Naxos American Classicsreleases Four American Quartets on July 29 including string quartets by Glass, Antheil, Herrmann and Evans. Performed by the Fine Arts Quartet, the pieces on this disc represent the divergence of styles and manners that make up the whole of music composition in the twentieth century. Although none of the four composers are synonymous with the string quartet genre, they have all made distinct and personal contributions which we find on this recording.
Known more as a performer and leader of the Fine Arts Quartet than a composer Ralph Evans composed most of his String Quartet No. 1 between the years of 1966-1968 and finished it in 1995. The three-movement piece consists of rhythmic Moderato, intensely emotional Andante expressivo, and soulful and dancing Allegro scherzando sections. Philip Glass has written 8 string quartets, 3 of which were student works and have long been discarded. Glass’ String Quartet No. 2 was inspired by a theatrical presentation of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem “Company”. The quartet is organized in four short movements which demonstrate a high degree of thematic unity. String Quartet No. 3 by George Antheil is a larger scale work than his first two string quartets. The melodic piece is permeated by a folk music feel giving an indigenous, yet impersonal, musical texture. Rounding out the recording is Bernard Herrmann’s Echoes for String Quartet. Herrmann is remembered today mainly as a film composer. He wrote Echoes after having not composed classical orchestral music for 25 years. This piece, originally written as a ballet, spawned a string of new classical compositions composed in Herrmann’s last decade.
Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. The Quartet, whose members are artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. The Fine Arts Quartet’s complete Schumann Quartets CD on Naxos was selected for the 50th Grammy Awards Entry List (2008) in two categories: “Best Classical Album” and “Best Chamber Music Performance”. Special recognition was given for the Quartet’s commitment to contemporary music: a 2003-2004 national CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Naxos of America releases a rare recording of Bach’s compositions for lute-harpsichord performed by renowned recitalist of 17th and 18th century keyboard music, Elizabeth Farr. The two-disc set features pieces composed by Bach for the lute-harpsichord throughout his long career. Bach himself was very fond of the lute-harpsichord which is reflected in the many compositions written and transcribed for the unusual and beautiful instrument. He was so keenly interested in the lute-harpsichord and its timbre and design that he owned two of them, one of which was crafted to his exact specifications. The lute-harpsichord used by Farr for these performances was crafted using Bach’s specifications from 1768, making the sound of this rarely-recorded instrument authentic and warmly resonant.
His earliest surviving work composed for lute, Suite in E minor, BWV 996, is dated within the period shortly after 1712. Bach also transcribed some of his existing pieces for the lute-harpsichord. Examples of this are the Fugue in G minor, BWV 1000, a transcription for lute of the second movement of the first sonata for solo violin, dating generally from this period, possibly as late as 1725 and the Sonata in D minor, BWV 964, a transcription for harpsichord of his Second Violin Sonata (key of A minor). This sonata has a full rich texture that is only implied in the works for lute or solo violin. It is a masterful rendering of the original work that is completely idiomatic for keyboard. The possibilities for keyboard changes bring it to a new level of virtuosity.
Elizabeth Farr specializes in the performance of keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She has performed solo recitals on the harpsichord, organ, and pedal harpsichord to critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Germany. Her performances as a collaborative artist, concerto soloist, and basso-continuo player have also earned high praise. Her recording of Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Suites Nos. 1-6 for Harpsichord (Naxos 8.557654-55) was awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Bestenliste in January of 2006.
Henry Purcell’s opera Dido & Aeneas, completed in 1689, was the subject of a memorable and breathtaking performance at the Staatsoper Berlin in 2005. In Dido & Aeneas Sasha Waltz opens up new horizons in music theatre, creating a fusion of dance, singing and music - the choreographic opera. The (extended, revised) libretto, the (reconstructed) music, vocal parts, dance, the stage set - featuring a rousing underwater ballet - combine to form a sublime total choreography and parallel action involving dancers, singers and musicians.
In this choreographic opera, Sasha Waltz demonstrates not only her familiarity with Emile Jaques-Dalcroze and Pina Bausch, but also the confidence she has in her own style.
Ms. Waltz has commented:
“…My aim is not only to tell the story via the singers, but also to use the stage set, gestures and the unique language of dance to complement the music. It is an attempt to fuse the various levels of representation, without any one of them dominating.”
For the first time ever, the legendary centenary production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers, conducted by Reginald Goodall, is released as a four-CD set on Chandos’ acclaimed Opera in English series. Over the years, music lovers have contacted Chandos to request its release on Opera in English, and Sir Peter Moores was determined to make it happen.
