We are pleased to announce our Grammy Nominated recordings
2L BLU-RAY 50	SIGNUM UK 121
Best Engineered Album, Classical Cat. 96 Best Surround Sound Cat. 95 Best Small Ensemble Cat. 105	Best Classical Crossover Category Cat.108

• Featured Titles • DVD • SACD • Featured Labels • Classical New Releases • New from Orfeo International • New from Supraphon Music • Jazz • World •

• • • DVD • • •

BONGIOVANNI DVD 20011

CARLO PEDROTTI (1817 – 1893)
Tutti in Maschera

FIRST RECORDING!
Paolo Bordogna; David Sotgiu; Yolanda Auyanet; Domenico Colaianni; Annarita Gemmabella; Massimiliano Viapiano

Coro del Teatro dell’Opera Giocosa
Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo e Della Liguria
Giovanni Di Stefano
Rosetta Cucchi, director
Recorded: Teatro Chiabrera, Savona
October 12 & 14, 2007

In the introduction to his L’Opéra italien au XIXe siècle, Danièle Pistone lists what he considers the major works in the genre. For the period 1840-70, alongside Verdi's operas from Un giorno di regno to Don Carlos, Donizetti's La fille du Régiment, La favorite, Don Pasquale and Poliuto and Pacini's Saffo, this list includes the commedia lirica in three acts Tutti in maschera, the high point of the output of the composer from Verona Carlo Pedrotti. Tutti in maschera was premiered at the Teatro Nuovo in Verona on 4 November 1856, during an era when Italian operas were being turned out in a frenzy of productivity, increasingly under the influence of Verdi's rising star.

BONGIOVANNI DVD 20012

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813 – 1901)
Luisa Miller

Rachele Stanisci; Francesco Demuro;
Alberto Gazale; Sarah Maria Punga;
Antonio de Gobbi

Corale Luigi Canepa

Orchestra dell’Ente Concerti
Marialisa de Carolis-Sassari
Carlo Montanaro
Marco Spada, director

DYNAMIC DVD 33545

BALDASSARE GALUPPI (1706 – 1785)
L’Olimpiade

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING!
Mark Tucker; Ruth Rosique; Roberta Invernizzi; Romina Basso; Franziska Gottwald; Furio Zanasi; Filippo Adami

Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Dominique Poulange, director
Francesco Zito, scenes and costumes

Recorded in October 2006

This production was recorded at the Teatro Malibran of La Fenice in Venice in occasion of the celebrations for the 3rd centenary of Galuppi’s birth. This is the first performance in modern times, and a World Premiere recording on DVD. The Orchestra Barocca di Venezia, conducted by baroque expert Andrea Marcon plays on original instruments from the 18th century. Olimpiade, was written for the opening of the carnival season of Milan’s Teatro Ducale on December 26, 1747. The only available score was kept in Milan, but it was not complete; maybe this explains why the opera was not staged again, even though it collected a huge success. Conductor Andrea Marcon, together with musicologist Claire Genewein had to look for the score’s incomplete parts. Finally the symphony of the opening was found in Regensburg’s library, whereas the final part was found in London.

