The recording is what we have come to expect from La Scala of this vintage, clear but not very atmospheric, the La Scala acoustics being fairly dry. After Karajan’s alert conducting of Trovatore, one would have thought that Antonino Votto might stand out as reliable and rather routine. In fact he is better than his reputation. The prelude is well-shaped – perhaps a bit laid-back – and the opening chorus is rendered dark and ominous, laying bare the major conflict of the drama. Likewise he handles the stormy prelude to act 2 with the poignancy it needs. Both Amelia’s aria and the ensuing duet with Riccardo are really ignited by the conductor. So by and large Votto provides a fine canvas as backdrop before which this taut masterpiece is to unfold.

The La Scala Chorus and Orchestra – the chorus trained by legendary Norberto Mola – are prime forces and the line-up of comprimario singers boasts names like the reliable basses Silvio Maionica and Nicola Zaccaria as the leading conspirators. Michael Scott’s description in the liner-notes of Eugenia Ratti’s voice as ‘a typical steam-whistle like scream’ is to my mind rather unfair. It is no doubt a bright voice but I hear it rather as silvery and spirited – in other words what I expect from an Oscar. Fedora Barbieri is also rather unflatteringly described in the notes, but while she wasn’t quite in the Simionato or Cossotto class she was a true mezzo-soprano in the old Italian school and she is a strong and expressive Ulrica in the sinister scene in her dwelling.

Tito Gobbi, always responsive to words, the dramatic situation and the state of mind of his characters, makes the most of Renato, even though the first act aria Alla vita che t’arride is a bit bloodless. At least partly the conductor is to blame for not giving more positive support – Leinsdorf and Solti in their 1960s recordings are much more vivid. As usual Gobbi also has his moments of pinched tone. But in the first scene of act 3 he really shows his mettle. His wrath and despair at Amelia’s and Riccardo’s deceit is exposed in horrifying terms and when he pours his contempt on Riccardo in the aria, words initially almost fails him. Eri tu (It was you) he whisper towards Riccardo’s portrait, and then the wrath grows. Then, when he sings O dolcezze perdute! (O bliss that I have lost!) his tone and expression becomes so loving. The whole aria is a horrifying zooming-in on the soul of a person whose whole world has been broken into splinters. This is one of the great assumptions on record!

Callas on top form never misses an opportunity to wring the last drop of intensity out of her two arias and the act 2 scene by the gallows is a masterpiece of visual singing. Her colouring of the phrases is so expressive that we instinctively know what she looks like. As a contrast the resigned Morrò, ma prima in grazia in act 3 is eternally moving.

The duet in act 2, Teco io sto, has a special affection for me, since it was the first ever recording of the piece that I bought 45 years ago on an LP ‘Callas in Duet’. Hearing it in context it is even more obvious what a superb radar-couple she and Di Stefano were at their best. Di Stefano’s ardent and warm Riccardo is one of his best recorded roles and he is hushed and mellifluous in Di tu se fedele in the Ulrica scene but I wish Votto had speeded it up a bit – I miss the bounce. È scherzo od è follia is much closer to the mark and Di Stefano sings it with a chuckle in the voice.

In the last act Riccardo’s aria is warmly sung but there are some unwelcome signs of pinched tone here that were to become more prominent during the next few years. The death scene is however soft and touching.

Un ballo in maschera had few recordings during the first two decades of the LP era. Besides a 1954 Cetra set with Tagliavini as a good but slightly lachrymose Riccardo, there was Solti’s on Decca with Birgit Nilsson and Carlo Bergonzi - it was to have been Jussi Björling but the conductor and tenor ended up on non-speaking terms during the sessions in Rome, and when the recording was resumed Björling was already dead. Then came an RCA set with Leontyne Price and again Bergonzi. The latter has always been my favourite with Leinsdorf a more positive conductor than either Votto or Solti, Bergonzi the ideal Riccardo and Leontyne Price’s smoky-toned Amelia less individual than Callas but still a splendid assumption. The supporting cast is excellent and the sound is first class. Of later essays first prize must go to Muti on EMI with Martina Arroyo and Placido Domingo. Abbado on DG is a runner-up with Ricciarelli and Domingo (again) and Bruson a fine Renato. Whichever version one has or buys Callas’s and Gobbi’s contributions to the Votto set will never be surpassed and Di Stefano is up there among the best, too.

Nobody will ever know the exact number of victims but one of them was Joseph Schmidt. He was Jewish, born in 1904 in a village in Northern Bukovina, an area which now is in the Ukraine but then belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The family had to flee during the First World War when the village was invaded by Rumania but returned a couple of years later and became Rumanian citizens. Joseph was engaged in the synagogue choirs and in his late teens he studied singing, first in Czernowitz, later in Berlin. He auditioned for Berlin radio, which broadcast operas with a permanent ensemble, and he was an immediate success.

