaging, rather mellow program music.

Cover art (slightly bleached out) and booklet are included.



Music by Arthur Meulemans, Flor Alpaerts & Georges D'Hoedt
Played by the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Alexander Rhabari

"If challenged to name a handful of twentiethcentury Belgian composers, few of us would get beyond Jongen and Absil, though a bit of brainracking might also recall Chevreuille, Poot and Pousseur. So it is salutary to be reminded that there have been others: the three represented here, all more or less contemporary with our own Vaughan Williams, differ considerably from each other in idiom. The earliest work here is the 1913 symphonic sketches by the enormously prolific Arthur Meulemans. He has been called "the Flemish Brahms", but on this evidence that seems a complete misnomer: his style might be loosely described as richly late-romantic overlaid with impressionistic elements. Of this expertly orchestrated work the first of its three parts, "Summer morning", is the most successful, beginning with a gentle wash of colour and expanding into warmth and joyousness; the second section ("Sunset") places too great a reliance on crudely Debussian consecutive chords of the ninth, and the material of the concluding rowdy "Night feast" is undistinguished.

Flor Alpaerts (whose birth date is uncoordinately shown in the four-language booklet — with decidedly odd English—as 1878 and 1879 as well as the correct 1876) wrote his programmatic suite, inspired by the canvases of the Flemish painter James Ensor, in 1931 while he was a professor at the Antwerp Conservatoire (of which he later became, briefly, director). Reflecting the painter's penchant for fantastic near-expressionism, the music is garishly coloured and, in the movement based on Ensor's famous Christ's entry into Brussels, justifiably chaotic. The grisly scherzo depicting Skeletons quarrelling over a hanged man is dominated, predictably, by the xylophone: the best movement is the erotic "Love garden", which at moments calls to mind Respighi in his lyrical mood.

The Brief chronicle of middle-class life, composed in 1935 (a year before his death) by Henry Georges d'Hoedt, director of the Louvain Conservatoire, reveals a Protean quality and a sardonic sense of humour. His "satire on today's society" begins promisingly, with a fugato suggesting earnest industriousness, passes into a riotous evocation of military and carnival processions, and then rather tails off into cliched vignettes of a teadance, a boring official speech (in which the Dies irae ominously intrudes) and a hectic nocturnal rumba brought to a halt by the Last Judgement. The Belgian orchestra's playing throughout is extremely efficient, and the recording is also good, though the biggest climaxes are likely to incense your neighbours."
L.S., Gramophone



Source: Discover/Koch CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 175 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!6kAEhQxD!UWR4IQNTEnz6S6yvPfXdKHxpkWs-0NuH4hzjmFQ4HGU

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This thread is getting better and better!
Thanks to all involved!

No.7

Bohuslav Martin� was one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, his oeuvre numbers more than 400 works.
He was active in all the different genres (symphony, concerto, opera, ballet, chamber music, piano music) - except film music!
There are relatively few symphonic poems by him, the most striking of which may be Thunderbolt P-47, recorded here.
As its title suggests, it is a musical tribute to the famous American WWII fighter plane by Republic Aviation. Musical
paeans to pieces of technology were nothing new, the most famous of which is certainly Arthur Honegger's Pacific 231.
Martin� was forced to emigrate when the Nazis invaded his home country, and this poem is probably a thank you.
The album also contains Half-Time (inspired by a football match) and La Bagarre ("Turmoil"), a celebration
of Charles Lindbergh's cross-Atlantic flight. The rock depicted in The Rock (1957) is Plymouth Rock, where the
Pilgrim Fathers first landed in America. Enjoy!



Music Composed by Bohuslav Martin�
Played by the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Petr Vronsk�

"A fascinating selection: two not quite mature pieces from the 1920s, and three completely characteristic utterances
from the post-war years. Intermezzo and The rock are the most immediately impressive—the former echoing sounds
and motifs from the Fourth Symphony, the latter having rather more to do with the recently completed Sixth—
and after two or three hearings there still seems to be plenty more to discover. Thunderbolt begins with plenty of �lan,
but fails to hold the attention for long—at least that's my present impression. As for the early works: La bagarre is of
historical interest as Martinu's first big critical success, and musically for the advance it shows on its predecessor.
Half-time depicts the rowdy goings on in the interval of a soccer match, during which the pitch is invaded by
Stravinsky's primitives and Shrovetide revellers, and later by Honegger's Pacific 231! Unfortunately the sound and fury
adds up to very little—for Martinu enthusiasts only.

Performances are excellent—colourful, muscular, intense or relaxed as appropriate—
and the recordings manage to be bracingly up-front without dragging the listener right on to the platform.
On the whole a very enjoyable disc."
Gramophone



Source: Supraphon CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), ADD Stereo
File Size: 112 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!P15ASSpB!aGsvG0BUfrqM3apKLSQT6zJoMFwpjpDw_Lhd2yX ihio

Enjoy! Don't share! :)

You know, I really appreciate these but why are you encoding them as 320? Classical of all things is best able to take advantage of VBR V0 and would result in much smaller files.

No.8

Sir Granville Bantock was an English composer of the Elgar generation (and, as such, part of the first wave of what has
become known as the "English Musical Renaissance", but he was very different. While Elgar aspired to be the perfect Victorian
(later Edwardian) gentleman, having risen from humble stock, Bantock was an affluent man who, much like many a
European gentleman had since the second half of the 18th century, delighted in surrounding himself not only with oriental
splendor, but also oriental philosophy. He even sometimes dressed in oriental garb, to the bewilderment of some.
His "magnum opus" is the oratorio "Omar Khayyam", where he set to music said poet's work.

However, the album featured here displays other affections of his: Celtic culture, and the sea. This is most explicit in the
larger-scale Hebridean Symphony, a single movement, narrative work with many subsections. It is sprawling,
vividly descriptive work. Also included are The Witch of Atlas and the short "sea-poem" The Sea Reivers, as well
as another symphony, The Celtic - scored for strings and six harps. Wonderful music in a quasi-Straussian manner.

This is a superb recording, one of the best by that late, great English conductor, Vernon Handley.



Music Composed by Sir Granville Bantock
Played by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Vernon Handley

'...the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs magnificetly from beginning to end, coupling elegance, eloquence, passion, and poser with Hyperion's fastidious sound in a way that compels admiration from the listener for conductor, ensemble and composer alike. Handley's is the definitive version of the Hebridean Symphony, outstripping that available on Naxos in every regard, and with the other works on this disc to further commend it, this release sails effortlessly into port as the newest inductee into Fanfare's Classical Hall of Fame. (Fanfare, USA) 'The best Bantock record I have ever heard' (CDReview) 'Magnificently recorded and performed. When audiences are crying out for 'melodious music' how can such music as this have been ignored for so long?' (Gramophone) 'Ce disque superbe ravira les m�lomanes romantiques curieux' (R�pertoire, France) 'A towering classic, as important as a landmark in the rediscovery of British music as it is a monument to the technique of orchestral recording. Music, performance, recorded sound and notes are all superb' (International Record Review) 'Superb'(Amazon.co.uk)



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I mailed you a link I hope you will enjoy and maybe publish here.

Thanks. I'll have a listen when I return from holiday in a few days. Meanwhile one of the two last uploads for a short while:



No.9

Finnish composer V�in� Eerikki Raitio was trained in Moscow and Berlin, and he was among the first composers to
introduce atonal music in his home country. But he also wrote a series of highly evocative, impressionistic tone poems,
of which two outstanding examples, Forest Idylls and Summer Pictures from H�me, appear on this album,
along with some other short pieces for small orchestra. This is really extremely pretty, almost intoxicating music.

Cover scans and booklet notes included.



Music Composed by V�in� Raitio
Played by the Tapiola Sinfonietta
Conducted by Tuomas Ollila

"This attractive disc offers a sampling of Finnish composer V�in� Raitio's (1891-1945) works for small orchestra,
compositions representing his second period. During the early '20s, Raitio championed modernism, moving
from an idiom inspired by Scriabin to atonality. In the early '30s, Raitio, having formulated a highly personal
musical idiom, returned to tonality and added a subtle coloristic dimension to his writing. Among the first seven
pieces, all charmingly and finely crafted, one must single out the splendid Scherzo (Felis domestica).
Inspired by the composer's cat, this piece, with its gentle shifts from brisk movement to moments of languid
repose, convincingly conjures up a few feline moments. The Tapiola Sinfonietta, conducted by Tuomas Ollila,
performs Raitio's miniatures with a rare blend of technical precision, tonal opulence, and a sensitivity to pictorial detail.
For example, the beautifully descriptive Summer Pictures From H�me -- which introduces the listener to a
world of memories, fleeting impressions, and treasured moments -- provides the performer with an opportunity
to illuminate and tastefully connect the many narrative strands of Raitio's music. Precise and imprecise, clearly
etched yet suggestive of pastel hues, Raitio's music is a challenge to any performer. The Tapiola Sinfonietta rises
to the challenge, performing his compositions with authority, charm, and imagination."
Zoran Minderovic, Rovi





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Wow, thank you for this thread, it is really a good idea and the choices are excellent.

No.10

An intriguing collection of evocative tone poems from China (except Chen Yi's more aloof Duo Ye No.2), including a
dynamic, occasionally explosive work by one of the leading composers of the 1970s to 1990s, Zhu Jian-Er (A Wonder of Naxi),
as well as pieces by Liu Yuan (Memorabilia of Mt Awa) and Zhang Chien-Yi's The Northern Forest.



Music Composed by Zhu Jian-Er, Liu Yuan, Zhang Chien-Yi & Chen Yi
Played by The Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Conducted by Tsung Yeh

"Zhu Jianer (Chinese: 朱践耳; pinyin: Zhū Ji� něr; b. Tianjin, China, 1922) is a prominent Chinese composer.

He was born in Tianjin and brought up in Shanghai, and lived in Jing County, Anhui, China. He began composing in 1940 and
pursued composition studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1955. He is a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory.
He has composed for both Western and Chinese instruments and his works have been performed around the world.
In 2000 he was commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project to compose Silk Road Reverie.

His 1950 revolutionary work Days of Emancipation (翻身的日子, Fānshēn de Rìzi; for banhu and Chinese orchestra)
is well known in the West from its appearance on the 1981 CBS Masterworks compilation Phases of the Moon: Traditional Chinese Music."



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This will be my final posting for this and next week. Have fun! :D

Marvelous concept, excellent choices to date — and looking forward with eager anticipation to more! Thanks for your innovative approach!

Bantock's Celtic with 6 harps is stunning... but I don't see/hear how this music would make for film music. John Barry once said that Sibelius' Symphony #4 was a soundtrack waiting for a film. Could be why it is his only symphony I have.

I REALLY REALLY dislike Mahler. He has some nice MOMENTS in his music that eventually go on too long or go no where. Have often thought he'd have been great at film scores. Writing nice little moments for various scenes. Just as long as he didn't connect everything willy nilly for two hours straight.

^ Though I disagree vehemently with some of what you've said over the past few days, I must agree with this. I find Mahler very hit and miss; at his most "miss" I think Rossini's appraisal of Wagner is apt - great moments but awful quarters-of-an-hour. I keep trying to like the 8th Symphony - but when I listen to it I feel like it's got twenty minutes worth of ideas in it but runs for 90 minutes. I enjoy Part 1 and then it all goes to pieces for me. I wonder if I'm missing something. Most of it feels like straightforward connective tissue leading randomly to various glittering episodic outbursts of joy. I almost feel as if the Finale is trying to trick me - because the finale is so definite, so powerful, so overwhelming that I almost forget that it doesn't seem like it's been really earned.

It feels like doing a day of something really really awful, then finishing off the day with a brief fun activity, and at the end you feel happy because you've just done something fun and uplifting... but you feel as though you can't, in all good conscience, summarise it as a "good day" because for the most part, it wasn't.

I am rambling. Bed time.

Wimpel69; this thread is nothing short of a goldmine. Thank you. :)

"Over the past few days"? What the- ?

looking for Friedrich Gulda - Concerto for myself

I have to say that I agree with what my all time favorite, Ralph Vaughan Williams, said about Mahler: "a tolerable imitation of a composer". The Mahler bonanza these days is frightening. He's everywhere. I strongly suggest all Mahler devotees should listen to some of the reductions the "Verein f�r neue Musik" around Schoenberg made of Mahler's scores, in particular the 4th Symphony - it inadvertently reveals Mahler's music to be what it really was: overblown Schrammlmusik. ;)

Be back with new releases in a couple of days. First one will probably be Zemlinsky's The Sea Mermaid.

---------- Post added at 06:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:12 PM ----------


Bantock's Celtic with 6 harps is stunning... but I don't see/hear how this music would make for film music. John Barry once said that Sibelius' Symphony #4 was a soundtrack waiting for a film. Could be why it is his only symphony I have.

I prefer to post entire albums, not all of the material on them has to be "programmatic". The Sibelius 4th is one of my favorites too, though I'd be hesitant to say that it's program music in the strict sense. The opening, with the cello solo, is unforgettable. I recommend Kurt Sanderling's version of this piece with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, on Berlin Classics, or, Brilliant. It is the bleakest version of the piece that I know.

In the play "The Fifth of July" one of the characters is often listening to a tape of someone speaking who is mentally impaired. It is a garbled mess. He keeps playing the tape. Finally the sister confronts him and says, "THAT and Mahler are an acquired taste."

Oh how I laughed.

Never heard that quote from RVW, but that's pretty good too. I adore RVW and his many, many, many masterpieces.

No.11

Here, as announced before, is Alexander von Zemlinsky's large-scale tone poem Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid), based on a
popular fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The composer was an important figure in fin-de-si�cle Vienna, a
friend of Schoenberg and a member of his cycle - though, unlike the others, he never made the transition from late romanticism
to twelve-tone music. He was also a teacher to Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

The Mermaid is an opulent, brilliantly orchestrated three-movement tone poem full of bold washes of orchestral chiaroscuro,
but also incredibly detailed and delicate at times. Just superb late romantic music. The coupling here is the, obviously, non-programmatic
Sinfonietta - a neo-classical piece that is much leaner and more rigid in form. An interesting contrast in fact!



Music Composed by Alexander von Zemlinsky
Played by the G�rzenich Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by James Conlon

"The Reemergence of Zemlinsky’s “MERMAID”

Zemlinsky wrote "The Mermaid" in the aftermath of Alma Werfel's rejection of him in favor of Mahler. According to James Conlon,
the composer identified with the title character, whose love for the human prince she rescued from a shipwreck went unrequited.
The Mermaid experiences a transfiguration into an immortal, which Conlon likened to Zemlinsky�s resolve, after the breakup,
to devote himself to art. The conductor alluded to a passage midway through the second movement, which recurs near the end
of the third, that symbolizes the Mermaid�s transformation, and he compared it to the Liebestod in "Tristan." If I identified it correctly,
it was a lush string passage, with harp accompaniment, in which a fervent melody is heard in the cellos. Conlon did not say so,
but it may bear mentioning that the Liebestod occurs in "Tristan" at roughly the analogous structural points: at the climax of the
Act 2 Love Duet and at the end of the three-act opera.

Of course, the work is only nominally about Zemlinsky; some of the music, especially in the first movement,
is quite obviously descriptive of Andersen�s mermaid—the low-pitched scales at the beginning suggesting the depths of the sea,
a lovely solo violin tune probably representing the lady herself and especially the tumultuous orchestral depiction of the shipwreck.
But it is better not to get too bogged down with linking music to story and instead focus on Zemlinsky�s masterful skills as a symphonist.

Especially striking is the way he transforms themes. A good half dozen occur repeatedly throughout the three movements.
Yet they are presented with sufficient expressive and orchestral variety so as not to seem redundant. Experiencing "The Mermaid"
is a little like seeing a play in which each act traces the same action but from a different point of view. For instance, the second movement,
which represents festivities in the palace of the Mer-king, at once establishes a totally new, celebratory mood, with its shimmering strings,
bells, triangle and glockenspiel. Yet it also uses a fanfare theme that had previously been associated with the shipwreck. It�s all a big, lush,
post-Romantic orchestral extravaganza."
MusicalAmerica.com





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---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:04 PM ----------




No.12

Founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris, Vincent d'Indy was an influential figure in French music establishment
for several decades. He was also one of the finest of the country's late romantic composers (which include C�sar Franck,
Gabriel Piern�, Ernest Chausson and Paul Dukas). The two multi-movement symphonic poems presented here,
Jour d'�t� � la montagne (A Summer's Day in the Mountains) and Tableaux de voyage (Images of a Voyage)
show him at the top of his craft. He was in fact a highly respected composer in his day, but his works fell out of favour
after his death - his explicit anti-Semitic views was certainly did not help.



Music Composed by Vincent d'Indy
Played by the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire
Conducted by Pierre Dervaux

"Hitherto I had known Vincent d'Indy's Tableaux de voyage as a set of 13 short piano pieces written in 1889,
but he apparently orchestrated six of them a couple of years later. In either form they are a change from the
rather consistently imposing richness of his main works, although La fore( enchant�e is approachable, too.
A symphonic poem in the tradition of Liszt (whom d'Indy had visited in 1873), this venture into the forest of
German romanticism already shows a mature craftsmanship. The main work here, though, is the Jour d'�te it la montagne
of 1905-06, which is one of his finest pieces and ought, as a response to nature by a French composer of that time,
to stand with Debussy's La mer and Roussel's Po�me de la for�t. It is in effect d'Indy's pastoral symphony,
and was prompted by, or at least derived its programme from, Roger de Pampelonne's Les heures de la montagne,
communicating an agreeable impression of sunlight and solidity. Besides a constant flow of invention, there is also
some original scoring, such as the use of harps and piano with woodwind in the third movement; notice also the simple,
beautiful writing for strings at the Tr�s lent 16 bars after fig. 51.
Few readers will be familiar with the work of the Loire Philharmonic or of their conductor Pierre Dervaux,
but they show a real affinity with this music, and I find the performances very satisfying. The recordings excellently
convey this music's textural depth and the warm glow of its colours."
Gramophone



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---------- Post added at 01:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:06 PM ----------




No.13

The fact that Charles Camilleri (1931-2009) was the most famous Maltese composer - and by a considerable margin, too - may seem
like faint praise, but it is also true that he was highly accomplished in many different genres and musical styles. His works,
from the more forward looking, "serious" concertos to the lovely picture postcard vignettes and dances of Malta recorded here,
were never less than fluently crafted and highly polished. Knights of Malta (actually, a ballet suite consisting of several
classical-style dances), Four Legends, the Malta Suite and the programmatic concertino Summer Nights in Malta
are all delightful and bright "entertainments" in the best sense of the word, and indeed very close to the so-called "British light music" style.

The booklet notes are included in the upload.



Music Composed by Charles Camilleri
Played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
With Jennifer Micallef, Glen Inanga (pianos)
Conducted by Brian Schembri

"Why is the music of Maltese composer Charles Camilleri (b1931) not better known? This collection is one of the most rewarding compilations
of new 20th-century orchestral music I have encountered in a long time. True, it is lightweight, but it is consistently attractive and often
hauntingly tuneful, and how much contemporary music can one say that about? Moreover, it is resourcefully inventive, elegantly crafted
and richly scored, with many delightful woodwind solos: the flute solo which opens the Intermezzo from the opera ll-Weghda,
with the melody later taken up by the clarinet, is ravishing, while Camilleri's expressive writing for the strings is gently touching.

The lovely Nocturne from the Malta Suite; the sad Little portrait of "The Bride of Mosta", snatched away by pirates on her wedding day —
the third of the Legends — and the tender central Andante of Summer Nights in Malta, delectably played by Jennifer Micallef and
Glen Inanga, are all memorable, while the Concertino's outer movements have wit and high spirits in abundance.
So has the infectious "Grand Polka March", the fourth Legend, with its chortling clarinet roulades exhilaratingly played by Godfrey Mifsud.
Much of this music is descriptive. Legend No 2 brings a pizzicato picture of "The Watch-maker from Gozo" and has him winding
his watch at the very end.

The Knights of Malta ballet suite uses genuine ancient airs and dances, taken from old local manuscripts, piquantly scored,
and the Malta Suite (the composer's first great success, written when he was only 15) draws on local folk music.

These sparkling performances from Brian Schembri and the excellent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra could not be
more stylish or persuasively spontaneous, and the vividly atmospheric recording is first rate. Not to be missed —
Camilleri's muse possesses an unselfconscious ability to communicate and captivate the listener in the simplest way."
Gramophone





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No.14

John Blackwood McEwen was one of a small group of Scottish composers who were trying to emancipate themselves
from the dominating English influence on their country's musical life in the closing years of the 19th century. However,
due to general cultural apathy in Scotland, McEwen had to leave for London to make a living as a composer and
was eventually absorbed by the tide of emerging new composers in the English musical renascence.
His Three Border Ballads are independent tone poems with a background in Scottish poetry.



Music Composed by John Blackwood McEwen
Played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Alasdair Mitchell

"A native of Hawick in the Borders, Sir John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) was one of a group of gifted composers who,
in the early years of this century, seemed destined to spark a Scottish musical revival. In what is a highly informed and
enthusiastic booklet-essay, Bernard Benoliel draws our attention to such figures as Hamish MacCunn, Leamont Drysdale
(both of whom died comparatively young) as well as William Wallace and Sir Alexander Mackenzie (whom McEwen eventually
succeeded as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1924). Despite producing a number of large-scale orchestral and
choral works in the years preceding the First World War (most notably The Ode on the Nativity, a comic opera entitled
The Royal Rebel and the Solway Symphony), McEwen lacked the necessary selfpromoting skills and social clout to establish
himself on the London musical scene and opted instead for a life of distinguished academic achievement. In his later years,
he wrote a substantial body of chamber music, completing (amongst other things) over 20 string quartets."



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I keep repeating myself: thank you!

No.15

Josef Suk was the son-in-law of Anton�n Dvor�k, the most famous of all Czech composers. But he did
not need the great man's protection to rise among the ranks of his country's emerging post-Wagnerian
musicians. Like his grandson, also named Josef Suk, he was not only a composer but also a professional
violinist. But it is as a composer that he is now remembered, and large-scale tone poems were very
much his "thing" (including his most influential work, the "Asrael Symphony"). The two pieces featured
in this upload are the 30-minute, one-movement The Ripening, an ambitious and opulent work, and the
rather less striking, but sweet and melodious A Fairy-Tale (Poh�dka).



Music Composed by Josef Suk
Played by The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Vaclav Neumann & Libor Pesek

"Suk's Ripening is a large-scale symphonic poem lasting the best part of an hour, completed in 1917 and first performed
under V�clav Talich in the following year. It was a crucial time for Czechoslovakia, on the brink of being established
as an independent state, and a tumultuous time in European history for a composer of Suk's aspirations.
His dedication to ideals of beauty had suffered in all the horrors he also witnessed, but this massive work bears
determined witness to them. It is cast in one movement, and not surprisingly the most significant influence is that of
Richard Strauss. There is little of Strauss's characteristic harmonic manner, but the expressive apparatus is Straussian,
and the orchestra is used for the most with a virtuosity hardly inferior.

One of the work's most original features is the big final fugue. After a piece largely rhapsodic in manner—
which is to say that it does not adhere to any readily recognizable form, but proceeds from one impassioned
section to another—Suk settles on an enormous orchestral fugue. His own comment was that the fugue was meant
to stress that amid all the confusions of life, "work is the liberator". Undeniably, the fugue, to which is added a chorus
of women's voices, makes a powerful climax to a work that should certainly appeal to lovers of Czech music
(Suk is unduly underrated in this country) and to those who relish the sound of the Straussian orchestra in the
hands of a master. \facial/ Neumann directs a fervent and lucid performance, and the recording does justice to
Suk's relish of his tonal palette."
Gramophone



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---------- Post added at 01:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 PM ----------




No.16

Late romantic Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock did not compose a lot of purely orchestral works,
as vocal music seem to have been his speciality. This upload includes his most popular work,
the programmatic overture De Vogels (The Birds), inspired by the play by Greek writer
Aristophanes. Diepenbrock also wrote incidental music to the play, and also for another Greek
classic, Electra by Socrates. Marsyas was composed for a play by fellow Dutch
author Balthazar Verhagen. All this music is very well crafted and just beautifully made. It is a pity
that Diepenbrock did not compose more, but his life and career were greatly hindered by
frequent bouts of depression. The Hymn for violin and orchestra is not a programmatic work.



Music Composed by Alphons Diepenbrock
Played by The Residentie Orchestra The Hague
With Emmy Verhey (violin)
Conducted by Hans Vonk

"The neglect of Alphons Diepenbrock (18621921) outside Holland is I suppose understandable, though a pity.
He wrote no symphonies or concertos, no operas and very few chamber or instrumental pieces, devoting himself
mainly to choral works (and the established choral repertory is difficult to break into), to incidental music
for the theatre and (no less awkward for programme-builders) to large-scale songs or odes for solo voice and orchestra,
some of them (a final nail in his coffin) in Dutch. He was also a wholly self-taught composer, and this occasionally
shows in a passage or two of heavy scoring; rather more often in a disinclination to get a move on (though this
can at times be endearing; who could blame Diepenbrock for repeating the charming melody of his Hynine for violin
and orchestra in evervarying orchestral colours? He obviously loved it dearly and saw no reason to stop).

That he could have written symphonies or indeed operas is strongly suggested by the striking Symphonic Suite
from his music to Electra. It is firmly built from a sequence of simple and graphic motives representing Electra herself,
Orestes, the Furies, Apollo and the curse upon the house of Atreus. The music has considerable eloquence and drama,
its language rooted in Wagner but with ears also open to Debussy, to Strauss and to Diepenbrock's friend Mahler,
but with moments of dark passion and solemnity that seem to be his own. Mere decorativeness is a trap into which
he occasionally falls: the middle section of the second movement (in which we are to imagine the chorus comparing man's
fate with that of birds—cue for birdsong, of which Diepenbrock seems to have been very fond) is pretty, but dangerously
close to light music when one considers its subject matter.

The Marsyas Suite, which has turned up in the programmes of visiting Dutch orchestras occasionally, has a good deal of
appealing lyricism to it in what you could call a disciplined chromatic style, some charming woodland music (not without
brooding shadows) which Elgar might have liked, and again some disconcertingly salonlike friskiness to evoke a group of
nymphs dancing with wild abandon. One might also say that the overture The Birds is a bit ponderous for a comedy, but in
both works there are moments of quirky individuality (the decidedly ingenious use, this time, of birdsong in The Birds,
moments of almost Scriabinesque allure in Marsyas) which make it difficult to write off Diepeobrock as one of those
composers that every country has and enjoys but would be wise to keep for home consumption. If the odes and the
choral music are up to the level of the best pages of the Electra music (and I expect we shall find out: this collection is
abelled Vol. 1) then Chandos have unearthed another exploration-worthy late romantic. Minot? Yes, I suppose so,
if you want to be severe, but too intelligent and too ingenious a composer to be dull, and too musical and inquisitive to be stale.
He is well served by these opulent performances and by a recording that is marred only by a touch of brightness."
Gramophone



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P.S.: If you'd like to have more music by one of the composers
featured in this thread, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. :)

No.17

Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness (n�e Hovhanessian) was extremely prolific, he wrote over 1,000 works -
many of the early ones, in which he had tried to connect to the then-avantgarde, he later destroyed. The works he is now
remembered for are mostly tonal, with a strong emphasis on fugal writing and chromaticism. He was also a pioneer
in the use of aleatoric (improvisational) elements, and finally, he was obsessed with mountains, and with his
Armenian heritage. Some of these obsessions are evident in the following upload, which includes one of his greatest
works, And God Created Great Whales (for orchestra and tapes of actual whale songs - long before Star Trek IV ;)).
Also featured are two works inspired by Armenian mythology, and a non-programmatic Concerto (No.8) for Orchestra.



Music Composed by Alan Hovhaness
Played by The Philharmonia Orchestra
Conducted by David Amos

"The name Hovhaness is Armenian for John, and would seem to link with Johannes in German, Giovanni in Italian.
The pedigree of the American composer Alan Vaness Scott Hovhaness Chakmakjian (b.1911) is also multi-cultural,
his parentage a mix of Armenian and Scots. With studies that took in much from Asia (including a year spent in India), i
t is no surprise that his mature output bears an individually intercontinental stamp. His attempted fusion of East and
West has not always been successful; while praising his fluency, "one cannot help suspecting that Hovhaness's music
is too easy to write and too easy to listen to" was Wilfrid Mellers's verdict in Music in a New Found Land (London: 975).
But it does have undeniable appeal, as the collection on the second disc richly affirms. And God Created Great Whales (1970)
is one of Hovhaness's best-known works, yet it is also one of his least interesting. The taped whalesong is not so well integrated
into the overall fabric as are the birds in Rautavaara's Can/us Arcticu.g (available on BIS and Ondine), or the grasshoppers
in Usko Meril�inen's delightful Summer Sounds (Ondine). The orchetral Concerto No. 8 of 1953 is more even, a thoroughly
entertaining (if undemanding) five-movement suite, inspired in part by a flight over Greenland. The string writing in
Alleluia and Fugue (1942) betrays the early influences of Vaughan Williams as well as Roy Harris's best open-air manner.
Elibris and Anahid (both 944), by contrast, derive from Hovhaness's mid-Asian heritage, and make telling use of a solo
flute, here beautifully played by Christine Messiter.

Hovhaness is famous—perhaps infamous—for the sheer number of his symphonies, now in excess of 60. 1 am
unconvinced of Vishnu's symphonic credentials: as a tone-poem or portrait it is striking, full of imaginative sonorities,
but it becomes a little aimless towards the close. Its mutilated premi�re in 1967 (by Andr� Kostelanetz,
who commissioned And God Created Great Whales) distressed Hovhaness enough to prompt one of his
Finest works, Requiem and Resurrection, "to express a similar mood and philosophy [to Vishnu] in a shorter,
more condensed form"."
Gramophone



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thank for the link....

Thank you so much Wimpel 69 for this extraordinary thread . With the exception of Respighi and Bax, whose compositions I have enjoyed, I only recognize some of the composers by name and am entirely unfamiliar with all of their work. I am looking forward to many hours of musical discovery and education.

You're welcome. Again, if you'd like to hear more works by one of the composers in this thread, let me know. :)



No.18

Carlos Ch�vez (1899-1978) was the most important Mexican conductor of his time, and also among the
country's finest composers (with Silvestre Revueltas and Manuel Ponce) - he wrote six symphonies, ballets,
short orchestral works (some are presented here) and also developed a quasi-archaic folkloristic style he
not so much drew as imagined from Aztec and other ancient pre-Mexican cultures (one of his chamber works
e.g. is called Xochipili, An Imagined Aztec Music). Of the works on this album, La Hija de Colquide is
probably the most vivid and evocative of the composer's home country.



Music Composed by Carlos Ch�vez
Played by The State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Enrique B�tiz

"Those who may have been deterred by some of Chavez's often astringent and acerbic music now
have the opportunity, with the present selection of his works, of hearing him in more approachable vein.
Much the most attractive is the longest work here, the symphonic suite The daughter of Colchis, originally
the score for the Martha Graham ballet Dark meadow. Its calm, pastoral atmosphere, spare texture and
mostly diatonic and linear style make it sound very much like Copland, for whose work it could easily be
mistaken. The Toccata, taken from some incidental music to a dramatized version of Don Quixote, also
comes as a pleasant surprise: the first third of its six-and-three-quarter minutes is taken up by a pastoral
oboe solo; gradually other woodwinds then enter, the pace quickening the while, until at about half-way
through the piece the whole orchestra becomes involved in a vigorous scherzo. In contrast, the Mexican
landscapes are full of thematically disjunct, noisily grandiose dramatic gestures masking nationalistic
turns of phrase and dance rhythms.

All the works so far mentioned were written in the 1940s: the earlier, brief Songs of Mexico, musically primitive,
exploits an exotic orchestra of native instruments and ends in a dance of raw energy; the Bade ("Dance")
of 1953 was the original finale of the Fourth Symphony, and progresses curiously in aggressive short jerks.
The playing and recording throughout are both excellent."
Gramophone



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No.19

Alexander Mackenzie (1847-1935), long-term director of the Royal Academy of Music in London, was not only
an important figure in 19th century English music establishment, but also one of the most respected British
composers of his time. Only after his death did his works fall into neglect, an oversight that has been partially
corrected in the last two decades, if only on compact discs. As with many of his contemporaries, his program works
were mainly influenced by literary sources (Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, Robert Burns - after all, Mackenzie
was a Scotsman!) and by nature - musically, as again was the norm, he was still much influenced by continental romanticism,
although he would occasionally include folklike, Scottish-sounding themes. He was an excellent professional composer.



Music Composed by Sir Alexander Mackenzie
Played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins

"Another hugely enjoyable Hyperion rescue-act, this time on behalf of the Scottish composer, teacher and administrator,
Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1847-1935). It is the sheer professionalism of Mackenzie's art that consistently impresses.
Works such as the utterly charming Overture to The Cricket on the Hearth (1902) and rousing Burns (the Second Scottish Rhapsody of 1881)
reveal a generosity of spirit, a most beguiling melodic impulse and rigorous craft, as well as no mean mastery of the orchestra
(indeed, Mackenzie's colourful, unclotted scoring throughout is immensely satisfying to the ear). Both Twelfth Night and Benedictus
date from 1888, a particularly productive year for the composer. The former, though perhaps just a little too garrulous for its own good,
boasts some most attractive invention and (again) some delicious touches of orchestration. Originally conceived for violin and piano,
the tender Benedictus (still Mackenzie's best-known piece) is heard in an arrangement for small orchestra, and its grateful violin cantilena
is most lovingly attended to here. In many ways, though, the finest inspiration on this generously filled showcase can be found in the
incidental music Mackenzie wrote for Sir Henry Irving's 1901 production of Coriolanus. Hyperion give us three numbers from the
published suite: an imposing, ultimately triumphant "Prelude" and lively, joyous "Entr'acte" frame a profoundly eloquent "Marche funebre",
whose natural dignity recalls Elgar's magnificent essay in the form from his Grania and Diarmid incidental music (composed the same year).

Marlyn Brabbins secures an excellent, routinefree response from the admirable BBC Scottish SO. Nor can there be anything but praise
for Arthur Johnson's sensitive production and Tony Kime's vividly truthful engineering. Moreover, John Purser's knowledgeable and
rightly enthusiastic annotations are a pleasure to read. All told, a delightful release."
Gramophone





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---------- Post added at 01:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 PM ----------




No.20

For two decades, American Don Gillis was executive producer of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Arturo Toscanini.
On the side he composed a remarkably large number of orchestral works, often depicting scenes, landscapes and characters
from Texas. His music is clearly in the tradition of mid-20th century "Americana" (Copland, Thomson), but
often distinguished by a wonderful sense of humor. While Gillis took music itself seriously, he never took himself all too
seriously in his works. The three pieces here, his Symphony No.7 ("Saga of a Prairie School"), Portrait of a Frontier Town
and The Alamo, are ebullient and colorful in the the extreme. After decades of neglect, Gillis's vastly entertaining music
has begun to attract a new audience through recordings and "pops" concerts.



Music Composed by Don Gillis
Played by the Sinfonia Varsovia
Conducted by Ian Hobson

"No one lavished as much musical love and affection on the state of Texas than did Don Gillis, and that theoretically
big-hearted territory has repaid his devotion by forcing Albany to record his Texas-inspired works in Warsaw. How ironic.
Well, never mind, because as with previous discs issued in this series the performances are outstanding, and the music is terrific.
It's true that Gillis' pops-concert, Gershwinesque style won't appeal to those who believe that classical music should be
self-evidently profound, but underneath the brash exterior there's genuine content here. Consider, for example, the two
slow movements in Portrait of a Frontier Town, as beautifully lyrical as anything by anyone, and they're scored with incredible
skill and restraint. Nor is The Alamo a bombastic piece of "American socialist realism". More than anything it's an elegy,
with just enough militancy to let everyone know what the cause of all the sorrow has been.

The Seventh Symphony, in four connected movements, celebrates the composer's beloved Texas Christian University.
It's also a serious work, but never (despite the subject) academic or tendentious. Fascinatingly, all of this music was
recorded by Gillis himself for Decca in the 1950s, and those recordings have been reissued on CD. Tempos in the symphony
are virtually identical in both cases, though Ian Hobson lingers a bit more (all to the good) over those gorgeous slow
movements in Portrait of a Frontier Town than does Gillis himself. In general, the older recordings are drier and sharper
of rhythm, but as with previous issues in this series the Polish string players offer a warmth of tone that suits the music
just as well. Great music can take a variety of approaches, and Gillis wrote some great music, no doubt about that.
Sonically this SACD surround-sound production is top-notch in all formats, the best in the series thus far, with
excellent balances, rich bass, and plenty of brilliance. Fabulous!"
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10_zps59339d01.gif


(with Arturo Toscanini)



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Sorry, there appears to be no link for the Mackenzie work.

Oops, will put the link in later today. Meanwhile:


No.21

Isaac Alb�niz was a Spanish composer of the turn of the century whose main claim to fame
is the popular, programmatic piano cycle Ib�ria, which consists of 4 volumes with 3 character pieces each.
It has been a firm favorite in the repertoire of international pianists the world over since its publication in 1908.
Decades after the composer's death, conductor Enrique Fern�ndez Arb�s arranged five of the pieces for
orchestra. These transcriptions proved so popular that in the 1950s another significant composer, Carlos Surinach,
completed the orchestral cycle, and it is in this complete version that Jes�s Lop�z-Cobos recorded them for Telarc.
Whether for piano or in orchestral garb, Ib�ria is collection of twelve fanciful and evocative short tone poems.



Music Composed by Isaac Alb�niz
Orchestrations by Enrique Fern�ndez Arb�s & Carlos Surinach
Played by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Jes�s Lop�z-Cobos

"There are few recordings of Isaac Albeniz's complete Iberia scored for orchestra, especially one with a
full & rich sound as well as a stunningly poignant interpretation by Jesus Lopez Cobos.

Albeniz, in his youth, after running away from home several times, was exposed to a great
number of cultural and eventually musical influences. His travels took him around Spain, his
homeland, as well as South America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and even San Francisco. After
settling down back in Spain, he took up friends and colleagues such as Faure, Dukas,
Debussy, and Chausson, all leading composers and performers of the time, as well as
bold influences on where music was going at that time.

Meanwhile, Albeniz, taking in all of these influences, composes some wonderfully rich music
including a series of four books of music for piano, all tied together with a common theme,
called Iberia: a musically romantic/impressionistic description of the beautiful lands and
exciting events of his homeland. Each book contains three separate pieces of music, each a
musical portrait of Spain, and each one exhibiting a spanish dance of some kind.

Traditionally, recordings of Iberia are fast and brash showstoppers, as recorded by Batiz on
ASV, and it really misses the heart and the depth of Impressionism that Albeniz was trying to
display. Instead, Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony slow the tempos down for a majesterial
and autthentic look at Spain. His tempos allow freedom to experience the sumptuous and
often exotic rhythms and harmonies of the Spanish culture with out barreling right through them.
In listening to this recording, Iberia becomes even more impressionistic than Debussy or
Ravel and is quite a treat.

This is a real treat for the ears with Telarc's fine Digital sound, true excitement and passionate
musicality in a fabulous recording of Iberia. In addition, you get TWO CD's, 82 minutes for the
PRICE OF ONE!! Get this terrific buy."
Amazon Reviewer



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Mackenzie link added. :)

---------- Post added at 03:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 PM ----------




No.22

Nikos Skalkottas occupies an important position in Greek music history, although people would realize that only after his death.
The former student of Arnold Schoenberg withered away his final years as a violinist in the Athens State Orchestra, his life clouded by depressions.
His orchestral works are colorful, dynamic and exquisitely crafted - such as the extended ballet suite The Sea, and the more subdued,
folkloristic Four Images, both found on this album. Since his rediscovery, Skalkottas has enjoyed increasing fame at home and
abroad. Alas, he died at age 45.