DYNAMIC DVD 33607

RENATA SCOTTO
THE 1984 TOKYO RECITAL

SCARLATTI; ROSSINI; VERDI; LISZT;
RESPIGHI; PUCCINI; MASCAGNI
BONUS: DONIZETTI

Renata Scotto, soprano
Thomas Fulton, piano

Recorded in Gotanda Tokyo, Kan’ i Hoken Hall, September 6, 1984

Extra contents:
a two-minute fore ward by Renata Scotto

The recital on our DVD dates back to 1984 and photographs a Renata Scotto in her full artistic maturity. At the time the singer was 50 years old, 32 of which she had spent on stage. The program is vast and varied in epochs, styles and composers and shows the elasticity of an artist of solid technique gifted with absolutely extraordinary musicality. Alongside famous pages of opera, like Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo or Tu che la vanità from Verdi’s Don Carlo, Renata Scotto tackles lesser-known pages, like the beautiful Petrarchan sonnets set by Franz Liszt in 1844/45. Here perhaps the artist gives the best of herself, exhibiting a palette of colors that is truly rich in nuances and dazzling control of vocal emission. At the end of this demanding program, based chiefly on chamber music, Renata Scotto offers three encores, two of which are dedicated to Puccini operas (Tosca and Butterfly) shrewdly kept back for a grand finale. This DVD contains a thirteen-minute video featuring the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor, performed at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, September 1967.

FABULA DVD 604

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971)
Pulcinella, ballet
Alessandro Riga; Sabina Willeit; Maurizio Lo Piccolo; Marco Alemanno; Luciano Cannito

FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866 – 1924)
Arlecchino, opera
Marco Alemanno; Sabina Willeit; Lucio Dalla; Maurizio Lo Piccolo; Filippo Adami

Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
David Alger; Lucio Dalla, director

Recording: Bologna, Italy, Teatro Comunale
May 13, 2007

Extra: Backstage inteviews

SUPRAPHON DVD 7017

VLASTIMIL HARAPES
PRIMO BALLERINO

FIRST TIME ON DVD!
SIBELIUS; TCHAIKOVSKY; PROKOFIEV; ADAM; GOUNOD; GLUCK; STRAVINSKY; JANACEK; BRITTEN; ROSSINI; KHACHATURIAN; SUK; SHCHEDRIN/BIZET; ZAHRADNIK; RYBNIKOV; BACH; KOCAB/HORACEK; HAPKA/HORACEK; ANDERSSON/RICE

Plus Bonus Material

On his day Vlastimil Harapes was one of the premier dancers of the international ballet scene. He was a star who shone on the stage of the National Theater for twenty years, and for thousands of ballet goers in dozens of countries his name was a synonym for dance. Ballet is the most fragile of arts, fading with the dancer’s youth, but recordings of Harapes’ artistry in the greatest works of the classical and modern ballet repertoire were preserved in the archives of Czech Television. They provided the material for this indisputably unique collection of performances immortalizing this personable, graceful dancer. Included are scenes from such famous ballets as Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Achilles, Pulcinella, La Boutique Fantasque, and Spartacus, as well as works choreographed to music by Josef Suk (Radúz and Mahulena), Georges Bizet (Carmen), Leoš Janácek (The Kreutzer Sonata), Charles Gounod (Faust and Markéta), Johann Sebastian Bach (Prelude in C minor), and Petr Hapka (Denim Blue)… His partners in these scenes include soloists Marta Drottnerová, Hana Vlácilová and Ivanka Kubicová. Bonus scenes from the television shorts Runner (Bežec) and We Can Go On (Mužeme dál) round out the selection. Throughout these performances Harapes shines with the captivating charm of his artistry and the contagious joy of life. These are recordings of an art which is fleeting, but whose beauty is eternal. The legendary dancer in roles from classical and modern ballet!

• • • CLASSICAL FEATURED TITLES • • •

NEW LABEL

OMNIBUS CLASSICS 5001

CHRIS WILLIAMS
Tsunami Requiem for children’s choir, chorus and brass, percussion and organ; Malabar, two pieces for brass quintet; Songs of the Coromandel Coast, symphonic song-cycle for tenor, children’s choir, chorus and orchestra

James Gilchrist, tenor
English Brass Choir of Eltham College
English Philharmonia & Chorus
Graham Wili

This CD is a live recording of the hugely successful concert performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall in May 2008, featuring the world premiere of a choral work about the Asian tsunami of 2004, by British composer Chris Williams. This powerful and moving new piece, Songs of the Coromandel Coast, greeted by a standing ovation, is a sequel to Williams’ Tsunami Requiem, also featured here, along with his new brass quintet Malabar. Tsunami Requiem retells the events on Boxing Day 2004 intertwined with text from the requiem mass. Songs of the Coromandel Coast shows life three years on, using four contrasting sea shanties making this work powerful, moving and accessible. Malabar provides a refreshing interlude from these two choral masterpieces.