He never had a stage career, due to his small stature and also a relatively small voice, but in the radio and gramophone studios this was no problem and obviously what could be regarded as a certain hoarseness in the flesh was transformed by the microphone, cutting the upper frequencies. He recorded for several companies: on this compilation Telefunken, Parlophon, HMV, Electrola and Odeon are represented. He also appeared in films, the most famous certainly Ein Lied geht um die Welt (A song goes around the world), through which he became internationally renowned. Tragically this year was also the year of Hitler’s becoming Chancellor of Germany, which heavily affected Schmidt’s career. He left Germany and settled in Vienna but after the Anschluss in 1938 he went to Brussels and later Lyon and finally Switzerland where he died of a heart attack on 16 November 1942. On his grave stone in Zurich one can read: Ein Stern fällt (A star falls). With hindsight he should have taken the opportunity to flee to the USA, but was discouraged by his uncle who was also his manager.

This was but one of innumerable tragedies as a direct result of the Nazi regime, but we are at least lucky to still be able to enjoy his recorded legacy and these two well-filled discs certainly show what a loss his demise was to the musical world. As was the norm in those days Italian and French opera was performed and recorded in German but Schmidt actually sings some of the arias here in the original language. The Rigoletto and Tosca arias as well as both arias from Turandot are in Italian and so are the Italian songs at the end of CD 2. But it should be said at once that so superb was his legato technique that it hardly matters that he sings other numbers in German. His voice may have been small but it was produced with a clarity and an evenness and with such poise that one believes it is much larger – and his top was truly brilliant, much more so than Tauber’s, with whom he has been compared. They have the same mellow middle register and the same honeyed pianissimo but Schmidt’s voice is the more pungent – and there is nothing pejorative in this choice of adjective: he has bite, which Tauber doesn’t.

In Una furtive lagrima (CD1 tr. 2), also sung in Italian, he also demonstrates his effortless trill. Maybe both this aria and the preceding Zauberflöte aria are marginally too sentimental, but one cannot avoid capitulating before such beauty. He makes the most of the wonderful melody in the hymn from Alessandro Stradella and though we are used to hearing the arias from La Juive and L’Africaine with heavier voices there is no lack of power here.

His Duke of Mantua is at the same time an aristocrat and a charmer. When did you last hear La donna e mobile sung so lightly and elegantly? Maybe from Alfredo Kraus and he is also the singer that comes to mind when I hear Schmidt as Rodolfo. Cavaradossi and Calaf should be too much for him but he knows his limitations and never goes over the top. The aria from Le Cid is another winner, as is Lensky’s passionate outpouring from Eugene Onegin.

On CD 2 he impresses in the aria from Le postillon de Lonjumeau with absolute freedom in the entire register and it is good to have the full scene from The Bartered Bride, where Michael Bohnen is less imposing than some blacker basses but also avoids to ham up his aria.

Schmidt has the required Schmaltz for the operetta excerpts and it is instructive to compare him with Tauber in the numbers from Das Land des Lächelns, recorded in October 1929, not long after Tauber set them down. His voice is slightly thinner and leaner than Tauber’s but has the same smoothness and ease and he can sing a true diminuendo on a high note without a trace of falsetto.

Some of the arias and songs on CD 2 are from long forgotten operettas and maybe Schmidt also knew they were no masterpieces but he is just as deeply involved in them, and it is of historical importance to have three songs from the film Ein Lied geht um die Welt.

The zarzuela aria by Serrano is lively and brilliant, Rossini’s La danza is a marvel of effortless articulation and L’ariatella is a lesson in soft singing without crooning. He challenges Gigli – without becoming lachrymose – even Schipa, the highest praise I can give. The song may not be a masterpiece – the singing is!

And so is the singing in the remaining songs, where the superb final pianissimo note, held forever, should be noted.

The sound is variable but this concerns the orchestras more than the singer. There is such a treasure-chest of marvellous singing in the archives from the first half of the last century and anyone interested in the art of singing should invest in such issues as the present one, especially when they come at Naxos’s give-away prices. Joseph Schmidt may not be a name written in the Pantheon of Singing with golden letters of the same carat as Caruso, Gigli, Melchior and a few others but his art is on their level.

Don’t miss this issue!

This compilation of material previously issued on Koch International Classics (Jeu de cartes and Danses concertantes) and MusicMasters (Scènes de Ballet, Variations, and Capriccio) continues Robert Craft’s highly regarded series of Stravinsky works for Naxos. If you didn’t purchase these earlier at full price, now is the time to take advantage of their reissue at budget cost. The title of this particular disc is somewhat misleading in that it contains only three of Stravinsky’s later ballets. The others, Apollo, Orpheus, and Agon appeared on an earlier disc. The Capriccio, however, also received ballet treatment by George Ballanchine. Thus, only Variations, lasting just under six minutes, seems out of place here.

Jeu de cartes has had a number of good recordings over the years, but none to surpass the composer’s own with the Cleveland Orchestra. The one here by Robert Craft is excellent as is Riccardo Chailly’s with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on a Decca two-disc set of Stravinsky ballets. The main differences are in the conductors’ approach to the score. Craft emphasizes the bold gestures of the ballet with its brassy climaxes, while Chailly is more nuanced. He tends to bring out the wit in the woodwind solos, while Craft gives the brass the lead. Both orchestras perform very well and are well recorded, if neither performance erases memories of Stravinsky’s own recording.