Broadcast live on BBC from Sadler’s Wells Theatre on February 10, 1968, Goodall conducted a cast of luminaries including Alberto Remedios, Norman Bailey, Derek Hammond-Stroud, Gregory Dempsey, Margaret Curphey (the first of many Wagner roles she would perform under Goodall), and Ann Robson. Following the live broadcast, the recording sadly disappeared into the archives and has since become one of the most talked-about ‘lost’ performances. This four-CD set has been re-mastered from a BBC Radio live broadcast, and the sound quality reflects the fact it is a 1968 live recording. But while some deterioration is evident, it does not detract from the recording’s undeniable performance value.
A popular comic opera, The Mastersingers is also an ensemble opera in a way Wagner’s other operas are not. Yet, despite its comic opera standing, it is in fact a deeply spiritual work. Wagner wrote “It is impossible that you should not have sensed, under the opera’s quaint superficies of popular humor, the profound melancholy, the lament, the cry of distress of poetry in chains, and its reincarnation, its new birth, its irresistible magic power achieving mastery over the common and the base.” Nicholas Payne writes of Goodall’s Mastersingers: “The rise and fall of Goodall’s orchestra is drenched in tears which encompass both supreme joy and unrequited sorrow. Goodall sensed that the generosity of spirit which inhabited Sadler’s Wells and its company in the final years at that theatre would never be recaptured.”
Sir Peter Moores comments on this release: “The resounding success of Reginald Goodall’s Mastersingers led to his conducting an ‘English’ Ring at the London Coliseum in the 1970s. That Ring started me recording opera in English so I am thrilled that we have been able to add The Mastersingers to our Opera in English catalogue - alongside Goodall’s Ring.”
The idea of recording opera in English developed from Peter Moores’s determination that Reginald Goodall’s ‘English’ Ring cycle at the London Coliseum in the early 1970s should not be a secret for audiences in London or become a thing of the past-but should be recorded live for posterity. The Goodall Ring and many of the other famous English language recordings, funded by the Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s, are now part of the Opera in English label, launched in 1995 with Chandos Records. Since then, new studio recordings of mainstream operas, together with re-issued titles, form the largest collection of opera recorded in English translation.
Described by The Independent as “master musicians,” The Gould Piano Trio, one of the most exciting ensembles to emerge in recent years, is joined by clarinetist Robert Plane for this recording to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of France’s greatest composers, Olivier Messiaen.
Messiaen’s wartime masterpiece, the outstanding Quartet for the End of Time, was composed during the darkest days when he was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. The particular instrumentation-piano, violin, cello and clarinet-was determined by these circumstances. The result is Messiaen’s most significant contribution to chamber music. Its premiere was one of the legendary premieres of the 20th century, taking place in the camp theatre before 5000 other prisoners. “Never have I been listened to with such attention and such understanding,” Messiaen later recalled. The works also received a review in the camp newsletter: “The last note was followed by a moment of silence which established the sovereign mastery of the work.”
Quartet for the End of Time is coupled with the shorter Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano and the premiere recording of the piano transcription of Les Offrandes oubliées. Theme and Variations was composed as a wedding gift from Messiaen to his wife, whom he married in 1932. Like her husband, Claire was a devout Catholic and a composer, as well as an accomplished violinist. The violin writing testifies to Claire’s passionate musicality and her technical skill, and as so often with Messiaen’s shorter works, it has a power and presence that belie its modest proportions. Les Offrandes oubliées, subtitled ‘méditation symphonique,’ was composed in the summer of 1930, shortly after Messiaen completed his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. The work forms a stepping stone between the miniature world of the piano Préludes and the tumultuous virtuosity of his later piano music.
Joseph Marx can be described as a ‘Romantic Impressionist’, and the compositions performed here clearly demonstrate this late Romantic style, reminiscent of Richard Strauss, Korngold, and Reger. Mostly known for his beautifully crafted songs (he already had written 120 by the time he was 30), Marx enjoyed great success throughout his life but has since been unjustly neglected-in part due to the radical compositional style of his peers, Webern and Berg. In addition to his work as a composer, Marx was a teacher and a music critic.
Of the works performed here, four of the pieces (Herbst-Legende, Carneval, Canzone, and Die Flur der Engel) have never before been published or commercially recorded. To date, only one recording has been made of the other six pieces, which is no longer commercially available.
Australian pianist Tonya Lemoh has won numerous international prizes and awards, including first prize in the International Competition of Young Performers, Denmark 2003, and a Diplom d’Honneur at the 2002 International Grieg Piano Competition, Norway. She makes her debut on Chandos with this disc.