Music Composed by Nikos Skalkottas
Played by The Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Byron Fidetzis

"Nikos Skalkottas was such a good tonal composer that you have to wonder why he wasted so much time on his gnarly,
atonal stuff. The Sea is a magnificent ballet suite 45 minutes long, full of memorable, colorful ideas. I dare you
not to love the "Dance of the Waves", or the miniature tone-poem toward the end, "The Tale of Alexander the Great".
This was one of Skalkottas' last works, dating from 1948-49, and the music certainly withstands comparison to any
ballet music of its era in terms of sheer quality. If you like big, splashy, romantic scores with an ethnic flavor, then you
simply must hear it. The Four Images sound like outtakes from the 36 Greek Dances--music of great melodic and rhythmic appeal.
Cretan Feast actually is an orchestration by Skalkottas of a work by Dimitri Mitropoulos, and it sounds just like what its title promises:
a party. All of the music here is extremely well played and conducted. It's obvious that Byron Fidetzis finds the idiom comfortable,
and the Iceland Symphony sounds terrific thanks to typically resplendent BIS engineering. This one's a no-brainer: buy it."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10_zps59339d01.gif



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---------- Post added at 03:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:16 PM ----------




No.23

Austrian composer Joseph Marx was fairly successful in the early stages of his long life,
but since he refused to modify/develop his lush, late-romantic, Vienna fin-de-si�cle style
in the face of innovations by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, or Messiaen, his works were deemed
severely dated and fell out of the repertoire as the 20th century progressed. Today, the theory that
music history follows a "natural" linear progression from tonal music towards atonality and serialism
has long since been discredited, thus allowing a new perspective on past composers whose works may
not have broken new ground, but were stylish and entertaining in and of themselves.

Such is the Nature Trilogy (Symphonic Night Music, Pastoral Concertino, Spring Music) presented here.
The style may be very familiar to those attuned to turn of the century late/post romanticism, but the
high level of craftsmanship is never in doubt. Korngold lovers should lap it up!



Music Composed by Joseph Marx
Played by the Bochumer Symphoniker
Conducted by Steven Sloane

"This is unambiguously the work of a nature ecstatic. If you already count Bax's nature canvasses among your favourite works
then you will be losing out if you do not get this excellent disc. The music is discursively rhapsodic, sunny, bold, soused in
melody and eloquent with the voices of nature. Bax's Spring Fire, Tintagel, Garden of Fand or Third or Fourth Symphony would
be reasonable parallels but there are other tributaries flowing through Marx's pen. These include Debussy, Delius and Korngold;
not that this music is particularly dramatic. Marx has a large number of songs to his credit - some with orchestral accompaniment.
His natural proclivity for lyricism is echoed into his starry and Klimt-like orchestral writing. The violins are prominent throughout -
leading and luxuriating. Some may hear echoes of ripe Hollywood film music as well as Griffes' White Peacock and Howard Hanson's
Second Symphony and early tone poems (Lux Aeterna and Nymph and Satyr) - listen to tr.2. 4.12. The harp and orchestral piano
provide a glimmering counterpoint. A Daphnis-like splendour and opulence is the order of the day. This is a warm Mediterranean talent.
Across the other side of Europe in the Baltic state of Latvia, Adolfs Skulte was, within five years of this piece, writing his early
symphonies all of which have a similarly iridescent and saturated lyricism.

These three pieces were conceived as a coherent triptych but because of their benign complexity Marx only expected to hear the
trilogy complete in his mind - rather like Havergal Brian and his Gothic Symphony. Unlike Brian, Marx never got to hear this work
in a single concert. The complexity of each 'panel' also resulted in conductors making cuts. These have been opened out in this recording.

The scene-setting notes are by Berkant Haydin and Martin Rucker. They are invaluable. English language information about Marx
is not that easily accessible outside Grove. I should correct myself in one respect. Berkant, whose generosity in introducing
me to so much of Marx's music leaves me always in his debt, has produced an outstandingly thorough, clean and very useable
website on Marx. This is at Joseph Marx (1882-1964) (http://www.joseph-marx.org) and is well worth visiting for its information and numerous sound samples.

How I wish that ASV, Mr Sloane and the Bochum orchestra had been able to line up some sessions to record the even larger
Ein Herbstsymphonie next. Instead we will have some of the lighter orchestral works. We will have to wait for the symphony
and for the delightfully Respighian Castelli Romani (1929-30, for piano and orchestra) and Verkl�rtes Jahr (1930-32) the song
cycle for voice and orchestra. Be ready to snap them up when they appear.

An impressionistic South German voice soaked in the quintessence of lyrical expression.

This is already my record of the month and will be on my list of recordings of the year. A major discovery and a harbinger
of later releases which, if up to this strength, will change the shape of the catalogue for ever. My guess is that certain conductors
will be looking with envious eyes at this grand score. Now how about having Ein Herbstsymphonie at the Proms in 2004?"
Music Web





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No.24

This intriguing collection features works by five different American composers who all contr�buted
significantly to the development of 20th century US music, each in his own individual way. The most
famous here, of course, is Charles Ives, one of the great innovators of music in the earlier days
of the century - mostly unnoticed by the concert-going public. He did not live to see his reputation
soar, but many now consider him the greatest force of all time in American music. His evocative
three-part tone-poem Three Places in New England is one of his most frequently recorded works.

The same US state is also the subject of William Schuman's otherwise very different New England Triptych,
which is on the more benign side between impressionism and neo-classicism. Schuman later turned towards
dodecaphonic and abstract music, but this pictorial trilogy has remained one of his better-known works.

Like Schuman, Walter Piston (born: Pistone, of Italian background) was an influential teacher and music
administrator, his three books on Composition, Harmony and Counterpoint are still widely used.
His own music, too, is mostly abstract and neo-classical, but the ballet The Incredible Flutist, presented here
in the popular concert suite form, is both very descriptive and extremely colorful and direct.

Charles (Tomlinson) Griffes led a short and tragic life, but the relatively few works he's left behind have
continued to make an impression. His short but sweet, almost pointilistic The White Peacock is included here.

Finally, we have Alan Hovhaness again - this time represented by his most popular and enduring work,
the Symphony No.2 ("Mysterious Mountain").



Music by Walter Piston, William Schuman, Charles Edward Ives, Alan Hovhaness
Played by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Andrew Litton

"Irresistible Americana, realised with consummate skill and breathtaking sonics.

A dazzling calling-card for the formidable technical and interpretative skills of the Litton/ Dallas Symphony partnership,
featuring five American masters at their most approachable; an ideal introduction for anyone yet to dip a toe into the
vast range of repertoire beyond Gershwin, Copland and Barber.

We kick off in exhilarating style with William Schuman's marvellous New England Triptych of 1956. Taking its cue from
hymn tunes by Schuman's countryman William Billings (1746-1800), the work comprises two bustling tableaux framing
a central meditation ('When Jesus wept') of exalted beauty and compassion. Next comes Charles Griffes's gorgeous
The White Peacock — a transatlantic cousin, if you will, to Debussy's Prelude d'apres-midi d'un faune. The first of
Ives's Three Places in New England prompts my sole misgiving of any note: for all the fastidious refinement on show,
Litton's direction remains oddly earthbound and short on atmosphere. Otherwise, all goes swimmingly, the giddy,
increasingly hilarious din of the central Putnam's Camp' dashingly well conveyed.

No grumbles, either, about Litton's cleanlimbed, purposeful way with Alan Hovhaness's Mysterious Mountain
(his Second Symphony, composed in 1955 for Stokowski and the Houston Symphony, and first recorded by
Reiner in Chicago three years later — RCA, 9/95). I've always had a soft spot for this serene, yet agreeably sturdy score —
and so, too, does Litton by the sound of it. Lastly, there's the crowd-pleasing concert suite that Walter Piston fashioned
from his 1938 ballet score, The Incredible Flutist. It's a delectably tuneful and witty confection, crammed with indelible
invention (who could fail to be seduced by the languid charms of the 'Tango of the Merchant's Daughters' or `Siciliana'?).
Rest assured, Litton and his terrific band do Piston absolutely proud.

A final word about the recording. The glorious acoustic of Dallas's Eugene McDermott Hall lends an enticing glow to a
sound picture of bewitching tonal naturalness and stunning range (bass-drum fanciers will have a field-day in both
outer movements of the Schuman). A classy collection indeed."
Gramophone


From left to right: Charles Ives, Walter Piston, William Schuman

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No.25

John Antill's ballet Corroboree is an Australian classic, but far less known outside of the composer's home country.
It is a vivid, and at times wildly imaginative, depiction of an Aboriginal ceremony - the composer himself took part in this
event at Botany Bay. Almost inevitably, there's a strong Stravinsky influence in the piece, as in the programmatic
An Outback Overture, but in fact Antill mixes several very divergent elements into a strong, entertaining brew.



Music Composed by John Antill
Played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by James Judd

"Australian composer John Antill's 1946 ballet Corroboree has the reputation of being some kind of antipodean
Rite of Spring, though Antill apparently didn't know of Stravinsky's ballet when he wrote his. Based on notes taken
during an actual corroboree - an Aborigine ceremonial gathering - Antill attended in 1913, the work achieved
instant success, if only in its concert suite form.

Sir Eugene Goossens and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra gave the first performance of that suite in the year of
the ballet's composition, and there's a 1950 (when the complete ballet was first staged) recording by the same
forces available on ABC Classics. But readers may be familiar with Goossens's later account with the LSO on Everest.

Despite the many virtues of that disc, including the presence of Ginastera's fabulous ballet suites Panambi and Estancia,
this new recording by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under James Judd wins hands down. It's not just that it's
complete (seven movements as opposed to four); the energy and precision of the playing, captured in pristine digital
sound, propel the music into a realm far beyond the residue of mere "white 'Energy and precision propel fella's
Dreaming" still the music into a realm far present in the Goossens. The colourful score, which culminates in the
"white fella's Dreaming" frankly mind-blowing "Procession of the Totems and Closing Ceremony", has much of the
lurid primitivism of Revueltas's La noche de los Mayas, but without the kitsch (bullroarer aside); Antill's Outback Overture,
with which this disc opens, is by contrast a more conventional, if occasionally quirky, affair and more typical of the
omposer's output. It, too, receives an excellent performance."
Gramophone





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Whoa! It's hard to keep up with you. Deposit takes an hour and only allows 1 download every 2. Unless you have added still more in the last few minutes, thank you 25 times.
Thus far I am blown away by the very UN-Dutch lyricism of Diepenbrock (a composer I always avoided on account of his terrifying mustache) and the airy impressionist quality of D'Indy whose anti-Semitism rendered him low on my list. Suk however pretty much lives up to his name IMHO. 22 more to go!

I know, depositfiles puts rather rigid restrictions on donwload volumes. OTOH they're very relaible and don't delete links quickly, with constant download rates of 150k/s, they don't stutter or hiccup (Rapidhare!) and there's no need to splice uploads into several links (Mediafire!). :)


No.26

American Don Ray (1925-2005) was one of those contemporary composers who clearly thought that the atonality train
had come to a stop, with no further station to go. Thus, he (with a background in TV scoring!) chose an idiom that roughly
corresponds to the Americana of Copland and Thomson (with a bit of Robert Ward), safely tonal,
very lively and melodious.

There are no great revelations in the Homestead Dances or the Suite (No.1) from Family Portraits,
but if you're looking for folk-inspired US music with catchy tunes, look no further!



Music Composed by Don Ray
Played by The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Derek Gleeson

"Don Ray joined CBS in 1956 as a staff composer–his credits include work on such hits as The Twilight Zone and
Hawaii Five-O. Obviously the hallmark of this sort of work is versatility, and that is exactly what this disc of concert
pieces shows. Both works revel in the sort of rural Americana popularized by Copland and Virgil Thomson, though
without the Stravinskian element of the former, or the French sophistication of the latter. Ray’s music is direct,
tuneful, sometimes a little stiffly phrased, and, well, “commercial”, but certainly appealing if this style is your cup of tea.
Certainly as a composer Ray is far more interesting than, say, Karl Jenkins (of Diamond Music fame).

Homestead Dances, for oboes and strings, is a suite of dances reminiscent of the old folks gatherings of the
composer’s youth. It’s a substantial piece, about three quarters of an hour long, in nine movements. Threading
through the work are three waltzes that chart the three stages of life, from youth to maturity to old age.
It’s delightful. Family Portrait Suite No. 1, for full orchestra, once again recalls Thomson’s musical “portraits”.
Ray offers six brief, sharply contrasted vignettes, covering a broad range styles and colors, with popular dance
idioms clearly in evidence. The performances are all very satisfying–fresh and lively as the music requires–and the
engineering is outstanding. A very pleasant and fun release."
Classics Today (9/10)



Source: Albany CD
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR) DDD Stereo
File Size: 141 MB

Download Link (re-up, fixed) - https://mega.co.nz/#!A0ciXIqA!Sl9vMz0VTR55nO_501EUqyA4HxFo6s2vEL38PK3 8wWI

Enjoy! Don't share! :)

Nos. 27 & 28

Let's return to Communist China for more orchestral works, some of which have a distinctly patriotic bend. ;)

The first album, "Ode to the Red Flag", consists of pieces by different composers who are/were well-known
in post-1949 China, and who were seeking to describe their ideological or social convictions in musical terms.
As such, Lu Qi-Ming's Ode to the Red Flag and Chu Wei's Monument to the People's Heroes, are strongly
patriotic pieces, characterized by grand rhetorical gestures within a post-romantic idiom, direct in expression and
often declamatory. The rest of the works include Zhu Jian-Er's non-programmatic, Prokofiev-ian Festival Overture,
shorter orchestral dances, and some actual pieces of film music like He Lu-Ding's Evening Party. In fact, the
work that opens this album, Nie Er's Chinese National Anthem, began its life as a piece of film music
("The March of the Volunteers"). These are all works that have remained popular classics even in post-Mao times.

The second album features three more extended works, opening with Liu Dun-Man's Piano Concerto "The Mountain Forest".
It's quasi-programmatic, the language kind of Rachmaninov-meets-Gershwin. It's certainly an improvement on the vastly
popular "Yellow River Concerto" ;). Wang Xi-Lin suffered during the Cultural Revolution - he was sent to the countryside for
re-education, among other unpleasant experiences. His symphonic suite Yunnan Scenes, while very conservative in style (think
Chinese Tchaikovsky), is extremely color- and tuneful. The CD ends with another patriotic item, the tone poem
The Legend of the Yellow Crane.



Music by Nie Er, Lu Xi-Ming, Zhu Jian-Er, He Lu-Ding, Chu Wei, Liu Dun-Man, Wang Xi-Lin, Shi Yong-Kang, etc.
Played by The Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Conducted by Tsung Yeh

"Nie Er's (1912-1935) ancestors were from Yuxi, Yunnan, in southwest China. He was born in Kunming, Yunnan. From an early age Nie Er
displayed an interest in music. From 1918 he studied at the Kunming Normal School's Associated Primary School.
In his spare time, he learnt to play traditional instruments such as the dizi, erhu, sanxian, and yueqin, and became the
conductor of the school's Children's Orchestra. In 1922 he entered the Private Qiushi Primary School (Senior Section), and in 1925 entered
Yunnan Provincial Number One Combined Middle School.

In 1927 Nie Er graduated from Yunnan Provincial Number One Combined Middle School, and entered Yunnan Provincial Number
One Normal School. At school, he participated in the Book Club, and organised the "Nine-Nine Music Society", which performed
within the school and outside. During this time, he learnt to play the violin and the piano.

In June 1931, Nie Er entered the "Mingyue Musical Drama Society" as a violinist. In July 1932 he published A Short Treatise
on Chinese Song and Dance, in which he criticised the Drama Society's president, Li Jinhui, as a result of which he
was forced to leave the society. Prior to joining the Lianhua Film Studio on November 1932, he took part in shaping the
Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe. He later joined the musical group of the "Friends of the Soviet Union Society".
He also organised the "Chinese Contemporary Music Research Group", which participated in the Leftist Dramatist's Union.
In 1933, Nie Er joined the Communist Party of China.

In April 1934, Nie Er joined the Baak Doi record company and managed the musical section. In the same year he founded the
Path� National Orchestra. This was a prolific year for Nie Er in terms of musical output. In January 1935 Nie Er became the
director of the musical department of Lianhua Number Two Studio.

In April 1935, Nie Er went to Japan to meet his elder brother in Tokyo. There, he composed the March of the Volunteers,
which would soon become the national anthem of China."


Left to right: Nie Er, Wang Xilin, Zhu Jianer

Source: Hugo CDs (my rips!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Sizes: 120 / 154 MB

Ode to Red Flag (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbsAkTsXZ8)
A performance of "Ode to the Red Flag" in Austria.

Ode to the Red Flag (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!5IATQLST!ZJi6OjCmlfzKqgWScJbJ0gByO_d_75THrcd5cC3 IKcg
The Legend of the Yellow Crane (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!ZZQiHQZa!JNMV9AXf-PTPuc-NOGsxtH9Nqh0HeUkS7mkQCWL5ImI

Enjoy! Don't share! :)

This is an amazing treasure trove of stuff - but like other people have said, the slowness (but realiability) of depositfiles means it takes a long while to catch up (I've got 20 in my queue as it is!) - so do you think paying for an account with them is worthwhile?

Wow, this is a GREAT thread. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful music, wimpel!

This is an amazing treasure trove of stuff - but like other people have said, the slowness (but realiability) of depositfiles means it takes a long while to catch up (I've got 20 in my queue as it is!) - so do you think paying for an account with them is worthwhile?

Not sure. I know at least one other film music blog, a vast one from Russia, that exclsuively uses depositfiles for downloads. If you're a member of that it might be worth your while.

Maybe I'll give freakshare.com a try later today. Does anybody know whether the links stay on there long?

.

No.29

Elinor Remick Warren was a neo-Romantic American composer of the 1930s and 40s whose works have only
just been resurrected from oblivion, although initially in her career she enjoyed some success. The works on this
album, all program music except the late, one-movement Symphony, are very well made and entertaining.
If you like e.g. Barber or Hanson or Delius, you'll love her music!



Music Composed by Elinor Remick Warren
Played by the Royal Scottish National & BBC Concert Orchestras
Conducted by George Vass & Martin Yates

"Why do we not know more about the American composer Elinor Remick Warren? Lewis Foreman’s notes recount her life-story in extenso.
However do also have a look at Pamela Blevin’s even more detailed major article elsewhere on this site. This Los Angeles born and based
composer studied for an intensive three month period with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1959. A number of her works found their way on
to the Cambria label including the superb oratorio The Legend of King Arthur excerpted on this disc and given its UK premiere in 1995 by
Richard Hickox at the Goucester Three Choirs Festival . Her orchestral songs can also be found on Cambria. The Crystal Lake is a warm,
romantic Delian piece inspired by encountering a lake of this name during a 1940s holiday in the High Sierras. The Scherzo has an ever so
slightly malevolent elfin bounce. This is counterweighted by a fine noble melody for the strings with the mellifluous mercuriality of Smetana’s Vltava.

The Fountain is just as serene as The Crystal Lake which despite a slight Hollywood patina is redolent of the noblest extension in
Vaughan Williams’ Prelude to The 49th Parallel. Warren’s worklist is overshadowed by two works of majestic proportions and forces:
The Legend of King Arthur and the Requiem. From the former we get to hear the fine orchestral Intermezzo which is delightful,
swoons lavishly in a sort of hybrid of Delian poetry and, just occasionally, the swooping romance of a Waxman film score. After this comes
King Arthur’s Farewell superbly sung by Roderick Williams. Here the score is again indebted pleasingly to Delius’s Sea-Drift and
Once I Passed Through a Populous City. The contour of the melody occasionally veered towards Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha a little
too close for comfort. The text is given in the booklet in full though the singer’s diction is such that you will not need it.
Along the Western Shore is a three movement orchestral suite: (i) Dark Hills; (ii) Nocturne; (iii) Sea Rhapsody. The Dark Hills are
plagued with desperately oppressive dark clouds that obliterate the lighter qualities of life. After such angst the Nocturne
comes as a typically Delian relaxation out of the same contented compartment as The Crystal Lake and The Fountain.

The Sea Rhapsody is a tempestuous affair and in it one can perhaps hear the roots of other such essays especially the comber-
dashing emotional turbulence of Flagello’s Sea Cliffs. The compact Symphony subsumes into its fabric three sections in an idiom
which is passionate, at times Baxian, at times noble in the manner of Elgar and yet reflects open-air Americana.

The last work is the four episode Suite for Orchestra. Its movements are: (i) Black Cloud Horses; (ii) Cloud Peaks; (iii) Scherzino:
Ballet of the Midsummer Sky; (iv) Pageant across the Sky. This is akin in its unsettled emotional upheavals to the outer movements
of Along the Western Shore. Its inspiration lies in the family’s five hundred acre ranch in the High Sierras - the cloudscapes set
against the Delian Heights, the storms and calm sunny days. There were several moments when it had me thinking of Delius’s
Song of the High Hills. The Berlioz-like impish capering of the third movement recalled the Scherzino in tr. 2. Pageant Across the Sky
is the finale. It has a conspiratorial nocturnal air to it at first but rises to stirring heights worthy of the mountain landscape.

This is irresistible stuff: lavishly driven by a neo-romantic lyrical impulse which should rapidly find an enthusiastic audience for more
from this source and new complete recordings of The Requiem and The Legend of King Arthur."
Music Web





Source: Dutton Epoch CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 175 MB

Download Link (new re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!n4RyQCqR!rPM7_5I8ANkzP_cq82AOl_MAfb7F_Mu6JwfLPtf fnak

Enjoy! Don't share! :)

No.30

French composer Augusta Holm�s (1847-1903) shared the fate of many an aspiring woman composer in the latter half of the
19th century, namely that she wasn't allowed to study piano and composition at a prestigious university, as only men were
allowed in there. She first took private lessons but ultimately studied with C�sar Franck, then the leading French composer.
The body of her work is small but distinguished, and she enjoyed her greatest success with the opera The Black Mountain.
She composed several tone poems, often with a political background, of which Irlande, Androm�de and Pologne are featured
in this collection, together with the Overture for a Comedy and an interlude from La Nuit et l'Amour.



Music Composed by Augusta Holm�s
Played by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Conducted by Samuel Friedman & Patrick Davin

"Even if Augusta Holmes has left no great mark on the history of music in general, in the ranks of women musicians
she occupies an honoured place. Born in 1847 of Irish parents (though it was rumoured that Alfred de Vigny, her godfather,
was her real father) but living all her life in Paris, she was an excellent pianist and gifted singer: her beauty turned
the heads of many, including Saint-Sa�ns, her teacher C�sar Franck�whose emotional involvement with her is reflected
in his Piano Quintet�and famous painters and poets who frequented her salon (she bore Catulle Mend�s several children).
Many obstacles, however, were put in her way as a composer, where, unlike many of her female contemporaries, she was
drawn to the larger forms�symphonic and operatic�and despite anti-feminist prejudice enjoyed some signal successes,
such as with a Triumphal ode given with 1,200 performers at the 1889 Paris Exhibition.

All the works on this disc date from the 1880s except the unpublished Ouveriure pour tine com�die (which nevertheless
seems to have been performed) from the previous decade. That was before she began studying with Franck; and despite
the skilful and colourful scoring (particularly in the delicate opening), there are evident weaknesses in construction
and in the variable quality of the material. A notable advance is heard in the three symphonic poems of 1882-3.
There is nothing in the least 'feminine' (if one may use that word in these politically correct times) about the challenge
flung out by the brass at the start of Androm�de or the heroically energetic thrust that follows it� which seem to
depict Perseus rather than the unhappy legendary heroine of the title, who is represented musically, in broad lyrical
phrases, only in the closing section of the work. Its one weakness is an over-use of the Franckian trick of repeating
short phrases successively a tone higher each time.

The same device is still more in evidence in Mande, a fervent plea for political freedom, a cause with
which she was much associated (her father was a noted Fenian). It begins, in original fashion, with a long
melancholy clarinet solo: there is some local colour, with a hearty jig, but most striking is Holmes's ability to
spin long, lyrical lines: it culminates in a menacing uprising and a triumphant quotation of Let Erin remember.
Pologne, after sections in national rhythms, contains a graphic battle scene (or is it, as suggested in the
excellent note, a musical representation of a picture, The Warsaw massacres?) and ends in a mood of lofty
aspiration. One can scarcely complain if an interlude entitled "La nuit et l'amour" from a grandiose symphonic
ode is soupily romantic.

On the whole, Holmes's slightly younger contemporary Dame Ethel Smyth was not far out, if a trifle
ungenerous, in describing her as "evidently not among the giants, but ... knew how to cut a gem".
The Rhineland-Pfalz orchestra does her proud, with wholeheartedly committed playing, and the recording,
made by the S�dwestfunk, is first-rate."
Gramophone



Source: Marco Polo CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 118 MB

Download Link (re-upped by Herr Salat) - https://mega.co.nz/#!5U0HnArA!BkbjBReXRsVkQEvO5ljsmT8cOx5yUFwCQMinrPH tII8

Enjoy! Don't share! :)



---------- Post added at 10:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 AM ----------




No.31

This album was suggested to me by our member dj�houty, so thanks to him for the
idea & of course the music, of which I'm posting the link he sent me.

Ahmad Pejan (*1937) is an Iranian composer who has been living in American exile
since the revolution in his home country in 1979. He has since been composing concert
works as well music for documentary features. Nagahan Rastkhiz (Resurrection), the epic
choral tone poem featured here, is a powerful, dynamic work in a style not far from that
of Carl Orff in his Carmina Burana.



Music Composed by Ahmad Pejan
Played by the Russian National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Conducted by Sergey Skripka

"Sudden Resurrection": Composed by Ahmad Pejman & Conducted by Sergey Skripka on Rumi Poetry - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARmMn5hJaHM)
A youtube link to the first track of the album

Format: mp3, 128k/s (CBR), Stereo (by dj�houty)
File Size: 58 MB

Re-up by dj�houty - https://mega.co.nz/#!fo40xboC!TB9wOQWw1AFlvFLLEL0Ld1YlG2ImeIncKPLiwhh ZsCw

Enjoy! Don't share! :)

This thread is getting better and better!
Thanks to the original and very creative uploaders for these precious rarities!

Not sure. I know at least one other film music blog, a vast one from Russia, that exclsuively uses depositfiles for downloads. If you're a member of that it might be worth your while.

Maybe I'll give freakshare.com a try later today. Does anybody know whether the links stay on there long?

Thanks again. It's really amazing that you collect orchestral music from all different countries. Although I consider myself as a big music fan (in classical style), many of the composers you posted here I never heard of.

I use mediafire for two years, no problems. But depositfile is not too bad, as long as you don't post them as "limited time release":-)

Sorry can't use freakshare. Files just don't upload. :(



No.32

Of all the subjects depicted in program music over the last century and a half certainly a major part
has been inspired by the sea: its lyricism as much as its unrelenting and uncontrollable power. Evidence
is provided by many recordings, of which this is one of the more intriguing. It features the "No.1"
classic of all sea-inspired musical works, Debussy's La Mer, alongside the relatively obscure Ocean Suite
by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis. The latter is represented by another suite, Swan Flight, and
the album wraps up with Jean Sibelius's popular The Swan of Tuonela. An intriguing collection
indeed, as Tormis's music is strikingly vivid and brilliantly lucid. No introduction is needed for the other two.



Music by Veljo Tormis, Claude Debussy & Jean Sibelius
Played by the Estonian-Finnish (now: Nordic) Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Anu Tali

"This disc contains serious music-making of a very high order. The EFSO is a magnificent band, Tali directs the
music with passionate commitment and a strong sense of purpose, and it’s all captured in a very fine recording,
making excellent use of the natural ambience of the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallin.

This is a beautifully executed disc, but also beautifully planned, for the style of the unfamiliar Tormis seems to owe a
great deal to both Debussy and Sibelius. All the pieces begin softly in the depths, and, uncannily, Swan Flight even
commences with the little phrase, with its rising major second to a ‘scotch snap’ rhythm, which we have just heard
as one of the crucial motifs in the Debussy.

Understandably, the issue focuses on the music of the Estonian composer, even though La Mer is of course the best-known
work here. Tormis’s Ocean is a suite of incidental music that he wrote for a play by Alexandr Stein back in 1961.
As befits music for the stage, it is sharply characterised and brilliantly, if fairly simply, orchestrated. It is full of
memorable musical images, framed by stormy music depicting the sea, and passing through a multitude of moods,
from the violence of Anger, through the Sibelian shimmer of Snowstorm, and taking in two delightful and intoxicating waltzes.

Swan Flight, a suite taken from Tormis’s music for the opera Luigelend, is a rather later and texturally more complex piece.
I mentioned the link with La Mer above; the real link, though, is with Sir�nes from Debussy’s Nocturnes, for we have
here a wordless female choir (the excellent choir isn’t clearly credited), suggesting the calls of the swans, around whose
story the opera revolves. This is wonderfully evocative music, subtler than Ocean, though clearly from the same stable,
and full of the same vivid touches of instrumentation and melodic invention. Not earth-shatteringly original music perhaps,
but highly individual and superbly fashioned.

Naturally, it is the Debussy that we must turn to in order to get an idea of how good, on an ‘international’ scale, these
performers really are. And the answer turns out to be very good indeed. This is a really terrific version of La Mer, and I do
hope sales of the CD don’t suffer because they, rather bravely, haven’t ‘headlined’ this, the best-known piece. Tali has a
wonderful sense of the pace of the music, keeping it moving forward, yet setting tempi that allow the players to shape
the phrases with the sort of loving care they need. I’ve rarely heard a more beautifully played account, and for me the
real eye- (or rather ear-) opener was the middle movement Jeux de Vagues (Games of waves), which has never
had a greater sense of wild, glittering abandon.

Tali also has a fine sense of balance (helped of course by the Finlandia engineers); all the subtleties of orchestration
come out, barely a detail is lost, yet I don’t feel any sense of spot-lighting. Brass and percussion blaze and crash
as they should, without overwhelming the rest.

The final item is the wonderful Swan of Tuonela of Sibelius, one of his Lemmink�inen tone-poems. This gets
a most sensitive performance, though I wouldn’t say Pirjo Lepp�nen, who plays the demanding cor anglais solo,
is the most sweet-toned exponent of the instrument. On the other hand, this is deeply-felt playing, and the slight
rawness of tone adds a further poignancy to the expression in places.

This is a disc to be treasured, and I can’t wait to hear more from the brilliant combination of Tali and the EFSO."
Music Web





Source: Finlandia CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 148 MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!N9l3yIhD!CgLOuQsVoe32UwEZu-un_wU_fx0-v8eFj684qq2PY-M

Enjoy! Don't share! :)




---------- Post added at 12:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 PM ----------


Thanks again. It's really amazing that you collect orchestral music from all different countries. Although I consider myself as a big music fan (in classical style), many of the composers you posted here I never heard of.

I use mediafire for two years, no problems. But depositfile is not too bad, as long as you don't post them as "limited time release":-)

I read somewhere that mediafire will often delete files without notice. AFAICS depositfiles keeps them "forever". ;)

Wimpel... I definitely LOVE your thread !!!

Glad you enjoyed and shared Ahmad Pejman's album. ; )
I hope others will enjoy it too.

I'll think about other works that could be shared in this thread and PM you if I find some.

No.33

Louis Vierne and Ernest Chausson were both highly respected composers of the French romantic school, but their
music still isn't to be found as often as one would like in the concert hall. Thankfully, most rediscoveries of classical
composers these days take place on albums anyway, at least at first. Vierne is best known for his organ music -
in fact, his 6 organ symphonies are cornerstones of the instrument's repertoire. His orchestral works have enjoyed a far lower
profile, although, on evidence of Les Djinns, �ros and Psych� recorded here, they most definitely invite
rediscovery. Ernest Chausson's wonderfully sumptuous, intoxicating Po�me de l'Amour et de la Mer OTOH
is a recognized masterpiece routinely performed with a mezzo-soprano, but sung by a tenor (as in the other works) here.
Great music, this.



Music Composed by Louis Vierne and Ernest Chausson
Played by The Queensland Orchestra
With Steve Davislim (tenor)
Conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire

"Vierne’s orchestral songs are disc premieres—and therefore self-commending—while male voice traversals of Chausson’s
Po�me de l’amour et de la mer have been few and far between. One thinks back to a 1977 recital by baritone Bruno Laplante
(Calliope 6860) and ahead to a 2007 collection from baritone Jean-Fran�ois Lapointe (Analekta 29924), both of whom
essayed it with piano accompaniment. That leaves the venerable G�rard Souzay’s classic account, with Edgard Doneux
leading the Belgian Radio/TV Chamber Orchestra (Testament 1208). As Jacques Tchamkerten’s informative annotations
tell, “These days Po�me de l’amour et de la mer is usually performed by female singers, but it was written for a tenor
voice, as the printed score expressly states.” Perhaps. My ancient, undated, pre-public domain Badoux vocal score
states only “pour une voix (�lev�e) et orchestre,” while The New Grove’ s works list remains noncommittal.
The piano transcription, made in 1896, three years before the orchestral version, is Chausson’s. Tchamkerten’s
conclusion—“This recording therefore restores the original version as the composer intended”—is questionable and
beside the point. At issue is expressive power. And in that young Australian tenor Steve Davislim is certainly not lacking,
bringing a measured pathos to Chausson’s representation of a seaside romance gone flat—the essentially light,
bright voice evincing more darkly hued reserves for the shuddering realization of loss, but still the projection of a young adult,
where Souzay’s caressing baritone and avuncular mien (accidents of circumstance) are more suggestive of Humbert Humbert.

The four Vierne songs are evenly divided between horror-show theatrics laid on in primary colors—whelming swarms
of evil spirits in Les djinns , the insistent visitor revealed at last as Death in Ballade du d�sesp�r� —and the coy erotic
charms suggested by their titles, Eros and Psych� . Where Franck’s Les djinns , for piano and orchestra, for instance,
excuses him from facing Victor Hugo’s verse while providing chills and thrills aplenty, and Faur�’s choral setting affords
deftly tongue-in-cheek excitement, Vierne takes it all quite seriously, skirting bathos in lurid depiction. The hovering
tremulousness of Eros and Psych� , delicately spun out of the billowing chromatic swells of Franck’s Psych� ballet,
leaves one in no doubt how precious close feminine companionship was to Vierne. Through them all, his post-Romantic
lushness takes on a near-expressionist intensity—not for nothing the album title, “Turbulent Heart.” Complementing
so much affetuoso orchestral writing, Melba’s surround affords a richly detailed, immediately balanced aural repletion,
with Davislim (contrary to the usual highlighting), never covered but, well integrated with the superb Queensland Orchestra,
led with aplomb by Guillaume Tourniaire. Melba’s production values are luxurious, with Tchamkerten’s annotations,
biographies of Davislim and Tourniaire, a listing of the Queensland Orchestra personnel, and the poems in French,
English, and German, on heavy, colorfully set-off stock, in eye-welcoming 11-point type, making a fat 99 page booklet,
pasted into the cardboard sleeve—a palpable harbinger of the sumptuousness on disc. Splendid!
Fanfare





Source: Melba CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 163 MB (incl. booklet)

Download link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!xdB1gD4Z!eHkBF3OWQYkNAmR_t4fCbR8JdNlXm3SmLaPA_d4 Tl4A

Enjoy! Don't share! :)

There have been a few very quick deletions on Mediafire this last week - whereas I've not come across any recent ones on Depositfiles - not to say that they won't at some point.

No.34

With more than 500 compositions to his credit, Leo Sowerby was one of America's most prolific 20th century composers.
He was also an influential teacher (his students included Gail Kubik and Ned Rorem) and won a Pulitzer Prize for his cantata
Canticle of the Sun in 1946 - still, he's hardly known outside of the US. This album features some of his orchestral tone
poems: Prairie, Comes Autumn Time and the multi-movement From the Northland. The music is lyrical
and neo-Romantic.



Music Composed by Leo Sowerby
Played by The Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Paul Freeman

"Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) is an all but forgotten American composer who was overshadowed by
his contemporaries, Copland, Hanson, Harris, Barber and others. Yet, his career began with a meteoric rise:
when he was only twenty-one the Chicago Symphony Orchestra devoted an entire concert to his music!
Works on the program included the unlikely duo of his Cello Concerto and The Irish Washerwoman.

Most of his 550 compositions were liturgical – he was organist and choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Cathedral in
Chicago for many years – but he did produce twenty-nine orchestral scores, including five symphonies.
His music is tonal and colorful, at times containing echoes of Respighi – a sort of Americanized Respighi –
because of its sparkling orchestration and moments of what one might describe as exotic Americana. Theme
in Yellow is probably the most substantial work here. Subtitled, "Poem for Orchestra after Carl Sandburg"
(as is Prairie), the work here enjoys its premi�re recording. It is light in character, less serious than the iffy
but once-popular Prairie, and solidly-crafted.

From the Northland is subtitled "Impressions of the Lake Superior Country" and has four titled sections:
Forest Voices, Cascades, Burnt Rock Pool, and The Shining Big-Sea Water. Each is quite atmospheric and
imaginatively orchestrated, and the succession of movements presents one effective contrast after another.
Cascades, for example, is colorful and lively, gossamer and delicate in its subtle instrumentation and playfully
mysterious mood, creating quite a different sound world from that of the glacially-paced and autumnal Forest
Voices. Speaking of things supposedly autumnal, the opening work, Comes Autumn Time, does not actually
bring that season to mind: this is a colorful and light work that could have been named Springtime. It was also
once a quite popular work, with Monteux, Walter, Stokowski, Damrosch, Rosbaud and others leading
performances of it.

Paul Freeman and the Czech National players turn in fine work here and Cedille offers vivid sound and informative
notes. If American music by a master craftsman from the first half of the 20th century appeals to you, then
you will find this disc a most interesting discovery. "
Classical Net



Source: Cedille CD
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 143 MB (incl. booklet)

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!oltUwYIJ!YMtvTRbMYwL6ingQDQ4vlms36OdCsY1kq87ZogW lvJs

Enjoy! - Don't share! :)

WOW what a great thread!
thanks wimpel69, I'm sure we'll learn quite a lot with these great shares!

You're welcome. Again, suggestions and requests are welcome, too! :D



No.35

This is one of the great works of symphonic program music. Period.
This is its greatest recording. Period. It's also the only complete one.
You must have it. Period. :)

Charles Koechlin's vast, sprawling multi-movement tone poem The Jungle Book
was composed in fits and starts over several decades(!), but the result is a unique, mesmerizing
panoply of orchestral (and vocal) elements that come together in a wildly imgainative and
sweeping musical account of the Kipling classic. Koechlin stuructured the symphonic cycle
in a manner so that its individual parts may also be performed independently, which, in fact,
has become a standard (if at all) because of the length and logitistic demands of the work. Certainly,
the single most often performed piece is Les Bandar-Log. Here, the great David Zinman brings
it all together in a wondferful performance for the ages.

The composer, Charles Koechlin, is one of the more mysterious and erratic in 20th century
music. It has only been in the past two decades that more and more recordings of his
several unique works (including a "Seven Stars Symphony" inspired by some of the
classic movie stars that Koechlin, a rabid cinemaniac, adored) have turned up, some only
very briefly. Not one of them has ever become a standard in the concert repertoire, yet many
know the name of the composer, but not his works. Enjoy!