Danses concertantes is one of Stravinsky’s most delightful neo-classical works, which deserves more exposure than it has gotten. It was one of the first pieces the composer wrote after taking up residence in California. It is very sunny work for chamber orchestra, with many delightful wind and brass solos. This Craft recording is about as good as it gets. This type of clear, airy music suits the conductor to a tee and is worth the price of the CD alone. It goes with real zest and Craft really relishes the jazzy syncopation in the score. The orchestra’s playing is faultless. For a more lyrical, less spiky, interpretation the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on DG (combined with Orpheus) is also good. However, where Craft really crackles, Orpheus seems a trifle soft-centered.

Scènes de Ballet is a less inspired work than either Jeu de cartes, or Danses concertantes. These earlier works displayed Stravinsky’s humor to a much greater degree, including near-quotations from Rossini’s Barber of Seville in the former and Yankee Doodle Dandy in the latter. Scènes de Ballet was commissioned for a Broadway review, and the composer later apologized for the trumpet solo in the Adagio Pas de deux (track 12) that indeed sounds like Broadway. Overall, the ballet lacks much of the trademark rhythmic qualities of so much of Stravinsky’s music but nonetheless has enough to sustain interest. Craft’s performance here is all one could ask for and its inclusion on this disc is worthwhile.

The next work on the CD, Variations, is one of Stravinsky’s most forbidding works—all six minutes of it! Coming under the influence of Schoenberg and Webern, especially the latter, Stravinsky not only utilized the twelve-tone system for the work but also composed three twelve-part variations heard four times each. One could say that he really absorbed the “twelve” of the dodecaphonic school in a big way! Craft provides a detailed analysis of Variations in his usual exemplary notes in which he advises listeners to give the work more than one try. In fact, he recommends repeated listening to the piece. I dare say it would take this to become familiar with it, if in fact it is worth the effort. The performance here seems fine, though I would have to follow the score to prove it. The London Philharmonic soloists are impressive. The one benefit of having Variations on a disc with much more accessible music is to give the listener a taste of what Stravinsky was to become in his last decade. For a CD with more appropriate material and one of the best of all Stravinsky discs, I heartily recommend Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta’s on DG. It contains several late works including The Flood, composed for American television and what is arguably Stravinsky’s greatest work of his later years, Requiem Canticles. Variations is dedicated to the memory of the composer’s friend Aldous Huxley, who died three months after Stravinsky began composing the work.

It is rather a relief to turn to the last work on the disc, the Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. In part the first and last movements of this light-hearted work remind me of the works for piano and orchestra of Francis Poulenc, especially his Double Piano Concerto which the French composer wrote three years after Stravinsky’s work. The slow movement, though, is darker in mood and more typically Stravinskian. As in the other works on the disc, it receives a first-rate performance, with conductor and pianist Mark Wait relishing both the lyricism and rhythmic verve of the work. Paul Crossley with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the London Sinfonietta also provide a convincing account on Sony, a disc that contains Stravinsky’s other piano/ensemble works as well.

Naxos's ability to come up with winning ideas at knock-down prices never ceases to amaze. Already the label has a CD of Leroy Anderson favourites played by Richard Hayman and His Orchestra in more relaxed fashion than is often the ease (7/02). Here some of those same familiar items are played a little more positively, if with a fraction less verve than in conductor Leonard Slatkin's earlier collection with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (RCA, 1/96). What is of most interest, of course, is the less familiar music.

Though generally less striking than the evergreens, these pieces include some genuine finds. The First Day of Spring and The Golden Years provide delightfully tranquil contrasts to more ebullient Anderson fare, while Arietta is a real gem. Governor Bradford's March is an admirable enough military march, named after a Massachusetts Governor of the 1940s, but lacking in obvious distinguishing Anderson features. The Classical Jukebox is a delightful novelty piece, including a depiction of the sticking needle that was familiar to everyone in pre-CD days, and altogether encapsulating Anderson's genius for packing aural gold into a three-minute piece.

Other shorter pieces are perhaps less striking. As for the agreeably warrn-hearted and romantic 1953 Piano Concerto, it falls into the category of works that are worth hearing without having hitherto been a major loss to the musical world. One way and another, everything here is easy on the ear and beautifully played. It all leaves a delightful aftertaste and excites anticipation of Naxos's next instalment.

I have often expressed concern about Naxos and their ‘complete’ editions. I think of their Liszt piano works series which more or less ground to a halt – or of more interest to me, John Ireland.(but see footnote) The blurb suggests that the present cycle will include pieces that were suppressed, previously unrecorded and still in manuscript. Let us hope that it comes to pass.

A quick glance at the track-listing reveals only one ‘brand new piece’ – the Governor Bradford March written in 1948. This was named after a Massachusetts politician. Unfortunately, it was not published during the composer’s lifetime. As far as I am aware it has not been recorded before – at least it is not currently available on CD. The listener will be reminded of both Johann Strauss Junior and the great John Philip Sousa. It is hard to imagine why this ‘high steppin’ piece has remained in obscurity. A pure joy!

It is not really necessary to discuss all the tracks on this CD as many of them are not only well known but are ‘household’ names. For example who does not know the Bugler’s Holiday, The Belle of the Ball, Blue Tango, Chicken Reel and the appropriately named Fiddle-Faddle – at least the tunes if not the titles?