In the 2004 issue of International Piano Magazine, critic Colin Eatock had this to say about Austrian-born pianist Anton Kuerti: “CD Review magazine called him ‘one of the truly great pianists of this century,’ and Fanfare dubbed him ‘the best pianist currently playing.’ Yet he remains on the fringes of the pantheon.” Kuerti has become a legend for his recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas. In celebration of this great pianist, CBC Records re-releases his classic set of Beethoven piano concertos featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis (SMCD 5246).
Originally recorded in 1986 during Sir Andrew’s tenure as Music Director of the TSO, and released thereafter as three single discs, this new set brings back to the market one of the most original and exciting interpretations of these classical masterpieces. The set also includes Beethoven’s rarely-performed Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra featuring the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
Anton Kuerti (b 1938 in Austria) studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Arthur Loesser and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with Rudolf Serkin. In 1948, at the age of 11, he made his first appearance with an orchestra (the Boston Pops Orchestra). He later went on to perform with the New York Philharmonic (1957) and the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras. He began performing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1961 and with the Montreal Symphony in 1963. Kuerti, who made his British début with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1965, was named professor and pianist-in-residence at the University of Toronto the same year.
Kuerti is known for his performances of Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert and Scriabin, but he also plays music by Canadian composers and gave the first performances of Oskar Morawetz’s Piano Concerto (1963) and Suite (1968), and S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté’s Piano Concerto (1967). He has appeared at music festivals worldwide, and is a founding member of the Marlboro Trio and founder of the Festival of Sound, Ontario. In 1974-75 in Toronto and Ottawa, he recorded and performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. Other recordings include the complete Schubert sonatas and the piano concertos of Mendelssohn. His compositions include a symphony, Epomeo; a violin sonata; the Linden Suite for piano; works for cello and piano; two string quartets; a concerto for piano (1985)’ Piano Man Suite (1986); and a clarinet trio (1989). Kuerti, who became a naturalized Canadian, is also a prominent figure in Canadian politics.
On July 22, Naxos of America releases the soundtrack recordingto the much-anticipated film based on Evelyn Waugh’s powerful 1945 novelBrideshead Revisited (Chandos 10499). The film, which will be widely-released in North America on August 1, is the first original film score recording on Chandos Movies, and features music by film and television composer Adrian Johnston, who has won both BAFTA and Emmy Awards for his scores. Johnston has had an impressive career scoring films that include Becoming Jane, Kinky Boots, The Mayor of Casterbridge and White Teeth, as well as the score to the television film Shackleton (2002), for which he won an Emmy Award. The soundtrack features the acclaimed BBC Philharmonic, conductor by Olivier Award winner Terry Davies, who has a wide range of credits in film, theatre, and television, including Shakespeare in Love, Becoming Jane, House of Mirth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Directed by Julian Jarrold, Brideshead Revisited features an impressive cast which includes Academy Award winner Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Matthew Goode, Hayley Atwell, and Ben Whishaw. With a screenplay by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies, the story follows the memoirs of Charles Ryder and his involvement with the Flyte family, who own the Brideshead Estate. It relives the hedonistic days of 1920s Oxford University and tells an evocative story of forbidden love and loss of innocence, with particular focus on Charles’s relationship with brother and sister, Sebastian and Julia, and their mother, Lady Marchmain.
Adrian Johnston writes of the Brideshead Revisited recording: “I was thrilled to have an opportunity to work with Chandos - a label whose philosophy I have always liked, and whose CDs of Philip Lane’s fine film score reconstructions I have particularly admired. I know that to release a ‘non-historical’ film score was somewhat of a departure for the label, but I hope that Brideshead Revisited can somehow exist as a Chandos product, and perhaps open up the way for future film music collaborations.”
Born in Cumbria in 1961, Adrian Johnston read English at Edinburgh University but it was always clear to him that he would somehow make a career in music. That career really began with silent films, after a dalliance in the pop world (while still a student) as a drummer with the earlier incarnation of the band that became The Waterboys. He spent most of his twenties travelling around the world, accompanying new prints of silent films at film festivals, generally as a one-man band. From there, working in the theatre was a natural progression, and he wrote scores for plays at the Royal National Theatre and for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was given a break into film by Michael Winterbottom, who in 1996 asked him to write the score for Jude. Subsequently he met Stephen Poliakoff, with whom he has collaborated on ten television plays and films, including the multi-award winning Shooting the Past, and Julian Jarrold, with whom he has worked for over 10 years on feature films like Becoming Jane and Kinky Boots. He won a prime time Emmy Award for his score for Charles Sturridge’s mini-series Shackleton in 2002 and a BAFTA for Poliakoff’s Capturing Mary in 2008.
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