Music Composed by Charles Koechlin
Played by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
With Iris Vermillion (mezzo-soprano)
Conducted by David Zinman

1. Three Poems, Op.18: 1. Seal Lullaby - Iris Vermillion/Johan Botha/Ralf Lukas
2. Three Poems, Op.18: 2. Night-Song in the Jungle - Iris Vermillion/Johan Botha/Ralf Lukas
3. Three Poems, Op.18: 3. Song of Kala Nag - Iris Vermillion/Johan Botha/Ralf Lukas
4. The Spring Running, Op.95: Spring in the Forest
5. The Spring Running, Op.95: Mowgli
6. The Spring Running, Op.95: The Running
7. The Spring Running, Op.95: Night
8. The Meditation of Purun Bhagat, Op.159
9. The Law of the Jungle, Op.175
10. Les Bandar-log, Op.176

"This recording is the World Premiere of Charles Koechlin's Jungle Book and received the Orchestral Gramophone Award
and was, memorably, accepted by the son of the composer. Charles Koechlin loved Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
and set different parts of the book to music at various points in his career. The first of these - The Three Poems -
bear the titles: Seal Lullaby, Night Song in the Jungle and Song of Kala Nag, with texts from The Jungle Book.
The music, scored during 1904 - 14, is exotic and evocative. The lullaby mimics the gently lapping of waves as the soprano
and chorus spin a soothing tapestry of sound. The Night-Song in the Jungle had a cadence that suggests movement
(sung by the soprano, tenor, baritone and chorus) and is a song of well-wishing to the animals of the night.
The Song of Kala Nag is a lament of an elephant that has been tamed for his old life in the jungle, sung by the tenor.
The poem describes a night in the year when all of the elephants gather to dance together and, rather than being somber,
the music is triumphant as the elephant recounts his past freedom and vows to have it again.

The Spring Running was written during 1925 - 27 and has four sections: Spring in the Forest, Mowgli, The Running and Night.
These are atmospheric pictures of the final part of Kipling's book where Mowgli leaves the jungle for the world of humans.
The series of tone poems relate how Mowgli is taught the laws of the jungle by the tiger Bagheera and the bear Baloo.
The Mowgli section is particularly descriptive of a young man discovering the jungle and is beautifully scored to describe
the awe of the unfamiliar and The Running beautifully describes life in the jungle.

The Meditiation of Purun Bhagat was longer in the writing having been attempted from 1903 and 1923 and finally
completed in 1936. This tone poem describes Purun Bhagat who was a powerful politician and becomes a pilgrim and
saves a village from destruction. It is an atmospheric piece the gradually builds from a long, meditative melody to a
fortissimo climax, then returns to the serenity that began the movement.

The last pieces, The Law of the Jungle and Les Bandar-log, were written together. The Law of the Jungle is the
reciting of the laws by Baloo the bear and sounds like a sing-song pronouncing of the laws, each capped by a gong. L
es Bandaar-log are a group of noisy monkeys that live atop the trees and are disliked by the other jungle residents
as being loudmouthed. The final tone poem begins quietly, as if the sun is rising over the jungle. After this quiet
introduction, the monkeys are described with the use of jagged rhythms that develop into contrasting melodies.

This is very expressive music that beautifully conveys the atmosphere of Kipling's Jungle Book. The performance
by the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is beautifully played and certainly a labor of love for David Zinman.
The recording is nicely balanced and captures each nuance of this expressive music."





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No.36

Finnish composer Uuno Klami's Karelian Rhapsody, which opens this album of his three most popular works,
was a pretty big hit in his home country when it came out. His programme music is delicately wrought, a testament to
the craft he picked up in his studies with Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt. Although the title of the rhapsody
and that of the Kalevala Suite would suggest the inclusion of folkloristic Finnish material, in fact Klami's influences
were primarily European.



Music Composed by Uuno Klami
Played by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Petri Sakari

"While the world of pre-Sibelius Finnish music is thinly populated with composers -- Karajan [???], the only Finnish composer
before Sibelius of note, stopped after hearing Sibelius' music -- the world of post-Sibelius Finnish music is densely populated
with composers. In addition to Melartin, Madetoja, and Merikanto, there was Uuno Klami, the subject of this 1993 Chandos
disc with Petri Sakari leading the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. While in terms of sound, Klami was quite far from Sibelius --
there are few grinding ostinatos, fewer pounding rhythms, and fewer still gnarly forms and nary a gnomic harmony --
in terms of subject matter, the two were similar to the point of plagiarism -- Sibelius wrote a Karelia Suite and a
Kalevala Symphony while several decades later Klami wrote a Karelian Rhapsody and a Kalevala Suite. Klami's pieces
here were among his most popular in his lifetime, and they are still his most immediately appealing today. Melodic, direct,
evocative, and colorful, Klami's music is in fact more immediately appealing than Sibelius' own music."



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No.37

John Ireland was a contemporary of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arnold Bax, and, as such, a second generation
"member" of the English Musical Renaissance, which began with Elgar, Stanford and Parry. He is less popular than RVW,
even than Bax, maybe because his music is a bit heavier-footed and less obviously "British". Nevertheless, there are
several substantial and entertaining works, and there's certainly a nice selection on offer here. The Lyrita album includes
Ireland's only film score, for the Ealing production The Overlanders, shot on location in Australia. Its story of the
plight of pioneers on the outback steppe allowed for a dramatic and varied score, and the concert suite conductor
Charles Mackerras extracted from the music (never available in the original film version) is powerful indeed. Also included are the oriental
tone poem Mai-Dun, the elegant London Overture, The Tritons and The Forgotten Rite.
As usual, Sir Adrian Boult's versions have never been bettered.



Music Composed by John Ireland
Played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

"Vintage Ireland from the legendary Boult Lyrita stable assembled from three of Boult's four Lyrita LPs devoted to Ireland,
this generous programme launches with the redblooded symphonic prelude Tritons (a student offering from 1899,
premiered two years later at an RCM concert under his teacher, Stanford). Boult and the LPO do not shirk the
melodrama and go on to lend equally dedicated advocacy to the magical 1913 prelude The Forgotten Rite and
glowering 1921 symphonic rhapsody Mai-Dun (albeit without eclipsing rosy memories of Barbirolli's inspirationally
intense mono recordings with the Halle).

For me, however, the stand-out track remains Boult's wonderfully spry and observant account of A London Overture (1936),
which is easily a match for Barbirolli's almost exactly contemporaneous LSO version for EMI. The 1942 Epic March, too,
glints with memorable defiance. The Julius Caesar diptych (fashioned by Ireland's pupil Geoffrey Bush from some fragmentary
incidental music for a 1942 BBC radio production) is less immediately gripping, but the five-movement suite compiled by
Charles Mackerras from Ireland's 1946 score for Ealing Studios' The Overlanders certainly has its moments, not least the
touching "Romance" (which plunders material from A Dazonlancl Suite of 1932) and infectiously jaunty outer portions
of the central "Intermezzo".

Considering some of these sessions took place as long ago as December 1965, the judiciously refurbished sound
still packs quite a punch: sample the impressively full-throated horns at the start of "Night Stampede"
(the last movement from The Overlanders). Altogether a very welcome reissue — and I gather a second
volume will not be long in following."
Gramophone





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No.38

It is not very often that an aspiring young composer not only cites a senior colleague best known for his film work as the
primary influence on his music (Jerry Goldsmith), but was actually mostly trained by film composers himself. Peter Boyer
is that rare animal, and although his own work has been almost exclusively in concert music, his teachers at the USC
included no other than Elmer Bernstein, David Raksin and Christopher Young - after earlier studies in NYC with John Corigliano.

Given these diverse influences it is hardly surprising that Boyer's own music is wildly eclectic, and mostly tonal. Yet his voice
is unmistakably contemporary, and just as unmistakably American. He acknowledges the influence of Goldsmith, going so
far as to quote from the famous Planet of the Apes film score in one of his works. His tone poems, suites and overtures
are brilliantly orchestrated and fluently crafted, demanding an utmost level of virtuosity from the orchestra - a virtuosity not
always present in these composer-sponsored LSO recordings for KOCH, which out of necessity must have been
glorified sight-readings. Still it is good to have this album from 2001, when Boyer was just 31 years old!



Music Composed and Conducted by Peter Boyer
Played by the London Symphony Orchestra

"American composer Peter Boyer (b. 1970) made a (musical) splash for himself with his symphonic poem Titanic,
which preceded the film by several years but offers in about 13 minutes what takes James Cameron three hours
and 10. It begins with a portrait of the hostile sea, characterizes the ship and passengers with music evocative of
the period (including “Alexander’s Rag Time Band”), hits the iceberg with the obligatory percussive crash, then
sinks to an ominous passacaglia punctuated by the strains of “Nearer My God to Thee”, which according to
legend was played by those now famous musicians who accompanied the vessel’s final moments. A ghostly
reminder of all of the previous tunes, simultaneously layered, makes a fitting coda both programmatically and musically.

The most impressive thing about this work is the manner in which Boyer has found musical analogs to the actual
events being depicted so as to give the piece a form and substance independent of its purely descriptive aspects,
a quality shared by all good program music. For example, the final passacaglia admirably conveys the inexorability
and terror of the ship sinking without the necessity for graphic instrumental explosions, downward scales, glissandos,
or other “cheap” effects. That’s something Boyer should keep in mind because the other works on this disc aren’t
wholly free of such things.

Consider for example the two overtures, Celebration and New Beginnings, occasional pieces of a deliberately popular cast.
Now none of Boyer’s music moves much beyond traditional harmony and melody, and he’s clearly learned a great deal
about orchestration from his teacher John Corigliano and from the film composers he professes to admire (Jerry Goldsmith
especially). But being “traditional” doesn’t mean that you have to be obvious, as in the final return of the Big Tune
at the end of New Beginnings (more than a hint of Goldsmith here–perhaps the lyrical central section of Capricorn
One’s overture, or a bit of The Blue Max), where the suspended cymbal rolls add a touch of cheesy glitz that the
music really doesn’t need. Rippling celesta passages, shimmering wind chimes, and decorating a lyrical tune with
glockenspiel and other bell sounds always makes an appropriate effect, but these devices also give the music a ready-made,
manufactured quality–a sonic sameness that rapidly palls. Anyway, that’s my two-cents’ worth.

This observation aside, it’s smooth sailing as far as the remaining works go. All three deal with the mythological subjects
near and dear to Boyer’s heart. The Phoenix does what its title implies: flies around, burns up, dies, and gets reborn.
It’s a marvelous musical subject and Boyer has captured its essence colorfully and concisely. Ghosts of Troy has something
of the starkness of Barber’s Medea ballet, its six short, linked movements also paying tribute to Goldsmith’s score to
Planet of the Apes (compare “The death of Patroclus” to Goldsmith’s cue “The Clothes Snatchers”). Three Olympians
(as in Greek gods, not sports figures) just might be the most impressive work here, both for the sonorous inventiveness
of its strings-only scoring, with “modernistic” and textural effects such as snap pizzicatos, harmonics, and glissandos
perfectly integrated into Boyer’s own tonal idiom, as well as for the distinction of its tunes, especially the lovely one
in the central movement depicting Aphrodite.

The performances under the composer’s own direction sound suitably confident, though I think a little more session
time would have given Boyer the opportunity to achieve additional precision in the 7/8 and 10/8 concluding sections
of New Beginnings, as well as to inject a touch more fleetness at that same point. Sonically the recording has great
transparency and presence, but a definite “studio” atmosphere, meaning a dryness that denies the bass maximum
amplitude and a lack of reverb that tends to make the trumpets sound a bit tinny. Boyer is, without question, a
serious talent and a composer to watch. At this early date it’s impossible to define his personal “style” with any
specificity, nor is it necessary. All we need to do now is sit back and enjoy, and the music on offer here certainly
invites you to do just that."
Classics Today





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No.39

Kevin Kaska (*1972) is a young American composer who, considering his age, has already had his music performed
by many international orchestras, and has built quite a body of work within a few years. In view of the present album,
which features several of his symphonic tone poems (such as Battle for Atlantis, Mount Vesuvius, The Lake Isle
of Innisfree, The Golden Falcon and Ocean of Forms), Kaska ought to be in pictures. He did work as an arranger
for John Williams and the Boston Pops, among many other commissions. He also orchestrated film
music for Hans Zimmer (whose "own" music Kaska roundly outclasses) and John Debney. His works are
sweeping, brilliantly orchestrated, tonal, accessible - the kind of music that you'll love if you like the epic fantasy scores
of Howard Shore. Everything about this album, including the booklet, are colorful - not profound perhaps,
but very, very entertaining.



Music Composed by Kevin Kaska
Played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
With the Winchester Cathedral Chamber Choir
Conducted by Allan Wilson

"American composer, arranger, record producer, and conductor, Kevin Kaska is one of America’s leading young musical talents.
His orchestral compositions, arrangements, and orchestrations have been played by over 50 symphony orchestras worldwide,
including John Williams and Keith Lockhart with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra
(five CDs), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (recorded on CD), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (recorded on CD), Maynard
Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau Band, Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the Seattle Philharmonic,
Port Angeles Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Berkshire Symphony, Cape Ann Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, New Mexico
Symphony, Austin Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Long Beach Symphony,
Modesto Symphony, Buffalo Symphony, Racine Symphony, Glens Falls Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, Symphony
Pro Musica, Orchestra X in Houston, Youngstown Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Cascade Symphony, Doctor's
Orchestra of Houston, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Bavarian Philharmonic, Bach Collegium of Munich, Puertro Rico Philharmonic,
Silicon Valley Symphony, Panama City Pops, and the Boston Metropolitan Orchestra.

This year Kevin Kaska was asked to write a big band composition entitled Ballroom Bounce that is currently playing in the movie
Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp, directed by Michael Mann. He also collaborated on Chicago Shake with Bruce Fowler,
Harry Garfield, and Don Nelson.

In 2008 Kevin Kaska was asked to score the music to the drama Jump! directed by Joshua Sinclair. The fim stars Patrick Swayze.
The DVD is available on Amazon.

Kevin Kaska is one of the few musicians to hold a Guiness Book of World Records. The World Harp Congress commissioned
Kaska for a work that was premiered with the largest harp ensemble in recorded history. Kaska conducted the concert of
232 harps in Amsterdam, July, 2008.

Film composer John Debney asked Kaska to collaborate on the score to the video game Lair (released August, 2007,
Kaska wrote additional music for the game). This score was recorded in London at Abbey Road Studios with a
90 piece orchestra. The soundtrack is available in iTunes.

Kevin Kaska's music has also been played by many classical radio stations nationwide including Classic King FM 98.1
Seattle, WUSF 89.7 FM South Florida, WMBR 88.1 Boston, WCRB 102.5 Boston, KFUO 99.1 St. Louis.
He also also been interviewed by these radio stations discussing his music.

Film composer John Debney asked Kaska to orchestrate his music into a 70 minute concert choral symphony
based on the themes he wrote for the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ (Academy Award nominated score).
The Passion Of the Christ Symphony was premiered in Rome with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Choir in July of 2005.
Kaska has also worked for John Debney as an orchestrator on the films Chicken Little, Mummy 3, Evan Almighty,
A Thousand Words, Meet Dave, Swing Vote, Zathura, Idlewild, Barnyard, Ant Bully, and Everyone's Hero. He has also
orchestrated music for the video games Call of Duty III by Joel Goldsmith and Transformers by Steve Jablonsky
as well as the film Transformers 2.

Kevin Kaska also orchestrates for film composer Hanz Zimmer. He has orchestrated on The Dark Knight,
Angels and Demons, Madagascar 2, Monsters vs. Aliens, and the mini-series The Pacific.

Kevin Kaska was introduced into the Boston Pops Orchestra at the age of 21. John Williams approved his
work and he was asked to write for the orchestra. He was commissioned in 1997 to compose a twenty
minute work for narrator and orchestra commemorating the 150th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s birth
called The Wizard of Menlo Park. This work was premiered by the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by
Ronald Feldman on Father’s Day, 1997 with a lighting show accompanying the music. Alvin Epstein acted
in the role of Thomas Edison."





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No.40

Heitor Villa-Lobos, the leading Brazilian composer of the 20th century, wrote a lot of music. A lot a lot.
So it comes as no surprise that there is a sizeable number of program works, of which several notable
examples are featured on the two albums I uploaded here. Amazonas, Rudepoema, Erosao, Dawn in a Tropical Forest -
these are all very characteristic pieces, which combine advanced (but usually tonal) Western compositional techniques
of the day with genuinely "authentic", non-cloying region-specific elements.



Music Composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Roberto Duarte

"It is a clich� to liken Villa-Lobos's denselytextured, exotically coloured scores to the lush masses of giant foliage
and exuberant tropical life of the Amazonian jungle, but the simile is inescapable. His works, early and late, are
permeated with his highly original and uninhibited idiom, in which he enthusiastically tapped primitive Indian sources
(possibly inherited from his mother) to convey his pantheistic images of Nature. Amazonas, written in 1917 but not
published or performed until 12 years later, is programmatically based on a story by the composer's father about
an Indian virgin, bathing in the river, who is pursued by a monster. Scored for large orchestra with his usual
reckless abandon (for example dividing the basses into six parts) and employing a solo viola d'amore and a phono-fiddle—
Norman Del Mar makes one of his few errors in his invaluable book Anatomy of the orchestra by taking the latter for a
zither—it vividly depicts the rustling of the forest by an extraordinary combination of string arpeggios in harmonics and
on the wrong side of the bridge, while strange birdcalls and mysterious sounds erupt on all sides.

Eroseio, composed for the Louisville Orchestra in 1950, is full of mystery, atmospherically illustrating (initially with some delicacy)
the native legend of the sun and moon giving birth to the cataclysm which formed the Andes and the valley of the Amazon.
Dawn in a tropical forest, also for Louisville, followed three years later, and again drew on Amerindian scales and motifs:
the evocative opening leads to one of Villa-Lobos's most poetic, and also most disciplined, scores. At the other extreme
of complexity is the 1954 ballet Genesis, a luxuriant wonderland of orchestral writing—Messiaen has called him "the greatest
orchestrator of the 20th century"—that, infinitely more imaginatively and wildly than Milhaud in his Creation du monde,
depicts the rise of life on earth, from elemental creatures to the dominance of man. Virtually unknown though it is, this score
must be recognized as masterly. Roberto Duarte, of the Teatro Municipal in Rio, succeeds in extracting accomplished,
well-balanced virtuoso playing throughout from the Bratislava radio orchestra: together with excellent recording and an
exceptionally good sleeve-note, this is a distinct feather in the cap for Marco Polo."

"Roberto Duarte's excellent first disc of VillaLobos with the Slovak Radio orchestra (3/92) concentrated on later works by
this unbelievably prolific composer: here he goes back to the early career. How far we have come in 75 years is forcibly brought
home by the Danca frenetica, which an influential critic in Brazil, when it was first played in 1919, recommended as suitable
only for epileptic musicians and paranoiac listeners. To today's ears it seems little more than an energetic, in places slightly
sinister, romp (but with one delicate and charming interlude for woodwind, harp and celesta), far from disturbing in its idiom,
and making its effect by its colour and rhythmic exuberance. Villa-Lobos's remarkable inventive ingenuity in orchestration is most
striking of all in the Danca dos mosquitos of three years later—a piece which deserves to be in the repertoire of all virtuoso
orchestras (but at eight and a half minutes perhaps a trifle on the long side). He was still only 35 at the time, and had yet to
emerge from his native country and go to Paris, where mudh was made much of him.

What fascinated the French avant-garde of the day was his exoticism—well illustrated here by the Dancas caracteristicas africanas,
which despite their title draw on rhythmic and melodic traits—obsessional in the third dance—of the Indians of the Matto Grosso
(near the Bolivian border). These pieces were originally written for piano in 1914 and orchestrated two years later. The main work
on this disc is also an orchestration of a piano piece, the composition of which was spread over five years in Paris. This is the
discursive and wild Rudepoema, which if it really was intended as a musical portrait of Artur Rubinstein (a staunch champion
of his music) rather than himself, depicts him not only as a sensational virtuoso (which we know he was) but a particularly violent
and noisy character: it is definitely not a work for bedtime listening or for old ladies of nervous disposition. There is a brilliant
performance of it by Nelson Freire (Teldec, 12/87): one might expect it to sound even more savage and barbaric in its
orchestral dress, but, oddly enough, this is not so."
Gramophone



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Among the 40 albums you've uploaded. I only have three of them, plus one downloaded from other source.

Again, and I can't repeat this often enough as there's little actual interaction here, if you're interested in other composers or other works by the composer's I've already posted, let me know! :)



No.41

Icelandic composer J�n Leifs (1899-1968) spent a period of time in Berlin during the Nazi regime. His wife and (following the Nazi's perverse
"Rassenkunde") his children were Jewish, so his family was under threat of deportation at the time. Nevertheless, it was in those
days that he composed the first of the large-scale heroic/mythological program symphonies/tone poems which were to become
his specialty: The Saga Symphony (S�guhetjur), scored for large orchestra with six harps and an augmented percussion
section, is a bold, brash exercise in Icelandic folk tales. In recent years, Leifs has been recognized as his country's greatest composer.



Music Composed by J�n Leifs
Played by The Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Osmo V�nsk�

"Jon Leifs (1899-1968) once averred "Wagner ... misunderstood the essence and artistic tradition of the North in
... a detestable manner" (Gbran Bergenda I, New Music in Iceland; Reykjavik: 1987). Many of his works—
not least this First Symphony (written in Germany during 1941-2) — were conceived as a protest against
that misunderstanding. Leifs's stance was derided in his lifetime after isolated and uncomprehending performances.
The symphony typically has an uncompromising, primitivistic sound-world, employing tuned anvils, specially made
wooden drums (without skins, hammered by huge mallets), iron and wooden shields, rocks of differing sizes
approximating different pitches, and replica Bronze Age horns (or lurs). Nearly 30 years after his death, enough
of his output has received sufficient exposure for a tradition to evolve, at least in Iceland.

This is the first complete recording of the Saga Symphony (as it is commonly known). Those who own the 1975
Icelandic LP (never generally available in the UK), conducted by Sibelius's son-in-law Jussi Jalas no less, will notice
that Leifs's depictions of five characters from skaldic literature were cut by roughly 15 per cent in an unsympathetic
account delivering only a fraction of the composer's vision. The Iceland SO of 1995 are better attuned, and a much
finer band. Their reading under Osmo Vansk�, in a recording of astonishing clarity, is nothing short of revelatory.

It must be conceded that there is little conventional development or counterpoint, but however brusque or awkward
it all seems (echoes of critical misperceptions of Havergal Brian or Ives here), Saga Symphony is extremely effective,
as the scherzo, -13jOrn behind Kari", or the nightmarish intermezzo, "Glamr og Grettir", manifestly confirm.
This issue is a massive act of restitution, both for its much-maligned composer and the culture -which is
not nearly so remote as it might seem -that produced him. An essential buy."
Gramophone



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No.42

Ilya Murometz(also: Ilya Muromets) is a sprawling, 70 minute program symphony by Reinhold Gliere,
a Soviet composer of German descent - further evidence is provided by his second first name, "Moritzevich" -
composed in the greatest phase of his long career. A man who belonged to the avantgarde of his country's composers
when he started out, only to kowtow to Stalinist sensibilities and taste later in life, Gliere still had a major influence
on the following generation of Soviet composers. This symphony is his finest work. Inarguably. While Ilya Murometz
is a long and not always tautly concentrated work, it's full of incidental beauties and consists many a spectacular
and beguiling passage. The style is late Russian romanticism, not far from Glazunov, but often brilliantly crafted.



Music Composed by Reinhold Gliere
Played by The London Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Leon Botstein

"Reinhold Gli�re's monumental symphony, depicting events in the life of the Russian medieval epic hero Il'ya Murometz,
was finished in 1911 and belongs to the last, lingering phase of Russian romanticism. There are passages here that go
in one ear and out of the other. But the sheer scale of the work - more than 70 minutes long - is impressive, and this
superbly played performance conveys its opulence and breadth. Leon Botstein never allows the music to linger, yet still
gives it expressive amplitude; every element of the scoring makes its mark."
Andrew Clements, The Guardian





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No.43

German composer Paul Hindemith would have loved Peter Maxwell, Davies, the current "Master of the Queen's Music(k)".
Maybe not his musical style, but certainly his down-to-earth attitude towards composition that serves a practical purpose.
Hindemith defined parts of his work as "Gebrauchsmusik", a term that is not quite translatable, but either "practical music"
or "music for everyday use" seem close enough. In that spirit, Maxwell Davies (or just Davies, I'm never quite sure) has
turned out a vast amount of theatre, festival, high school, operatic and choral music that has seen very many performances.
Despite his huge output, Maxwell Davies's works hardly ever falter on the inspiration front, and never ever on craftsmanship.
This album, which features a concert suite from his ballet Caroline Mathilde, as well as the Ojaj Festival Overture, St. Thomas
Wake and a Threnody on a Plainsong by Michael Viner, is a typical example of him working in his "lighter" (but not light!) idiom.



Music Composed and Conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Played by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

"This is a useful record, which not only makes available some of Maxwell Davies's most recent music
(notably the Caroline Mathilde suite, which can also be found on Collins Classics's 20th Century Plus label—reviewed in March)
but also fills one of the major gaps in Maxwell Davies recordings.

St Thomas Wake (1969) belongs to Maxwell Davies's 'Ken Russell' period, when he was providing the scores for
such films as The Devils and The Boy Friend, and introducing explicit quotation and savage parody of all sorts of
music in his concert works. St Thomas Wake ultimately derives from a keyboard pavan by John Bull, but, as the
subtitle—"Foxtrot for orchestra"—indicates, the symphony orchestra's serious symphonic music (in the composer's
most intense neo-expressionist manner, is offset by a sequence of foxtrots played by a dance band. The effect is
disturbing and thought-provoking on many levels, even in a recording subject to the stresses and strains of live
performance, with a balance that leaves the crucial 'honky-tonk' piano far too disembodied.

The quotations, transformations and superimpositions of the Caroline Mat hilde ballet music are 65 evidently by the
same hand as St Thomas Wake, although the conflicts are less radical and the atmosphere less menacing, not
least because the constraints of ballet have led to a simpler rhythmic profile. But the two shorter pieces on the
disc, which could hardly be more different from each other, are both vintage Max. The Threnody makes a virtue
of extreme brevity, gradually intensifying, then ending with the abruptness of an all-toopressing grief. The
Ojai Festival Overture, by total contrast, is a kind of hoe-down with barely a hint of an Orkney accent
(Ojai is in California), complete with an expansive contrasting theme, yet quite avoiding the embarrassments
of a sub-Copland, or even a sub-Bernstein style. Maxwell Davies has always been able to lighten his idiom
without trivializing it, and this delightful overture proves that the master has not lost his touch."
Gramophone



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No.44

Orientalism was a big thing in the cultural circles of Europe throughout the 19th century, inspiring paintings,
sculptures, music, even architecture. Ernest Fanelli wrote his extensive cycle of tone poems, entitled
The Romance of the Mummy, a work looking forward towards French impressionism, in 1883-1886.
Despite being acclaimed - by some - in its time, like all of Fanelli's music it fell into obscurity after his death.
Even more obscure is Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray's (phew!) Cambodian Rhapsody of 1882.



Music by Ernest Fanelli & Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray
Played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by "Adriano"

"As obscure and neglected a figure as one is likely to find in the annals of modern music,
Ernest Fanelli was a nineteenth century composer whose work eerily anticipates some twentieth
century French Impressionism. Fanelli was born in Paris to a family of Italian emigres.
He entered the Paris Conservatoire as a young man, but resisted the strict regimen of
musical training and was soon expelled. For most of his life, he made his living as a timpanist,
pianist, or music copyist. He was able to resume musical studies under composer Delibes;
unsubstantiated reports also place Fanelli in the class of eccentric pianist/composer
Charles-Valentin Alkan. Despite what formal training he may have received, Fanelli in
essence remained a self-taught composer, writing with no audience in mind and no
intention of hearing his work performed. His major extant composition is the Tableaux Symphoniques
d'apres le Roman de la Momie (1882 - 1883, and 1886), which is divided into two parts and
based on the exotic novel The Romance of the Mummy by Theophile Gautier.

Fanelli had entirely stopped composing by 1895, when the need to support his family began
to outweigh the urge to follow a purely creative direction. Fanelli remained in obscurity until 1912,
when his music was discovered by composer Gabriel Pierne. Fanelli was seeking work as a
copyist and had submitted to Pierne a sample of his handwriting in the form of one of his own
early orchestral scores. Pierne was astounded with the advanced harmonic language of Fanelli's
music and began to champion it. Although public attention may not have been what Fanelli
had truly desired, he got it, and mostly of a rather negative kind. Instead of being hailed as an
unsung pioneer of then-new currents, Fanelli found himself at the center of a bitter turf war
being waged among his fellow French musicians. Ravel privately accused Debussy of being a
Fanelli imitator and Debussy scrupulously avoided Fanelli at every turn, hoping to sidestep inevitable
comparisons between Fanelli's style and his own. It would not be long before critics came to Debussy's rescue,
condemning Fanelli as an incompetent who had lucked into an impressionistic milieu by accident. Fanelli's star fell
to the point where even Pierne's help couldn't save him and as a result of his short-lived celebrity, only one of his
works was brought out into print. By the time he died in 1917, Fanelli had already become as forgotten as he had
been unknown before his discovery. Composer George Antheil was one figure who proved the exception in this
regard, stating in 1945 that "Fanelli was one of the greatest inventors and musical iconoclasts of all time." However,
Antheil also justified this statement by attributing Fanelli's failure to his inability to "discover the new movement,"
which his music pointed so strongly toward.

One of the aspects about Fanelli's music that seems so striking in the twenty first century is that it embodies such a
tough, unvarnished, and un-beautiful approach to oriental exoticism. This may reflect the legacy of Alkan's experimentalism,
if indeed Fanelli was Alkan's student, and it has something in common with Fanelli' s younger contemporary Alberic Magnard's
tendency toward plain textures and aggressive orchestration, not to mention Erik Satie's deliberate avoidance of complexity.
So while Fanelli's music is advanced for its time, it still historically fits in with what is known about the development of French
modernism. Sadly, there isn't much of Fanelli's music left for future generations to evaluate, as only very little
of it has been preserved."
Dave Lewis , Rovi





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No.45

Erik Satie was an enfant t�rrible of French music, and a rather mystifying figure. He left half a ton
of piano works with often obscure, nonsensical titles, as well as a small body of orchestral works,
most of which are found on this super-colorful CD. Satie's ballets, often graced with esoteric sound
colors like that of a typewriter, are wonderfully witty, light and bright. There are no philosophical,
social or moral complexities here, just delightfully irreverent music. The CD, in a great performance
under Maurice Abravanel, features Parade, Relache, The Adventures of Mercury, Cinq Grimaces
and Jack in the Box.



Music Composed by Erik Satie
Played by the Utah Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Maurice Abravanel

"Erik Satie was an important French composer from the generation of Debussy. Best remembered for several
groups of piano pieces, including Trois Gymnop�dies (1888), Trois Sarabandes (1887) and Trois Gnossiennes (1890),
he was championed by Jean Cocteau and helped create the famous group of French composers, Les Six, which
was fashioned after his artistic ideal of simplicity in the extreme. Some have viewed certain of his stylistic traits
as components of Impressionism, but his harmonies and melodies have relatively little in common with the
characteristics of that school. Much of his music has a subdued character, and its charm comes through in its
directness and its lack of allegiance to any one aesthetic. Often his melodies are melancholy and hesitant, his
moods exotic or humorous, and his compositions as a whole, or their several constituent episodes, short. He was
a musical maverick who probably influenced Debussy and did influence Ravel, who freely acknowledged as much.
After Satie's second period of study, he began turning more serious in his compositions, eventually producing his
inspiring cantata, Socrate, considered by many his greatest work and clearly demonstrating a previously unexhibited
agility. In his last decade he turned out several ballets, including Parade and Rel�che, indicating his growing predilection
for program and theater music. Satie was also a pianist of some ability.

As a child Erik Satie showed interest in music and began taking piano lessons from a local church organist, named Vinot.
While he progressed during this period, he showed no unusual gifts. In 1879 he enrolled in the Paris Conservatory, where
he studied under Descombe (piano) and Lavignac (solfeggio), but failed to meet minimum requirements and was expelled in 1882.
Satie departed Paris on November 15, 1886, to join the infantry in Arras, but he found military life distasteful and intentionally
courted illness to relieve himself of duty. That same year his first works were published: El�gie, Trois M�lodies, and Chanson.

The years following his military service formed a bohemian period in Satie's life, the most significant events of which would
be the beginnings of his friendship with Debussy, his exposure to eastern music at the Paris World Exhibition, and his association
with a number of philosophical and religious organizations (most notably the Rosicrucian Brotherhood).

In 1905 he decided to resume musical study, enrolling in the conservative and controversial Schola Cantorum, run by
Vincent d'Indy. His music took on a more academic and rigorous quality, and also began to exhibit the dry wit that would
become hallmarks of his style. Many of his compositions received odd titles, especially after 1910, such as Dried up embryos
and Three real flabby preludes (for a dog). Some of his works also featured odd instructions for the performer, not intended
to be taken seriously, as in his 1893 piano work, Vexations, which carries the admonition in the score, "To play this motif
840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities."

In 1925 Satie developed pleurisy and his fragile health worsened. He was taken to St. Joseph Hospital, where he lived on for
several months. He received the last rites of the Catholic Church in his final days, and died on July 1, 1925."



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Thank you so much wimpel69 for introducing me to some truly stunning compositions by many composers I had not been aware of till now.
I already have at least two or three CDs that I'll be ordering in the next pay week! This is a wonderful thread indeed!

That's the general idea. :D



No.46

British John Foulds started out as a successful composer of light music before he ventured
into more serious territory, some the latter influenced by his experience in Indian mythology
and history. The Three Mantras (for orchestra and wordless chorus) that open this album
are an example of that, and are possibly his finest work outside of the piano concerto
Dynamic Triptych. Also included are the two suites Apotheosis and Mirage, as
well the Lyra Celtica.



Music Composed by John Foulds
Played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sakari Oramo

"John Foulds is one of the quintessential eccentrics who abound in the history of music in early twentieth century England,
a prolific composer of so-called "light" music, on which most of his reputation today regrettably rests.

The son of a bassoonist in the Hall� Orchestra, he began piano lessons at age four and was composing by age seven.
At ten, he switched to the cello (having made his way there via significant expertise with the oboe) and ran away from
home at age 13 to make his living playing cello in local orchestras and seaside bands before joining the Hall� in 1900.
A well-traveled man in his early manhood, Foulds met a wide variety of European composers who would influence his
music, including Bart�k, Mahler, Delius, Strauss, and Busoni. Mostly self-taught as a composer, he first came to public
attention when Henry Wood premiered his orchestral piece Epithalamium at a 1906 Promenade Concert. At that time,
he left the Hall� to concentrate full time on composing. Between 1914 and 1926, he lived mainly in London, supporting
himself through theater work and conducting. Interestingly, he gave a number of concerts for the British forces during
World War I. It was in this period that much of his lighter music was written, although the hugely popular Keltic Suite
was actually composed somewhat earlier, in 1911. He also composed heavily for the theater, writing the incidental
music for the first production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan in 1924.

Foulds moved to Paris in 1927 with his second wife, violinist and theosophist Maud McCarthy, who had an abiding interest
in Eastern music. This led to a lifelong interest in aspects of Ancient Greek and Indian music. In Paris, he wrote the
Dynamic Triptych (essentially a piano concerto including innovative use of microtones), the Twelve Essays in the
Modes for Piano (making use of Greek Dorian modes), and the apocalyptic Three Mantras. Returning to London in 1930,
he continued his composition of "serious" music, including Hellas, April-England, and the Quartetto Intimo (String Quartet No. 9).
He also published a fascinating, thoughtful, and revealing (and at the time widely read) survey entitled Music Today in 1934.
In 1935 he arrived in India, via a few side trips to Sicily and other exotic destinations, taking up his position with All-India
Radio two years later. Based initially in Delhi, he threw himself into an in-depth study of Indian folk music and formed
an experimental Indo-European orchestra, combining Western and native instruments. At the time of his death from
cholera in Calcutta in 1939, he was working on a Symphony of East and West, intended to showcase the results of his
studies in this area. Regrettably, the work is now lost, along with much of his huge output.

Once described as England's answer to Charles Ives, Foulds' place in musical history is difficult to precisely place.
He certainly seems to have been the first English composer to write using quarter-tones. An early string quartet in
1896 (now lost) and the cello sonata both incorporate microtonality -- some time before Bart�k experimented with
them in his own string quartets -- as does his concert opera The Vision of Dante. His monumental World Requiem,
written for a huge orchestra and chorus of some 1,200, enjoyed annual performances on Armistice Day from 1923
to 1926. Although he started his composing career as a fairly typical English late-Romantic, his experiments with
exoticism, especially the combining of Indian and European tonalities, should place him in an important historical
position, but since so little of this music has survived, there is little left on which to judge him. "



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No.47

This album's moniker, "Romantic Ireland", seems somewhat misleading. The collection of
light(er)-spirited Irish tone poems assembled here is indeed neo-Romantic in style,
but the title seems to suggest a kind of thematic romanticism as well, which is clearly
not there. Long story short, if you like folkloristic light symphonic music that's
alternately bouncy and lyrical, then this CD is for you. A lot of good craftsmanship
went into it, by composers also known for heavier fare (Potter, Victory etc.).



Music by Gerard Victory, A.J. Potter, Padraig O'Connor, John Larchet, Arthur Duff & Sean O'Riada
Played by the Radio Telefis �irann Sinfonietta
Conducted by Proinnsias �'Duinn

"Archibald James (Archie) Potter 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."
(A.J. Potter biography)

"'I have been composing now in one form or another for about fifty years. The result, when listed in a catalogue,
reads like some crowded landscape where plants of every kind imaginable rub shoulders uneasily. Whatever the work,
I do believe I have always wanted to communicate with people at large. The greatest reward is to see one has touched
even a single listener; it has happened sometimes and it has made the hard work seem worthwhile.'

Born in Dublin, Gerard Victory was educated at University College Dublin and Trinity College. In 1948 he joined RTE
(Irish Radio and Television) where he subsequently held the post of Director of Music from 1967 until 1982. In more
than forty years of composition he produced some 200 works, including four symphonies, eight operas (of which the
best known are Chatterton, An Evening for Three and The Rendezvous); a large-scale cantata (Ultima Rerum, released
on the Naxos/Marco Polo label in 1994); two piano concertos and a large volume of other compositions, many of them
written for films, plays and celebratory occasions.

Gerard Victory was president of UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers (1981-83) and was a member of
Aosd�na, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists. He was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters and
the Order of Merit by the French and German Governments respectively."
(Gerard Victory biography)


Victory, Potter



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No.48

Jarmil Burghauser's name is rather well known in music circles - not so much as a composer but
as a music historian and administrator. He was the man who sifted through the very inaccurate work
catalogue that Anton�n Dvor�k left behind (who occasionally gave old works higher opus numbers, and
newer works lower ones!) and established a reliable time table and complete catalogue. As a composer,
Burghauser mostly wrote in a modern, dodecaphonic style (The Ways, Seven Reliefs and The Thoughtful
Country are in that idiom), but occasionally he would modify it towards neo-classicism (a doozie for
a ballet on The Servant of Two Masters, Goldoni's famous commedia dell'arte).



Music Composed by Jarmil Burghauser
Played by The Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony and Smetana Theatre Orchestras
Conducted by Zdenek Kosler, Karel Ancerl, Jarmil Burghauser

"Jarmil Michael Burghauser (born Jarmil Michael Mokr�, October 21, 1921, P�sek – February 19, 1997, Prague)
was a Czech composer, conductor, and musicologist.

After the short-lived Prague Spring, he incurred the disfavor of his country's Communist regime and had to adopt the
pseudonym Michal H�jků in order to write a series of compositions in a style which evoked earlier periods of music,
called Storie apocrifa della musica Boema.

The works of Anton�n Dvoř�k are commonly referred to today by their Burghauser numbers (as an alternative to the
often confusing or absent opus numbers), which come from an authoritative chronological catalog Burghauser
prepared of Dvoř�k's œuvre. Dvoř�k's pieces were not published in the order he wrote them, and his publisher
gave his works opus numbers corresponding to publishing date. Burghauser has helped greatly to clear up this confusion."





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No.49

French composer Joseph-Guy Ropartz, a student of Jules Massenet ("Thais", "Werther"), was indebted
to both Claude Debussy and C�sar Franck, the great compatriots of his formative years. But he was also a
man of his "terroir", Celtic Brittany, which influenced several of his many works (he was active in all genres
of concert music, five symphonies being the cornerstone of his oeuvre). This album features two incidental
scores Ropartz wrote for the theatre: Pecheur d'Islande and Oedipe � Colone, plus a smooth Rhapsody
for Cello and Orchestra.