Listen to the wonderful Classical Jukebox – there is only one other version of this fine parody. Here Anderson’s ‘cheeky’ takes on Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Delibes’ ballet scores and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 are designed to amuse and impress. And do not be disconcerted by the apparent sticking of the record player needle – it is all part of the fun!

I have not heard the rhythmically ambiguous The Captains & Kings before. This is based on Rudyard Kipling’s great poem ‘Recessional’ – “The tumult and the shouting dies, the captains and the kings depart.” This piece has quite a bit of Eric Coates about it! I was impressed by the slightly more earnest tone of this work.

The Balladette is a much more serious work that its title may suggest. It is described in the programme notes as ‘brooding’. The ‘quizzical chromatic motif’ certainly makes this piece anything but typical Anderson. This is a little masterpiece. Arietta was written in 1962: it was originally composed as a duet for cello and viola at a time when Anderson’s daughter Jane was studying the viola. The effect is charming and we must be glad that the composer chose to rework it in the present form.

Four other works make up this fine selection of Anderson’s compositions. The First Day of Spring has a pastoral feel to it – with a lovely part for oboe. This is perhaps more a country garden on a summer’s day than a wide landscape: very beautiful and quite moving. Clarinet Candy is a romp – written for four clarinettists. It would never fail to bring the house down. China Doll is a delicate piece that again showcases the oboe.

Yet it is The Golden Years that is the most nostalgic piece on this CD. It is hard to know whether this richly scored number is looking to the years already gone by or to a happier future. Perhaps it is just a meditation on the present: for the present is all that we can be sure of having. This is a very attractive piece – and a million miles away from Fiddle-Faddle.

The highlight of this disc is undoubtedly the Piano Concerto. I remember on my first trip to New York coming across a CD of this piece in Tower Records up by the Lincoln Center. I was so enthused by this ‘in your face’ work as I sat in Central Park with my portable CD player – and listened to it at least three times through! It seemed to epitomise that city.

There are two things to get straight about this Concerto. Firstly, that it is full of wonderful tunes, melodies, pianistic figurations, and lush harmonies – yes, I know, my teacher told me that only grass is lush. In fact we hear all the paraphernalia of the romantic concerto at its very best. The other thing is that poor old Leroy could not develop material to save himself. But who really cares when the music sounds as good as it does.

It could be argued that the first movement has all the hallmarks of Rachmaninov and the last nods vigorously to Edvard Grieg. It could also be argued that it does not matter. This is the all-American Piano Concerto – unlike Gershwin in that it does not ‘do’ jazz. It is untypical of Edward McDowell in that it is not romantic in a European style. Yet from the point of view of melody and sheer pleasure it can hold its own against any piano concerto in America or beyond. Look out for that wonderful second subject of the third movement. Anderson at very his best – a touch of genius.

This is a CD to buy – even if you have tons of Leroy Anderson in your collection already. Leonard Slatkin could not be a better advocate for this music. The BBC Concert Orchestra are manifestly in their element and Jeffrey Biegel plays the ‘over the top’ Concerto with pizzazz!

I just hope that Naxos close the deal: I look forwards to reviewing the next couple of discs!

Kenneth Fuchs is an energetic American composer now in his early fifties who is based at the Unversity of Connecticut. He has a wide range of compositions and is also involved in music education and administration. At Juilliard he was a contemporary of JoAnn Falletta, who very much wanted to make an orchestral CD of his music. The opportunity came in 2003 when she recorded a group of works with the LSO, which came out on Naxos in 2005. Fuchs was so stunned by the legendary expertise of the LSO in playing at sight for a recording that he wrote United Artists as a short tribute. It opens this second Naxos CD; a series of chamber works follows, and the disc closes with Canticle to the Sun, a horn concerto in which the British connection continues with the soloist Timothi Jones from the LSO.

United Artists is a kind of fanfare to this orchestra, who obviously enjoyed it – the idiom stems from Copland and early Carter. Quiet in the Land for mized string and wind quintet is contemplative in mood, generally music of low density suitable for illustration. This aspect comes to the fone in Autumn Rhythm, inspired by the paintings of Jackson Pollock: it would make an apt soundtrack for a series of his pictures.

Canticle to the Sun is based on the familiar hymn-tune "All Creatures of our God and King". This is an imaginative idea where the soloist emerges from a tinkling backdrop and retains clear contact with the melody throughout, although it is never stated in full. The concerto adds up to a pastoral idyll with occasional spots for the timpani and lyrical cadenzas – all neatly played.

It is soon apparent that he has a real feel for the Sibelius idiom. He and the NZSO acquit themselves well from the start; the powerful opening of All’Overtura is well captured, the music seeming to rise mysteriously from the mist. The Scena opens a little sedately for a Tempo di menuetto, but comes to life as it should at the climax, while the mood of Festivo, Tempo di Bolero, is also well caught. Inkinen’s tempo in Festivo is slower than Beecham’s classic 78 recording, reissued on Naxos 8.110867, but then most conductors are slower than Beecham."

