WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Hailed by Fanfare magazine as ‘one of the major artists of our time’ Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv continues to give voice to her country’s rich musical heritage in Music of Resilience. The album explores her homeland’s ongoing war and features new works: Victoria Vita Polevá’s searing lament, Bucha. Lachrimosa, and two pieces by Bohdan Kryvopust, the powerfully commemorative On the River and the folk-music inspired Ukrainian Suite. Hanna Havrylets’ Ex Libris dates from 1993 and employs folk music techniques that draw on ornamentation more than development. Representing an earlier generation, the richly Romantic works by Osyp Zalesky and Roman Prydatkevych are heard here in arrangements by Bohdana Frolyak. As an encore, Ivakhiv plays Yuriy Shevchenko’s arrangement of Ukraine’s national anthem.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber was one of the most successful opera composers of the 19th century. His overtures were favourites of the light Classical repertoire with gracious melodies and dance rhythms that were hugely influential on the genre of Romantic comic opera, especially in Germany. The unexpected complexities of Le Domino noir result in Auber’s most subtle and refined overture, while the often vivacious and joyful music in Gustave III, ou Le Bal masqué corresponds to the expectations of the grand-opéra tradition. All of these contrast with a closing Marche funèbre composed to accompany the interment of Napoleon’s ashes in the church of Les Invalides.

This first volume of Joseph Marx’s chamber music charts a period of 30 years from the cello works of 1913–14 to the Violin Sonata No. 2, written in 1944, shortly before he ceased all composition. The Pastorale is characteristically subtle with impressionistic devices harnessed to ever-changing variations. The Suite in F major, for which the Pastorale was originally intended, balances a rural idyll with more sombre elements, informed by a noble Classical design. Violin Sonata No. 2, subtitled Frühlingssonate (‘Spring Sonata’), consciously re-uses material from earlier works to form a lyrical dance-like work irradiated by ingenious harmonic twists.

Regarded as the father of Czech music Bedřich Smetana was a pioneer in developing a national style that culminated in his popular symphonic cycle Má vlast. Composed after he had become deaf the Czech Dances are Smetana’s last major piano works. Sparkling with distinctive character and inventiveness Book 1 elevates the humble polka to the level Chopin achieved with his mazurkas, while Book 2 was inspired by the old Moravian and Bohemian dances played to Smetana by his neighbour, a local amateur violinist. Coloured with Lisztian harmonic richness, the Piano Sonata in G minor combines Romantic expressiveness with puckish good humour.

Franz Liszt’s lifelong engagement with the March is the focus of this volume. The March form offered a medium laden with public meaning allied to the possibility of reinvention and harmonic adventurousness. The symphonic depth of the Goethe-Festmarsch, for example, is elevated far above a mere commemorative work, and the Marche funèbre, composed two days after the death of his father, is a sombre, restrained elegy that foreshadows the austere style of Liszt’s later compositions. Whether exploring stylised folk elements or national pageantry reflecting Hungarian nationhood, the March drew from Liszt bold architectural design, rich harmonies and stirring thematic material.

The New & Now playlist features all that is new and exciting in the world of classical music, whether it’s new music, new presentations or new performers. With more than 200 new releases each year, and artists from around the world, there is always something new to discover with Naxos.