Music Composed by Joseph-Guy Ropartz
Played by the Orchestre de Bretagne
With Henri Demarquette (cello)
Conducted by Kirill Karabits

"Literature, the sea and Brittany were recurrent sources of inspiration throughout the life of Joseph-Guy Ropartz (1864-1955).
Like Bax, he had been a poet in his twenties but for P�cheur d'lslande ('Iceland Fisherman', 1890-91) and Oedipe a Colone (1914)
he turned to Pierre Loti and Sophocles respectively. Although never a seaman like Roussel, the marine influence is strong in P�cheur
d'Islande and the Rhapsodie for cello and orchestra (1928), both of which make use of folksongs from Brittany, and in his best
known work, the huge Third Symphony (EMI - nla).

For those unfamiliar with Ropartz's style -there are quite a few discs devoted to his music, not least from Timpani - he was much
influenced by Franck (with whom he had studied) and Faur�. There are Magnard resonances, too, though Ropartz was the more
intuitive, less rigorous creator. In P�cheur d'lslande, for example, the opening 'La mer d'lslande' ('Iceland's Sea') is subtitled
'Symphony' but there is little genuinely symphonic in the music. Rather, as in the central 'Scene d'amour', the music is evocative
in a fantasia-like way. The lively finale, 'Les danses', however, does illustrate the protagonists' wedding. There is more of the
descriptive in the suite from his incidental music to Oedipe a Colone, though lacking the imagination Enescu later invested the tale with.
In places the music even hints that Brittany's shores are lapped by the Aegean!

The Orchestre de Bretagne's performances are full of verve and sound well prepared, and they and Karabits accompany the
lyrical and smooth-toned Henri Demarquette nicely in the Rhapsodie. Timpani's sound is spacious and warm."
Gramophone





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My renewed thanks for all the wonderful material that has been posted recently.

No.50

The two ballet scores recorded here show different elements in British composer Richard Arnell's
musical style. The first, The Great Detective (Sherlock Holmes, obviously), is deliciously witty and
sharply defined, boisterous and very British. The second, The Angels, because of its subject matter,
is much more sombre and serious-minded. They're both very well crafted, which makes one regret that
Arnell wrote only a handful of feature film scores, mostly for English B-pictures. Championed by famous
conductors like Thomas Beecham and Sir John Barbirolli early in his career, Arnell's career faded away
when the tide of music mainstream turned towards atonality; only in the past decade, mostly because
of new recordings in the Dutton Epoch series, has there been renewed interest in his works.



Music Composed by Richard Arnell
Played by the BBC Concert Orchestra
Conducted by Martin Yates

"After returning to Great Britain in 1947, Richard Arnell became very active on the composing scene. The 1950s
saw a succession of new works, including his String Quartet No. 4, Symphony No. 5, Concerto capriccioso, Landscape
and Figures , the Piano Suite in D Minor, the Fox Variations for piano—and three Read more Harlequin in April.
The Great Detective appeared two years later. To anyone in the English-speaking world, the detective in question
would obviously be Sherlock Holmes. This tongue-in-cheek work referred to Doyle’s creations abstractly, however,
o that Holmes became The Detective, Moriarty turned into The Fiend, and Dr. Watson became The Doctor.
Though the critics panned elements of the production other than its score, audiences were delighted.

Arnell’s score comprised a series of discreet dances, employing the rich orchestral palette he’d delivered during his
American years. The pieces have a musical weight that brings to mind Prokofiev, whose influence can also be felt in
some of the numbers. The pas de trois “Distress Ladies and Doctor” might just as well be called “Prokofiev meets
Moross,” for example, while some phrases in “Police and the Doctor” recall the Soviet master at his most mock genteel.
There are several excellent tunes in The Great Detective , though the ending is curiously abrupt and underplayed.

The third ballet Arnell wrote for Sadler’s Wells was The Angels , first seen in 1957. His synopsis, printed in Lewis Foreman’s
excellent liner notes, is tantalizingly brief. In the first of three movements, an angel, a figure of light, “reveals the characteristics
of her creation.” “She brings men and women together in the ebb and flow of life,” goes the second movement. In the third,
she chooses one figure from the mass of striving humanity to become immortal. Yet the score is full of incident, and far
more symphonic in nature than its album companion is. The references to “movements” is literally Arnell’s, the first being
an introduction, theme, and eight variations, the second, a 14-minute “roundelay,” and the third, a six-minute fast “finale”
and soberly majestic “transformation.” While I’m intrigued as to how all this would be staged, the absence of visuals doesn’t
matter to me as it does in The Great Detective. The Angels stands very well on its own after many repeated listenings.
Even Arnell himself excerpted the roundelay for separate issue on a Pye recording he conducted, and which I’ve had in
my LP collection for some time.

It has done splendid service, but it’s time to retire that disc. Yates, whom I referred to in a CD (Dutton 7195) that featured
Arnell’s symphonic portrait Lord Byron and Dunhill’s Symphony in A Minor as “solid but methodical” and “without the sweep
or passion in music that requires it,” here acquits himself very well, indeed. Perhaps he meshes better with the BBC Concert Orchestra
than the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, or possibly they had more rehearsal time, or the works were simply easier to manage than
heavier fare. Whatever the reason, there’s no lack of energy and swagger here, and no episodes of ragged ensemble and cloudy
textures, as in the CD featuring Arnell’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies (Dutton 7194). Yates and his musicians have the full measure
of both works, and Dutton provides a fine, spacious, and colorful audio environment for the record, too. Highly recommended."
Fanfare





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No.51

Featured here are two classics of 20th century music, and a suite from a still-obscure opera
by a neglected American composer. I'm of course talking about Robert Kurka and his
The Good Soldier Schweik (Schweijk) after a satirical novel by Jaroslav Hasek.
Stylistically not too far from Hindemith, Kurka created a colorful and edgy score that is
well represented by the suite he extracted from it. The same may be said of Kurt Weill's
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, a cunning arrangement of some popular "numbers" from
his classic 20th-century operetta The Threepenny Opera for small orchestra.
Milhaud's ballet La Cr�ation du Monde needs no introduction: it's a key
piece of Jazz-infused concert music of its time.



Music by Darius Milhaud, Kurt Weill & Robert Kurka
Played by The Atlantic Sinfonietta
Conducted by Andrew Schenck

"The Good Soldier Schweik: The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I.

Švejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely
an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. However, he is arrested by a member of the secret police, Bretschneider, after
making some politically sensitive remarks, and is sent to prison. After being certified insane he is transferred to a madhouse,
before being ejected.

Švejk gets his charwoman to wheel him (he claims to be suffering from rheumatism) to the recruitment offices in Prague, where
his apparent zeal causes a minor sensation. Unfortunately, he is transferred to a hospital for malingerers because of his rheumatism.
He finally joins the army as batman to army chaplain Otto Katz; Katz loses him at cards to Lieutenant Luk�š, whose batman he then
becomes. Luk�š is posted with his march battalion to barracks in Česk� Budějovice, in Southern Bohemia, preparatory to being sent
to the front. After missing the train to Budějovice, Švejk embarks on a long anabasis on foot around Southern Bohemia in a vain
attempt to find Budějovice, before being arrested as a possible spy and deserter (a charge he strenuously denies) and escorted to
his regiment. He is then promoted to company orderly.

The unit embarks on a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Stopping in a town on the border between Austria
and Hungary, in which relations between the two nationalities are somewhat sensitive, Švejk is again arrested, this time for causing
an affray involving a respectable Hungarian citizen and engaging in a street fight. After a further long journey and close to the front
line, Švejk is taken prisoner by his own side as a suspected Russian deserter, after arriving at a lake and trying on an abandoned
Russian uniform. Narrowly avoiding execution, he manages to rejoin his unit. The unfinished novel breaks off abruptly before Švejk
has a chance to be involved in any combat or enter the trenches, though it appears Hašek may have conceived that the characters
would have continued the war in a POW camp, much as he had done.

The book also includes a very large number of anecdotes told by Švejk (usually either to deflect the attentions of an authority figure,
or to insult them in a concealed manner) which are not directly related to the plot."


From left to right: Kurka, Weill, Milhaud



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Interestingly enough, the music for Le pecheur d'Islande is based on Ropartz's opera Le Pays, a work worth listening to.

No.52

The Red Detachment of Women (1964) is one of two famous "revolutionary ballets" (the other is
The White-Haired Girl) created under the supervision of Mao Zedong's wife, the infamous Jiang Qing
(later part of the "Gang of Four") as agit-prop art to entertain and educate the masses during
the Cultural Revolution. It chronicles the rise of a peasant girl to heroic leader of a platoon of female
soldiers. This ballet is still very popular in China, independent of its propagandistic baggage.

Five composers, led by Du Ming-Xin (The Great Wall Symphony) and Wu Zhu-Qiang (who also cooperated
with Du on the non-political ballet The Mermaid), worked on the full-length ballet, of which a characteristic
59 minute suite is presented here. The style is typical Socialist Realism, not unlike the music of Khachaturian.
This was the ballet presented to US President Richard Nixon upon his historic 1972 visit to China.



Music by Du Ming-Xin, Wu Zu-Qiang, Dai Hong-Wei, Shi Wang-Chun, Wang Yan-Qiao
Played by the Shanghai Ballet Theatre Orchestra
Conducted by Lin You-Sheng

"The Red Detachment of Women (simplified Chinese: 红色娘子军; pinyin: H�ngs� Ni�ngzǐjūn) is a Chinese ballet which premiered in 1964.
It is perhaps best known in the West as the ballet performed for U.S. President Richard Nixon on his visit to China in February 1972. Adapted
from the earlier film of the same title under the personal direction of Zhou Enlai, which in turn adapted from the novel by Liang Xin, it depicts
the liberation of a peasant girl in Hainan Island and her rise in the Chinese Communist Party. The novel was based on the true stories of 100+
member strong all-female Special Company of the 2nd Independent Division of Chinese Red Army, first formed in May, 1931. As the communist
base in Hainan was destroyed by the nationalists, most of members of the female detachment survived, partially because they were women
and easier to hide among the local populace who were sympathetic to their cause. After the communist victory in China, the representatives
of the surviving members were taken to Beijing and personally inspected and praised by Mao Zedong. Most of these surviving members
currently reside in the city of Qionghai (84 survivors in 1994, 23 in 2001, 14 in 2008).

The ballet was later adapted to a Beijing opera in 1964, and as with the ballet itself, both stage and film versions were produced. The 1961 film version
of the ballet made Xue Jinghua (as Wu Qinghua) and Liu Qingtang (as Hong Changqing) superstars along with a dozen other artists who were
cast as protagonists in other model plays of the time. It is one of the so-called eight model plays, the only plays, ballets and operas permitted in
China during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). With The White Haired Girl, it is regarded as a classic Chinese ballet, and its music is familiar
to almost every Chinese person who grew up during that time. It was made into a film in 1972 again, and is now part of the permanent
repertoire of the National Ballet of China.

Despite its political overtones and the historical background when it was created, it remains a favorite of music and ballet lovers nearly 30 years
after the Cultural Revolution in China. Many numbers were based on the folk songs of Hainan Island, a place that, with its coconut trees rustling
in tropical wind, evokes much romantic ethos. Though there are unmistakable elements of Chinese music, the music of this ballet was
performed with basically a Western symphony orchestra."







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No.53

Although Max von Schillings's involvement with Nazi music establishment was rather short (he became Director of the
Prussian Music Academy in 1932, joined "the" party on April 1, 1933 and died on July 24 of the same year), it forever
damaged the composer's posthumous reputation. Cooperating with the regime, von Schillings rigorously "cleaned" the
Academy of all Jewish, Communist and other unwanted composers, including Schoenberg and Schreker, within months.

Von Schillings's own works are clearly indebted to Richard Wagner: the two tone-poems featured here, Meergru� and
Seemorgen have the same late-romantic splendor and opulence that characterized the older composer's orchestral
pieces from his operas (Wagner never wrote symphonies, except two early study symphonies completely uncharacteristic
of his mature style, nor tone poems). The song-cycle, too, is very characteristic of turn-of-the century romanticism.



Music Composed by Max von Schillings
Played by the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin
With Robert Woerle (tenor)
Conducted by Stefan Soltesz

"The music of Max von Schillings (1868-1933) has suffered a fate similar to that of the ‘Entartete Musik’ generation,
though because he stood on the opposite side of the ideological/racial divide. As an administrator, he had a direct hand
in carrying out the Nazi’s cultural ‘ethnic cleansing’ at the Prussian Academy of Arts and as a composer had his otherwise
apolitical music reinterpreted in a posthumous biography as being at the heart of nationalist revisionism. These facts have
made dealing with his music difficult in the decades following the war, yet in the early years of the century, he was seen
as a serious rival to Strauss, and his opera Mona Lisa placed him among the post-Romantic ‘progressivists’. Divorcing the
work from the man, then, reveals an original musical mind, occasionally indebted to Strauss, it must be admitted, but an
essential component in German musical developments after Wagner. The tone poems (two rampant seascapes), operatic
preludes and the amazingly varied Glockenlieder song cycle here grow in stature on each hearing and are vibrantly performed
by the Berlin orchestra; W�rle is a strong-voiced exponent of the songs."
Matthew Rye





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No.54

Like George Chadwick, Amy Beach, Horatio Parker and John Knowles Paine, Frederick Converse was one the first American
composers who were trying to establish a national American music, although their own technique was still rooted in mid-centuy
German Romanticism (Mendelssohn, Schumann) or, later, Dvor�k. Converse wrote a number of orchestral poems, of which
three extended ones are featured on this album: Song of the Sea, The Festival of Pan, and the multi-movement American Sketches.
Although he wasn't able to break entirely free from European models, Converse's music is nicely crafted and smoothly carpentered.



Music Composed by Frederick Converse
Played by the BBC Concert Orchestra
Conducted by Keith Lockhart

"In the first decades of the 20th century, Frederick Converse (1871-1940) was known as one of the outstanding
American composers of classical music, but his work is largely forgotten today. There is some irony in the fact that these
three pieces are given their premiere recordings by the BBC Concert Orchestra on the British label Dutton, rather than
by American ensemble for a U.S. company. Like most of his American contemporaries, Converse studied in Germany
and developed a Wagnerian, late Romantic style that for a while was the lingua franca of the American musical establishment.
His music doesn't show the kind of individuality that would make it stand up to that of the most interesting composers
of his time, but he was technically accomplished and a brilliant orchestrator. The first two works on the album, Song of the Sea,
tone poem after Whitman, and Festival of Pan, are proficient and colorful, even stirring, examples of the pictorialism so
pervasive in music of the era. While this might not be the most original music, it can't be denied that it has a surging energy
that makes it easy for the listener to be carried along. The most impressive of the pieces is American Sketches, three of
whose four movements evoke specific locations: Manhattan, the Mississippi River, and the Grand Canyon. They are appropriately
evocative and seem to have been written out of sense of passion; the large landscapes summon a grandeur that feels entirely
authentic. Keith Lockhart, an American and a specialist in American music, draws excellent, dramatic performances from the
expert BBC Concert Orchestra. Dutton's sound is detailed, clean, and spacious. The album should appeal to fans of late
Romanticism and anyone interested in the development of Western classical music in America."
All Music





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No.55

Spanish composer Tom�s Br�ton (1850-1923) first gained recognition with a popular zarzuela,
a kind of national variant of European operetta. Vocal music makes up for a large part of this composer's
legacy, because he always tried to create and establish a special Spanish opera model. At the same time,
he dabbled in symphonic music as a pioneer, too, because there was hardly any such thing in late 19th century
Spain (this was before Alb�niz, Falla and Turina). This album features his folkloristic Andalusian Scenes, along
with In the Alhambra and a collection of opera overtures.



Music Composed by Tom�s Br�ton
Played by the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid
Conducted by Miguel Roa

"Highly esteemed in his lifetime, though sadly neglected since, Bret�n built an enviable reputation on the theatrical music
that he composed between 1875 and 1896. The Preludes to four of his zarzuelas are included on this disc. They take the
form of little symphonic poems which tell the story of the opera in just a few moments of romantic and elegantly scored music.

In a review recently of Bret�n�s Chamber works (Naxos 8.570713) I wrote how disappointed I was because I had the
�expectation that we might have something a little more Spanish in flavour�. Well, this new CD gives us more of an
indication as to where Bret�n was going in his plans to introduce an original, nationalistic opera. In doing so he evolved
a nationalistic style pre-empting Granados, Albeniz and de Falla by only a few years. One could say that Breton was the
father of this great school of Spanish composers.

Of the opera preludes, the one to �Los Amantas de Teruel� is the most immediately interesting. It encapsulates a powerful
and lyrical section for the lovers, a battle scene and their meeting in Heaven - all compressed into just over ten minutes.

The story behind �Garin� is of a monk in medieval Montserrat. He is accused of raping the daughter of a local count. All ends
well however resulting in the dancing of the Sardana - a Catalan dance. Here I had a shock because back in 2002 when
I was in Perpignan I recorded on video a sardana. I realized that Breton uses the very same tune which I had recorded
over one hundred years later. The informative booklet notes by Victor S�nchez Sanchez tell us that Breton used folk
tunes in other works.

I must add at this stage that the track numbering is incorrect something which Naxos should have picked up on. The
�Garin� prelude should be track 5 not track 7 which actually is the prelude to Breton�s first opera �Guzm�n el bueno�.
[see footnote] I started off thinking that this prelude was a Sullivanesque joke, a cousin of Mikado with its mock-Moroccan
melody for the conquest of Iberia and Christian heroic march tune. As it went on it became irritating and dull and
I expect never to play that track again.

The prelude to Bret�n�s longest opera �La Dolores� is the shortest on the disc, too short really to make its point.
It comprises a very Spanish mix of melodies and rhythms taken from the opera and ends in a brief �jota�.

The longest and most interesting work on this disc is the �Escenas andaluzas (Andalucian Scenes). This is a four
movement tone picture. Bret�n spent much of his life (from 1885) as an orchestral conductor in Madrid. There he
composed, as well as operas and zarzuelas, three symphonies. He was an experienced orchestrator and these skills
of orchestral familiarity emerge fully in this the best work here. One can sense that apart from its intrinsic attractions
it is building a foundation for the music of Albeniz and de Falla. It opens with a colourful �Bolero�. A �Polo� uses an
evocative oboe solo over string pizzicatos to conjure a steamy outdoor guitar. The next �Marcha y saeta� is a slightly
comic, processional march set in Holy Week. Its middle section uses the cor anglais to intone a quasi-plainchant saeta -
a devotional song. Finally another Andalucian dance - a lively �Zapateado� - brings the piece to a happy conclusion.
I enjoyed the work tremendously. It made me want to get back to that wonderful part of the world as soon as possible."
Music Web



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No.56

The role that Tikhon Khrennikov played in the Stalinist music machine (he was head of the Composers' Union) will
probably never be completely resolved (while he kowtowed to his master he also seems to have protected the composers
against active, live-threatening persecution), as a result, most reports (incl. Shostakovich's "Testimony") are prone to be
clouded by personal experiences. Be that as it may, Khrennikov himself was not an untalented composer and pianist,
his symphonies and piano concertos reveal a solid craftsmanship and sense of melody, if hardy ever any great originality.

The ballet Napoleon Bonaparte was actually composed after(!) the end of the Soviet Union, thus after Khrennikov's
administrative career. And while it is certainly extremely conservative as a piece of music that was composed in 1993,
it is fascinating how many influences Khrennikov picked up from fellow composers he'd helped to suppress or at
least officially despised, like Khachaturian, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. However, the ballet also reveals
a fine tunesmith, and if you can ignore the history behind the composer you might find it entertaining.



Music Composed by Tikhon Khrennikov
Played by the Presidential Orchestra of the Russian Federation
Conducted by Pavel Ovsyannikov

"Russian composer Tikhon Khrennikov is probably the most controversial figure in the history of Soviet music.
In his capacity as Secretary to the Union of Soviet Composers, Khrennikov both denounced and elevated the reputations
of his fellow composers, attempting to climb what was apparently a rather slippery slope. As a member of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party and a representative of the Supreme Soviet Council, he was a
Soviet insider of a very high magnitude, and, according to Khrennikov, did what he could to satisfy Soviet
authorities while privately protecting composers and musicians in whom the Secret Police entertained an interest.

Khrennikov studied composition with Mikhail Gniessen at the Gniessen Academy in Moscow and studied piano
with Heinrich Neuhaus; his first major work was his Piano Concerto No. 1 (1932), the first of a cycle of four, the
last appearing in 1991. Khrennikov's Symphony No. 1 (1935) gained the notice of conductor Leopold Stokowski
and premiered outside Russia; it remains Khrennikov's best-known work in the West. In 1939, Khrennikov premiered
the opera Into the Storm, the fruits of a three-year collaboration with producer Nemirovich-Damchenko. The enduring
success of this revolutionary-themed, patriotic work established Khrennikov as a major voice in the Soviet socialist
realism style as it applied to music. Khrennikov more firmly cemented this reputation with his Song of Moscow written f
or the film They Met in Moscow (1941), earning Khrennikov his first Stalin Prize; three more would be awarded him in his
lifetime. Khrennikov's experience with the intrigues of the Soviet political regime came early; during the "Great Terror" in
1937, two of Khrennikov's brothers were arrested by the Secret Police. While he was miraculously able to save one of them,
the other vanished in the Gulag system.

In 1948, Khrennikov was named Secretary to the Union of Soviet Composers under Andrei Zhdanov, the primary instigator
of socialist realism under Stalin. With Khrennikov's cooperation, Zhdanov quickly commenced a purge of the Union of Soviet
Composers. During this time, Khrennikov denounced both Sergey Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich, among others, for
practicing compositional styles linked to anti-revolutionary, formalist concepts derived from Western influence; Khrennikov
later stated that he was reading from a prepared speech given to him by the Kremlin. With Zhdanov's sudden and
unexpected death later in 1948, the situation gradually cooled, but these days are remembered as the darkest in the lives of
both Prokofiev and Shostakovich; biographers of these famous composers have been quick to point to Khrennikov as an
adversarial figure in this crisis.

Nevertheless, Khrennikov held onto his position as Secretary to the Union of Soviet Composers until the position was
dissolved after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Moreover, a gradual thaw toward musical styles in the Soviet
Union arrived somewhat earlier than in other artistic disciplines; in 1962, arch-modernist Igor Stravinsky was invited back
to the Soviet Union for his first visit since before the October Revolution, mostly at Khrennikov's behest. Khrennikov also
helped establish the careers of high-grade concert virtuosi such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonid Kogan. Khrennikov
himself enjoyed a very active concert career as a pianist, being named People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. in 1963. In his later
music, Khrennikov adopted some measure of the "modernist" techniques he had denounced earlier in his career as composer,
though these coalesced rather uncomfortably with the "na_ve optimism" (Grove's) that had characterized his music since the 1930s.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Khrennikov was widely vilified by experts on Soviet music as a kind of pariah,
but when pressed about his role in the Zhdanov purges, Khrennikov stated that he had no regrets; he wrote a memoir,
That Is How It Was, in 1994 to answer all such questions, supported by state documents. He continued to compose up
to about the year 2001, producing at least 10 operas; three symphonies; numerous ballets, concertos, and songs; some
chamber music; and 22 film scores, the last genre in which Khrennikov seems to have gathered the most acclaim in his home country."
All Music





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No.57

Sometime in the late 1950s, an aspiring British pop singer by the name of Arnold George Dorsey was trying to make a
mark in the U.S. and Britain. His agent recommended a name change, and Dorsey picked Engelbert Humperdinck,
the name of a German composer of the late 19th, early 20th century remembered mostly for his fairy-tale opera
H�nsel und Gretel, but otherwise rather obscure. The reason for the name change was that Humperdinck
seemed fairly exotic and bizarre as a stage name, and in fact it might have been the most florid such choice in pop ever.

The original Engelbert Humperdinck was of course a late romantic German composer who was influenced by Wagner.
He specialized in fairy-tale stories. Apart from H�nsel und Gretel, he also wrote music for Die K�nigskinder,
Sleeping Beauty and The Blue Bird. And of all this music is absolutely lovely, as you will recognize
once you've downloaded this album. If you like Wagner, Strauss or Korngold, you'll surely like Humperdinck, too.



Music Composed by Engelbert Humperdinck
Played by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Karl-Anton Rickenbacher

"Though Engelbert Humperdinck wrote a great deal of music in a variety of genres,
he is best remembered for a single opera, H�nsel und Gretel (1893), based on the familiar fairy tale.
Humperdinck's musical style is infused with elements of the German folk tradition, but the composer's
primary influence was clearly the music of Wagner; indeed, Humperdinck worked as an assistant to
the older master for a time, even providing extra music for a scene change in the premiere staging
of Wagner's Parsifal in 1882. It is possible that Humperdinck's music remains, uncredited, as part of
the score that has come down to posterity.

Following a conventional education at Paderborn, Humperdinck entered the Cologne Conservatory at
the age of 18 and began studies in voice and composition. While a student there, he was the winner
of the Mozart Stipend of Frankfurt in 1876; with the aid of its financial award, he went to Munich to
study first with Franz Lachner and then with Rheinberger at the Royal Music School. While enrolled
there (1877-1879), he won an award from the Mendelssohn Foundation of Berlin, following which
he traveled to Italy and had the fortune to meet up with Wagner in Naples.

Written to a libretto by Humperdinck's sister Adelheid Wette (who added characters and scenes to
expand the little story to operatic dimensions), H�nsel und Gretel was first presented in Weimar in
December of 1893; it was quickly taken up in opera houses all over Europe, representing the perfect
antidote to the chill, veristic winds blowing out of Italy at the time. Ostensibly a work for children, the
opera has always found favor with audiences of all ages thanks to its odd blend of fable-like innocence
and Wagnerian weight. Humperdinck's succesful blending of a children's story with his own, rather
monumental, orchestral world has made H�nsel und Gretel the only post-Wagnerian work to be
considered a succesful synthesis of the German master's style.

During the course of his musical career, Humperdinck supplemented his compositional activities with turns as a
music editor, critic, and, at various times, a music teacher; Wagner's son Siegfried was one of his pupils.
His other works, particulary the pleasant 1880 Humoreske for orchestra in E major, find occasional
performances today. In the 1960s and 1970s, Humperdinck's name was again on the lips of the public;
in this case, however, "Engelbert Humperdinck" was the new persona (chosen from a music dictionary)
of a pop balladeer formerly known as Arnold Dorsey, fondly or not-so-fondly remembered for his stagey
rendition of "Release Me." The two, needless to say, are not related."





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No.58

Victor de Sabata (1892-1967) was one of the most distinguished opera conductors of the 20th century,
a rival to Arturo Toscanini. The reason why he is far less known today than many of his comptetitors is that
he made far fewer recordings! Sabata thought about himself as being a composer as much as a conductor,
but he left us only a rather small body of work, which is clearly indebted to Ottorino Respighi and Richard Strauss.
The three large-scale symphonic poems recorded here created quite a hoopla when they were first released.
The Night of Plato, Gethsemani and Juventus are superbly crafted and wonderfully orchestrated, really evocative program music!



Music Composed by Victor de Sabata
Played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Aldo Ceccato

"Blindfold listening tests will thrive on this one, though the fact that Victor De Sahara's music sounds like
everyone and no-one is enough to raise suspicions that it's the work of a conductor. Annotator Robert Matthew-Walker
makes the sympathetic claim that hearing these works (they constitute the bulk of Dc Sabata's orchestral output)
'enables us to make some kind of restitution towards a more rounded appreciation of the art of a very great musician'.
True, but not a terribly important reason for listening, not unless you're a student of conductors and
of Victor Dc Sabata in particular.

We're not told if or when Dc Sabata stopped composing, though we do know that at the time of his death
he was working on a suite made up of earlier material. All three works programmed here are lusciously scored,
with La notte di Platon (The Night of Plato, 1923) approximating the overall shape of Strauss's Tod and Verkl�rung -
agitation at the start and centre with a serene transformation to close. The subject of the flesh versus the spirit inspires
music that, in addition to the obvious spectre of Strauss, calls on Stravinsky's Rite, Respighi and possibly Chausson.
Gethsemani has a stronger thematic profile, though its contemplative element is extremely sensual. Again, late-German
romanticism is a sure point of reference thoughjuventus - once championed by Toscanini —has an almost
VTaltonjan exuberance, coloured (near the end) by just a hint of Puccini. Although the earliest work on the disc
(it dates from 1919), it is surely the most original."
Gramophone





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---------- Post added at 09:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 AM ----------

Quick question: Are people actually reading the short intros and quoted reviews/commentaries, or should I just post the music?

Your introductions are important to me : they help defining the style and origin of the music you share, stir curiosity... Thank you for this. ;)

This thread is a treasure trove!
WOW!

wimpel69 - the intros you're providing are very useful - much of this music is new to me and so these intros give an idea of what to expect etc. I appreciate them, but if they're time consuming to preparer I could understand the need to cut them.

Writing these short paragraphs is actually a perk for me, but if nobody read those they'd be useless. :)



No.59

Niels Wilhelm Gade was truly the first Danish composer of any international significance in the romantic age.
A friend of Mendelssohn's, educated in Germany, it was only natural that his music would closely emulate that
of his friend and other early German Romantics. The three tone poems recorded here, Echoes from Ossian,
A Summer's Day in the Country and Hamlet reveal typical inspirations for program music in that age: history/mythology,
literature and nature. This will probably be the most conservative music to be presented in the course of this thread,
and if it were film music it could only have been used as "stock music" for a silent movie, when using early romantic
scores was popular, but it's very pretty music all the same. Holbergiana is a tribute to a playwright.



Music Composed by Niels Wilhelm Gade
Played by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Conducted by Ole Schmidt

"Here is another CD to swell the growing Gade discography. The Echoes from Ossian Overture has always been
well served on record: it was one of his first works to be recorded in the days of 78s, and there is an alternative
version of the Hamlet Overture, on Chandos (3/96). The special interest of this issue is A Summer's Day in the
Country and Holbergiana, neither of which is otherwise available. The former is a five-movement piece, pastoral in
character and eminently charming, particularly as played here. The ideas are fresh and the middle movement,
"Solitude of the woods", is touching -as indeed is the delightful "Humoresque" which follows it. Composed for the
Hamburg Orchestra in 1879 it apparently filled them with delight as indeed it did me. Holbergiana was commissioned
for the bicentenary of the birth of the playwright Ludwig Holberg, sometimes known as "the Moliere of the north".
(This centenary also produced a second commission from Grieg, whose outcome was the familiar suite, From Holberg's
Time, originally written for piano and then subsequently refashioned for strings.) The four movements of Gade's suite
are all inspired by various Holberg plays, the finale, A l/egrofe.s1/ivo, evoking Maskarade, to which Nielsen turned for
his celebrated opera.

The playing of the Rheinland-Pfalz orchestra under Ole Schmidt is spontaneous, warm and musical. Everyone conveys
a sense of pleasure in what they are doing, and the recording is natural and well balanced."
Gramophone





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No.60

Robert Raines is a neo-tonal contemporary American composer whose ballet The Return of Odysseus
is based on the Iliad by Homer. It is colorful and varied program music. The CD also features two chamber
works, including a piece for 9(!) flutes.



Music Composed by Robert Raines
Played by The Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Vit Micka

"Robert Raines's career has spanned both music and visual arts, creating award-
winning work in both fields. Raised in New York City’s Greenwich Village
by parents who were active in the arts, he was immersed in music, theater,
literature, and the visual arts from an early age. His experience includes
working for a number of years as a guitarist and composer in New York
City, producing as well as performing on many recordings of jazz, blues,
and popular music. He has composed for both theater and film. In 2001,
following an extremely successful period in the graphic arts, he refocused
his energies on music, completing both Masters and Doctorate studies in
composition by 2007.

He's an active composer and educator, bringing to both endeavors his
trademark enthusiasm and appreciation for artists and students from
diverse backgrounds and disciplines. He has composed a sizeable body of
art music, released several CDs of original compositions, and toured the
United States and Europe. Robert is well versed in the latest music
computer technologies and maintains a state-of-the-art recording studio.

Robert has taught university level courses in theory and composition and
has received a number of prestigious awards and commissions for his
compositions.

Works in progress include a commission from the Brannen-Cooper Fund for
new music for 12 flutes and percussion, and commissions from the UK
group, rarescale, for pieces for quartertone alto flute and electronics, and
a suite for guitar and alto flute. Robert is currently composing a large work
for full orchestra, a string quartet, a flute concerto, and an electro-acoustic
performance piece that will include collaboration with local visual artists."





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File Size: 109 MB

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Arnell is new to me and I especially enjoyed the music for The Great Detective, which would make a far better film score than some used on the Sherlock Holmes films. He was obviously very popular with the ladies for he was married 8 times! Is that a record for a composer? Thanks for introducing this Wimpel. The cover is great too so I think it deserves a bigger one:

Thanks wimpel, great thread!

Thanks wimpel, great thread!

I agree! I love the type of music you are exposing us to!

Yes, a really great thread! Thank you.

Thanks, guys. I'll try to keep it up. Will be integrating your Orb�n disc later today, A.I.. :)


No.61

Film music fans need no introduction to Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, whose film scores for Napol�on, Les Mis�rables,
Pygmalion and others is well known. In fact, the final item on this album, Mermoz, is also a suite from a film score
(a different recording of this was uploaded by kobalski earlier this year). But Honegger is probably best remembered for
his short, powerful tone poem Pacific 231, created in admiration for a locomotive! It is one of the key works in
a musical style called "futurism", which enjoyed a brief popularity in the second and third decades of the 20th century
(other pieces include Mossolov's Iron Foundry and Prokofiev's Le Pas d'Acier). It is one of three so-called
"symphonic movements". The others, Pastorale d'�t� and Rugby, are also featured here. Horace Victorieux,
was originally conceived as a ballet, and there's also a prelude to Shakespeare's The Tempest.



Music Composed by Arthur Honegger
Played by the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse
Conducted by Michel Plasson

"Honegger's centenary year has deservedly brought his music back into wider circulation, and I welcome these pieces.
While every student knows of Pacific 231, and the charming Pastorale d'�t� is fairly often played, some of the others are
rarities, and although La travers�e des Andes and Le vol sur l'Atlantique have been recorded recently. Horace victorieux
is new to the catalogue and also to my ears.

This latter work is a "mimed symphony for orchestra", in other words a ballet, although its first performance in 1921
was in concert and it was not staged until 1927. The story, set in ancient Rome and first told by Livy, may be an ancestor
of Romeo and Juliet; it tells of the opposing Horatii and Curiatii families and features a love interest in the person of Horatius's
sister Camilla, whose love for a member of the other family leads to her death at her brother's hands. On first acquaintance,
I must confess that this 20-minute score seems to me undistinguished, written in an all-purpose dramatic language and
rather crudely scored. I doubt if it will have lasting interest except to specialists. Yet there are better things that are typical of
Honegger, such as the gently pastoral flute solo at the seven-minute mark, and the work deserves a place in the catalogue.

This performance is polished and persuasive, and indeed, Plasson and his Toulouse orchestra are on strong form throughout
the disc, with Pastorale d'�t� wonderfully atmospheric. Although inevitably the onomatopoeic element in Pacific 231 makes this
musical evocation of a steam locomotive rough-edged, Plasson's performance is musicianly and makes a good case for the work.
The same is true of Rugby, which the composer identified as expressing his enthusiasm for the game's disordered and "distressed
. . . attacks and repulses—though I think it unlikely that it was sung in the Lions' or All Blacks' changing rooms! La travers�e des Andes
and Le vol sur I'Atlantique both come from a film called Mermoz (1943): these are related miniature suites of film sequences that
are effective, if not very individual."
Gramophone



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Thank you !
May I ask if you could also upload the Honegger film scores you mentionned ? I have also heard much good about his oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au b�cher.

Thanks again to wimpel69 for all these very interesting and rare works!
May I suggest Richard Rodney Bennett Symphony no. 3 as another "could-be film music"? I heard it years ago and can assure it's all you need as far as "cinematic" music is concerned.

I can certainly upload that, I've got a version with Marthe Keller and Seiji Ozawa. Will do later. :)



No.62

Chinese composer Zhou Long, now based in the U.S., explores various aspects of the
Tang Dynasty in his works: Poems from Tang explores the rhyme and rhythm of poetry,
in which a string quartet assumes the sound of a Qin (a Chinese zither). The Rhyme of Taigu
is a vibrant evocation of the tradition of Chinese percussion instruments, while The Future of Fire
depicts a scene where farms burn off their fields but lose control of the flames. The music mixes Western
and Chinese elements in a haunting, modern yet accessible manner.



Music Composed by Zhou Long
Played by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra
With The Shanghai String Quartet & Singapore Chamber Choir
Conducted by Lan Shui

"Zhou Long (b. July 8, 1953, Beijing) is internationally recognized for creating a unique body of music
that brings together the aesthetic concepts and musical elements of East and West. Deeply grounded
in the entire spectrum of his Chinese heritage, including folk, philosophical, and spiritual ideals, he is a
pioneer in transferring the idiomatic sounds and techniques of ancient Chinese musical traditions to
modern Western instruments and ensembles. His creative vision has resulted in a new music that stretches
Western instruments eastward and Chinese instruments westward, achieving an
exciting and fertile common ground.

Zhou Long was born into an artistic family and began piano lessons at an early age. During the
Cultural Revolution, he was sent to a rural state farm, where the bleak landscape with roaring winds
and ferocious wild fires made a profound and lasting impression. He resumed his musical training in 1973,
studying composition, music theory, and conducting, as well as Chinese traditional music. In 1977, he enrolled
in the first composition class at the reopened Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Following graduation in 1983,
he was appointed composer-in-residence with the National Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra of China. Zhou Long
travelled to the United States in 1985 under a fellowship to attend Columbia University, where he studied with
Chou Wen-Chung, Mario Davidovsky, and George Edwards, receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1993.
After more than a decade as music director of Music from China in New York City, he received ASCAP’s prestigious
Adventurous Programming Award in 1999.

He has been the recipient of commissions from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress,
the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Chamber Music America, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Among the ensembles who have commissioned works from him, are the Bavarian Orchestra (Poems from Tang), the
Tokyo Philharmonic (The Future of Fire), the New Music Consort (The Ineffable), the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
(Soul and Tian Ling), the Peabody Trio (Spirit of Chimes), and the Kronos, Shanghai, Ciompi, and Chester string quartets
(Poems from Tang). In February 2010, his pioneering cross-cultural opera, Madam White Snake, which was premiered by
Opera Boston, received great critical acclaim. It was given a second performance in Beijing on the 27-October 2010
by the Bejing Philharmonic Orchestra.

A United States citizen since 1999, Zhou Long is married to the composer-violinist Chen Yi. It should be noted that
Zhou is his family name and Long is his personal name, and thus he should be referred to as Mr. Zhou or Dr. Zhou."



Source: BIS CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 153 MB (incl. cover, booklet)

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No.63 (by request)

One of Honegger's most famous and enduring works is the "dramatic oratorio" Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher,
in 11 scenes for speaker, solo singers, chorus and symphony orchestra to a libretto by Paul Claudel. I did not have time
to scan the booklet, but you can find a PDF of the libretto from a different performance in the French
original (and a German translation) here: http://www.hymnusiana.org/bachakademie.pdf (from page 8!)



Music Composed by Arthur Honegger / Libretto by Paul Claudel
Played by the Orchestre National de France
With the Choeur de Radio France
And Marthe Keller (speaker)
Conducted by Seiji Ozawa

"'There are passages in some musical works that never fail to bring a lump to my throat: for one, the final pages of
Ravel's L'enfant et les Sortileges, with its soothing "II est sage .....and the child's heartfelt cry of "Maman!";
another is the conclusion of this 'dramatic oratorio' by Honegger, with its beatific envoi "Greater love hath
no man than this, that he lay down his life for those he loves". I remember being overcome by this, like
many others, at the first English performance (a BBC broadcast in 1947): because of the war the work
had taken all but nine years to reach this country since the first performance (in Switzerland). Even so,
its gestation had been protracted: the idea had been conceived by Honegger and the actressdancer
Ida Rubinstein (for whom he had already written four works) in 1933, but Paul Claudel had at first refused
to write a libretto, feeling that it was not possible to put words into the mouth of a historical figure whose
own words were "engraved on everyone's memory". Then, astonishingly, he had a vision of two hands
tied and folded in the form of a cross, and in a white heat of emotion wrote his poem in two weeks:
Honegger completed his score at the end of 1935.