"The NZSO and Inkinen capture the tender opening love scene and Christian’s revenge in the blazing close equally effectively. The Musette is lively; in the Serenade from the Third Act, with music for a court ball, too, they match the mood perfectly....I can vouch for the high quality of Inkinen’s interpretation and the playing of the NZSO....The fact that the notes are by Naxos’s long-standing expert Keith Anderson is practically a guarantee of their quality."

Recordings of this entrancing repertoire are always welcome, particularly when they are as polished and involving as this. A virtuoso fiddler and established chamber-music performer in his own right, Pietari Inkinen (b1980) studied under Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. He has recently taken up the reins as the NZSO's music director and, on this showing, is a talent to watch. Not only does he draw some high-quality, notably zestful playing from his new charges, he directs both sets of Scènes historiques with such keen temperament, abundant character and sensitivity to texture and nuance that they come up with sounding strikingly new-minted. Indeed, his genrously expressive and pliable shaping of the ravishing secondary material in "Festivo" manages to stoke memories of Beecham's indelible RPO rendering from the early 1950s (Sony, 9/03) – and that's saying something!

As for the King Christian II suite, I was weaned on – and continue to have a very soft spot for – Sir Alexander Gibson/s affectionate 1966 recording with the RSNO (EMI Gemini – nla). Nor would I relinquish Petri Sakari's Iceland SO version (Chandos, 7/93, which includes baritone Sauli Tiilikainen's unforgettably haunting rendition of the "Fool's Song" from Act 5) or Vänskä's Lahti SO account of the complete incidental music (BIS, 6/99). Even so, Inkinen and his responsive band easily hold their own. There's some particularly eloquent string-playing in the achingly wistful "Elegy" (where Inkinen distils a hushed intimacy that is deeply touching), while the dashing helter-skelter ride of the concluding "Ballade" has both invigorating spring and bite to commend it.

Boasting hasndomely true and atmospheric sound, this collection certainly merits the attention of all Sibelians and represents enticing value at bargain price.

This Naxos series of the Complete Piano Music of Liszt has been going from strength to strength. A couple of months ago I selected two discs from this series as my 2007 ‘Records of the Year’: volume 24 played by Giuseppe Andaloro on 8.557814 and volume 25 played by Alexandre Dossin on 8.557904.

Performed by American soloist William Wolfram this instalment contains a selection of attractive operatic transcriptions and reminiscences from the operas of Gaetano Donizetti. This is Wolfram’s second disc in the series and I enjoyed reviewing his earlier volume 20 from 2003 that includes the 2 Concert Etudes; 3 Etudes de concert; Etude en douze exercices and Mazeppa on Naxos 8.557014.

Liszt was a highly prolific and versatile composer who, according to Humphrey Searle’s works listA (1966), produced around eight hundred scores - embracing most genres - about half of which are for piano. A more recent Liszt work listB identifies around a thousand works.

In the days before gramophone records, radio broadcasts and the miniature score, save for attending an actual performance, music-lovers only had access to orchestral and operatic scores in pared down arrangements that were principally for the piano and for performance in the drawing room or salon. Liszt was the undisputed master of the ‘art of the transcription’ making numerous arrangements of songs, operas and symphonies. He mainly championed the music of those contemporaries that were in vogue or he felt deserved attention. For example, the reputation of Schubert’s lieder was greatly enhanced by the liberal advocacy of Liszt’s numerous transcriptions.

Transcriptions and arrangements, sometimes known as piano reductions - also prepared for other solo instruments such as the violin and cello - were the lifeblood of many virtuoso performers in Liszt’s day. Although providing no financial profit to the original composer, Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Wagner and Verdi all benefited from Liszt’s forays into their operatic works by assisting in the dissemination of their scores to a wider audience. The transcription served to popularise the melodies from their operas and still further advance their reputations. Liszt knew many of the famous operas of the day intimately having conducted many of them in his role as Kapellmeister at Weimar. A Liszt transcription was no mere plagiarism but a sincere tribute from one great composer to another. A quick check reveals that opera paraphrases and transcriptions often formed a significant and popular part of a Liszt piano recital programme.

The first work here is the Valse de concert sur deux motifs de Lucia et Parisina, S.214/3. The Valse de concert was one of a set of three Caprices valses and the score was published in 1852. Liszt uses as a theme the aria Verranno a te sull'aure from Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) and also a theme from the second act of Parisina d’Este (1833). Searle describes the Valse de concert as having, “all the freshness and brilliance of Liszt at his youthful best.”A

For the next score Réminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia, S.400 Liszt has turned to the opera Lucrezia Borgia (1833, rev. 1839 and 1840) that Donizetti based on Victor Hugo’s dramatic play. Cast in two parts the Lucrezia Borgia Réminiscences published in 1849 were held in high regard by the composer. In the first piece Liszt utilises material from the trio of the opera titled Trio du second Acte and with the second piece he takes music from the Chanson à boire from act two and also from the prologue. It seems that this is Liszt’s revision of an earlier score from Hamburg in 1840.

The Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor is taken from Donizetti’s three act opera of 1835 based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor. It was composed in 1835-36 and is in two parts which were published separately in 1841 and 1844. The first, the Andante final, S.397 is a transcription of the celebrated sextet from the second act. The second, the Marche funèbre et Cavatine de la Lucia di Lammermoor, S.398 is based on the funeral march that laments the death of Lucia from act three and the cavatina.