The diversity of Claudel's partly realistic, partly symbolic treatment of the subject ”almost cinematic,
like a long flashback�€”was mirrored in the music, which incorporates all kinds of techniques and styles.
Alongside purely spoken sections (neither of the chief cmracters, Joan and Brother Dominic, sings) there
are choral singing, humming and shouting; and stylistically, besides often elaborate polyphony, the work
contains folksong, Gregorian antiphon, jazz rhythms and baroque dances. The orchestra (in which horns
are replaced by saxophones) includes two pianos and (famously) an Ondes Martenot which, as well as
providing the "dog howling in the night", powerfully reinforces some climaxes�€”blood-curdlingly in the
moments just before Joan breaks her earthly chains.

It is a work of compelling power and, in the final scenes, of almost intolerable emotional intensity, yet
Honegger modestly insisted that his function had been merely to underline Claudel's precisely indicated
effects: musically he was anxious to make it all "accessible to the common man while retaining the interest
of the musician". Ozawa's reading certainly brings out the dramatic force of the whole, and except for a
very occasional flaw such as is inevitable in a live performance, the forces under his control do splendidly.
There are no major singing roles, but John Aler is a properly vainglorious Porcus, and mention must be
made of the beautiful voice of Francoise Pollet as the Virgin. Marthe Keller (who initially might have been a
trifle more strongly recorded) makes the most of the name-part and well conveys Joan's bewilderment,
fervour and agony. Vast as the Basilique Saint-Denis is, the balance and clarity of the recording are
mostly extremely good, calling for praise for the sound engineers."
Gramophone



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Thank you very much ! I'll give it a listen as soon as possible !

No.64

Julian Orb�n. His works are in the national-folkloristic idiom to an extent,
but also embrace elements of Coplandia and neo-classicst influences. Woirks presented here are the Three Symphonic
Versions, Symphonic Dances and the non-programmatic, but absolutely adorable Concerto Grosso.
If you like Turina and Falla, you'll like these, too.

I added the front cover & booklet as a separate upload.



Music Composed by Julian Orb�n
Played by the Asturias Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Maximiano Vald�s

"Born in Avil�s, Orb�n left Spain with his father in 1940 and both settled in Cuba where he started
his musical studies and composed his earliest works such as his Symphony in C of 1945. That same year,
he was awarded a grant to study in Tanglewood with Aaron Copland. Back in Cuba, he came to disagree
with the Castro r�gime and went into voluntary exile, first in Mexico and later in the States. He died in Miami in 1991.

Orb�n’s musical progress roughly falls into three different periods. His early music certainly reflects
optimism, and remains tonal, colourful and often folk-inflected under de Falla’s influence. The middle
period, to which these three pieces belong, is that of maturity. His music, now rather written under
Copland’s shadow, is less overtly tonal and its emotional scope considerably widens. The final period
is that of disillusionment, and the music becomes more austere and introspective.

Tres visiones sinf�nicas and Danzas sinf�nicas, that are roughly contemporary, have much in common.
The music is colourful, often energetic, rhythmically alert; and very often displays Copland’s influence, as
in the second movement Gregoriana of Danzas which turns a plainsong-like tune into a Coplandesque hoe-down
or in Pavana (the first movement of Tres versiones) in which a pavan by Luis de Milan is turned into another
Copland romp. The slow movements in both works, however, are generally more personal in expression, be it
in the powerful Declamatoria (in Danzas) or the beautiful, meditative Organum (in Tres versiones). Both sets
conclude with virile, colourful dances.

The Concerto Grosso (for string quartet and orchestra) is undoubtedly a major and substantial work for which
I retain an undiminished affection for it is the first Orb�n work I ever heard (in Mata’s recording on Dorian DOR-90178).
This mighty piece in three sizeable movements is clearly the peak of Orb�n’s middle period. If Copland’s influence is
still to be heard, especially in the outer movements, one is also sometimes reminded of Martinů’s sprung rhythms
permeating much of the melodic material. The slow movement is again a most personal utterance, a long slow processional,
often of modal flavour and not without grandeur. It contains some of the most beautiful music ever penned by the composer.

Some years ago, Mata recorded both the Concerto Grosso (Dorian DOR-90178) and Tres versiones (Dorian DOR-90179)
in fine, beautifully recorded readings. The present orchestra may not be in the same class as Mata’s Simon Bolivar
Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela; but I must say that I really enjoyed Vald�s’ committed, urgent readings
which serve the music well.

I urge you to listen to this most welcome and worthwhile release which will hopefully soon be followed
by another all-Orb�n disc by the same forces, for this still underrated composer unquestionably
deserves serious consideration. Recommended."
Music Web



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File Size: 142 MB (incl. cover, booklet)

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No.65

Hungarian composer Zolt�n Kod�ly was a contemporary of B�la Bart�k, and like him, he went into
countryside to collect the folk songs of his people. The two composers helped establish a national musical
style which other composers (like Mikl�s R�zsa and L�szlo Lajhta) were to emulate and/or develop.
Unlike Bart�k, Kod�ly never really went down the road to modernism in music, and the three colorful
compositions presented here (the H�ry Jan�s Suite extracted from a singspiel, the Dances of Galant� and
the Variations on a Hungarian Folksong "The Peacock") are ultimately folkloristic/neo-romantic in style.
The H�ry Jan�s Suite is particularly evocative and makes inspired use of the cymbalon.



Music Composed by Zolt�n Kod�ly
Played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Neeme J�rvi

"Hungarian composer Zolt�n Kod�ly is today remembered as much for his contributions to the fields of ethnomusicology
and music education as he is for his own musical creations. Born in 1881, Kod�ly was the son of a local railway station master
and amateur violinist who provided a rich musical environment for his child. Young Zolt�n's early exposure to the
German classics was tempered by an interest in the folk heritage of his native land; in 1900, after graduating from the
Archiepiscopal Grammar School in Nagyszombat, he enrolled simultaneously at Budapest University (where he studied
Germanic and Hungarian literature) and at the Budapest Academy of Music. Composition studies at the Academy were
fruitful for Kod�ly, and he took a diploma in the subject in 1904. In 1905 he received a second diploma in music education,
and in 1906 Kod�ly crowned his academic career with a Ph.D. earned for his thorough structural analysis of Hungarian
folksong. During the preparation of this dissertation Kod�ly went on the first of many excursions into rural Hungary to
record and transcribe authentic folk music, and in doing so built a strong and lasting friendship with B�la Bart�k (who
was engaged in the same practice at the time, and with whom Kod�ly would go on to publish several collections of
Hungarian folk music).

Kod�ly's debut as a composer came in October 1906 with a successful performance of his orchestral poem Summer Evening
(Ny�ri este) at the Academy of Music. Two months later Kod�ly left Hungary for the first time, having received funding
from the Academy for a period of study in Berlin and Paris. Upon his return in 1907 he was appointed to the faculty of the
Academy, eventually succeeding his teacher Koessler as professor of composition (and becoming Dohn�nyi's assistant when
the latter was appointed director of the Academy in 1919). With the creation of the New Hungarian Music Society in 1911,
Kod�ly firmly established himself alongside Bart�k and Dohn�nyi as a powerful force in Hungary's developing musical culture.
Kod�ly produced a steady stream of music (his most famous works being the opera H�ry J�nos from 1927 and the orchestral
suite from that opera) and important educational works (which have collectively become known to music educators as the
Kod�ly method, and rank in significance alongside similar contributions by Orff and Dalcroze) until his death in 1967. In later
years he made frequent concert tours during which he appeared as a conductor of his own music, though he never abandoned
what he himself considered to be his primary work: the collection and systematization of Hungarian folk music and culture, and
a corresponding assimilation of that body of work into a new Hungarian artistic aesthetic (a goal also shared by his friend Bart�k).
In the years after the Second World War he was honored by countless academic, musical, and political organizations around
the globe; in 1961 he served as president of the International Folk Music Council, and, in 1964, as honorary president of the
International Society of Music Educators."
All Music





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File Size: 143 MB (incl. cover & booklet)

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No.66

Make no mistake about it: This is loud music. Really loud music. Really, really loud. Michael Daugherty's sprawling,
gloriously cinematic, proudly eclectic, cheerfully vulgar Metropolis Symphony is also an example of a "maximalist" composer
who uses every trick in the book, and then some - throws in the kitchen sink, and then the dish washer after it, to entertain his audience.
The Superman music that might have been. And certainly a glorious example of what post-modernism in concert music is all about.
The symphony is "inspired" by the story of Lois and Clark, but it's not film music. Also included is the short Bizarro for Orchestra,
which is not featured on a re-release.



Music Composed by Michael Daugherty
Played by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by David Zinman

"Michael Daugherty was born in 1954 in Cedar Rapids, IA. Raised in a family of musicians (his father was a
dance band drummer), Daugherty was subject to many different influences, and began playing keyboards in jazz,
rock, and funk bands. It was these early influences and loves that later informed his formal music writing; his chamber
music and symphonic works alike are based on references to American popular culture, including Elvis Presley,
J. Edgar Hoover, I Love Lucy, UFOs, Rosa Parks, spaghetti Western movies, and Barbie dolls. With these pieces,
Daugherty has risen to be one of the most performed and talked-about composers of his time.

Daugherty received his bachelor's degree from North Texas State University in 1976. It was there that he composed
his first work for orchestra. He then received a master of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Daugherty
left the states on a Fulbright fellowship to attend Boulez's IRCAM in Paris in 1979. In 1980, he began his final graduate
studies at Yale University. After completing the coursework requirement of the degree, he moved to Hamburg, Germany,
to study privately with Gy�rgy Ligeti.

In 1986, Daugherty received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University and was hired to teach composition at
the Oberlin Conservatory. The following year, he came to national attention after winning a Kennedy Center Friedheim award
for Snap, Blue like an Orange! Over the next few years, Daugherty's music began to be performed all over the United States
and appeared on many recordings. Some of the pieces he wrote at this time were the Metropolis Symphony for orchestra,
Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover for 3 Elvis impersonators and string quartet, Bizzaro for symphonic winds, and Dead Elvis for
chamber ensemble. Daugherty received critical acclaim and audience approval for his work including awards and fellowships
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment
for the Arts.

Daugherty began teaching at the University of Michigan in 1991. Commissions during this period included Jackie-O for the
Houston Grand Opera, UFO for percussionist Evelyn Glennie and orchestra, Spaghetti Western for English horn and orchestra
for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Hell's Angels, a concerto for bassoon quartet and orchestra. The Detroit Symphony, as part
of his four-year appointment as composer-in-residence, premiered Motor City Triptych in 2000."
All Music



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File Size: 110 MB

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---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:26 PM ----------




No.67

This is one of the most consistently intriguing entries in Naxos' Milken Archive series, featuring three
very different programmatic orchestral works (the monicker "Jewish Tone Poems" is a bit blurry,
as is the label's designation of all of this being American music), from Avshalomov's lyrical, straightforward
Four Biblical Tableaux and Sheila Silver's much more harmonically advanced Shirat Sara to the most ambitious
work here, Meyerowitz's program symphony Midrash Esther, a powerful work filled with spiky rhythms and
impassioned dissonances (think of a modernised Ernest Bloch, if you will).



Music by Aaron Avshalomov, Sheila Silver & Jan Meyerowitz
Played by The Seattle Symphony and Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Conducted by Gerard Schwarz & Yoel Levi

"Off the beaten path. Naxos once again explores byways unknown to most of us in its by-now extensive American Jewish Music
series of performances from the Milken Archives. I had heard music only by Avshalomov previously, and I didn't particularly care for it. This I liked a lot better.

I should say while I consider all the composers capable, even quite fine, most aren't masters in the sense of people like Bart�k, Stravinsky,
Prokofiev, or Hindemith. They don't write, strictly speaking, necessary music. The question, of course, comes down to whether art must
be necessary in order to claim one's attention or even love. We've all met people who listen only to indisputably great works, with the rest
not worth their time. I don't necessarily quarrel with this, except to say that such a listening strategy doesn't work for me. I don't live on
an exalted plane all the time, just as I don't live in a neighborhood of architectural masterpieces. I want to know as much of a landscape as I can.
Even a city as great and beautiful as Paris wouldn't inspire love if it were unrelentingly perfect or grand. All those palaces need the balance of
thousands of modest apartments, boulangeries, and bistros. Furthermore, I need to feel, more often than I care to admit, that I've stolen a
moment here and there to waste.

I always associate Aaron Avshalomov with the Pacific Northwest, although he had an unusually cosmopolitan career. The same goes for his son,
Jacob, whom I find the more interesting composer. However, both stand in the enormous shade of Ernest Bloch (whom they both knew), as
did many self-consciously Jewish composers of the first half of the century. Father Aaron took from the "Jewish," rhapsodic style of Bloch's
Schelomo, while son Jacob tended to follow the "neoclassical" Bloch, from a piece like the Sinfonia Breve. Although both men have something
of their own to say, they don't say it as compellingly as Bloch. In high school, I went crazy for Bloch's music -- a fascination that has never
left me -- and I thought that with a little training, I could write Blochian pieces as well as Bloch himself. Thank God those pieces never got written.
I would have become a less authentic Avshalomov. In fact, I've encountered only one composer who composed Bloch as well as the original --
Rebecca Clarke.

The Avshalomov consists of four movements: "Queen Esther's Prayer," "Rebecca by the Well," "Ruth and Naomi," and "Processional." The movements,
all beautifully orchestrated, run fairly short; don't expect Richard-Strauss length. Queen Esther prays like a Mittel-Europa cantor, with catches and
appoggiaturas in an essentially vocal melodic line. "Rebecca by the Well," by far the liveliest movement of the four, opens with a gamelan-like orchestra,
similar to Ravel's "Laidronette" movement from Ma M�re l' Oye, reminding the listener that Avshalomov resided for many years in China. The bright,
fast music is punctuated by meditative passages. "Ruth and Naomi," another slow movement and my favorite of the four, achieves a noble calm.
This carries over to the start of the "Processional" finale, which switches to triumph. The four movements seem a bit narrow expressively --
three of the four tableaux mine the meditative vein. However, their brevity works for them. They don't outstay their welcome.

Jan Meyerowitz studied with Zemlinsky, Respighi, and Casella, among others. Born in Germany, he didn't know he was Jewish (his parents kept
the information from him) until he became a young man and the Nazis gained power. He fled to Belgium and then to the south of France, where
he lived in hiding through much of the Occupation. He finally emigrated to the United States, where he gained a reputation as an opera composer,
collaborating with such eminent writers as Langston Hughes. His symphony, Midrash Esther, uses the outline of cantorial melos much of the time,
but more as a Respighian color, rather than as something inseparably bonded to the music's conception. It comes closest in idiom to Zemlinsky,
but Meyerowitz writes leaner and meaner. One could also argue whether Meyerowitz has composed a symphony at all. The "dramatic narrative"
takes precedence over any thematic argument. Indeed, you can hear an instinctive opera composer in this work, in the third movement
especially, which depicts Esther revealing the fact of her Jewishness to her husband, the king. One hears at times a dialogue between the two
characters. The work, though well-written, doesn't get my juices flowing, but that doesn't mean others will share my apathy.

To me, Sheila Silver's Shirat Sarah (the song of Sarah) takes best in program. Silver studied with a host of leading lights, including Lig�ti,
Druckman, Seymour Schifrin, Arthur Berger, and Harold Shapero. She doesn't sound like any of them, although a certain intensity, which I
associate with all these composers, informs her work. The music exhibits a high degree of dissonance, but it's not atonal. Expertly written
for strings (with first-chair violin taking extensive solos), it has many sources of inspiration, which you can read about in the liner notes.
The title refers to the story of Sarah, who lamented her childlessness and who then conceived Isaac. However, in contrast to the Meyerowitz,
Silver doesn't attempt to tell a dramatic story, although she writes powerfully and expressively (dramatic in that sense). The piece is
more "about" themes than characters. Silver's ability to construct an argument sui generis impresses me the most. I've listened to this work
a lot in the past month, and I discover something new each time. I don't pretend to have its measure yet, although it's not a matter of
understanding the language so much as it is perceiving relationships among movements. I have no idea how to tell a masterpiece with any
reliability, but Silver's score at least makes me ask the question: if not, why not. I haven't yet found an answer, a good sign.

Performers do well, with Schwarz better than Levi. Schwarz brings clear shape to his work, and in the Silver, it isn't easy. Levi has always
annoyed me with a slack approach to rhythm and attack, as well as with a certain amorphousness to the general structure of a piece. And it's
not as though he compensates (as Solti does, for example) by supplying anything as vulgar as physical excitement. So Meyerowitz may have
gotten a raw deal. I could carp about the tonal strength of Schwarz's Seattle strings, but they do deliver an undoubtedly insightful account of
a score that tends to keep many secrets.
Classical CD


From left to right: Avshalomov, Silver, Meyerowitz



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No.68

Normally I'm not a big fan of "projects" like The Women's Philharmonic, an orchestra entirely comprised of women and
performing the works of women composers exclusively. However, if a composer is twice marginalized by the establishment
(being a woman and an African-American) I do see the point. Except for the direct quotations from spirituals like Deep River, or
Go Down Moses, there is little intrinsically "African American" about Florence Price's neo-romantic music, although it
does have a distinctly Southern "slang" to it. The Symphony No.3 is a pleasant, alternately lyrical, comical and dramatic,
while The Oak is a rather solemn symphonic poem. The most attractive work may be the Mississippi River Suite,
which extensively quotes from folk songs and spirituals.



Music Composed by Florence Price
Played by The Women's Philharmonic
Conducted by Apo Hsu

"When her Symphony No.3 was played by the Chicago Symphony in 1940, Florence Price became the first African-American
woman composer to be performed by a major American orchestra. Most of her music came in the smaller domestic genres of
piano pieces and songs (performed by some of the top singers of her day), but she also wrote four symphonies and the two
orchestral works which round out this disc. Mississippi River Suite is an arrestingly orchestrated medley of folksongs
(in settings emotionally intimate, for the most part, rather than grandiose), but she proudly incorporated African-American
dance and blues idioms into her abstract works as well, such as the Symphony. Fresh, richly tuneful, unsophisticated in the
best sense, and joyous, Price's music is here played with brio and conviction by the San Francisco-based Women's Philharmonic
under Apo Hsu."
eMusic





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No.69

Walter Leigh was an English composer whose life was cut short when he was killed in action by German forces at Tobruk
in WWII. He hadn't yet found his personal idiom, so we're left with a small body of work that is stylistically all over the place,
but nicely crafted. This album of orchestral works includes a ceremonial overture Agincourt, which is not far from
William Walton's music for the Olivier Shakespeare films. There's also incidental music to a performance of
A Midsummer Night's Dream (in 1936 Germany, ironically) and two short pieces from another theatre score, The Frogs.
The non-programmatic Concertino for Harpsichord is neo-classical in style.



Music Composed by Walter Leigh
Played by the London Philharmonic & New Philharmonia Orchestras
Conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite

"Walter Leigh's discography has seldom extended, at any one time, much beyond the Harpsichord Concertino,
a favourite piece for many years. Thus the present issue forms a remarkable and very welcome extension of that discography.

In a perceptive and informative sleeve-note Hugo Cole points out that in Leigh's relatively short life (he was killed in
his thirties fighting at Tobruk) he chose not to teach (a choice which many teachers will understand!), but instead to
live by seeking and accepting composing commissions. As a result, much of his music needed to be fitted to an occasion,
and quite often the occasion involved orchestras consisting wholly or partly of amateur players. To this situation Leigh
always responded in the most professional of ways, using his own writing skill to produce music which made the right
sound without demanding too much of his players in the way of their own performing skill. No doubt some pressurization
in this direction came from Leigh's teacher Hindemith, whose own skill in that particular direction, as well as a hundred
others, would not have been lost On his pupils.

Schools provided one such occasion in 1936: incidental music for a combined schools production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
in Weimar. The production took place in the open air, where a small string-based orchestra (including a harpsichord!) can
hardly have sounded at its best. But that is no problem on this present occasion, when the music will here and there probably
remind the listener of Mendelssohn without actually replacing him. Also in 1936, a university made a request: Cambridge wanted
music for one of its series of productions of Greek plays, on this occasion Aristophanes's The Frogs ("brekke-kekex ko-ax ko-ax"
I think the frogs commented). This time a somewhat larger orchestra in a somewhat smaller and enclosed auditorium, and again
the music in its present circumstances comes up well, though the excerpts chosen are instrumental ones only. Similarly, the
Music for siring orchestra makes only very modest demands, and so does the Harpsichord Concertino (which indeed with its
alternative piano soloist could make an excellent short concerto for a school orchestra concert very much more often
than it is allowed to).

The LPO is no school orchestra (though I think it will have few members who did not once happily—reasonably happily—play in one).
But on this occasion it applies itself entirely rewardingly to committed professional performances of the music concerned, as of course
does Trevor Pinnock to the harpsichord part of the Concertino. Indeed, the exuberance of the string playing in this piece causes
balance problems occasionally: some of the soloist's accompanimental figurations do retire very much into the background.
This is for a few bars of many thousands; the excellence of the recording (including its balance) elsewhere allows the unqualified
recommendation of this most enterprising record."
Gramophone





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No.70

American neo-romantic composer and concert pianist Edward Joseph Collins wrote quite a lot of music, most of which
remained unknown in his lifetime. In the early years of the 2000s, Albany Records embarked on an ambitious 10 CD project
featuring the composer's orchestral, chamber and vocal music. This CD, Volume 7, includes a suite from the ballet
The Masque of the Red Death, an Irish Rhapsody and A Set of Four (character pieces). The Albany
albums were released to general acclaim and have done much to redress Collins's neglect.



Music Composed by Edward Joseph Collins
Played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conducted by Marin Alsop

"Boy is this sexy! The ballet suite The Masque of the Red Death gives Strauss’ Salome
a very good run for its money in the decadence department. I mean, just look at the five
movement titles (which naturally are in French): Invocation Profane; Propos subtil et mysterieux;
Valse seduisante; Chez le Sultan; and Orgie (of course!). If this isn’t self recommending to all lovers
of over-the-top late-Romantic extravagance then nothing ever will be. Collins’ music is wonderfully
lush and beautifully scored, and the contrast between this late work and the earlier, simpler Irish Rhapsody
establishes him as something of a stylistic chameleon. Collins in fact wrote several “Irish” works and they
run like a thread through his musical career, the present example being far more straightforwardly tuneful
though no less well crafted than his later output.

Set of Four is a group of three miniatures (Prelude, To Her, and Passcaglia) surrounding a large, gorgeous
second movement evocatively titled Moonlight and Dance. Like the ballet suite, this is harmonically rich, opulent,
sophisticated music composed by an artist with a sure sense of style and (what’s even better) a good sense of
timing. All of these works deserve to be played and savored by music lovers. As with previous entries in this series,
Marin Alsop gets very impressive results from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with whom she also is
working on Naxos’ Barber series. They seem to have a very good working relationship, and the players vividly
characterize music that sometimes risks becoming harmonically elusive (think Delius with rhythm). Certainly
these performances do the composer proud, and they are extremely well recorded. You may very well find this
to be one of the most enjoyable novelties to come along in quite a while."
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Waler Leigh's Harpsichord Concerto has always been a beautiful surprise- an instrument that is pretty ignored by the British composers. I have never heard any other music by the composer so this will be just lovely!!!!!!!!!!!

---------- Post added at 11:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 AM ----------





No.63 (by request)

One of Honegger's most famous and enduring works is the "dramatic oratorio" Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher,
in 11 scenes for speaker, solo singers, chorus and symphony orchestra to a libretto by Paul Claudel. I did not have time
to scan the booklet, but you can find a PDF of the libretto from a different performance in the French
original (and a German translation) here: http://www.hymnusiana.org/bachakademie.pdf (from page 8!)



Music Composed by Arthur Honegger / Libretto by Paul Claudel
Played by the Orchestre National de France
With the Choeur de Radio France
And Marthe Keller (speaker)
Conducted by Seiji Ozawa

more strongly recorded) makes the most of the name-part and well conveys Joan's bewilderment,




I like this version better.

Thread 114380

No.71

Austro-German Karol Rathaus was one of those unluck composers whose music the Nazis deemed "degenerate" (entartet),
and he had to emigrate to the United States to save his life. His music is expressionistic in style, the ballet The Last Pierrot
presented here (along with the Symphony No.1) is one of his finest works.



Music Composed by Karol Rathaus
Played by the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin
Conducted by Israel Yinon

"Karol Rathaus was one of those indirect victims of Nazism that Decca's Entartete Musik series has been so indispensable in rediscovering.
Polishborn, he was briefly very successful in pre-war Germany (an opera was premiered by Bruno Walter; Furtw�ngler and Horenstein also
took him up). Seeing the way the wind was blowing he left Germany the year before Hitler came to power, wrote film music and a ballet in
Paris and London but found few openings and fewer performances in America, where he eventually settled.

The First Symphony (there are two others) was roundly abused at its premiere in 1926; this recording is its first performance since then,
and the composer - not yet 60— went to his early grave believing the score to be lost. It is a prodigiously inventive work, 40 minutes long
though in only two movements, in a frowning, sinewy postromantic style that might remind you just a little of the symphonies of Honegger
or of the more austere pages of Martin/i. The thematic language, though, is much closer to the Viennese tradition and its roots in Mahler,
Reger and (Rathaus's teacher) Schreker are clearly perceptible. But it has an individual emotional vein, often grim, sombre or shadowed,
rising at times to a bitter eloquence that is very striking; orchestrally, too, it is highly accomplished. According to an accompanying note
Rathaus was frightened by the reaction to the work and by the anti-Semitism of some of his critics; it is hard not to hear some such
prejudice in dismissals of the symphony as 'atonal'. It is no such thing, and although many of its melodies are angular and some of its
dissonances harsh, it is by no means especially innovative for its period.

Even so, Rathaus apparently changed his style soon afterwards. Not radically, if his ballet The last Pierrot is anything to go by. Its melodies
are sometimes smoother; no doubt association with dance added an element of grace to his manner, but the music is evidently by the
same composer as the symphony. Jazz elements are introduced (and adroitly used to convey real menace at one point) and there is a
violent forcefulness that aptly reflects the plot - this is a Pierrot in modern times, seeking his Columbine among factories and dance halls.
It is effective and was for a while very popular. But it is the Symphony that whets one's appetite for more of this impressively gifted composer's
music, especially in such eloquent performances as these. The Symphony is a tough piece to bring off— it had to wait five years for its premiere,
because conductors were scared of it but Israel Yinon has its full measure. I look forward to future recordings by him as eagerly as I do to
more music by Karol Rathaus."
Gramophone





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Man, this thread is massive! Wimpel, you are amazing. All of this music is truly beautiful, and I can barely keep up (stupid DepositFiles and their time restriction)!

Also, SATIE! YES! This pleases me. :3

No.72

Japanese composer Shiro Fukai (1907-1959) was primarily influenced by French music early in his career (the French titles
for the different works on this album might indicate that), but his style evolved towards Stravinsky.
A very prolific film composer virtually unknown outside of Japan, Fukai composed a ballet, Cr�ation, based on Japanese
mythology, and a Chants de Java, a symphonic poem that builds to a powerful crescendo. His style is a bit more
genteel than, e.g., Akira Ifukube's music (Sinfonia Tapkaara), and a little "French polish" is always in evidence.



Music Composed by Shiro Fukai
Played by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky

"Japanese composer Shiro Fukai was apparently better known in his native
country for his nearly 200 film scores than his classical compositions, though he was thought
of highly enough to be among those receiving a commission in celebration of the 2600th Year of the
Emperor (not a single emperor, of course, but the anniversary of Imperial rule) in 1940. The resulting
work, a ballet score entitled Cr�ation , is included here. Illustrating several Japanese creation myths
and concluding in the (then) present, the music does adapt at least one traditional mode from the
ages-old court music gagaku , though the primary impression it makes is not via styles indigenous to
the island, but rather Ravel and early Stravinsky. Fukai's Francophilia is audible in the rest of this program
as well; his Parodies are dedicated to Falla, Stravinsky, Ravel, and Roussel, respectively, and though not exactly
mimicry, they touch on enough points of stylistic similarity to suit the title. Program annotator Morihide Katayama
characterizes Fukai as a Modernist, but one that avoided the adopted artistic "savagery" of early Modernism
(and the starkness of traditional Japanese folk and court musics) in favor of a French-influenced manner of
sweetness and light. This may account for Fukai?s renaming one of the movements from an earlier version of the
work, changing the dedication from Bart�k to Roussel, apparently without altering a note of the music.
(A movement dedicated to Malipiero was removed completely.) Though Katayama also cites Bolero as an
influence on the Songs of Java ?s gradual crescendo, Fukai's colorful orchestration outdoes even Ravel,
with chiming percussion reflecting Javanese gamelan, a brief but prominent part for saxophone, and even
something approaching an insistent jazz riff in the brass. (In a curious editorial gaffe, Naxos labels both
Cr�ation and Songs of Java as "World Premiere Recordings", though Katayama's notes mention a recording
of the latter being popular in wartime Japan.)"
Fanfare



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No.73

Takashi Yoshimatsu also hails from Japan (but is different from Fukai in almost every other respect). He mostly
lives and works in the United Kingdom. Like one of the great composers of the 20th century, Olivier Messiaen,
Yoshimatsu is fascinated with birds, their nature as well as their poetical and mythological "properties".
The two works on this album are a case in point: the Kamui-Chikap Symphony, which deals with all kinds of sounds,
but is organized in five movements inspired by the dances of the god Shiva. The title of the symphony means "God Bird".
Whereas Messiaen's "bird music" is often elusive and pointilistic, Yoshimatsu's is dynamic, extremely colorful and very accessible,
although he uses every trick in the book know to the Western avantgarde. It's a wild mix of different influences, and does
not shy away from pop/rock quotations either. The Ode to the Birds and Rainbow was inspired by the final words the
composer's sister said on her deathbed: "The next time I'm born I would like to be a bird". She had been listening to an
album of bird songs before her death.



Music Composed by Takashi Yoshimatsu
Played by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Sachio Fujioka

"Chandos have signed up a new Composer-in-Residence, Tokyoborn Takashi Yoshimatsu. The BBC Philharmonic under the
composer's countryman, Sachio Fujioka, have already given us one disc of Yoshimatsu's music, containing the Second Symphony,
Guitar Concerto and Threnody to Toki (6/96). Last May, at the helm of the Manchester Camerata (of which he is Principal Conductor),
Fujioka recorded a second volume devoted to the half-hour Piano Concerto and four shorter pieces.

Sitting in the control room of BBC Manchester's Studio No. 7 listening to the delicately serene progress of While an Angel Falls into a
Doze, a single phrase suddenly reminds me of Sibelius and the Sixth Symphony in particular. When I mention this to Yoshimatsu
afterwards, he beams from ear to ear. "I'm amazed and delighted you sensed that! You know, it was after hearing a performance of
Sibelius's Sixth many years ago that I decided to become a composer. I adore the limitless horizons and wide open spaces of Sibelius's
music: Tapiola was another seminal work for me. Tchaikovsky is also a hero of Signed up as Chandos's composer-in- residence,
Takashi Yoshimatsu has just released his second disc - recorded in Manchester Photo Chandosl Hansen mine, and Shostakovich too:
"I love the dark intensity and concentration of the Tenth and Sixth Symphonies especially. But my tastes and influences go far wider:
jazz, traditional Japanese gagalat music, British rock music — The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Yes, Queen ... even Oasis."

Born in 1953, Yoshimatsu learnt the piano as a child but initially studied to be an engineer. He taught himself composition, was a pupil of
Teizo Matsumura (b.1929) and has also performed in a variety of rock and jazz bands. How would he attempt to define his own music?
"Well, I suppose you could say there's a spiritual aspect there, but I love drama and passion too. Rhythm "Back in Japan," explains Fujioka,
"Takashi's beliefs are not shared by his contemporary colleagues, all of whom reject tonality and write very intellectually. Those kind of
pieces are just for specialist audiences: they don't speak to the public like, say, the finale of Beethoven's Choral does. On the surface, a piece
like Takashi's Piano Concerto sounds very beautiful. But if you really listen hard, there's so much activity. I think in this work Takashi also
wanted to set himself a specific challenge of writing for a Mozartsize ensemble; that in itself requires a special discipline. Clarity of texture is
important to him: he has a sophisticated ear. The Camerata produces a clean, tight, classical sound, but there are times when Takashi's
music demands quite the opposite of that."
Gramophone



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---------- Post added at 11:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 AM ----------




No.74

Austrian composer Karl Weigl once served as a kapellmeister under Arnold Schoenberg, and the older but more advanced
composer always admired him for his fine craftsmanship. Weigl never left tonality behind, and in fact his idiom is rather closer
to that of Franz Schmidt (escpecially the latter's 4th Symphony). Like many of his countrymen, Weigl had to emigrate to the U.S.,
and like fellow emigr� Erich Wolfgang Korngold, he dedicated a symphony to President Roosevelt. The Apocalyptic Symphony, his
fifth, is a sprawling, sumptuous, epic work that any addict of Vienna turn-of-the-century music will love and admire, even if it was
composer rather late for that kind of style. Cast in four movements (Evocation, The Dance around the Golden Calf, Paradise Lost and
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), it is appropriately tumultuous and dynamic.



Music Composed by Karl Weigl
Played by the Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin
Conducted by Thomas Sanderling

"Karl Weigl’s music demonstrates once again that the great Austrian/German symphonic tradition did not die
with Mahler, but continued to thrive well into the 20th century. Weigl (1881-1949) worked under Mahler in Vienna
and enjoyed a fine reputation until, as we’ve heard often by now, the Nazi seizure of power, which forced his emigration
to America where he died in comparative obscurity. He nevertheless composed a substantial body of orchestral and
chamber music, including six symphonies. If this one is typical, it’s a legacy that urgently calls out for wider exposure.

Composed in 1945 and dedicated to the memory of President Roosevelt, the “Apocalyptic Symphony” received its
premiere in 1968 under Stokowski. Although a couple of private tapes of that and at least one other performance exist,
neither gives much sense of the impact that this magnificent work can have in concert. This splendid recording does.
Weigl’s music offers the tonal richness and harmonic complexity of Franz Schmidt, with a healthy dose of Mahlerian irony
and a brittle humor that calls to mind Berthold Goldschmidt. The symphony opens with a marvelous gesture: over the
sounds of the orchestra tuning, the trombones blast out the first movement’s principal theme. Order having thus been
established out of chaos, the music moves purposefully through a variety of predominantly dark moods to a stern conclusion.

The scherzo, subtitled “The Dance around the Golden Calf”, has a certain oriental quality, but much more noteworthy is
its thematic workmanship, particularly the return of the trio section in a fortissimo outburst toward the end. The Adagio,
headed “Paradise Lost”, must be ranked among the finest slow movements since Bruckner, whose rapt serenity and spiritual
loftiness it effortlessly recalls. Get this disc for this movement alone: it’s a perfect example of music both of a specific tradition
and effecting a new step forward for that same tradition. Distinguished by haunting melodies, evocative orchestration, and
superbly gauged climaxes, it also confirms just how well trained this entire generation of composers really was, particularly
in the confident use of a large and varied orchestra.

The finale, “The Four Horsemen”, is not what the title might lead you to expect, and it serves to caution listeners to pay
attention to the music rather than to external descriptions. We’ll never really know exactly what this appellation may have
meant to Weigl, but I have already seen a couple of stupid comments in print by “critics” who observe that the music
doesn’t “sound” to them like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as if they would know! What matters, of course, is
whether or not what Weigl actually composed works as the finale to his Fifth Symphony–and about that there can be no
question. What we have here is a bitterly ironic march, leaving no doubt that Weigl sees the apocalypse in question not as
a spiritual happening, but as man-made event. For 10 minutes the music marches on, pausing once for a glimpse back at
Paradise Lost before the pealing of bells announces a conclusion as ambiguously triumphant as that of any Shostakovich
symphony. It’s an inexorably “right” conclusion to a remarkable work.

The Phantastisches Intermezzo began life as part of the composer’s Second Symphony, but soon acquired an independent
existence. More lightly scored than the Fifth Symphony, it’s a brilliant exercise in contrast, particularly with respect to chromatic vs.
diatonic harmony. Scurrying wind figures and bustling strings alternate with Romantic-sounding brass fanfares. It’s a delight.
Weigl’s orchestration shimmers brilliantly, and there’s absolutely nothing quite like it by anyone else.

The Berlin Radio Symphony and Thomas Sanderling deserve special credit for their effervescent performance of this
gossamer-textured, extremely rapid and tiring piece. But then, they play both works with tremendous commitment.
Sanderling clearly understands the special emotional world that the symphony’s Adagio inhabits; he and his players deliver
the music with a hushed intensity that, more than any other factor, sets the seal on Weigl’s claim to musical greatness.
Thrilling recorded sound, warm yet clear, captures the music’s complex textures with tactile immediacy. Don’t miss this
stunning new release. Buy it, and send a signal to BIS that we want more!"
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No.75

French composer Georges Auric is of course well known in film music "quarters", especially for the droll
scores he wrote for several Ealing Studios comedies in the 1950s. But he was also a member of the important
group "Les Six", which also included Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud & Francis Poulenc.
Featured on this album are two ballet scores, Ph�dre and Le Peintre et son Mod�le.



Music Composed by Georges Auric
Played by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Conducted by Arturo Tamayo

"Martin Kahane's notes pay Auric the tribute of giving us no biographical background
on Auric except his involvement in these two ballet scores. It is as if we already know that
he was born in Lod�ve, H�rault in France. A pupil of D'Indy he was at first strongly influenced
by Satie. As his individuality grew so he became recognised alongside Durey and Honegger as
part of Les Six. We know Auric now because of his film music of which there are collections on
both Chandos and Marco Polo. In fact in addition there are fourteen ballets written between
1923 and 1952 as well as some chamber music, songs, piano solos and a clutch of orchestral works.

Across the fifteen movements of the music for the Ph�dre ballet Auric proves himself an adherent
of a stern and gaunt tonality at times like Barber's Medea ballet music. There is much that is thunderously
emphatic with the message hammered home with tragic intensity as for example in the Danse Fun�bre
which is more march than dance. The boiling euphoric tension of this music passingly recalls that of
Igor Markevitch although Auric always manages to find a more yielding humane accent. His music is also
softened by his evident admiration for Ravel's methods. There is also a Bliss-like abandon about some of
the more lively writing as in Danse de joie. The tragic element gripes and shudders especially in the
Despair and Fury of Theseus and the Death of Ph�dre but even in that last scene Auric writes much
that is tender, gentle and imbued with consolation.

Le Peintre et son Mod�le is another ballet written one year before Ph�dre. This is much shorter and has
only seven scenes. Understandably the score is in much the same language as Ph�dre except that the
jagged tragic element is not as evident. Other moods are in play here including the waltz, an absurdist
agenda (like something from Prokofiev’s Love of Three Oranges) and a glittering and starry enchantment
in the last movement; contentedly magical writing.

Revelatory experiences here with Auric presented in a new light. Lovely music bound to please those
already enthralled by Markevitch, Stravinsky and Bliss."
Musicweb Web





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Hey Wimpel, seeing as you mentioned earlier if there was anything we were looking for in particular...would you happen to have any more Sibelius? Perhaps something with his Fifth Symphony on it?

I have a second request, although I'm not sure you can fulfill it
As you have already posted some Behzad Ranjbaran : would you happen to have his Cello Concerto ? I have been looking for it for a while, in vain...

Thank you very much whatever the answer.