Donizetti’s four act opera La Favorite was completed in 1840 for Paris. Wagner clearly admired La Favorite making several arrangements including a piano score. Liszt uses Wagner’s arrangement as the basis for his transcription of Fernando’s beautiful cavatina from the fourth act titled Spirto gentil, S.400a.

The final work on the disc is from Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal, the last of Donizetti’s operas to be composed. Donizetti considered this grand opéra in five acts, completed in 1843 for Paris, to be his masterpiece. It was in 1844 that Liszt made his transcription of the opera’s funeral march. Liszt must have been most proud of his Marche funèbre arrangement because in 1845 he presented a “dedicated copy”C to Queen Maria II of Portugal at the royal palace in Lisbon. Donizetti himself also admired Liszt’s Marche funèbre transcription, a tour de force of the répertoire, calling on a friend to, “Buy Liszt’s arrangement of the March; it will make your hair stand on end.”C

New York City-based pianist William Wolfram is on splendid form throughout these technically difficult, emotionally demanding and physically taxing works. He expertly negotiates the wide gamut of intense emotions. I was able to identify: the stormy power of anger, the hurt of jealousy, the immediacy of the dark melancholy of abandonment, the turbulent emotional depths of the heartbreaking pain of grief, the sensitivity of the rapture and elation of love and the surging energy of the dread of impending violence. This 2006 Toronto recording is clear but a touch bright for my taste. 

--Review by Michael Cookson, Musicweb International, March 2008

 

Notes
[A] ‘The Music of Liszt’ by Humphrey Searle, Dover Publications, second revised edition (1966)
[B] As part of the International Music Score Library Project, Wikipedia (the free on-line encyclopedia) hold a detailed and helpful guide titled ‘List of Compositions by Franz Liszt’ that is based Humphrey Searle’s 1966 Catalogue of Works and evidently contains additions made by Sharon Winklhofer and Leslie Howard. Designed in two sections the list of Searle numbers (S) run from S.1-S.350 and S.351-S.999. This Wikipedia list proves to be valuable tool for Lisztians.
[C] Franz Liszt (Volume 1), ‘The Virtuoso Years 1811-1847’ by Alan Walker, Publisher: Cornell University Press (1983, revised edition 1987) ISBN 0-8014-9421-4. Pg. 411

Liszt’s letters: Some 260 of Liszt’s letters are available in English translations.

This was until Andrés Segovia recorded his waltz Natalia in 1955. He then became one of the selected few composers for the guitar from his continent to be honoured in that way, the others being Villa-Lobos and Ponce. Lauro was greatly influenced by the folk music of Venezuela and his aim was to integrate the rhythms and melodies with structures derived from the European tradition.

On this disc there are principally three types of composition: those based on or influenced by folk songs, those harking back to renaissance and baroque and finally the largest work here, the Sonata. In this 18-minute work his exploration of the thematic and harmonic material is quite wide-ranging and it is a composition that requires some active listening. The first movement is in continuous forward movement whereas the second movement is a kind of resting point, calmly singing. Then he takes us on a thrilling journey in the third movement with the rhythmic elements from his folk music heritage constituting the backbone.

The Pavana (tr. 6) from 1977 is a tribute to 16th century composer Luis Milan and it is dedicated to John Williams, and the concluding Suite is a homage to another great guitarist, composer and critic, John Duarte. It was written in 1981 and is a fine work, taut and thrilling,  in baroque tradition; the Giga is a show-stopper. The four Estudios are studies in counterpoint and here it is unavoidable to think of Bach.

The rest of the programme is made up of – mainly – melodious, easy-listening pieces of the kind that is so eminently suitable to the sound of the guitar, the lullaby Ana Florencia already a great favourite in our house. The swinging Virgilio is another hit and the group of five pieces (tr. 18-22) are a perfect unit of contrasting moods, Cueca chilena with reminiscences from his stay in Chile. It should also be mentioned that the waltz Flores de la montaña was composed by his teacher Raúl Borges and arranged by Lauro.

Victor Villadangos belongs to the elite of guitarists today with a couple of superb earlier issues in Naxos’s growing catalogue of guitar recordings (Volume 1 of Lauro's music is on Naxos 8.554348). Bearing in mind that this is a genre that doesn’t sell large quantities, we guitar lovers have to be extremely grateful for the continuous additions to this catalogue. Technically assured, rhythmically precise and with tonal beauty to match this player is a winner and the recording is what one has come to expect from Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver. Alejandro Bruzual’s notes are a fascinating read but I wish that he, like some other writers of liner notes, would present the music in the order it is played on the disc.

Antonio Lauro may not be the most important of 20th century guitar composers but his music is always eminently listenable.

Three years later, my wish has been granted, and this set is every bit as beguiling as the first one. Lauro was the first Venezuelan to finish formal guitar studies at the National Conservatory in Caracas, and though his music became familiar in South America, it was not until guitarist Alfrio Díaz played it on tour that the rest of the world became aware.