By the way, from Sibelius, I strongly recommand his First Symphony (Vanska cond.), which is gorgeous, and his tone poem Luonnotar, for Soprano and Orchestra. ;)

By the way, from Sibelius, I strongly recommand his First Symphony (Vanska cond.), which is gorgeous, and his tone poem Luonnotar, for Soprano and Orchestra. ;)

I haven't really heard Sibelius yet, so that's why I'm eager to get some of his symphonies. :3

The Sibelius 5th is his most beautiful. The first movement opens with the hint of what turns out to be an infectious theme that quivers and wavers and builds and builds into something sumptuous and hair raising.

The Sibelius 5th is his most beautiful. The first movement opens with the hint of what turns out to be an infectious theme that quivers and wavers and builds and builds into something sumptuous and hair raising.

The reason I'm especially interested in the Fifth is because I was reading a music blog and the author stated how Sibelius' Fifth Symphony pretty much 'saved' his life. He listened to it non-stop during a particularly bad time in his life, and it helped him get through it. I know I could probably look it up right away on Youtube to hear it, but I'd rather be patient first and see if Wimpel (or anyone else frequenting this thread) has recordings of it to share.

I do have quite a lot of Sibelius, all of his orchestral works really. But in context of this thread I would rather post a disc or two with his symphonic poems. He was one of the great composers of program music in the 20th century. Sorry, but the first Ranjbaran disc is the only one I have.

But first:


No.75

Samuel Barber is best known for his Adagio for Strings and his perfectly lovely Violin Concerto. He didn't write
a lot of programmatic music (in fact he didn't write a lot of music altogether), but his ballet Medea (originally: Cave of the Heart)
is one of his strongest works. While the original ballet was composed for a small ensemble (like the other ballets commissioned by Martha Graham),
the suite recorded here was re-arranged by the composer for full symphony orchestra. Also included are his Third Essay for Orchestra and
Fadograph of a Yestern Scene, inspired by a quotation from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake.



Music Composed by Samuel Barber
Played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Andrew Schenck

"The score of Medea was commissioned by the Ditson Fund of Columbia University
for Martha Graham and was first danced by her and her company at the Macmillan Theater
of Columbia University in May of 1946. Miss Graham uses the title Cave of the Heart for her
ballet, but the composer has preferred to use the original source of the idea as the title for
the suite for full orchestra. The score is dedicated to Martha Graham.

Neither Miss Graham nor the composer wished to use the Medea-Jason legend literally in the ballet.

These mythical figures served rather to project psychological states of jealousy and vengeance which are timeless.

The choreography and music were conceived, as it were, on two time levels, the ancient mythical and the
contemporary. Medea and Jason first appear as godlike, super-human figures of the Greek tragedy. As the
tension and conflict between them increases, they step out of their legendary roles from lime to time and
become the modern man and woman, caught in the nets of jealousy and destructive love; and at the end
reassume their mythical quality. In both the dancing and music, archaic and contemporary idioms are used.
Medea, in her final scene after the denouement, becomes once more the descendant of the sun.

Beside Medea and Jason there are two other characters in the ballet, the Young Princess whom Jason marries
out of ambition and for whom he betrays Medea and attendant who assumes the part of the onlooking chorus
of the Greek tragedy, sympathizing, consoling and interpreting the actions of the major characters.

The suite follows roughly the form of a Greek tragedy. In the Parados the characters first appear. The Choros,
lyric and reflective, comments on the action which is to unfold. The Young Princess appears in a dance of freshness
and innocence, followed by a heroic dance of Jason. Another plaintive Choros leads to Medea's dance of obsessive
and diabolical vengeance. The Kantikos Agonias, an interlude of menace and foreboding, follows Medea’s terrible
crime, the murder of the Princes and her own children, announced at the beginning of the Exodus by a violent
fanfare of trumpets. In this final section the various themes of the chief characters of the work are blended together;
little by little the music subsides and Medea and Jason recede into the legendary past."
Samuel Barber





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---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:42 AM ----------




No.76 (by request)

The Finnish saga of the Kalevala fascinated Jean Sibelius all his life, and he wrote several
works depicting events and characters from this epic tale. The Lemminkainen Suite, also known as
Four Legends from the Kalevala, is a cycle of four tone poems that may be performed together
or independently. In fact, The Swan of Tuonela is by far the most popular of the four, and
often performed on its own. Two further tone poems, Pohjola's Daughter and Night Ride and Sunrise
complete this wonderful album conducted by Neeme J�rvi, a life-long champion of Sibelius.



Music Composed by Jean Sibelius
Played by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Neeme J�rvi

"The Lemmink�inen Suite is a work written by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in the early 1890s which forms his opus 22.
Originally conceived as a mythological opera, Veneen luominen (The Building of the Boat), on a scale matching those by Richard Wagner,
Sibelius later changed his musical goals and the work became an orchestral piece in four movements. The suite is based on the
character Lemmink�inen from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The piece can also be considered a collection of
symphonic poems. The third section, The Swan of Tuonela is often heard separately.

1. Lemmink�inen and the Maidens of the Island: this is based on Runo 29 ("Conquests"[1]) of the Kalevala, where Lemmink�inen
travels to an island and seduces many of the women there, before fleeing the rage of the men on the island.

2. The Swan of Tuonela: this is the most popular of the four tone poems and often is featured alone from the suite in orchestral programs.
It has a prominent cor anglais solo. The music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan swimming around Tuonela,
the island of the dead. Lemmink�inen has been tasked with killing the sacred swan, but on the way he is shot with a poisoned arrow, and dies himself.

3. Lemmink�inen in Tuonela: this is based on Runos 14 ("Elk, horse, swan"[2]) and 15 ("Resurrection"[3]). Lemmink�inen is in Tuonela, the land
of the dead, to shoot the Swan of Tuonela to be able to claim the daughter of Louhi, mistress of the Northland, in marriage. However, the blind man
of the Northland kills Lemmink�inen, whose body is then tossed in the river and then dismembered. Lemmink�inen's mother learns of his death,
travels to Tuonela, recovers his body parts, reassembles him and restores him to life.

4. Lemmink�inen's Return: the storyline in the score roughly parallels the end of Runo 30 ("Jack Frost"[4]), where after his adventures in battle,
Lemmink�inen journeys home.

The above order of the movements matches their numbering within opus 22. However, Sibelius revised the order in 1947,
transposing the middle two movements, which is the order in which most concert performances are played.





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---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 AM ----------

I'm going to post the Sibelius Symphonies as well (Leif Segerstam, Helsinki PO), but in a separate thread! ;)

No.77

"Geirr Tveitt was born in Bergen, Norway 19 October 1908, where his father worked as a teacher. The family originated
from Norheimsund in Hardanger, and it was here he spent most of his childhood summers. Through the summers in
Nordheimsund he got in touch with the rich folk music tradition of the Hardanger region, and this was to inspire most of
his later music. However, he did not use folk tunes in his compositions, like for instance Grieg did, but he was inspired by
the simple themes found in Norwegian folk music. From his early youth he learned to play piano and violin, and when he went
to school in Voss he decided to become a composer. The man who has got the honour of persuading him to follow his dream of
becoming a composer was the composer Christian Sinding. As Edvard Grieg and Johannes Haarklou had did before him, Geirr Tveitt
also went to Leipzig, Germany to study music. His professors in Leipzig were Grabner, Weinreich and Wenniger. After four years
in Leipzig he went to Paris to study with the Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos. After a short period in Vienna, Geirr Tveitt settled
down in Oslo, Norway, where he had his breakthrough as a composer. In 1942 Geirr Tveitt moved back to Hardanger and started
to collect and arrange folk tunes from the region. As a result from this work we have his most famous composition "Hundrad
Folketonar frao Hardanger" (Hundred Folk Tunes from Hardanger), Opus 151. After the war Geirr Tveitt toured Europe as a
concert pianist, playing his own, as well as other composer's, works. As a pianist Tveitt became very popular, but in light of the war,
his national style as a composer was often criticised in the press. In the 1960's he worked in the Norwegian broadcasting, NRK.
From this period comes many of his songs, often with texts by poets he presented in his radio programs (Arnulf �verland, Knut Hamsun,
Aslaug Vaa and Hermann Wildenwey). In 1970 his home in Norheimsund was destroyed in a fire, and also many of his works were
destroyed. The fire killed his inspiration to compose, and the man who was described as "an unstoppable waterfall", died as a
reduced man 1 February 1981.

Geirr Tveitt was a very productive composer. His compositions can be described to be a blend of the continental and his
strong interest for the national, where the nature in Hardanger and Norwegian folklore were important sources of inspiration.
The result was original, the music was often build on modal scales, which he argued were old Norse keys. Among his most
famous works is the ballet "Baldurs Draumar" (Balder's dreams) from 1938. The theme is from the saga about the god Balder.
The score of this ballet was unfortunately lost during the bombing of London during world war II. Other famous music by Tveitt
are the songs "Vi skal ikkje sova burt sumanatta" and "So rodde dei fjorden" and the first piece of Opus 151 "Vekomne med �re"."
John Hovland



Music Composed by Geirr Tveitt
Played by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud

"Geirr Tveitt (1908-81), one of Norway’s most distinguished 20th century composers of the Romantic
Nationalist school, suffered the most horrible tragedy than can befall an artist: His manuscripts, most of
them unpublished, were burnt in a fire at his home in 1970. A hugely prolific composer, only a fraction
of his output remained, and as can well be imagined he died believing most of his life’s work had been
destroyed. Recently, however, spare copies of various works, broadcast recordings, sketches,
manuscript fragments, and other archival sources have surfaced, permitting a larger number of pieces
than was ever thought possible to be reconstructed and performed. This splendid disc contains two such.

Prillar (the title refers to traditional horn melodies) survived the general holocaust because the composer,
despairing of actually getting together a performance of this large, early work, tore it up and stuffed the scraps
in a bag and then forgot all about it. The music certainly was worth reconstructing. It’s something of a mystery
how the composer manages to sustain three movements and 37 minutes of repetitious, non-developing folk
melody, but he pulls it off with a virtuosity and charm that would leave many a modern minimalist awe-struck
with admiration. Part of the secret stems from the succession of eventfully scored rhythmic ostinatos that
accompany the tunes, which are themselves instantly memorable and perpetually fresh. In short, the piece
has all the abundant vigor and confidence of youth, and represents a major addition to the far too limited
fund of 20th century Norwegian symphonic music on disc.

The Sun-God Symphony (1958) actually consists of a suite of three pieces from a projected ballet called
Baldur’s Dreams (the subject, from the old Norse Sagas, also inspired Icelandic composer Jon Leifs). Two
recordings plus sketches and burned fragments of the work survived, permitting this reconstruction. It’s
clear that Tveitt’s orchestral mastery had grown since Prillar (1931), taking in French influences–Ravel especially.
In this respect he closely resembles his almost exact contemporary, Finland’s Uuno Klami, both in his use of
folk-inflected melody as well as in the luminosity of his scoring. Beginning with a calm prelude, the music works
its way through the ensuing two movements to a marvelously frenzied climax leading to an abrupt ending,
representing Baldur’s death.

The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Ole Kristian Ruud plays this music magnificently. In particular, it does
wonders sustaining the energy level of Prillar at the necessary fever pitch throughout its lengthy, fast outer
movements. I can’t imagine a more enjoyable introduction to this fine composer, and the BIS recording maintains
the high standards of the house. This disc is the second in what I hope will be long series. For more information
on Tveitt, including a catalog of his works in print, you can visit the Norwegian Music Information Center website."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10-1.gif



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Excellent choice ! Tveitt is not very widely known but his music truely deserve a listen.

No.78

Three ballets by composers from Latin America: Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos, Argentinian Alberto Ginastera,
and Mexican Carlos Ch�vez, two of whom we've encountered earlier in this thread. This is all very colorful music,
some of it more folk-oriented, some less. Three very fine composers at the top of their game. Enjoy!

Heitor Villa-Lobos - Uirapur�
Carlos Ch�vez - Suite de Caballos de Vapor
Alberto Ginastera - Estancia (Suite)



Music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Carlos Ch�vez & Alberto Ginastera
Played by the Sim�n Bol�var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
Conducted by Eduardo Mata

"The huge expressive and idiomatic range of Villa-L�bos's music defies many critics. Blessed with a generous
artistic nature, he tends to throw everything he knows into one piece. Consequently, Brazilian folk and popular
music exists side-by-side with French Impressionism, Richard Strauss, and an original modernist sensibility in
rhythm and line. Even Copland was a bit non-plussed by the apparently unblended nature of the mix. I think of
Villa-L�bos as I think of Ives and Whitman: artists who want to get in everything about their region all at once.
Accepting the juxtaposition of disparate elements is simply inextricable from appreciating their work, just as accepting
the simultaneous fact of Texans, Californians, and Down Easters is integral to an understanding of the U.S. Uirapur�
is imaginative and lush. The music illustrates the scenario almost cinematically, so the ballet "plot" is quite easy to
follow (I found it easier than Firebird, in this respect). It lacks only a memorable genius theme, like Firebird's "Infernal Dance"
or hymn-like "Finale." The music is so illustrative, I don't know how listeners would react to Uirapur� if they didn't know
the plot. To me, the work coheres, at least as well as Ives' Three Places in New England, but like that work, the sense of
movement from one idea to the next is idiosyncratic and fundamental to the composer. The orchestra plays at a very
high level, with beautiful solos from flute, oboe, and (I think) soprano sax.

Ch�vez has two main "manners": an epic one, found in works like the Piano Concerto and the Sinfonia di Antigone,
both curiously reminiscent of Ernest Bloch; a "constructivist" or Cubist one, found in works like the Soli and the ballet here �
along with Bart�k's Miraculous Mandarin, one of the great ballets of the 20s. Of the two, I prefer Ch�vez the Cubist, for here,
the austerity inherent in his aesthetic often gets leavened with wit and high spirits. In epic mode, he tends to strive for a
solemn high significance (something Bloch himself does only at his weakest) and to leave his sense of humor at the door.
Horse-Power is lean, but not po'-faced. The musical lines are knife-sharp, the textures beautifully clear, very much like
Copland in that regard. Climaxes are muscular rather than opulent. Different musical gestures elbow and crowd each
other out, different tempi fade in and out, in a way that owes a lot to P�trouchka's metrical shifts and co-existences. F
or me, the most remarkable moment in a score full of them comes in the second movement, where the rhythmic
wristwatch seems to explode and there are gears and springs everywhere. The pulse disappears in a kind of mini-vortex
as the winds generally seem to go quietly nuts. Yet, it's not mere chaos, just a-rhythmic. The composer obviously
exercises a great deal of control here.

Mata matches that control in a superb performance which easily replaces Jorge Mester's somewhat raggedy Louisville
recording. The Venezuelans are not merely crisp, but full of energy as well � orchestral playing of a
very high order in a difficult score.

Of the three composers here, Ginastera is easily the most cosmopolitan. Despite Estancia's nationalist intent
and Argentine rhythms, the ballet could have been written anywhere. There's little difference between this
music and Bart�k. The inclusion of Argentine musical material doesn't make the music Argentinean, any more
than the inclusion of Mexican tunes makes El Sal�n M�xico something other than a postcard to the States.
However, Estancia is indeed a beautiful, exciting score by a powerful composer. The ending alone should get
you screaming. The suite lasts roughly thirteen minutes and yet satisfies as much as works twice as long.
Ginastera packs each note with either a great tenderness or a great bang. The slow movement calls to mind
Bart�k's nocturnes of the Hungarian plain, but with a slight tango-y beat. The internationalist turn that
Ginastera's music took should surprise no one. However, I find that as the specific Argentinean elements became
muted, the music itself somehow became more deeply Argentinean. It's hard for me to articulate exactly what
I mean, but give a listen to the Piano Concerto #1, Popol vuh, or the Cantata para America magica.

If nothing else, the variety of all this music should convince you that Latin America is a pretty big place. Still,
certain things unite these men. If we can divide music roughly into song and dance, then we might say that
dance unites them � not so much by particular rhythms, but in the way they use folk rhythms to generate
excitement in the work. Song is what individuates them. For dance is social, and thus expresses what we
have in common, while songs we sing mainly for ourselves. Villa-L�bos sings a bit sentimentally, but endearingly so.
Ch�vez never sings to make an effect, and his song is spare but direct. Ginastera sings under a night sky on the
pampas � solitary, but solid and, to some extent, part of the landscape itself. "
Classical Net


From left to right: Ch�vez, Villa-Lobos, Ginastera

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No.79

Another trio of ballets, this time by three German and Austrian composers. Franz Schreker's
The Birthday of the Infanta is typical of his freely tonal, opulent style, while Erwin Schulhoff's
Moonstruck is a good example of the jazz-infused classical music of the 1920s. Finally, The Demon,
an expressionistic ballet by Paul Hindemith. All three composers were marginalized by the Nazis as
"degenerate" (entartet). Schulhoff died in a concentration camp in 1942. Enjoy!

Franz Schreker - Der Geburtstag der Infantin
Erwin Schulhoff - Die Monds�chtige
Paul Hindemith - Der D�mon



Music by Franz Schreker, Erwin Schulhoff & Paul Hindemith
Played by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Conducted by Lothar Zagrosek

"The three ‘grotesque’ ballet scores on this latest disc in Decca’s ‘Entartete Musik’ series,
undoubtedly one of the most important and rewarding from a major label, fulfil most of the Nazis’ criteria
for ‘degenerate music’: two of them are by Jewish composers, one of those is jazz-based, and the third is
by that then unreformed avant-gardist, Hindemith. Of the three composers, Schreker, sacked from his academic
posts, died from the shock within months of the Nazis’ rise to power; Schulhoff, whose devotion to Communism
led him to take Soviet citizenship, died in a Bavarian concentration camp in 1942 and Hindemith escaped into exile.
All three works, though, were written during the heady years of the Weimar Republic or earlier. The Birthday of the
Infanta (a 1922 suite from a 1908 score) is based on the same Oscar Wilde story that was later to inspire Zemlinsky’s
finest opera. Schreker’s music here is luminous, often poignant, where Schulhoff, in Moonstruck (1925), is jazzy,
even raucous – a true child of the Twenties; Hindemith’s The Demon (1922), scored for chamber ensemble, is one of
his more colourful and engaging works. Zagrosek directs vivid accounts of all three works and the
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is captured in all its glory by the Decca engineers. Highly recommended."
Matthew Rye


From left to right: Schulhoff, Schreker, Hindemith



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---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 PM ----------




No.80

A quintet of works, all in some way inspired by water, by four different composers. Frank Bridge was a leading
English composer of the 1920 and 30s, and a teacher to Benjamin Britten. His orchestral suite The Sea was
his breakthrough, a post romantic multi-movement tone poem with some impressionistic touches. Speaking of
impressionism, there's the greatest of all sea-related works of music again, Claude Debussy's La Mer.
Anatoly Liadov was a part-time composer who specialized in evocative miniature tone poems, of which The Enchanted Lake
is a good example. Finally, the oldest piece on the menu, Felix Mendelssohn's evergreen overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave).



Music by Frank Bridge, Anatoly Liadov, Claude Debussy & Felix Mendelssohn
Played by the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by JoAnn Falletta

"So you are saying to yourself, repertoire a bit out of the ordinary for Albany Records? True, but still it is repertoire performed by a
magnificent American conductor and wonderful American orchestra. This disc was first issued privately by the Long Beach Symphony Association.
This is when it came to our attention. We were very impressed as were the reviewers who had the opportunity to hear the disc. So, here at
Albany Records, we are not just about American music, but American artists as well. In truth, no major label would ever give our great American
artists of this caliber a chance for exposure, so we decided to do it ourselves. In particular, the performance of the Bridge is terrific and can
hold its own with the best out there. The disc is well recorded. JoAnn Falletta is one of this country's finest conductors. Listen to this
disc yourself and you can hear the talent."
Arkivmusic


From left to right: Debussy, Liadov, Mendelssohn, Bridge

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File Size: 156 MB

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The reason I'm especially interested in the Fifth is because I was reading a music blog and the author stated how Sibelius' Fifth Symphony pretty much 'saved' his life. He listened to it non-stop during a particularly bad time in his life, and it helped him get through it. I know I could probably look it up right away on Youtube to hear it, but I'd rather be patient first and see if Wimpel (or anyone else frequenting this thread) has recordings of it to share.

The Sibelius Symphonies can be found here: Thread 122839

No.81

Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968) and his contemporaries Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero
all wrote music in what has come to be known as neo-classical, i.e. music that looks back to some of the forms
and modes of classcist and baroque music, but with a 20th century spin on them. Of these composers, Casella was
probably the most clean-cut "neo", while Malipiero also embraced impressionistic elements. Pizzetti was the most
opulently lyrical in his pieces, with late romantic elements mixed in with the neo-classical. Maybe that is the reason why
his works, deemed too diffuse and indecisive by some, have fallen by the wayside, with one notable exception: his
"church opera" Murder in the Cathedral (on the verse play by T.S.Eliot), which is still regularly performed.

Featured on these two albums are purely orchestral works. The Summer Concerto is a "concerto
for orchestra", cast in three movements. There are allusions to Beethoven, and Pizzetti himself called the work
his "pastoral symphony". The composer's fascination with Greek lierature and history is evident in his
Three Symphonic Preludes for Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and in The Feast of the Panathenaea, incidental
music to a performance of texts by Homer, Sophocles and others.

Songs of the High Season is a piano concerto originially written for the distinguished Italian pianist
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, but he never played the work. The rhapsodic treatment of the themes suggests
an external program or inspiration, like the Summer Concerto, it is open, outdoor music. There's another prelude
to a play on Greek mythology, Phaedra, but this was a piece by D'Annunzio. The second album closes with
a suite from Cabiria*, a film score Pizzetti wrote in 1914, which was used as an overture to that silent epic.



Music Composed by Ildebrando Pizzetti
Played by the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Myron Michailidis

Music Composed by Ildebrando Pizzetti
Played by the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz
With Susanna Caetani (piano), Boris Statsenko (baritone)
And the Chemnitz Opera Chorus*
Conducted by Oleg Caetani

"Ildebrando Pizzetti's Concerto dell'estate of 1928 (really a three-movement symphony) is one of
the most attractive of all early 20th-century Italian orchestral works. It hasn't been recorded since Gardelli
did it for Decca some 40 years ago, and this new version is most welcome. While Myron Michailidis chooses
virtually identical tempos in the outer movements, the central nocturne runs a bit slower (but not duller)
than the earlier version, at some gain in atmosphere. The recording balances, which place the woodwinds
and harps relatively forward, also suit the work very well. It's a beautiful performance, well played and atmospheric.

I have a sentimental attachment to the Oedipus Rex Symphonic Preludes: this was the very first work that
I played as a percussionist with the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra in my undergraduate days, and it
introduced me to Pizzetti. To be honest, the cymbal part didn't give me much to do, but it did offer me the
opportunity to simply listen to a very beautiful piece that, like the Concerto dell'estate, deserves far greater
currency than it enjoys. It was recorded relatively recently by V�nsk� for Hyperion, quite well too, but this
version is just as good, with confident horn playing and powerful climaxes.

The remaining two works receive their recording premieres. Pizzetti was basically a gentle, lyrical composer
but he could get his dander up quite effectively: witness the five-minute prelude to Clitennestra. Composed in the
1960s just before his death, you'd never know it from the harmonic style--it's just as attractive and approachable
as the Oedipus Rex music of some 60 years earlier. La Feste delle Panatenee is another tryptich that, like the work
just mentioned, takes ancient Greece as its inspiration. Less somber than its predecessor, it concludes with
an imposing procession that could use a touch more heft from the brass and a less prominent snare drum--
but as with all of these performances conductor Michailidis and the Thessaloniki State Symphony certainly
do the music justice. Strongly recommended."
Classics Today


"The major work presented here is the piano concerto of 1930 Canti della stagione alta (Songs of the High Season).
Keith Anderson’s erudite - as usual - notes capture the sound world of this piece well. The music is immediately ‘open-air’,
modal in flavour and with a rhapsodic feel - the long singing lines of the strings show a composer of a naturally lyrical bent.
The way the woodwinds ornament and muse over their opening material is very beautiful. It doesn’t grab your attention
by the use of great arching melodies instead it creates its effects by use of texture and atmosphere – Pizzetti handles
the orchestra and soloist with great confidence. Certainly if you like your piano concertos big-boned, tonal and of a
romantic cut this is for you. Running at a shade under thirty minutes this is not a huge work but it feels bigger than
that. Not to imply that it outstays its welcome – far from it. As the first movement develops it moves away from the
pastoral to something altogether more dramatic with double octave passages in the piano tossed off with conspicuous
ease. There is a heraldic quality to some of Pizzetti’s brass writing that I really enjoy. Yes it could be argued there is a
cinematic element to it but it works for me! The slow second movement is altogether simpler although once again the
central climax is heavily brass led but I do like the way this immediately gives way to a quietly modal string passage
with some distant brass figures – sounding deliberately archaic – decorating the music. Not having seen a score it is
hard to know exactly how Pizzetti achieves the effect but the metre of the work is very flexible with a strong sense of
regular predictable bar-lines removed. Instead we can feel the underlying basic pulse – once again this seems to be a
stylistic nod towards the melodic fluidity of plainsong. The finale is played attacca leaping straight from the final notes
of the second movement. This is a true rondo which – again I agree with Keith Anderson here – has echoes of an
Italianate Rachmaninov although the quirky string led fugal passage and a final exciting brass peroration are uniquely
Pizzetti’s own. This proved to be a very pleasurable discovery indeed. The disc is completed by music Pizzetti wrote
for a silent movie in 1914 – Cabiria. What an extraordinary event this must have been – the bulk of the music for
this two and a half hour epic was assembled - as was so often the case with early silent film scores - from standard
orchestral repertoire. However for a key sequence – involving the sacrifice of 100 children to the God of Carthage Moloch! –
Pizzetti was commissioned to provide this ten minute sequence involving large orchestra, baritone soloist and chorus.
That it is pictorial is clear from the very first bars and again benefits from a performance of great flair. To be honest
it is the piece on this disc I would least often return but it is not trying to be anything but colourful and illustrative –
there is none of the subtlety or emotional weight that marks out the other pieces here. Conversely I cannot think of
another example of so early a dedicated film score of this originality and power. Well worth a listen in
that historical context alone."
Music Web



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No.82

Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-American composer and Jew - all of these elements influenced his body of work substantially.
Whereas the early works, composed while he was still living in Switzerland, show a French and German influence,
his later music (like the pieces on these albums) betray his Jewish heritage - he used both liturgical elements and traces
of Yiddish folk music. It is these later works that have earned Bloch an entry into the realm of important 20th century
composers. In a way his music sounds like a Jewish Mikl�s R�zsa. ;)

Of the works presented here, the Baal Shem and the Suite H�braique are probably the best-known, but the rest are
equally attractive (the Three Jewish Poems are featured on both albums, so you can compare the performances).



Music Composed by Ernest Bloch
Played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
With Alexa Still (flute)
Conducted by James Sedares

Music Composed by Ernest Bloch
Played by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
With Antje Weithaas (violin), Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Christiane Oelze (soprano)
Conducted by Steven Sloane

"Ernest Bloch lived somewhat of a nomadic life having lived in Switzerland and various locations in the United States.
His music was affected by these travels along the way. There is no question that Bloch is hardly discussed in classical
circles and is heard even less in the concert hall (if at all). Despite this, there are several great Bloch recordings
available on the market. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, this recording on Koch is no longer in-print.
Hopefully, it will be reissued soon. Best chances of finding this recording right now is in the used market.

There are three works on this Koch recording: "Three Jewish Poems," "Two Last Poems," and "Evocations." I consider
the main work, for me anyway, to be "Evocations." Soaring melodies, impressionistic harmonies, and furious middle
movement that will send chills down your spine. The last movement of "Evocations," in particular, is quite moving
with it's quasi-Oriental melody. "Three Jewish Poems" is also a great work. "Two Last Poems" I found not to be
that memorable and lacking inspiration.

The performances from James Sedares and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are first-rate. There is another
recording of these works on BIS, but I consider this Koch recording to be superior in terms of performance,
but BIS has Koch beat in sonic clarity. I would pick-up the Koch recording first as the performances are quite
passionate and intense. The only plus side to the BIS recording (with Boreyko/Malmo Symphony Orch.) is
both "Evocations" and "Three Jewish Poems" is coupled with the lesser known "Symphony in B flat major."

What a great recording this is and it's worth it to try and hunt it down. I also consider this a great starter
for those interested in hearing Bloch's music. Highly recommended."
Amazon

"Here’s an attractive collection of Bloch’s shorter “Jewish” works, very well played and vividly recorded. Actually,
the Three Jewish Poems is quite substantial (it’s as long as, say, Debussy’s La Mer), and a major effort, but all
of these pieces are lovely. No complaints at all about the soloists: Christiane Oelze sings the two psalms most
affectingly, while both Zimmermann and Weithaas do Bloch proud. Conductor Steven Sloane deserves the
lion’s share of the credit, though, both for assembling the program as well as for securing an impressively
committed response from the ensemble. Very enjoyable indeed."
Classics Today





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No.83

German Ernst Boehe was born the same year as Ildebrando Pizzetti, but this is where the similarities end.
A student of Ludwig Thuille and a professional conductor, Boehe wrote rather few but substantial orchestral works
in the late romantic style of Wagner and Strauss, which endeared him e.g. to Max von Schillings, the
composer discussed earlier in this thread. Boehe's magnum opus is the massive quartet of tone poems
entitled From Odysseus' Journeys, presented here in its entirety: Departure and Shipwreck, The Island of Circe,
The Lament of Nausicaa, and, on the second album, Odysseus' Homecoming. Also included is another
large-scale tone poem, Taormina, a Tragic Overture and a Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy.
Boehe was long-term chief conductor of the Pfalzorchester, which evolved into the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz,
the same orchestra that made these recordings!



Music Composed by Ernst Boehe
Played by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Conducted by Werner Andreas Albert

"German composers seem duty-bound to write “Tragic Overtures” and “Tragic Symphonies”, and so far only Brahms and Mahler
(in their very different ways) have succeeded in living up to the term’s potential. Ernst Boehe (1880-1938) comes awfully close as
well, and I wouldn’t be surprised if posterity ultimately vindicates his effort. Written in an idiom somewhere between Brahms and
Strauss, Boehe for the most part sounds refreshingly free of the usual problems that beset conservative German, British, and
American music from the turn of the last century: a fear of exploiting orchestral color to its fullest, a pedantic approach to form,
and an emotionally inhibited expressive range. The overture opens with an impressively brooding funeral march, moves to a
sturdily symphonic allegro with a heroically questing second subject, and reaches an aptly pulverizing climax that leads to an
excellently timed coda. At 18 minutes, the piece may be a bit long for its material, but it certainly delivers the goods.

Boehe composed four tone poems inspired by The Odyssey, and three of them (a fourth will appear in a succeeding volume)
are included here: Departure and Shipwreck; The Island of Circe; and The Lament of Nausicaa. Scored for large orchestra,
the music brings to mind Sibelius’ Four Legends, though it dates from a decade later. Boehe’s style lacks the primal quality
that makes the Finnish master’s music so distinctive (though he shares with Sibelius a fondness for idiomatic and evocative
bass drum writing), but each of these three works reveals an abundance of characterful melodic and textural invention.
The advertised Shipwreck has the necessary violence without becoming obvious, and Circe’s charms, deliciously touched in
on the high strings and harp, never sound tacky as Boehe gets beyond the obligatory sweetness to hint at darker
undercurrents. In short, here’s a composer who really knows what he’s doing, and so for that matter do conductor
Werner Andreas Albert (typically secure and authoritative), the enthusiastic and willing Rheinland-Pfalz orchestra,
and CPO’s engineers. A find."
Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p9s9.gif





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---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 PM ----------




No.84

At a concert in Paris one evening in the 1930s, French composer Florent Schmitt could be seen running up and
down the aisles, and be heard screaming "Vive 'itler" over and over. One may safely assume that this did little to
endear him to most of his countrymen, and might have hurt his posthumous reputation quite a bit. Which is a shame,
since he was clearly one of the finest French composers of his time. His most important work, La Trag�die de Salom�,
is featured on this album along with a fine, evocative tone poem for harps and strings, Le Palais Hant�, inspired
by Edgar Allan Poe. The Psalm XLVII* is also a major work of this neo classical composer, whose work is
experiencing a renaissance, and deservedly so.



Music Composed by Florent Schmitt
Played by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir*
With Susan Bullock (soprano)*
Conducted by Yan-Pascal Tortelier

"Admired by Stravinksy and a close friend of Ravel, the French composer Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) wrote prodigiously
until well into old age, by which time his lush, sensuous compositions had fallen out of fashion. His La trag�die de Salom�
(1907), created for the American dancer Loie Fuller, remains one of his best-known works in part because its subject
matter attracted a whiff of scandal early in its history. It was adapted for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and danced,
reportedly naked, by Ida Rubinstein. Psaume 47, with Susan Bullock as a fine soloist, is luxuriousy delivered by the
S�o Paulo Symphony Orchestra and chorus, with conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier ensuring an authentically Gallic musical accent."
The Guardian





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That'll be it for today! ;)

The Jean Martinon version is superlative. This version... not so much.

True, the Martinon version is very fine indeed, but:

This version is very good, too, plus it is in modern sound, and contains Le Palais Hant�, which is another programatic work. These are the important factors in the context of this thread! :)

After years of basking in Martinon's version which is filled with such energy and passion- as far as the Psalm is concerned- I just can't find another version that comes close (even if digitally recorded). I explored Schmitt afterwards and dimly remember the Poe Haunted Palace. Sadly it didn't turn my crank. This seems to happen frequently. You connect with one or two masterful works by a composer and all the rest never click. Much like Arnold Bax: I love all his symphonic work that is anchored by the piano- Symphonic Variations, Winter Legends- as well as his solo works (especial his sonata No. 3). But I tried for ages to sink into those impossible symphonies and finally gave up and sold them off.

No.85

What the heck, it's already uploaded, why not post it today: Albert Roussel was a leading French composer
of the gem��igte Moderne (there's really no comparably satisfying term for this in English. It's like
"classic modernism", or "moderate modernism"). His Symphony No.3, which is not a programmatic work, is arguably his greatest,
with the ballet Bacchus and Ariane, recorded here in its entirety, running a close second. It is very
dynamic, atmospheric music, briliantly orchestrated. A suite from another ballet, Le Festin de l'Araign�e,
is also included. Of course, Georges Pr�tre knows his way around this particular repertoire, his performance
is at once nicely shaded and appropriately bouncy.



Music Composed by Albert Roussel
Played by the Orchestre National de France
Conducted by Georges Pr�tre

"I remember hearing this recording on its initial release and being extremely unimpressed with its sound on LP: cavernous,
diffuse, and harsh all at once. On CD, however, things have improved noticeably. The sound stage is still too deep for my
taste, but balances have been corrected and there actually is something of a low end, though a bit more heavy percussion
presence would have been nice. Georges Pr�tre’s performances have plenty of energy and bite. The concluding Bacchanale
of Bacchus et Ariane works up an excellent head of steam, and the Orchestre National brass players, horns especially,
blast away with impressive abandon. Pr�tre also weaves the gossamer threads of the Spider’s Feast suite (or “symphonic fragments”
as the composer calls them) into a satisfying whole. As a performance, this beats Dutoit in Bacchus (Erato), but doesn’t quite
equal Tortelier (Chandos), who has better sound and also offers the complete Spider’s Feast. Still, there’s little to disappoint
here, and if you don’t want, don’t have, or can’t get Tortelier, or simply want to hear a different view of the music, this disc
will provide considerable pleasure."
Classics Today





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---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:57 PM ----------


After years of basking in Martinon's version which is filled with such energy and passion- as far as the Psalm is concerned- I just can't find another version that comes close (even if digitally recorded). I explored Schmitt afterwards and dimly remember the Poe Haunted Palace. Sadly it didn't turn my crank. This seems to happen frequently. You connect with one or two masterful works by a composer and all the rest never click. Much like Arnold Bax: I love all his symphonic work that is anchored by the piano- Symphonic Variations, Winter Legends- as well as his solo works (especial his sonata No. 3). But I tried for ages to sink into those impossible symphonies and finally gave up and sold them off.

Bax is extremely uneven, he simply wrote too much music and didn't stop writing after his inspiration had long dried up (same as Hindemith e.g.). His Symphonies 1,2 and 6 (6 in particular) and Winter Legends are powerful works, as are Tintagel, November Woods and some other tone poems (I posted those earlier). The Symphonic Variations I find a bit clumsy, and overlong. But he was an original voice: not quite Strauss, not quite Debussy, not quite Rachmaninov.

He wrote too much music? ;-)

Granted much of his piano work was inspired by his rogering Harriette Cohen, who wasn't such a great pianist- but without that love affair we wouldn't have so much beauty in the world. Indeed he was an original voice. Even my most favorite composers didn't always know 'em out of the ball park. But I am glad they kept working up until the end. Once told my old art professor how I admired Ralph Vaughan Williams who did just that. Then mentioned that RVW had a second, much younger than himself, wife. My professor said, "Ha! That's what killed him."

Orbon's Symphonic Dances is great, like a cross between Copland and John Williams. Unfortunately it's near-impossible to find much else by him.

Yeah, there are few recordings of his works. But there's quite a lot available from not-too-dissimilar Spanish and Latin American composers. :)


No.86

An interesting collection of four Chinese recorder concertos, three with extra-musical programmes, and
played by the great Michala Petri. The best-known of the four composers are of course Bright Sheng
and Chen Yi, both of whom have been enjoying great careers in American and international music.



Music by Tang Jian-Ping, Bright Sheng, Ma Shui-Long & Chen Yi
Played by the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra
With Michala Petri (recorder)
Conducted by Lan Shui

"The contents of this album are less unusual than the proclaimed Chinese recorder concertos concept.
Only one of the four works, Chen Yi's The Ancient Chinese Beauty, is originally written for recorders; the
others are arranged from music for Chinese flutes (or, in the case of Bright Sheng's Flute Moon, Western
piccolo). Sheng and Chen Yi are partly Western-trained, and their pieces arose in an American context.
This said, veteran recorder virtuosa Michala Petri, recording in her home country of Denmark with the
Copenhagen Philharmonic under Chinese-Singaporean conductor Lan Shui, delivers a bravura performance here.
Chen Yi writes difficult registral jumps for Petri, but elsewhere, as in the low oscillations of the finale of Tang
Jianping's Fei Ge (Flying Song), one gets the feeling that Petri has pushed the recorder into new tonguings as
she imitates the Chinese dizi bamboo flute. The presence of the Tang Jianping work points to another of the
album's strengths: its diverse program. There is a work in the Chinese style familiar to listeners of the
Mao Zedong era; Bang di concerto composer Ma Shui-Long is Taiwanese, but as the excellent booklet
notes (in English and Chinese, but not Danish) indicate, the official Taiwanese style of that time, intended
to provide a counterweight to the Yellow River Concerto being promoted by the mainland government,
ended up being similar to it in many ways, because official styles are official styles. This concerto, originally
written for the bang di small membrane flute, marked the beginnings of his move away from this style.
The biggest find is the Tang Jianping piece, an eventful, kaleidoscopic piece drawing on a variety of Chinese
folk traditions and expertly handling the Western orchestra (it was originally composed for a Chinese ensemble
but arranged by the composer). The program is truly a "Chinese fugue in four voices," as the booklet proclaims,
and mention should be made of the unusually elaborate and nicely edited booklet, complete with Chinese seals.
A strong outing from Denmark's new OUR Recordings label, and it is to be hoped that the label will enter the
field of cross-cultural repertory that has so far been left mostly to the Netherlands label Channel Classics."
All Music


Chen Yi, Bright Sheng



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---------- Post added at 10:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:10 AM ----------




No.87

A most delightful collection of miscellaneous works by Alan Rawsthorne, another tonal
middle-of-the-20th-century English composer. Rawsthorne also wrote a number of film scores,
and there is a Chandos collection of some of them in the British Film Music series.