Lauro is best known for his many waltzes, but this CD shows that his talent went far beyond that genre. He wrote chromatic music, and the eighteen-and-a-half-minute Sonata on this disc is a prime example of that, as is the ten-minute Suite (Homanaje a John Duarte) that closes the program. He also wrote polyphonic music in which he explored the fugue and other European compositional forms as they could relate to the guitar. His Estudios en imitaciones are prime examples of this style.

No matter the type of music, Lauro’s compositions show him as a supreme melodist. His melodies have a singing quality that immediately establish identification with the soul of any new listener. His passion for choral music, as composer and performer, no doubt plays a great part in this impression of his purely instrumental music. Guitarists Victor Villadangos seems to breathe this music as if it is a part of his being, and the recording is intimate, crisp, and clear. No wonder -- its producer is Norbert Kraft, himself a fine guitarist.

This CD will take a listener on a new musical voyage of such exquisite beauty that he might be reluctant to return!

We are told that the Violin Sonata No. 1 is one of his best-known works, but I have never come across it, despite having a penchant for his music. I was taught his early Ein Idyll at boarding school, from where my piano teacher later took a group of us up to London to hear the great composer/pianist play his 3rd concerto and Beethoven's 4th (with an unforgettable Medtner cadenza) at the Royal Albert Hall. Later I acquired 78s of his music in the munificent Medtner Society recordings sponsored by the Maharajah of Mysore.

We have reviewed Medtner's piano music as recorded by Marc-André Hamelin and others, but these sonatas have proved revelatory. Violinists should certainly look out the first, which is suitable for inclusion in any recital, running at c. 20 mins, with movements enticingly titled Canzona: Canterellando con fluidezza; Danza: Allegro scherzando and Ditirambo: Festivamente. The other here is a massive 42 mins work in three main movements, the central one a set of variations.

This Canadian duo offers an ideal partnership with expressive, unshowy virtuosity and ideal recorded balance at McGill Univesity, Montreal. It leaves me eager to get the earlier release, Sonata No. 3 on Naxos 8.570298.

He was fifteen when his father passed away and then moved to Berlin, where his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel was harpsichordist to Frederick the Great. Young Johann Christian studied with his brother and it was during this time he wrote his first concertos. In 1754 he moved to Italy where he was successful as an opera composer and it was in this capacity that he was called to London where he settled. In London he met the young Mozart and was greatly influenced by him as a composer. The six sonatas Op. 17, first published in Paris in 1774 as Op. 12, clearly show his compositional style. It is easy to hear similarities between the two composers, especially the earlier Mozart sonatas. Bach’s sonatas are good representatives of the gallant style with sweet melodics and the care-free and easygoing flow of the music.

Of these six sonatas only two are written in the traditional three movements and the brevity of most of them rather implies that they might have been labelled sonatinas instead. The exception is No. 6, which is on a much grander scale, elaborated and with deeper development of the thematic material. It is also technically the most demanding. Sonata No. 2 is the other three-movement piece and it also stands out as it is the only one in a minor key, which automatically lends it a more ‘serious’ character.

All the sonatas are highly entertaining and I don’t use that word in any pejorative sense. They are well constructed and fairly simple. Dr. Burney wrote about Bach’s keyboard compositions that they were ‘such as ladies can execute with little trouble’. But simplicity doesn’t exclude musical finesse, even though music of this kind shouldn’t be over-interpreted.

Alberto Nosè is a young Italian, who has a long list of prizes in prestigious piano competitions worldwide, most recently First Prize, Gold Medal and Sony Audience Prize in Santander 2005. The year before that I heard him in Florence where I found him better suited to Scriabin’s and Szymanowski’s late Romantic-to-Impressionist sound-world than Schumann’s more sweeping Romanticism. Half a century further back in history he reaps laurels through his clarity, his rhythmic poise and his light touch. He has a formidable technique, to which his prizes are testimony and which I also noted in Florence. He has ample opportunity to demonstrate this in Sonata No. 6, where the rousing finale in particular requires fluent finger-work. He sticks rather strictly to the basic tempos of each movement and keeps the dynamics within a rather limited scope, bearing in mind that these sonatas were composed for harpsichord or fortepiano. In other words he lets the music speak and puts himself in the background. I can’t think of better advocacy for Johann Christian Bach. Next time I would be happy to hear him in Scriabin or Szymanowski but I am afraid that Naxos have already dealt with both composers.

The recording has great clarity without being too analytical.

The opening track is Pernambuco, a seven minute extravaganza for solo violin. Expertly performed by Peter Sheppard Skaerved, this work is a virtuoso display of instrumental techniques, changing colours and emerging drama. The central lyrical section is captivating and forms a stark contrast with the highly demanding outer sections. The final part of the piece adds percussive effects, which add to the extreme physical demands of the work for the performer. This is a hugely enjoyable piece, which betrays Clarke’s abilities as a composer and his understanding of the instrument he is writing for.  The title refers to ‘brazil wood’, described in the programme notes as ‘vital to the construction of the modern bow’ and the piece as a whole deals with the subject of the bow as an instrument within its own right.

The Miraculous Violin was a commission from the British Council and I Solisti di Zagreb, and was composed in close collaboration with all the performers. This is a wonderful work, which engaged me thoroughly from beginning to end. Although this is concert music, it would not be out of place in a film score (in fact, Clarke is also a highly successful film composer). This is a dramatic piece which appeals to the imagination. Again hugely demanding for the performers, this piece is full of Eastern European colours, with a wonderful array of textures and ideas.  The playing is magnificent from all the performers; Longbow accompanies the solo violin line with panache and, once again, Peter Sheppard Skaerved gives a highly polished performance.

The remaining solo violin track on this disc is Loulan, a short piece which was inspired by traditional Chinese sounds and structures. Clarke creates an entirely different sound from the instrument than we have heard in the previous two pieces, demonstrating his versatility as a composer. His ability to conjure up images in his work is astonishing, and once again, the violin playing is exemplary.

The title track of this disc is Samurai, which is perhaps one of Clarke’s most well known and most frequently performed works. Composed for Wind Ensemble, the piece received its world premiere in Japan by the Royal Northern College of Music’s Wind Orchestra, as one of a number of works commissioned by Timothy Reynish for that ensemble. The title makes reference to Clarke’s admiration of the Samurai culture, and this explosive piece contains elements of Samurai warfare and culture. Sometimes looked down on as a poor substitute to an orchestra, the Wind Orchestra has, from time to time, suffered a bad press. However, well written repertoire such as this proves that there is an important role for this kind of ensemble. Clarke is a master of orchestration; the use of percussion here is particularly compelling.  The rhythmic drive is a life force of this work. This performance by the HM Royal Marines Band, Plymouth, has a wonderful sense of discipline and an underlying warmth of tone.

This is followed by Premonitions, a short work for solo trumpet, which serves as a prelude to Black Fire, a work for violin and wind ensemble. Premonitions is a strong piece, containing a range of expressions and colours. The performance here is excellent; Band Sergeant Ivan Hutchinson plays with real panache. Black Fire, the concluding work on the disc, has a range of influences in its composition, including Kurt Weill, Wagner (the work contains a quote from Götterdämmerung), Milton and engravings by Doré (these engravings inspired the title of the work). The solo violin provides a distinctive and sometimes sinister voice against the wind orchestra, with Clarke once again demonstrating his expertise as an orchestrator. There is much in this work to fuel the imagination.

This is a well produced recording which contains a fantastic array of works. The playing is consistently excellent and the diversity in Clarke’s output is impressive. Unmissable.

Certainly the Concerto Romantique was quite widely performed in the last years of the nineteenth century and the first couple of decades of the twentieth. But it was never recorded in full – only the Canzonetta. The Second Concerto is certainly not unknown but it is so seldom performed that most people must be making a first acquaintance with it in this performance. The Scènes Poétiques are charming little orchestral pictures written when Godard was thirty.

The Concerto Romantique was written in 1887 eight years before Godard’s early death. I’ve only ever heard two other performances. Aaron Rosand taped it with the Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg and Louis de Froment, now on Vox CDX 5102 in a two disc set. But we’ll reluctantly have to discard Hugh Bean’s traversal on a very obscure LP as it’s really only of academic interest given its unavailability. Rosand and newcomer Chloë Hanslip take rather different vies of the concerto. Rosand is the more thrustful and dashing and is three minutes quicker. He lays greater stress on the Allegro than the modifying moderato in the first movement and tends toward a greater range of expressive devices to keep things ticking over – note his expressive finger position changes for instance and doesn’t slow as much as Hanslip at those comma points in the first movement. He’s also far more forwardly balanced, taking centre-stage, whereas Hanslip is more naturally placed just in front of the orchestra. Problematically however she has been accorded a rather boomy and less than ideally focused recording, made in The House of Arts, Košice.

Still, Hanslip brings her own strong stamp to bear – she is good at the oddly troubled passages in the opening, is warm and certainly communicative in the slow movement, clearly enjoys the rather salon confection that is the Canzonetta with its viola counter-theme and fine sense of caprice. So too in the finale where she treats the material on its own terms, neither inflating it nor skating over it.

The Second Concerto followed five years later. Though the earlier work certainly lacks for little in post-Mendelssohnian virtuosity the Second Concerto announces its credential from the start with a pulsing scalar run for the soloist. Godard though always manages to balance strong technical demands – he’d been a violin prodigy – with ingratiating lyricism. And this is certainly served up here – the tunes have a real charm to them, and an enviable facility as well. If only Godard hadn’t unleashed a far-too-early cadenza in the first movement – always a sign of problems. Hanslip relishes the cantilena of the slow movement, which she plays with adroit lyricism and well distributed tonal resources – excellent dynamics toward the end as well as tonal breadth.

The Scènes Poétiques are picture postcard sweet, pastel shaded and a touch generic. This is Light Music of course but it does afford some excellent opportunities for the wind principals of the Slovak State Philharmonic to shine, especially in the second sketch, Dans les champs. The pick of the four is the beautiful third – Sur la montagne - with its effulgent tune, excellent and evocative horn writing and stirring tune.

Despite the rather unhelpful acoustic this is still an enjoyable disc and it restores the two violin works in particular to wider prominence than has perhaps been the case for a century or so. Godard didn’t run to great profundity and some of his orchestral accompanying figures tend to churn along without doing anything much but he was a melodist of real charm and these three works attest to a virtue too often overlooked.