Featured is one of Rawsthorne's most popular works, the "entertainment" Practical Cats
for narrator and orchestra, the Theme, Variations and Finale, the bustling Street Corner Overture,
the Medieval Diptych for baritone and orchestra, the Coronation Overture (no bets accepted
for guessing whose coronation), and a very brief suite from the ballet Madame Chrysanth�me.

Dutton drafted the same conductor that Naxos used for their Rawsthorne discs, David Lloyd-Jones,
and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The narrator in Practical Cats is Simon Callow, a well-known
English actor best remembered outside the UK for his role as the bombastic older part of a gay
couple (with John Hannah) who dies of a heart attack in Four Weddings and a Funeral.



Music Composed by Alan Rawsthorne
Played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
With Simon Callow (narrator), Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone)
Conducted by David Lloyd-Jones

"The Rawsthorne Trust vies with the Finzi Trust in how much has been achieved for their respective composers
in such a short time. Film royalties have continued to provide the funding for studio session after session.
The mature Rawsthorne works have been recorded since the late 1990s principally by Naxos and latterly by Dutton.
The linkage between the two is conductor David Lloyd-Jones who featured heavily and sympathetically on the
Naxos recordings. He now conducts this assemblage of the rare and the familiar.

Two overtures of pretty much equal length bookend this collection which also fills several gaps in the
Rawsthorne discography.

The Street Corner Overture goes with a real swing goaded on to grand effect by Lloyd-Jones. There is no
escaping the picaresque raucous bombast of some of this music. It smacks of a collision between Cockaigne
and Beckus the Dandipratt. The rare Coronation Overture has a Handelian weightiness in its veins relieved by
an eerie distant cavalcade at 1:10. It's a strange piece with some splendid moments amid the Handelian references.
Also intriguing are the edgy fanfaring passages at 3:20 and the capricious soloistic writing at 3:55 onwards.
What we hear is John McCabe's reconstruction from the orchestral parts. The original MS full score was lost.

The complete ballet of Madame Chrysanth�me has been recorded by ASV. The subject is taken from the novel
by Pierre Loti (not Lotti, Dutton). The four movements here are a sensationally lyrical Procession with Lanterns
which is more RVW than Rawsthorne, a Bernstein-like Sword Dance which is impressive and strongly rhythmic,
the Hornpipe is echt-Rawsthorne in its surging lyrical line and the Les Mousmes links back to the mood
of the first movement. This is a most attractive character suite.

Practical Cats is well known from the classic Robert Donat recording on EMI. The orchestral overture has all the
street urchin impudence and Offenbach and Auric flutter that we expect. You can hear it again in Jellicle Cats (tr.12).
Simon Callow is suitably stately, ingenuous and artfully artless in his delivery. This is a Practical Cats for the new century.
The booklet does not reprint the words but their is no need: Simon Callow is clear as a bell yet unaffected and full of character.

The Theme, Variations and Finale dates from 1967 but presumably because it was written for Graham Treacher and
Essex Youth Orchestra it is softer in language than we might expect from late Rawsthorne. There is an angularity to
this writing but it's gentle and the turmoil is comparable with that of Cort�ges and Street Corner. The triptych is
presented here as a single track.

The Medieval Diptych is a little known work and this is its world premiere recording as was the triptychal work for
Graham Treacher. The language is fully accessible and there is little sign of the dissonance associated with Rawsthorne
scores of the 1960s – for example the Third Symphony. He wrote little for the human voice with orchestra although
there is the central movement of his Second Symphony 'Pastoral'. The two poems have the Virgin Mary as their focus.
The pattern of two poems of interlinked subject matter was established by Finzi in his A Farewell to Arms and his
Two Milton Sonnets. These two are powerful if rather bleak and volatile settings. If the music of the first part is
predominantly haunted with a sense of horror lurking over the shoulder Adam Lay yBounden is more playful but it
feels more like the Grand Guignol of Lambert's King Pest. The mood becomes more frankly celebratory as the piece ends.
Anyone concerned with British music for voice needs to hear this.

The words for Medieval Diptych are provided on the Dutton website. The notes are by John Belcher who on occasion
seems with John McCabe to have instigated, piloted and provided momentum and sustenance for the
Rawsthorne revival of fortunes.

A well presented collection in excellent performances and recordings filling gaps in the Rawsthorne
discography with panache."
Music Web





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---------- Post added at 11:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:59 AM ----------




No.88

Jes�s Guridi was born in Vitoria in 1886, and began his musical training in Bilbao. He left Spain to continue his
studies in Paris, Li�ge and Cologne, and on his return was appointed director of the Bilbao Choral Society for
whom he wrote a number of works, most notably the collections of Basque folk-songs and one of his
masterpieces, As� cantan los chicos, for chorus and orchestra.

The Pyrenean Symphony was composed in 1945 and given its premiere the following year by the Bilbao
Symphony Orchestra and Jes�s Ar�mbarri. This musical evocation of the soul of the mountains, and the danger
they represent, at times touches on the narrative style of a tone poem. Each of the symphony’s three movements
is composed in a variation on sonata form. The work’s soundworld is characterised by a particular modality present in
many Basque folk songs: altered thirds and sevenths in a major key. The orchestral and instrumental textures
are carefully chosen for their expressive qualities. Guridi’s opera, Amaya, was the Basque equivalent of the
attempts made in most other European countries to create a “national opera”. It is a musical reflection of increasingly
nationalistic feelings in that it tells a story based on the history, mythology and literature of the Basque Country.
The Espatadantza or Sword Dance, (Act II, Scene IV), is the most spectacular scene of the entire work.
This is a striking, warlike dance which is always performed on great occasions involving the Basque people.
Keith Anderson



Music Composed by Jes�s Guridi
Played by the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Juan Jos� Mena

"With their special series, such as American Classics, Spanish Classics and 21st Century Classics, Naxos have
made available at budget price a lot of worthwhile, little-known, often neglected or simply forgotten music. I have
discovered much fine stuff in the Spanish Classics series, of which the present release is a recent instalment. It is
actually the second Guridi disc in this series, the first one (8.557110) including the delightful Ten Basque Melodies
and the beautiful As� cantan los chicos for treble voices and orchestra. The second volume consists mainly of one
major work Sinfon�a pirenaica (“Pyrenean Symphony”) completed in 1945. The fill-up has been taken from the complete
recording of Guridi’s lyric drama Amaya released a few years ago (Marco Polo 8.225084/5), that I have not heard so far.

Sinfon�a pirenaica is a substantial and fairly ambitious work in three large-scale movements. As implied by the title,
the piece evokes the Pyrenean mountains, “the soul of the mountains and the dangers they represent”; but, let me
tell you straightaway, this is no Basque Alpine Symphony. Neither may it be likened to d’Indy’s Symphonie C�venole,
although Guridi’s traditional, colourful music often has a ring of folk music, without quoting any Basque folk tune
(or so I guess). The first movement is the longest, the weightiest and the most developed of the three, which does
not mean that the other movements are lightweight or uninteresting; quite the contrary. The second movement, a
rather long Scherzo, alternates dance-like, folk-inflected episodes and more lyrical ones sometimes redolent of plainchant
(a small chapel or an oratory lost in the mountains?). The third movement, of heroic character, builds up to a noble
and triumphant apotheosis. Am I alone in hearing faint echoes of Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony or Coastal Command
here? The music’s evocative strength, as well as Guridi’s orchestral mastery, is quite clear throughout this often
imposing piece. As already hinted at, Guridi’s idiom is fairly traditional, often folk-inflected, occasionally spiced by some
mild dissonance and – more than once – colourfully impressionistic. This is essentially fairly impressive outdoor music.
It evokes massive mountainous vistas and rugged landscapes, the play of light and shadow but with darker undertones.
The music also powerfully conveys a strong feeling of elation. In this respect, Guridi’s symphony might well compare,
albeit superficially, with Delius’ Song of the High Hills. In short, a serious, heartfelt and superbly crafted work
that clearly deserves to be heard.

As mentioned earlier, the disc is rounded-off with a short excerpt from Guridi’s lyric drama Amaya of 1920, probably
the closest any Basque composer has ever come to writing a national opera. The short Sword Dance appropriately
evokes Basque folk music with fife and drum, and has the chorus joining in the final acclamation.

Very fine performances, as far as I can judge, that serve the music well ... and very good recorded sound. Superbly
crafted music not lacking in grandeur, though definitely no earthshaking masterpiece. Nevertheless well worth hearing.
Yes, I enjoyed this release enormously."
Hubert Culot, Musicweb International





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To my ears, the best version of The Tragedy of Salome (abridged, if I recall correctly) was recorded by Antonio de Almeida in a long-deleted RCA lp, in the mid-70's. If you find it, give it a try!

No.89

Sergei Prokofiev wrote a lot ballet music, the most famous examples of which are certainly Romeo and Juliet,
and Cinderella. But there are also some shorter, often edgier examples, like the two items on this album:
Le Pas d'Acier (The Steel Dance/Step) is the more remarkable of the two, a riveting, dynamic example of
a style briefly popular in the 1920 called futurism, or "machine music" if you will. In these works, the composers
were trying to capture modern life and work in the machine age, often with a social message. Le Pas d'acier
was written for and staged by Diaghilev's famous Ballet Russe.

The other ballet is even lesser known: On the Dnieper, composed for the Paris Grand Opera in 1930, is
rather more lyrical: It concerns the return of a Red Army soldier to his native village, and the problems
to adjust to his former life and love.



Music Composed by Sergei Prokofiev
Played by the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky

"Prokofiev’s music for ballet spans his career from 1915 to his death in 1953. The early ballets, written at
Diaghilev’s request, were first performed in the heady post-war France. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes was in the
forefront of artistic innovation, and every new production was expected to be even more astonishing
than the one before.

Prokofiev and Diaghilev met for the first time in London in 1914 and, as it was the shrewd and ultimately
sagacious impresario’s practice to encourage young talent, he presented the composer with his first ballet
commission. Diaghilev put Prokofiev in touch with the poet Sergei Gorodetsky, telling him to create a
ballet on a Russian fairy tale or prehistoric theme. Prokofiev selected for his subject the prehistoric nomads
who roamed the Ukrainian steppes, the Scythians. The ballet was rejected by Diaghilev before its completion
because it sought to emulate Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and Diaghilev was looking for something to
"outrage" the public with something new. However, the ballet music, whose orchestral effects and subject
have some similarities to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, was revamped into an orchestral suite. (It was to
become Prokofiev’s practice to derive orchestral suites and symphonies from music originally intended
for the theater.) Newly entitled Scythian Suite: Ala and Lolli, Op. 20, it was introduced by the composer
at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, January 29, 1916.

Diaghilev continued his connection with Prokofiev by arranging a piano recital in Rome in 1915. Despite
the termination of his first assignment, he gave Prokofiev a second commission which resulted in the score
for Chout (sometimes known as The Buffoon) to be choreographed by Massine. The piano score was completed
in 1915, but in the meantime Massine left the Ballets Russes. Mikhail Larionov and Tadeo Slavinsky were
subsequently chosen to collaborate on the choreography. The production was eventually mounted in May 1921.
When Diaghilev brought a group of patrons to a final dress rehearsal of the ballet in London, Prokofiev was
conducting. He considered it a working rehearsal and, wishing to be more comfortable, removed his jacket.
Several elderly ladies from London high society, scandalized, rose to their feet and departed with their
escorts. It was a signal for all the other invited guests to depart.

In 1925 Diaghilev asked Prokofiev to write a ballet on a "Soviet subject" that would reflect the contemporary life
in Soviet Russia. Prokofiev met with Sergei Yakulov, a Soviet theatrical constructivist artist who was hired as set
designer for the new ballet. They agreed the ballet should be a portrayal of the industrial progress of the USSR.
Prokofiev gave the music the title Urignol - derived from U.R.S.S. and parodying Stravinsky’s Rossignol -
but Diaghilev disliked the name. In the end the ballet was called Le Pas d’Acier. Despite trying, Diaghilev was
unsuccessful in his quest to secure the services of a young Soviet choreographer. He eventually turned to
Massine. Parisians eagerly anticipated a Bolshevik propaganda ballet. Although it was well received, the ballet
was reviewed as "a weird work beginning with its title and ending with its music and choreography".

For Diaghilev’s last Paris season of the Ballets Russes, Prokofiev composed the music for Prodigal Son with
choreography by the young Balanchine. Opening May 21, 1929, it was a big success in Paris and later Berlin
and London.

During the summer of 1931 Prokofiev was commissioned to write the music for a ballet by Serge Lifar entitled
Sur le Borysh�ne (On the Dnieper). Prokofiev dedicated the work to Diaghilev who had died in Venice in 1929.
Despite being a collaboration of experienced and established artists, the ballet was not a success."





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No.90

Non-film music doesn't get much more film music-like than in Isaac Schwartz's heartfelt, proudly ecletic symphonic tribute
to the fate of Eastern European Jews under the Nazi terror, entitled Yellow Stars. The connection is all the more pertinent since
Schwartz's music was, if you will, "set to film" by director Joan Grossman. If you like some of Shostakovich's more lyrical
film music, or The Snowstorm by Gyorgy Svidirov, you'll like this, too. The language is uncomplicated, tuneful and, like much
Yiddish-inspired music, truly wears its heart on its sleeves. :) - The subtitle is "Purim play in the ghetto", alludes to the
Jewish tradition of staging informal plays wherever possible, and, in the context of the ghetto, the indomitable spirit of the
Jewish people in the face of the horrors of the Nazi holocaust.



Music Composed by Isaac Schwartz
Played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia
Conducted by Vladimir Spivakov

"Joan Grossman’s film illustrates Yellow Stars with film footage from a variety of sources and locations,
travelling in a rough chronological arc from book burning and shop-boycotting (well known images)
to the liquidation of the Warsaw and Kovno ghettos. There are also scenes from Dombrova in Poland,
the occupation of Lithuania, still shots and, most innovatively, contemporary colour footage, taken
from a car, of the countryside between Treblinka and Warsaw. It’s used to illustrate the Nocturne movement.

Among the much unusual footage one can see film of a choral concert and straight-to-camera
shots of crowds in the ghettos. In the third movement, Merry Dance, we see stills of musicians
and others, many of them children. Street crowds throng throughout Evening Prayer, the sixth
movement including significantly the ill and beggars. In the finale we see the transports and the
liquidation of the ghettos, especially that of Kovno in 1944 and Warsaw. The film then attempts
to present images of the Holocaust experience as a visual analogue to Schwartz’s music.

Schwartz was born in 1923 and suffered the brutal realities of life in the Soviet Union. His father was
arrested and died in one of Stalin’s camps and the family was sent to Kyrgystan. There he met
Shostakovich’s sister Maria Dmitrievna, similarly banished, and it was she who arranged accommodation
in Leningrad when the family was allowed to return to Russia after the War. It was her brother who
recommended he study with Boris Arapov – and secretly financed those studies. Schwartz refused to
denounce Shostakovich in 1948, despite provocation, and managed to produce a stream of works
following his graduation in 1951. He later moved towards film music, writing a raft of scores for a
succession of films, many of them very well known, and only returned to symphonic music in his seventies.

Yellow Stars or Purim spiel in the ghetto was one of the fruits of that return, subtitled a concerto for
orchestra in seven parts. It received its first performance in 1998. The work owes its genesis to Schwartz
reading an account of life during the War in the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania. The Purim festival, a time
of joyfulness, was a particular focus - it became "a festival of nooses" in the camp. Schwartz’s work
is dedicated jointly to Raoul Wallenberg and to Vladimir Spivakov, who didn’t conduct the premiere
but who conducts this recording.

It’s hard to be other than descriptive when considering a work such as this. Opening with a morning
prayer we find gravity and serenity fused – a stetl dance, clarinet klezmer, strong shofar horns as the
music sweeps up and then - once more - relaxation into reflective intimacy led by a theme for solo cello.
Again the juxtapositions ramify with the return of the dance, augmented by solos for violin and trumpet;
the whole forming a kaleidoscopic world, Mahlerian and with elements of Shostakovich as well.
The second movement is a Chorale with variations, once more lit by clarinet dance and by an outsize
violin solo. There are the merest hints of Sibelius in the writing that cleaves strongly to an early twentieth
century tonal muse throughout. In the central Dance – a kind of Scherzo - there’s a riot of colour with
bassoon, bass clarinet and other winds festively celebrating with unbridled freedom. This is followed by
the reflective, refractive Nocturne – lyrical, maybe filmic, Mahlerian, sometimes ambiguous. The fifth
movement is almost parodically Jewish – thick portamenti, whilst the sixth embraces desolate trumpet
calls, a hint of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony – abruptly cut short. The Finale opens with a forlorn
clarinet, increasing melancholy, until tense brass drives the writing onwards. Slow, sombre, though s
eemingly ultimately uplifting, the return of klezmer tune presages a fast dance and the music gets
quicker and quicker. Defiance? A Shostakovich Eighth Quartet Dance of Death? Maybe both.

The performances are highly accomplished and present Schwartz’s music with warmth, rhythmic
tautness and bite. They don’t underplay the occasional moments of Rimsky-like lyricism nor the
Mahlerian marches. Much is moving, compelling and often filmic in its intense immediacy."
Music Web





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Hey wimpel69, are you a fan of Popov's symphonies?

I know only a couple of Popov's symphonies, must go deeper into that territory.



No.91

Douglas Lilburn was born in New Zealand, but educated in London, a student of Ralph Vaughan Williams',
the leading English composer of the 1930s. At that time, the works of Jean Sibelius were still quite the rage in
England, and the aspiring composer modeled many of his earlier works on the style of the Finn. Shortly before his return
to New Zealand in 1940, Lilburn wrote a work that is still his most popular, the Aotearoa Overture. Aotearoa
is Maori and means "The Land of the White Clouds", which is the natives's term for New Zealand. The short
programmatic overture has become a signature work for the country and was featured as the opener in the
New Zealand Symphony's European tour a couple of years back.

Like in the earlier The Forest and the later A Song of Islands, the style mixes elements of British 1920/30ish music
with the broad outlines of the Sibelius tone poems. Only in later years did Lilburn adopt a more experimental style,
and did in fact dabble in electronic music a lot.



Music Composed by Douglas Lilburn
Played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by James Judd

"Douglas Lilburn wrote relatively little orchestral music. Aside from the three symphonies (also on Naxos, very well played
by this same orchestra) this disc about does it. Much of the music dates from early in his career and accordingly shows a
variety of influences: Vaughan Williams (Lilburn’s teacher), Copland in A Birthday Offering (1956), and above all Sibelius,
particularly in Forest (1936) and A Song of the Islands (1946). These were all good models, but at the same time Lilburn
had an individual voice, even if its elements are difficult to pin down because of the pace at which he developed from a
home-grown, New Zealand branch of the English pastoral school to the much spikier idiom of the Third Symphony and
(on the way there) A Birthday Offering.

Indeed, by the early 1960s Lilburn gave up working in traditional media and concentrated his attention on experiments in
electro-acoustic music, which means that he effectively dropped off the map. Listening to the attractive works on this disc,
from the Aotearoa Overture (his most famous piece) to the lovely tone poems, you can’t help but regret his decision,
however personally motivated and necessary it may have been for him. In any case we still have this rousing, very well
executed, finely recorded disc to enjoy, in which Lilburn’s home-town team under the baton of the ever-reliable
James Judd does him proud. An easy recommendation."
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No.92

Nights in the Gardens of Spain is among Manuel de Falla’s most impressionistic and poetic works, full of
shimmering textures that recall Debussy, but with a hard-edged precision brought to the forefront by the piano.
Also featured is Falla's ost famous ballet, the extremely colorful, folkloristic The Three-Cornered Hat.



Music Composed by Manuel de Falla
Played by the Academy of St. Martin the Fields
With Tzimon Barto (piano), Ann Murray (soprano)
Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

"Since his appearances as pianist at the Vienna Musikverein and the Salzburg Festival at the invitation of
Herbert von Karajan, Tzimon Barto has repeatedly brought dynamic and highly acclaimed performances to audiences
worldwide. He is internationally recognized as one of the most important American pianists of his generation, performing
to packed halls of faithful fans with solo, orchestra and chamber music concerts. Barto's career spans over two decades
featuring performances with nearly every major orchestra worldwide. Barto is a frequent guest in Europe, with recent
appearances in Austria, Italy, Czech Republic and Germany.

Ondine records Finland, released a Rameau solo album: "A BASKET OF WILD STRAWBERRIES, ‘in 2006, ‘A Selection of
Keyboard Jewels’ by Jean-Philippe Rameau which has received outstanding reviews." A Ravel solo album, Miroirs/Jeux
d’eau followed, also recognized for Barto’s unique take on the music. Tzimon Barto's numerous recording for EMI include
concerti by Ravel, Prokoviev, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Chopin and Bart�k. He has also recorded Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue",
Manuel de Falla's "Nights in the Gardens of Spain", and solo recitals of works by Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, as well as
a disc of popular encores, featuring music ranging from Bach to Joplin. One of this Season’s highlight is the release of
his Ravel recording for the Ondine Label.

Barto was born and raised in Eustis, Florida. He began his piano studies with his grandmother at the age of 5. As a teenager
he studied at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and the Brevard Music Center. He attended the Juilliard School of Music
from 1981-1985 studying piano with Adele Marcus. While at Juilliard he won the Gina Bachauer Competition on two
consecutive years as well as the school's concerto competition. Additionally, Barto was a conducting fellow and a coach
for the American Opera Center. "



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No.93

For a composer who wrote about 300 works (including some film music), Antonio G�mezanda is surprisingly obscure
to the general public even in his native Mexico (I couldn't find an online review of this album in English either!). Born in
Lagos de Moreno (hence the title of the symphonic poem which opens this collection), he studied in Mexico City
with Manuel Ponce, a leading Mexican composer of his time. G�mezanda travelled a lot, presenting his music in
France, Czechoslovakia and Germany. The rhythmically alert Six Mexican Dances and Mexican Phantasia
are highlights, as is the concluding suite from the ballet Xiuthtzquilo (The Aztec Feast of Fire).



Music Composed by Antonio G�mezanda
Played by the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester
With Alan Marks (piano), Wolfgang Boettcher (cello)
Conducted by Jorge Velazco





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No.94

He won an Emmy for the Holocaust TV series in 1979: Morton Gould, one of the most prolific and successful
American composers in the "Coplandia" style, occasionally dabbled in film and TV music throughout his career (Windjammer),
but his concert works are the main focus. Of those, one of the strongest is a ballet he wrote for Agnes DeMille, the noted
dancer and choreographer: Fall River Legend, based on the infamous Lizzie Borden murder case in the 19th century.
The ballet is presented here in its complete version, plus a 20 minute "talk" between Gould and DeMille about how it came into being.



Music Composed by Morton Gould
Played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra
With Brock Peters (speaker)
Conducted by Milton Rosenstock

"First performed by American Ballet Theater on April 22 1948, Fall River Legend is the story of Lizzie Borden, the
Massachusetts spinster who was tried for the ax-murder of her father and stepmother. Although Lizzie was
actually acquitted, in the ballet she is convicted and hanged. De Mille creates a portrait of a shy, sensitive but
receptive girl, turned into a murderess by her father's psychological abandonment in favor of his second wife,
a sour, jealous, manipulative woman who frustrates Lizzie's budding romance with her minister. Gothic in tone
and deeply perceptive in its depiction of the consequences of love thwarted, Fall River Legend reveals a truth
deeper than reality."


Left: Morton Gould - Right: a new production of "Fall River Legend" from 2007

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No.95

Two classical composers are known to have been killed by invading/occupying foreign forces in their own front yard: One is
Anton Webern, shot by a US soldier in 1945 when he lit a cigar in his garden, the other is French Alb�ric Magnard, who
took a shot at German troops in 1914 who were trying to raid his property, and was killed in the return gunfire. Magnard belonged to
the generation of Claude Debussy, but was still much influenced, like almost all of his fellow French composers, by the
(over)ripe late romanticism of Richard Wagner. Included in this collection are the beautiful Hymne � Venus,
the Chant fun�bre, the Hymne � la Justice and the Suite in the Olden Style.



Music Composed by Alb�ric Magnard
Played by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Conducted by Mark Stringer

"This discs contains all of Alb�ric Magnard’s orchestral music after the symphonies, and anyone who
enjoys those marvelous works certainly will warm to more music of similar style, character, and quality.
All of Magnard’s trademarks are here: the Beethovenish rhythmic energy, the preference for melodic material
in the bass with colorful woodwind patterning on top, melodies that alternate chromatic and simple diatonic
elements, extremely efficient scoring (like Elgar, Magnard often achieves an astonishing richness of texture
through simple means with quite modest forces), and a persistent nobility of tone and abhorrence of empty
display that frequently leads even energetic movements to end calmly and quietly.

With the exception of the charming early Suite dans le style ancien, the remaining works conform to the
above specifications, and all are extremely well performed by Mark Stringer and his Luxembourg forces. He
gives emphatic readings of the tumultuous Hymne � la justice and Ouverture, with trenchant rhythms and
solid contributions from timpani and those critical bass instruments. The elegiac Chant fun�bre, commemorating
the composer’s father, sustains a tone of elevated mourning for its full 16-minute length, and the luscious
Hymne � Venus features some lovely lyrical passages and a particularly well-balanced harp (it can so easily
sound tasteless, but somehow never does). Just about the only instrumental foible comes in the form of
an unsteady solo trumpet in the Ouverture.

Timpani’s sonics, perhaps just the slightest bit constricted, offer excellent clarity and impact in all other respects.
Certainly these performances offer a big improvement over previous renditions by Plasson for French EMI.
The resurgence of interest in this very worthy composer has produced some fine recordings of late,
and this is one of them. Don’t miss it!"
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Magnard (left) with his colleagues Eug�ne Ysaye (back) and Guy Ropartz



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No.96

Toivo Timoteus Kuula (7 July 1883 – 18 May 1918) was a Finnish conductor and composer. He was
born in the city of Vaasa (in those days Nikolainkaupunki), when Finland still was a Grand Duchy under
Russian rule. He is known as a colorful and passionate portrayer of Finnish nature and people.

In 1909, Kuula became Jean Sibelius's first composition student. He is best remembered for his large output
of melodic choir and vocal works. His instrumental works include two Ostrobothnian Suites for orchestra, a
violin sonata, a piano trio, and an unfinished Symphony. Kuula's major choral work is the Stabat Mater,
which remained unfinished at the time of his death. He also wrote a few dozen highly artistic piano works.

A Swedish critic once said that Kuula's music reaches parts of the human spirit where one is forced to deep
examination of one's self.

Kuula was known to be a fierce Fennoman. He died in the provincial hospital in Viipuri in 1918 after being mortally
wounded 18 days earlier on Walpurgis Night by a bullet fired by a J�ger. The bullet was fired as a result of a quarrel
that happened at the Hotel Seurahuone in conjunction with the first victory celebration of the White victory
in the Civil War of Finland. Kuula is buried in Hietaniemi cemetery, Helsinki.
Wikipedia



Music Composed by Toivo Kuula
Played by the BBC Concert Orchestra
With Susan Gritton (soprano)
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins

"You might have thought that Bis or Ondine would have been first off the blocks with a collection of the
orchestral music of Finnish composer Toivo Kuula. As it is, deep respect and healthy sales should greet
Dutton in branching out in this direction as well as towards France and Benjamin Godard. Perhaps it took
the catharsis and expiation offered by Bis's now complete Sibelius Edition to offer the oxygen for a project
such as this. Pingoud, Raitio and Melartin have hardly been ignored but perhaps we will now see yet
more of their music appearing and in multiple performances.

The Sea Bathing Nymphs – the same as Sibelius’s Oceanides? - is a grandly luxurious scena in the manner
of Richard Strauss and Sibelius's Luonnotar. It lacks the dissentient originality of the Sibelius but is striking
all the same. The words are sung by Susan Gritton around writing that is magically fine and delicately spun
with occasional eruptive climaxes worthy of Schulhoff, Schreker or Zemlinsky. Summer Evening has a hymn-like
simplicity - like a national favourite. Long I stared into the Fire was orchestrated by Aarre Merikanto. It partakes
of The Swimmer from Elgar's Sea Pictures and RVW's Stevenson settings. In the Cattle Yard reminded me of
the sheep-calling songs spread across Canteloube's Chants d’Auvergne. Then comes a song of great magical
ambit, Sailing in the Moonlight. It superbly catches the lunar light playing on barely stirred waters yet is still
very passionate in the manner of The Seabathing Nymphs. The Maiden and the Son of a Slave is another
silkily spun mercurial song with a volatile and highly demanding vocal part - one can imagine this music being
beloved of William Baines - it rather reminds me of his two neglected and unrecorded masterworks Thoughtfdrift
and Island of the Fey but with a petrol-soaked fulminant vocal element.

The Son of a Slave ( Orjan Poika) I have known for some years from a friend's broadcast tape by Jussi Jalas.
It is a romantically impressionist piece in which the canvas is diaphanous and rather Sibelian in a gentle
elusive way - lovely music.

The South Ostrobothnian suite No. 2 is in five movements. The music is jaunty-folksy (I III) and eldritch and
nature mystic ( It Rains in the Forest). The latter is distinctly Sibelian as is the oboe-led Polka of the Orphaned Children,
The last movement is challengingly called Daemons lighting up the Will-O'-The-wisp. It too has its Sibelian
moments as in the closing pages where this could easily have been from Sibelius's theatre music.

Lastly comes the Prelude and Fugue of 1909, reminiscent at times of Sibelius's Karelia suite. It’s jolly and
stormy at first in the manner of Liszt. Then comes a tautly pattering little fugue running to almost six minutes.
This might with advantage have been placed before Orjan Poika so the disc could have played out to Kuula's
staunchly imaginative romantic strengths rather than a patterned exercise reeking of the academic. Still, this is
a most fascinating issue and one that those holding a torch for Scandinavian music will have no
choice other than to hear."
Music Web





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File Sizes: 167 MB

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This is my final upload for a week. Have fun with the 96 entries so far! :)

thanks so much! this is a brilliant piece of music. i'd appreciate a classical music corner, especially with the high grade stuff listed already.

The Kuula is simply marvelous!
Thanks for sharing!
All your uploads are very much appreciated!

No.97

Rued Langgaard had one of the most remarkable careers - and was perhaps the greatest musical talent - in all of Danish music.
Rued Langgaard was brought up by his artistic parents to hold arch-Romantic, religio-philosophical views on art. Yet Langgaard
was not deaf to the modern development of music, and took his Late Romantic tonal idiom to such highly original extremes that
it could no longer maintain its Romantic grounding. This led to the first of the two long pauses in composition in his life, and to a
subsequent output of works that were deliberately anachronistic.

The Danish music world looked askance at Rued Langgaard, a lonely eccentric who was the only Dane to go all the way with
Late Romanticism. In 1940 he was engaged for the first time in an official capacity, as the cathedral organist in Ribe, far from
the music life of the capital. And there he lived, a bitter man, until his death, regarding Carl Nielsen as the epitome of all that
was wrong with the music of the age. Nevertheless, one finds traces of Nielsen in the most modernist works of Langgaard.

Rued Langgaard wrote over 400 works of which numerous are recorded for Dacapo: The 16 symphonies and many other
orchestral works, the six string quartets, piano and organ works, choral music, songs and the religious vocal drama Antichrist.
It was only at the end of the sixties that eyes were opened to the quite special qualities of his often unique musical idiom.
And there are still great works by Langgaard awaiting their first performance.
Dacapo Website

This is a precocious 1st Symphony, a large scale programmatic work that is the composer's answer to
Richard Strauss' similarly themed An Alpine Symphony.



Music Composed by Rued Langgaard
Played by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Thomas Dausgaard

"Rued Langgaard, having criticised his fellow Danish composers for their slavish adherence to
modernism, was abandoned to plough his own very Late Romantic furrow. Something of a Wunderkind,
he never managed to succeed to the same extent as his near contemporary, Erich Korngold, although
ironically there are many passages where his music recalls Korngold. Wagner, Gade, Tchaikovsky, Liszt
and Richard Strauss are other very obvious influences in his music. Langgaard believed that music had a
meaning beyond mere notes, in a religious sense. He sought to add programmes to much of his music in
order to aid the listener's grasp of this meaning, taking Richard Strauss' programmatic works to another
level. However, since music is a very imprecise art-form for describing places and events, it is perhaps
best to note the composer's inspiration and then let the music take you where it will.

The First Symphony, rarely played and recorded, is an astonishing achievement. Langgaard was 15 years
old when he started it, 20 when it was finished after a period of revision. Its 5 movements describe a walk
from a rocky shore in Sweden up to a mountain peak, a clear reference to Strauss' Alpine Symphony. Curiously,
the work bursts upon the listener with a blaze of majestic sound celebrating the surf, while it ends on a note
of contented accomplishment, almost the opposite of Strauss' glorious peroration at reaching his summit.
Even at this early stage, the sheer confidence and textural awareness of the young composer as a superb
orchestrator is astonishing. Dausgaard simply gives Langgaard his head but manages to control the intense,
saturated writing and massive volume of the climaxes which almost roll over one another. With a lesser
conductor and orchestra, such rhapsodic and intense music could become overbearing or overwhelming.
The indefatigable Danish National Symphony Orchestra are almost pushed to their limits, but respond
magnificently, revelling in the torrents of sound they emit but still producing lovely solo work (especially
woodwind) at the more reflective moments. There are some flaws in the work, as expected from an
inexperienced symphonist. For example, the coda of the first movement seems interminable, despite
Dausgaard's well-paced containment of its volume and strength.

The recording is very good, although the orchestra is placed somewhat far back in a reverberant hall.
In a way this is a good thing as it allows the huge climaxes to expand nicely, but the acoustic is hard
rather than warm, so passages with high strings and added piccolo as in the last movement can sound
a little glassy. Chandos managed a warmer acoustic for Segerstam's version of the First Symphony on
RBCD. However, played at a good volume, the sound can be quite spectacular, with a very natural
concert perspective.

If you like the sound of a large orchestra playing melodious Romantic music with great conviction, this
is well worth seeking out. It certainly rewards repeated listening. Langgaard's biographer provides
excellent notes on the composer's attitude to the symphony in general and the genesis of the
First in some detail."
SACD Net


Rued Langgaard was a loony - only for a time, he was a happy loony

Source: Dacapo CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 150 MB

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No.98

Two rather different ballets inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula: one by the British composer
Philip Feeney, which employs a small orchestra in a neo-romantic idiom, which makes it sound closer to an
actual film score (thanks to Feeney's ingenious orchestrations, the sound he gets is much bigger than the
smallish ensemble of 26 players may suggest). The other, by American composer Anthony DiLorenzo, exists
in two different versions: One for orchestra, and a 50-minute suite for brass septet and added solo instruments, recorded here.
The result is a leaner, occasionally almost Weill-ish sound. It should be noted that DiLorenzo is himself a virtuoso trumpeter,
so his competence in writing for this particular ensemble is high. Both ballets are interesting, if maybe the Feeney is altogether
more colorful, the DiLorenzo more enterprising in its sound world.



Music Composed by Philip Feeney
Played by the Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra
With Pauline Thulborn (soprano)
Conducted by John Pryce-Jones

Music Composed by Anthony DiLorenzo
Played by Proteus 7, with guests

"Philip Feeney (b.1954) spent his early years on the Isle of Wight, going on to study composition
at the University of Cambridge with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood, and subsequently at the Accademia di
Santa Cecilia in Rome under Franco Donatoni. His works have been performed extensively worldwide and he
is most noted for his work in Ballet and Dance. After a period as pianist/composer for the Teatrodanza di Roma
from 1980-84, he returned to London and has been composer in residence for Ballet Central and Musical Director
for their national tour ever since. From 1991-95 he lectured in composition at Reading University.

As a pianist, Philip has worked with many companies, including Northern Ballet Theatre, the Gulbenkian Company,
Birmingham Royal Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Rambert Dance Company, Carlos Acosta, Adventures
in Motion Pictures, White Oak Project and the Martha Graham Company. Apart from over forty scores he has
composed for Ballet Central, he has collaborated with many different choreographers including William Louther,
Jane Dudley, Christopher Gable, Michael Pink, Didy Veldman, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Derek Williams, David Nixon,
Adam Cooper and Sara Matthews.

His long-standing association with Northern Ballet Theatre began in 1987 with Memoire Imaginaire which initiated
a prolific collaboration with choreographer Michael Pink, which went on to produce Strange Meeting and Danse Classique.
In 1993 he was commissioned to compose Jazz Concerto for choreographer Derek Williams. His first full-length
production for NBT was Christopher Gable’s Cinderella, and it was for Gable and Pink that in 1996 he wrote the highly
acclaimed score for Dracula. This was closely followed by the music for Michael Pink’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997).
All three ballets have been recorded on CD. While writing the score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, he composed
the music for Didy Veldman’s Greymatter for Rambert Dance Company, with designs by Lez Brotherston.

Both Dracula and The Hunchback of Notre Dame were presented by Atlanta Ballet at the Fox Theatre in the 1998 and 1999
seasons, and subsequently by the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Colorado Ballet, where it regularly appears in the company’s
repertoire. Furthermore Hunchback has been performed by Boston Ballet in 2002 and Milwaukee Ballet in 2004 and Dracula
was produced in Oslo by the Norwegian Ballet in 2001."
Feeney bio

"Anthony DiLorenzo arranged this suite of highlights from his full-length Dracula ballet for the ensemble Proteus 7.
Primarily a brass ensemble (of which DiLorenzo is leader and first trumpeter), the group is here augmented by woodwinds,
percussion, and some really cool instruments including a Theremin, Bass Waterphone, and Daxophone. The latter is a piece of
curved wood (with an implanted microphone) played with a bow, which produces some horrific roaring sounds. All of this
makes for a deliciously spooky atmosphere, but it’s not all ghost and goblin effects–there’s plenty of real music going on.
DiLorezno has composed music for ABC-TV as well as trailers for more than 70 movies, and it shows in the brilliant and
exciting brass writing (some of the more dramatic passages remind me of the old Mannix television series).

However, the score heavily relies on waltzes and other classic dance forms, and there is a romantic, gothic sweep that
informs the whole project. Elements of jazz make a welcome contribution as well, including atmospheric use of the marimba.
The playing, as you would expect of such a devoted group of musicians, is simply brilliant–cutting-edge in its virtuosity.
In short, this disc is a barrel of fun! Dorian’s amazing 24-bit recording and xCD technology reach new heights of realism,
so much so that some listeners may consider upgrading their equipment, happily a less expensive proposition these days."
Victor Carr Jr, Classics Today http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j415/wimpel69/p10s10-1.gif





Source: Naxos & Dorian Recordings CDs (my rips!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Sizes: 170 MB (Feeney - with booklet) / 113 MB (DiLorenzo)

Download Links (DiLorenzo, re-up by Herr Salat) - https://mega.co.nz/#!0RdQlIhR!XKqcXyUJbkJird_by7Ak2ySPOUBHTzfufTrUlru racM
(Feeney, re-up by Herr Salat) - https://mega.co.nz/#!UcFzDJiT!P2ke0hi575F4vmUgFAHbLxlOYQs7Ro6ZKke7nDT 1cOw

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No.99

Arnold Rosner is a neo-tonal Jewish American composer whose works have been mostly performed by so-called
"regional orchestras" in the United States. His style embraces early 20th century modernism, but shies away from the
innovations of post-WWII serialism or minimalism. Included in this collection are A Sephardic Rhapsody, which might one
remind of Ernest Bloch's Hebrew works (or, again, R�zsa), a suite from the opera The Chronicle of Nine
(the Jane of the Tragedy of Jane Suite being the "Queen of Nine Days"), a festive Millennium Overture and a
neo-classical Concerto for Two Trumpets, Strings and Timpani. This is all polished,well-crafted "traditional"
symphonic music, albeit in occasionally less-than-polished performances (there are no alternatives anyway).



Music Composed by Arnold Rosner
Played by the Owensboro & Altoona Symphony Orchestras
With Jonathan Martin & Robert Murray (trumpets)
Conducted by Nicholas Palmer

"I have previously sung the praises of the music of Arnold Rosner. I am pleased to have the excuse to do that again in
reviewing a disc given over to Rosner's orchestral music. Encouragingly the disc is marked 'Orchestral Music of Arnold Rosner - Volume I'.

Both the Sephardic Rhapsody and the Overture spring from Rosner's long association with the conductor David Amos. The Millenium Overture
is an orchestration of the final movement of Rosner's 1990 Cello Sonata No. 2. The brass are commandingly to the fore in a work that is
quick-witted, emotional and restless. It has his trademark exotic flavour, a galumphing almost brutal rhythmic punctuation mixed
with Gabrielian work for the whole brass complement.

A Sephardic Rhapsody has that Mozarabic curve and sway to the tunes heard instantly in extensive writing for solo strings and trumpet.
The lines and their treatment impart dignity and reserve without being emotionally stilted. It is somewhat in the same line as Hovhaness
but much more is going on in Rosner's music. The music also touches base with works such as Vaughan Williams' Flos Campi and
Rozsa's Tripartita.

After those two works we move to the Owensboro orchestra for the three movement Concerto for Two Trumpets. Strings and Timpani.
This is virtuosic, free from jazziness, infused with dignified hieratic eloquence and the drama of ritual. The antiphonal effects are
superbly captured in this recording. The concerto was written for Ted McIrvine and Bruce McKinney (both composers and trumpeters).
This recording is dedicated to Ted's memory - he died of bone cancer in 2000.

Finally we come to the substantial four movement suite The Tragedy of Queen Jane. This is a suite from the music Rosner
wrote for the opera The Chronicle of Nine, on a play by Florence Stevenson. The suite opens with a grave soliloquy called Prelude.
This is very close in feel to Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia leavened with rising harp figures and fearsome brass passages in what
we now recognise as Rosner's distinctive super-Baroque style. Here however the brass is edgy with panic or insurrection.
The Masque has an antique feeling which transforms a theme rather related to Vaughan Williams' Greensleeves Fantasia with the
sort of grandeur to be found in Reger's Baroque experiments. In the opera this is the wedding music. The Clarion movement is
belligerent; indeed in the opera it refers to the skirmish in which Queen Jane's forces are driven off. The Dirge has one of those
massive uprooting fanfares - touched with catastrophe and restive with tragedy. In the opera this forms the Act II prelude.
Rosner says that we may think of it as a dirge for Jane.

Rosner's music packs a powerful emotional punch - and it is instantly recognisable, with its glowering and gaunt brass and
calmly placid and elysian string writing. We need to hear more please."
Music Web



Source: Albany Records CD (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 162 MB (incl. cover & liner notes)

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No.100

Lord Berners (1883-1950) was one of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating personalities in British music.
He became a pioneer in the avant-garde when he wrote his first music whilst living in Rome as a diplomat during
World War I; Balanchine choreographed his first two ballets and Ashton the next three; in 1931 he had the first
exhibition of his paintings; in 1934 he published the first volume of his autobiography, First Childhood, and two
years later his first novel, The Camel – and three more novels came out in 1941. On top of all this during the 1930s,
known as ‘the versatile peer’, he increasingly gained a reputation as an eccentric, which he realised was good for
publicity. His paintings all sold and some of his novels were translated into French and Swedish: all are now back in
print. But it was his music that meant the most to him and, largely through the endeavours of Philip Lane, all
of it is available on CD.

Because Berners was admired by Stravinsky, was commissioned by Diaghilev, wrote his ballet A Wedding Bouquet
to a text by Gertrude Stein (designing the costumes and sets himself), he associated with some of the leading
international figures in the arts. He kept a house in Rome but increasingly held court at Faringdon House (then Berkshire,
now Oxfordshire) as a centre for his legendary surrealist activities such as dying the pigeons various colours and
building a useless Folly on the hill outside Faringdon against local opposition in 1935. Between the wars he attended
musical events across Europe but World War II was a disaster that threatened everything he valued: he was at heart
a European at home in various languages. Berners barely recovered from the war, although he wrote his last ballet
and some film music afterwards.

His music has never been completely neglected but there was a lean period after his death in 1950 until the revival
concert at the Purcell Room in 1972, with John Betjeman giving readings: this was broadcast and led to some first recordings.
There was more activity for the centenary in 1983 with London concerts, published volumes of songs and piano music,
and a BBC Radio 3 documentary that became a book: Lord Berners: Portrait of a Polymath (Boydell 2008). Through the
1990s more recordings appeared, including Berners’ only opera. Then Berners acquired a new audience through Mark
Amory’s lively biography, Lord Berners: the Last Eccentric (Chatto and Windus 1998), and the coinciding reprints of
the autobiographies and the novels in the Collected Tales and Fantasies (Turtlepoint Press/Helen Marx Books). Gerald
Berners was actually the 14th Baron Berners – it wasn’t just a showbiz title as his friend and colleague Constant Lambert
had to explain in America – and when he inherited in 1918 he became rich. That made him look like a dilettante but Stravinsky
recognised that if Berners was regarded as an amateur because he had no need to earn his living from the arts it was
‘in the best – literal sense’ and nothing he ever did was amateurish. A wry humour pervades everything, as the brilliant
orchestral Fantaisie Espagnole and Three Pieces abundantly show. His songs and piano music, too, are as full of whimsical
references as those of Satie – he has been called the English Satie and the Ronald Firbank of music. Berners was not prolific
but whatever he did was stamped with his own fastidious accomplishment. He may not have been the last eccentric but his
music makes him one of the most rewarding.
Peter Dickinson

incl. The Triumph of Neptune (complete), The Man with the Moustache, Valses Bouregoises, Les Sir�nes (complete),
Cupid and Psych� (Suite), Caprice P�ruvien, Wedding Bouquet (complete) & Luna Park (complete)



Music Composed by Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, the 14th Baron Berners
Played by the English Northern Philharmonia, Royal Ballet Sinfonia & RT� Sinfonietta
With Miriam Blannerhassett (contralto) & The RT� Chamber Choir
Conducted by David Lloyd-Jones & Kenneth Alwyn

"Lord Berners is, understandably, the short form of the honorific attending to English baron the Right Honorable
Sir Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson. Berners was most things a man of peerage should not be -- he was unambitious,
uninterested in the diplomatic corps for which his rearing prepared him, and "worst" of all, a musician. Marco Polo's
Lord Berners: The Triumph of Neptune features conductor David Lloyd-Jones in a program of ballet, theater, and film
music of Lord Berners in works stretching from his early "futurist" period of 1918 to a more germane, but still sharply
hewn, stylistic idiom dating from the Second World War.

The most fascinating work here is L'uomo dai baffi (1918; The Man with the Moustache), incidental music composed for
a marionette theater performance organized by Italian futurist Fortunato Depero. Berners' score, made for a tart-sounding
chamber orchestral combination, is occasionally reminiscent of Stravinsky, though other parts are reminiscent of music that
Luigi Dallapiccola would be writing 30 years hence. One could argue that Berners was writing Italian futurist music that Italian
futurist composers, such as Balila Pratella, should have been writing owing to their own aesthetic precepts, but didn't. Berners'
compositional style had managed to shed most of its biliousness by the time of the ballet The Triumph of Neptune in 1926,
but his music retained plenty of its salt. This, and his penchant for near-cinematic turns of phrase, prevents The Triumph of Neptune
from being purely neo-classical. The ballet contains its moments of lyricism, as well, particularly in the cue "Cloudland." The storyline
for The Triumph of Neptune is wonderfully nonsensical in manner of Cocteau's libretto for Satie's Parade; numbered among the
original dancers in the premiere were Alexandra Danilova, Serge Lifar, and George Balanchine. It must have been a handsome
production, indeed, and if you close your eyes as you listen to this music you can almost see it. Marco Polo's excellently well-engineered
recording and Lloyd-Jones' disciplined, clearly articulated reading make the visual effect all too clear.

The Valses bourgeoises (1919) are also early, but are parodies of pre-existing pieces; for example the third waltz is titled "Strauss,
Strauss et Straus." Polka (1941), although composed independently, was ultimately used in the Ealing film Champagne Charlie (1944);
it sounds like a polka jointly composed by Bernard Herrmann and Danny Elfman. Despite that, Lord Berners had only limited direct
contact with film, and that limited to a part of his life ultimately claimed by advanced depression; his non-futuristic music is visual in feel.
Marco Polo's Lord Berners: The Triumph of Neptune has a great deal more of a general audience appeal than this modest disc, and the
continued obscurity of Berners himself, would suggest at first glance. Even though it's not film music, if you love film music most likely
you will love most of this; likewise, if the music of William Walton or Constant Lambert appeals to your ears, then Marco Polo's
Lord Berners: The Triumph of Neptune will not be far off those marks."
Dave Lewis, All Music





Source: Marco Polo CDs (my rips!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: 466 MB (3 CDs, incl. covers & booklets)

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I hope you enjoyed the first 100 uploads, featuring some 108 CDs (incl.contributions by American Idiot and dj�houty).
As before, please do not post these rips anywhere else, and if at all possible, do buy the original CDs or lossless downloads. Cheers, wimpel69 :)

Thanks for the great eccentric Lord Berners and congratulations on your (and American Idiot & dj�houty) first 100 uploads!

No.101

Jean Cras is another all-too-easily overlooked French composer caught between late 19th century Romanticism and the new impressionistic
style of Debussy's mature works. Like Albert Roussel, he was a naval officer, so in his tripartite Journal de bord (The Ship's Log), he
knows what he's "talking" about. It's a glittering, shimmering seascape with many deft touches, quite "La Mer II", as some Amazon reviewer wrote.
The other work, �mes d'enfants (The Souls of Children), is another three-part work, one character piece each for Cras's own daughters.
The style, as could be expected, is a little more direct, more openly romantic than in the sea piece. Very well crafted music indeed. Too bad
Cras wrote very little in his life.



Music Composed by Jean Cras
Played by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Conducted by Jean-Francois Antonioli

"Jean �mile Paul Cras (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ kʁaz] (22 May 1879 – 14 September 1932) was a
20th century French composer and career naval officer. His musical compositions were inspired by his native
Brittany, his travels to Africa, and most of all, by his sea voyages. As a naval commander he served with
distinction in the Adriatic Campaign during World War I.

Cras met Henri Duparc, the famous French composer, early in his career, and the two became lifelong friends.
Duparc called Cras "the son of my soul". Though Cras's duties in the French navy left him little time to devote
to his musical work he continued to compose throughout his life, mainly writing chamber music and songs.
Much of his most ambitious work, the opera Polyph�me, was written and orchestrated during the war, however
the majority of his musical output dates from after the war. Today, his string trio and string quartet are his
best known works.

His lyric tragedy, Polyph�me is considered his masterpiece. The opera was acclaimed at its premiere in 1922,
giving Cras a burst of notoriety in the French press. The title character is Polyphemus, who, according to Greek
mythology, is the eldest Cyclops and son of Poseidon. It tells the well-known story of the attempt by Polyphemus
(baritone) to steal Galatea (soprano) from Acis (tenor). In the original myth Polyphemus eventually kills Acis by
rolling a rock onto him. Albert Samain, the librettist, humanized Polyphemus by having him become aware of the
feelings shared by two lovers and thus, decide not to crush them. Ultimately, the cyclops wanders into the sea
to find death because the couple's happiness horrifies him. The music is impressionistic, restless, and highly
chromatic, in the spirit of Chausson and Duparc. The influence of Debussy's opera Pell�as et M�lisande is also
noticeable.[2] (A fine recording of this opera was released in 2003, with Bramwell Tovey conducting the Luxembourg
Philharmonic Orchestra and Armand Arapian in the title role.)

Cras's later work developed a more acerbic style comparable to that of Bart�k, though formally close to C�sar Franck.
He considered chamber music to be his forte, writing that "this refined musical form has become for me the most
essential". The String Trio in particular integrates a wide range of styles, including North African influences. It was a
described as a 'miraculous' work by Andr� Himonet in 1932, achieving "perfectly balanced sonority and a plenitude
of expression between which one dare not choose." The Trio for Strings and Piano also blends African and Eastern
melodic patterns with Breton musical traditions into a coherent whole. The critic Michel Fleury compares his work
to the Japonist style of the artist Henri Rivi�re revealing "a stylised Breton land, as though it had been passed
through the sieve of his varied experiences gained in the four quarters of the globe."
Wikipedia



Source: Timpani CDs
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), DDD Stereo
File Size: MB

Download Link (re-up) - https://mega.co.nz/#!Dth2maBR!eLF-x24qY0oOjvQThtm563LiZ3Z2Jwr3K9VCtoT0ktU

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* NOTE: The re-up now includes the second CD, featuring Cras's Piano Concerto and L�gende for Cello and Orchestra, too.

Never heard of Cras... Incredible!

No.102

Belgian composer Lodewijk Mortelmans (1868-1952) was a contemporary of Paul Gilson, and, like him,
he was an important teacher and signature figure in the Belgian music revival of the first quarter of the 20th century.
As a composer, he was still very much influenced by the Russian romantics like Glazunov (a parallel, again,
to Gilson's style), which is immediately evident in his large-scale, programmatic Homeric Symphony. The four
standard movements represent the composer's own response to Homer's The Iliad. The two other works are much
less ambitious in scope, but also more individual and "advanced": Morning Mood and, notably, The Myth of Spring.



Music Composed by Lodewijk Mortelmans
Played by the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Martyn Brabbins

"Lodewijk Mortelmans belongs to a select group of Flemish composers who contributed much to late
romantic orchestral music from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. The names Mortelmans, De Boeck,
Blockxx and Brusselmans among others will be well-known to perusers of Marco Polo’s lists, as well as those of
the Discovery label, without whom these composers would have, until now, remained footnotes in musical history.

In 1893 Mortelmans won a prestigious music prize in Belgium and used the money accompanying the prize to widen
his horizons in Germany and Italy, and later founded a music society in Antwerp which invited guests such as
Richter, Strauss and Mahler. It would be a mistake to categorise Mortelmans and his circle as parochial and insular,
as Tom Janssens in his extensive and excellent essay in the accompanying booklet makes clear.

“Mythe der lente” (Myth of Spring) was written in 1895 with references to Edda (as is Jon Leif’s monumental work,
Part 1 of which is available on a BIS SACD), portraying the waking of Gerda after the winter sleep and
meeting her bridegroom, Freya.

By 1898 Mortelmans had completed his substantial Homeric Symphony, a 45 minute cornucopia of late romantic delights.
With Wagnerian and Straussian inspiration the composer’s command of orchestration is impressive, with some especially
fine writing for horns. There’s a grand first movement, followed by a second slow movement with heartfelt memories of
Patroklos’s death. The contrast in the third movement is startling, a gossamer-light scherzo depicting the Sirens playing
and singing, Janssens finding this rather less successful than I did. It’s a gorgeous sound, and beautifully played, too.
A fine, triumphant fourth movement completes this interesting and diverting work.

“Morgenstemming” (Morning Mood) completes the CD’s programme, a later work from 1922, the first orchestral work
Mortelmans completed after the Homeric Symphony. This is a more abstract, more Delian less Wagnerian work,
Mortlemans’ equivalent of Nielsen’s Helios Overture.

This CD marks a new departure for Hyperion, starting their link with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic under their relatively
new principal guest conductor but old Hyperion hand Martyn Brabbins. This is a fine orchestra, capable of silky smooth
string playing where necessary, and excellent in all departments. Brabbins steers a clear path avoiding the mundane on
the one hand, and the over-egged romantic hysteria on the other, and his orchestra, from the end result, seem to me
to have enjoyed the music making hugely. These are no idle run-throughs – ensemble is tight, dynamics are carefully
graded and the result is some intense music-making."
Audaud



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

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You post all the most unusual and enjoyable music. Thank you so much!

You're welcome. :)


No.103

"Ingolf Dahl left Germany (where he was born of Swedish parents) before World War II. After having become an
established and highly regarded teacher and composer in America, he returned to Europe on sabbatical from the
University of Southern California in 1952 and 1953. In a church in the Austrian town of Schruns he found images
of Saint Barbara, an early Christian martyr. Barbara, a Christian convert, refused the orders of her father, the king,
to accept a marriage he had arranged and to renounce her new faith. As a result, she was imprisoned in a tower,
tormented by the people's anger, and finally slain by her father's hand.

Dahl decided to use her legend as the basis for a ballet. However, he could not interest choreographers in it, and
it was never staged. Recast as a "Symphonic legend in four parts" The Tower of Saint Barbara was first
performed by the Louisville Orchestra under Robert Whitney on January 29, 1955; its now-standard revised version
was finished in 1960. The four movements are called "Barbara," "The King," "The Tower" and "The Martyrdom." Dahl
established two sound-worlds in the 24-minute piece: Barbara's mystical and contemplative music is given chromatic
lines but predominantly consonant harmonies, while the heathens led by the king received diatonic music with much dissonance."
All Music

Also included are several excellent, non-programmatic works: The Saxophone Concerto, the Music for
Brass Instruments, and a Hymn for orchestra. Another unjustly neglected American composer ...



Music Composed by Ingolf Dahl
Played by the New World Symphony & Brass Orchestras
With John Harle (saxophone)
Conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas

"Ingolf Dahl was born in Germany to a Swedish family. He studied with Philipp Jarnach at the Conservatory
in Cologne, Germany, but left Germany when the Nazis took over. He continued his studies in Switzerland
at Zurich Conservatory with Volkmar Andreae and at the University of Zurich with Walter Frey. In 1935 he
visited the United States to study with Nadia Boulanger, who was then teaching in California. Seeing the
European situation became more unsettled, he moved permanently to the United States and took up
residence in Los Angeles. He became successful as a film and radio arranger, and he also composed,
conducted, and gave lectures.

Dahl was particularly successful in his role as conductor and pianist of concert series called Monday Evening
Concerts and Evenings on the Roof. These programs, featuring contemporary music, attracted the attention
of composer Igor Stravinsky, who employed Dahl as a musical assistant. He entrusted the translation of
his Norton Lectures into English to Dahl.

Dahl became highly respected as a professor at the University of Southern California, whose faculty he joined in
1945. He was a longtime conductor of the university's orchestra (1945 - 1958) and taught both conducting
and composing. Among his pupils are conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and composer Frederick Myrow.
His own music evolved from a thickly scored Central European style, with considerable Hindemith-influenced
counterpoint, to a more American style, open and lighter in scoring with a brisk neo-Classical element influenced
by Stravinsky. The bulk of his relatively small output is instrumental. His music is usually tonal, although he wrote
a few serial or twelve-tone pieces. He is especially well regarded among wind instrumentalists for his compositions
for band and other wind ensembles, and for his saxophone concerto, his concerto for two clarinets, his Allegro
and Arioso for woodwind quintet, and his Music for Brass Instruments.

In addition to teaching at USC (with which he remained affiliated until his death), he also taught at Tanglewood
and was director of the Ojai Festival, The Young Musician's Foundation of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles
Guild Opera Company. He received numerous honors and awards, and inspired great devotion from his pupils."
All Music



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No.104

Mikolajus Konstantinas Čiurlionis was born at Varena in southern Lithuania in 1875, the son of an
organist. From the age of fourteen he studied at the music school in Plunge, acquiring a knowledge of
various instruments, following this in 1894 by a period at the Warsaw Music Institute as a piano pupil
eventually of the widely cultured Antoni Sygietynnski. He later studied composition with Zygmunt Noskowski,
whose pupils included Szymanowski and Fitelberg, and went on to further study of composition in Leipzig
with Liszt's pupil Salomon Jadassohn and Carl Reinecke. In 1902 he began to develop another aspect of his
talent when he entered the Warsaw Drawing School, moving two years later to the newly established
School of Fine Arts, and exhibiting in Warsaw in 1905 and in Vilnius, where he made his home in 1907.
As a painter he won posthumous success with exhibitions in Warsaw, Vilnius and
St. Petersburg soon after his death.

The symphonic poem The Sea (Jūra) was started in 1903 and completed in 1907.
In texture it has about it more of Richard Strauss than of Debussy, although the orchestra is
handled with sensitivity to produce an overtly pictorial effect, much as some of the paintings of Čiurlionis
had been conceived in quasi-musical terms as pictorial sonatas. The sea is shown in a variety of moods,
gentle, lyrical, running deep and rising to a climax of grandeur.

The shorter symphonic poem In the Forest (Miške) was written in 1900, before the
departure of Čiurlionis for Leipzig. It is tempting once more to hear parallels with contemporaries, with
Sibelius in Finland in mood, and with composers of Germany in a skilled and colourful use of the orchestra
in music that is evocative but never merely narrative.

The Five Preludes arranged for string orchestra were originally written for piano, a reminder of
the distinction of Čiurlionis both as a performer and as a composer for the keyboard, and a reminder,
too, of the contemporaneous work of Szymanowski in this vein.
Naxos



Music Composed by Mikolajus Ciurlionis
Played by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Juozas Domarkas

"First of all, I would like to say that I was greatly rewarded by dicovering and listening to Ciurlionis's music. The reason for
his obscurity remains unknown to me. The only thing that comes to mind is that his compositions are few. Of course, Ciurlionis
was also a great painter, in which he combined musicality to his drawings. The music on the disc: The Sea (symphonic poem)
is the star component of this disc. The melodies, harmonies and orchestrations are all very lush. This is also my personal
favorite. In the Forest (symphonic poem) is a very beautiful piece of music (and a student work to add). Though Ciurlionis
was not as experianced with the musical language when he wrote this work (comparing this to his second symphonic poem
The Sea), it is an assured winner for the listener. The Five Preludes for String Orchestra were all arranged from some of his
shorter piano pieces. Though they are all brief, they contain some very attractive melodies. All-in-all;this recording is
essentially classic. The sound produced from the Orchestra and the recording are both satisfying. After hearing this
recording, you and I will both agree that there needs to be more recordings of this unknown master's music. Enjoy!"
Amazon Reviewer





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Jean Cras!
You made my day, wimpel!

No.105

Anthony Ritchie is a contemporary composer from New Zealand who writes in a neo-tonal idiom that
embraces modern romanticism as much as neo-classical and minimalistic influences. Yet, the four
works on this album are remarkably unique and personal in style. Both the Symphony No.3 and
Revelations explore different human experiences. The symphony is concerned with two sides
of human personality, the positive and the negative in life, and the struggle to find a balance
between them. Revelations is about the near-death experience in an emergency situation.
The opening overture A Bugle Will Do is a tribute to a war hero from New Zealand, Sir Charles Upham,
who earned himself a Victoria Cross in WWII, and it deals with the horrors of battle. The French Overture
is basically neo-classical and might evoke memories of Darius Milhaud.



Music Composed by Anthony Ritchie
Played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Tecwyn Evans

"Anthony Ritchie studied composition at Canterbury University, and completed a
Ph.D on the music of Bartok. He studied composition at the Liszt Academy in Hungary,
before becoming Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch, in 1987. He moved to Dunedin in
1988 to be Mozart Fellow in composition, at Otago University, and later was Composer-
in-residence with the Dunedin Sinfonia completing his Symphony No. 1 Boum.

He freelanced from 1995-2002, writing many commissioned works for performers as diverse
as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Class Act Opera, and The Australian Song Company.
In 2000 his Symphony No.2 was premiered by The Auckland Philharmonia at the International
Festival of the Arts. The comic opera "Quartet" also featured at the 2004 Festival.
Anthony Ritchie has composed film music in collaboration with Natural History NZ,
including "Southern Journeys" (2000). In 2004 his opera "The God Boy" was a critically
acclaimed success at the Otago Festival of the Arts.

Since 2006 he has had five CDs of his composition released, including his album
"New Zealand Poets in Song" as well as chamber and orchestral CDs. The CD "Remember Parihaka"
was released in 2009, including his widely performed Flute Concerto, written for Alexa Still.
A new album of his piano music "Expressions" was released in 2010 featuring pianist
Tom McGrath. In 2011 the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra released a CD of Anthony's orchestral
music, including his recently composed Symphony No.3, premiered at the Otago Festival
of Arts in 2010.

Recent commissions include new works for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NZ National
Youth Choir, as well as a wind quintet for Zephyr. He has composed over 150 compositions,
and many have been performed overseas. He is currently a senior lecturer in composition at
The University of Otago in Dunedin."





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No.106

The music for the ballet Far from the Madding Crowd (1996) could very well have been a film, or high grade
televison score as well - and in fact, English Paul Reade composed a lot of music for TV. The music is
emotional, varied and very well made - if you like e.g. Carl Davis's ballet music, you will like this one, too.



Music Composed by Paul Reade
Played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Conducted by Paul Murphy

"Leave it to the British to come up with a lushly and lovingly performed ballet setting of Thomas Hardy’s tragicomic novel,
Far From the Madding Crowd. Composer Paul Reade (1943-87) gained his compositional experience by writing the incidental
music for various British television productions, including several literary classics such as A Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre.
The experience certainly served him well. Far From the Madding Crowd was Reade’s first theatrical ballet score and it is
British romanticism at its best (even though it sounds nothing like any one particular British romanticist–Vaughan Williams,
Bax, Holst, etc.). The score is full of rural romps and celebrations, (“The Proposal”, “The Hiring Fair”, and Greenhill Fair”)
as well as the occasional heartbreaking lyric, such as “Fanny Robin and Troy” and “Lament for Fanny Robin”. There are no
dead spots or weak transitions; Reade keeps everything moving right along and his ideas are always engaging, never
gratuitous. Paul Murphy conducts the Royal Ballet Sinfonia with just enough flair and exuberance and the physical sound
is spectacular without being flashy or brash. Highly recommended."
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Thanks for the Reade!

No.107

Robert Ward rose to fame with his Pulitzer Prize-winning opera The Crucible, from the thinly disguised anti-McCarthy
play by Arthur Miller, which is set against the background of the Salem witch trials. Many years later he wrote a ballet based on
the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and of course there are strong connections between those sources.
In between, Ward failed to achieve, or chose not to pursue, the lasting national or international success his opera breakthrough
had promised. Instead, he "retreated" to North Carolina, where he became Chancellor of the North Carolina School of the Arts
in Winston-Salem, and, years later, Visiting Professor of Music at Duke University. He thus remained a "regional composer", and
most of his works, like the ones on this album, were performed in his home state. The Scarlet Letter is presented here
in a seven-movement suite, which covers the highlights of the story. Also included is the Violin Concerto, a modest but
occasionally intriguing (opening and theme!) piece that, like most of Ward's works, shies away from atonality.



Music Composed by Robert Ward
Played by the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra
With Sarah Johnson (violin)
Conducted by Peter Perret

"Hawthorne's magnificent story proved to be an endless source of inspiration and a great challenge. In planning the
work Rick McCullough, the choreographer, and I have tried to accomplish in the “story ballet” the same close interweaving
of plot and music that prevails in Bernard Stambler's libretto and my music for the opera, “The Crucible,” based on the
play by Arthur Miller. Each scene involves a principal dramatic climax in Hawthorne's novel, but also affords opportunities
for solo, ensemble and general dances. Musical ideas are specifically associated with characters or elements of the story
and recur with appropriate variations as relevant through the entirety of the ballet. This results in a cyclic-symphonic
structure in which I have tried to stress the rhythmic and dance elements at all times. It envisions a final work in which
dance, mime and music are inseparably joined.

I. Stiff-necked Puritans and Gossips- The townspeople gather for the condemnation of Hester Prynne as an adulteress.

II. The Secret Pledge - Hester and her child, Pearl, are visited in their prison cell by her estranged husband, Chillingworth,
who pledges her to secrecy about their marital tie.

III. The Elf-child and the Minister - Seven years later, Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester's secret lover and father of Pearl,
restrains the rigid Puritans from taking Pearl away from Hester.

IV. Revelation, Guilt and the Scourge - Chillingworth visits the guilt-ridden Dimmesdale. He inadvertently discovers the
relationship of Hester and Dimmesdale, who orders him to leave when Chillingworth craftily tries to induce Dimmesdale
to confess. Alone again, the minister scourges himself in punishment for his sins.

V. Wild night of Remorse - At midnight, tormented by the demons of his conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the scaffold where
Hester was condemned. In the northern lights which suddenly suffuse the dark sky, he sees a great scarlet letter.
Chillingworth, and then Hester and Pearl on the way home from the deathbed of the Governor, find the distraught
minister, and he is led away.

VI. A Flood of Sunshine- Hester, who has told Chillingworth she will no longer keep her pledge of secrecy, now meets
Dimmesdale again after the many years they have been kept apart. Their renewed passion is heightened by their plan
to sail away from Boston and from their agony. At the height of their joy, Hester tears off the scarlet letter and throws
it aside. Pearl, who has been off playing, finds it. When Dimmesdale tries to embrace her in fatherly fashion, she resists
him and insists that Hester put the hated symbol of her adultery back on her breast.

VII. Expiation on the Scaffold - The townspeople, joined by friendly Indians and sailors, gather for the installation of
their new Governor. They are deeply moved by Dimmesdale's sermon. As he leaves the meeting house, he sees Hester
and Pearl. Driven by his guilt and the knowledge that he cannot avoid his punishment, he mounts the scaffold to make
public confession. Hester and Pearl rush to his side, but he cannot be saved. His torment has been too great, and
he dies in Hester's arms."
Robert Ward



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---------- Post added at 12:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 PM ----------

There's a quite interesting interview with the elderly composer on Youtube: NEA Opera Honors: Interview with Robert Ward - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9BgkICCV1E)

No.108

Everybody knows Malcolm Arnold was one of the great English film composers, a fine craftsman who had a particular
talent for creating memorable melodies. The same is true of his concert works, but on an altogether different level.
Comparison between his on- and off-screen oeuvre indicates that he considered film music mostly as a means of
easy and lucrative income. He did not exactly debase his personal style in the film music, but watered it down
considerably. Compare then this wonderful and generous collection of programmatic concert overtures, which
really show the composer, for the most part, at the top of his game. Tam O'Shanter, Peterloo, Beckus the Dandipratt,
and The Fair Field are prime examples of Arnold's prodigious melodic and symphonic talent, with the rest close
behind. These are vastly entertaining, and not necessarily "light", shorter British orchestral work.



Music Composed by Malcolm Arnold
Played by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Rumon Gamba

"Whether comic or dramatic, Sir Malcolm Arnold's concert overtures are always entertaining fare: lavishly orchestrated,
generously stocked with infectious melodies, and featuring not a few strokes of inspiration. Most notorious and hilarious of
Arnold's bonbons is A Grand Grand Festival Overture, composed in 1956 for the Hoffnung Festival and featuring such rare
instruments as Hoover vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, and a firing squad to dispatch the noisy soloists. (For those who
get impatient with the ridiculously long coda, rest assured, it does eventually end). The other selections on this 2005
Chandos release are not as silly, but they are delightful for their vivid scene painting and stylistic gambits; note the jazz
inflections in The Smoke, the lively Celtic tunes in Tam o' Shanter, and the screwball polytonality of Beckus the Dandipratt
(the work that gained Arnold access to the film industry). Even the more seriously intended overtures, such as Peterloo,
The Fair Field, and A Sussex Overture are arresting in their orchestration and melodic invention, and Arnold's buoyant
personality shines through, even when the musical arguments are most contentious. The BBC Philharmonic, directed by
Rumon Gamba, turns in luscious performances full of bright colors and vital rhythms, and Chandos offers wonderfully
realistic sound quality."
All Music



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No.109

Carl Nielsen was the leading Danish composer of the first two decades of the 20th century, and the
Symphony No.4 ("The Inextinguishable") is probably his single greatest achievement. Nonetheless,he did
compose a number of highly attractive independent shorter works, like the lovely Helios Overture,
A Fantasy-Journey to the Faroer Islands, Saga-Dream, Pan and Syrinx, An Evening in Giske, etc.
These are all evocative, nicely compact and sharply defined examples of Danish late romanticism.



Music Composed by Carl Nielsen
Played by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Gennadij Rozhdestvensky

"Although Finland's extraordinary Jean Sibelius may be foremost among Nordic composers, his contemporary, Carl Nielsen --
best known for six highly original symphonies and simple popular songs -- holds an honored place as Denmark's foremost post-
Romantic musical ambassador, and has found considerable acclaim amongst musicians and audiences alike.

A painter by profession, Nielsen's father spent as much or more energy on his secondary activities as a violinist, and it was
in this way that young Carl received his first musical instruction. At 14 Carl auditioned for a position with a military wind
ensemble at Odense (he was hired as a bugler, despite his lack of formal training on the instrument). During a visit to Copenhagen
in 1883, Nielsen was introduced to composer Niels W. Gade, who suggested that the young musician enroll at the Conservatory
for serious studies. During Nielsen's three years at the Conservatory (1884-1886) his primary subjects were violin and theory,
and at no time did he actually receive formal instruction in composition. Nevertheless, in 1888 his Suite for Strings, Op.1
received a successful debut in Copenhagen.

In 1889 Nielsen was hired as a violinist at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, a position he retained until 1905 (though in 1891
he journeyed to Paris, where he met and married Danish sculptress Anne Marie Brodersen). During the 1890s Nielsen composed
prolifically, and much of his output was put into print. By 1903 he had signed a contract with the Wilhelm Hansen publishing
firm in Copenhagen, effectively ending his tenure with the Royal Theatre (though he would not officially resign for two more years).
His career as a conductor began in 1908 when he accepted a staff position with the Royal Theatre Orchestra. From 1916
until his death in 1931 (of heart disease), he taught at the Royal Danish Conservatory.

Nielsen's music is highly individual in both content and construction, although only the symphonies and the three concertos
(violin, flute, and clarinet) have earned places in the repertory outside Denmark (where many of his choral pieces have become
part of the national heritage). Each of the three concertos is a worthy contribution to its instrument's literature, though
perhaps the Clarinet Concerto deserves the most attention. While starting out from the perspective of Classical form and
harmony, his music later developed into an "extended" tonal and even atonal language, born of his highly expressive melodic style.

Like his colleague Sibelius, Nielsen poured his finest material into the symphonic mold. From the early First Symphony of 1892
(which is one of the first such works to begin and end in different keys), to the famous Fourth Symphony ("The Inextinguishable,
"a reference to the enduring power of both life and music), each is a noble testament to a remarkable man's view of the world around him."
All Music



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No.110

Francisco Paulo Mignone (September 3, 1897�February 19, 1986) is one of the most significant figures in Brazilian
classical music, and one of the most significant Brazilian composers after Heitor Villa-Lobos. In 1968 he was chosen as
Brazilian composer of the year.

A graduate of the S�o Paulo Conservatory and then of the Milan Conservatory, Mignone returned to S�o Paulo in 1929 to
teach harmony, and in 1933 took a post in Rio de Janeiro at the Escola Nacional de M�sica. Mignone was a versatile composer,
dividing his output nearly evenly between solo songs, piano pieces, chamber instrumental works, orchestral works, and choral
works. In addition, he wrote five operas and eight ballets.

Son of the Italian immigrant flutist Alferio Mignone, Francisco was already making his mark upon the musical world of Brazil by the
time he was 10 years old, gaining notoriety around his district playing in the choro style. A pianist and orchestra leader at 13, he had
gained some fame composing and playing under the pseudonym of Chico Boror�, keeping these activities separate from his formal
music training. His works may be divided into three compositional periods. His early works show the Italian influences and Romantic
sensibilities of his training in Milan. An orchestral piece from his first opera of this early period was premiered in Rio de Janeiro by
Richard Strauss conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1923.

Much of Mignone's music is strongly nationalistic in flavor; influenced by the nationalistic movement of his former schoolmate and
teacher, the musicologist and writer M�rio de Andrade, Mignone uses the folk and popular melodies and forms of his native Brazil
as a basis for his compositions. (Andrade reportedly said, "In Italian music, Mignone will be one more among a rich and numerous
school, to which he does not add anything. Here, he will be of indispensable value.") From 1929 until 1960 his work was most
strongly characterized by this nationalism, during which he composed such pieces as the Fantasias Brasileiras and his ballets
Maracatu de chico rei and Leil�o. His solo vocal and piano works of this time earned him particular acclaim for their expression
of Brazilian musical styles, such as the choro, the modinha, and the valsas (waltzes) reminiscent of strolling serenaders.

Mignone's music is noted for its lyricism, colorful instrumentation, and improvisatory style. Most of his early works are tonal,
as is typical of the popular and folk music, though later in his career he branched out into polytonal, atonal, and serial writing.
In the late 1950s Mignone drifted away from the nationalistic music and toward the then-current trends in academic concert music,
composing works such as his 1958 Piano Concerto, which showcase his skillful instrumentation and bravura writing.
Mignone was capable of writing in a variety of styles and his works of the early 1960s and beyond are noted for their eclecticism;
it is difficult to find any other unifying feature. However, he returned to nationalistic writing toward his last few years.



Music Composed by Francisco Mignone
Played by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by John Neschling

"BIS has done it again! If you've been collecting any of the marvelous unknown composers that this label has been
advocating over the years, including Tubin, Tveitt, Klami, or (from this source) Guarnieri, then you're going to love this
fabulous new disc of music by Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone (1897-1986). He's best known today for his shorter
piano pieces, which appear on numerous Latin American keyboard music collections--but there's much more to him than
that. The son of Italian immigrants, Mignone's music sounds like an Afro-Brazilian homage to Respighi, Puccini, and Stravinsky
--but as happens so often in these cases, whatever he may lack in sheer originality he more than makes up for in melodic
spontaneity and in finding a mix of ingredients that is his alone. This disc, which shows the work of a superb craftsman
and an orchestrator every bit on the level of the three composers just mentioned, only whets the appetite for more--
much more.

Festa das Igrejas (Church Festivals) dates from 1940, and as you might imagine it sounds a bit like Respighi's Church Windows
meeting his Brazilian Impressions. For the most part the music is atmospheric and gently subdued, with beautiful melodies
strikingly scored for orchestra and prominent organ, the timbre of which is superbly melded with that of the larger ensemble.
This makes the eruptive outbursts in the second and fourth movements all the more impressive, especially the latter, where
Mignone literally pulls out all of the stops as the organ and an orchestra replete with harps, bells, and festive percussion
brings the piece to a conclusion rivaling The Pines of Rome or Pictures at an Exhibition.

Indeed, big endings seem to be something of a Mignone specialty. Witness Sinfonia Tropical (1958), a stunning 20 minutes of
Villa-Lobos in "Amazon" mode joining Stravinsky's Firebird with a few Puccinian tunes tossed in for good measure. It's so much
fun to listen to that the crashing conclusion comes as something of a shock, even as we have to reluctantly admit that it sounds
exactly right just where it is. Maracatu de Chico Rei (1933) is a stunning choral ballet describing the building of a church by a
tribe of African slaves, some of whom win their freedom and gradually purchase the liberty of their fellows. Stravinsky's The
Rite of Spring pops up now and then, and a friend remarked with some justification that he was reminded of the more vigorous
dances in Nielsen's Aladdin Suite. The words are mostly fragments of sentences and nonsense syllables that, as in Ravel's Daphnis et
Chlo�, add to the music's atmosphere (at the close) of orgiastic abandon. Only one movement lacks vocal backing: the deliciously
stylized "Gavotte of the White Princes" just before the finale. The contrast between its "Sugarplum Fairy" orchestration and its
exuberant, primal surroundings is more than charming. Mignone really knew what he was doing.

So did conductor John Neschling and his S�o Paulo Symphony players and singers. They obviously had a blast with this music,
offering the most vibrant, colorful, rhythmically vital and virtuosic performances imaginable. The cumulative intensity in Maracatu
de Chico Rei is such that you may well break out into a sweat 10 minutes into it, and the performers relish every luscious timbral
nuance in the softer, more atmospheric moments of all three works. Their achievement is supported at every point by state-of-the-art
engineering, including perfect balances between the orchestra and organ in Festa das Igrejas, and an acoustic in which the numerous
bold brass proclamations sound forth over a rich, velvety cushion of strings. And let's not forget the roof-rattling percussion!
If you care about any of the other composers mentioned during the course of this review, then waste no time treating yourself
to this wonderful disc. Mignone stands proudly in their company, and as I said, we can only pray to hear more of him."
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