HUNGAROTON 32588

JOHANN BAPTIST VANHAL (1739 – 1813)
3 PIANO QUINTETS, OP. 12
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!
Sonata No. 1 in G major
Sonata No. 2 in D minor
Sonata No. 3 in B flat major

Miklós Spányi, fortepiano
Authentic Quartet (on period instruments):
Zsolt Kalló, violin; Balázs Bozzai, violin;
Gábor Rác, viola; Csilla Vályi, cello

Vanhal’s piano quintets op. 12 were published in Berlin in 1784. According to their original title (Trois Sonates pour le Clavecin avec l’accompagnement de deux Violons, Viola et Violoncelle ad libitum), they are so-called accompanied keyboard sonatas, much popular in their own time, in which—as a kind of counterpart to the Baroque sonata with continuo accompaniment—some string, less frequently wind parts doubling the keyboard parts are added to the perfectly elaborated parts of the keyboard instrument. The ad libitum (at will) indication in the title shows that these accompanying parts could be omitted. However, the parallel moving string accompaniment was excellently suitable for balancing the unbalanced sound of the contemporary keyboard instrument.

HUNGAROTON 32555/6

ZOLTAN KODALY (1882 – 1967)
ART SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO

Énekszó ­ songs on folk poems, Op. 1;
Three songs on poems by Béla Balázs (Op. posth.);
Four songs; Seven songs, Op. 6;
The quick reapers of the grove;
Three songs, Op. 14, Epigrams;Two songs, Op. 5;
Five songs, Op. 9; Epitaphium Joannis Hunyadi

SIGNUM UK 142

BOB CHILCOTT (*1955)
MAKING WAVES

Makin Waves: Circles of Motion; Like a Rainbow; All things pass; Making Waves; The Lily and the Rose; So fair and bright; Catch a falling star; Swansongs 1; Like a singing bird; Swansongs 2; All for love of one; This Day; A Little Jazz Mass*=

The Sirens: Iain Farrington, piano; Alexander Hawkins, piano*; Michael Chilcott, bass*; Derek Scurll, drums*
Bob Chilcott, conductor

A new disc of works by the world renowned choral composer Bob Chilcott. Bob has been involved in choral music for most of his life and since he became a professional composer in 1997 he has had over 100 works published by Oxford University Press. He was hailed by Gramophone magazine as “one of the finest choral composers at work in Britain today.” This CD includes tracks with The Sirens, an ensemble of young professional women's voices specially created for this recording. Also featuring are a jazz trio with Alexander Hawkins on piano, Michael Chilcott on bass and Dereck Scurll on drums. The works included here reflect the strong support and interest that Bob’s vocal music generates, with commissions from a wide variety of choral societies, children & youth choirs and professional choruses.

SIGNUM UK 143

STEVE REICH (*1936)
ELECTRIC COUNTERPOINT

Electric Counterpoint; Tour de France; Radioactivity; Pocket Calculator; Carbon Copy; Temazcal; Audiotectonics III
Video: Temazcal

Powerplant; Joby Burgess, percussion;
Matthew Fairclough, sound design;
Kathy Hinde, visual artist
The Elysian Quartet

Powerplant encompasses the work of some of the most dynamic young British artists, bringing together the virtuoso percussionist Joby Burgess and live sound engineer Matthew Fairclouch. The musical duo are joined by visual artist Kathy Hinde, creating experimental and challenging repertoire, which includes a video of their combined imaginations. The repertoire also includes a new take on Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, first commissioned in 1987 for guitarist Pat Metheny, placing the percussionist against a pre-recorded tape of himself. The pieces by Kraftwerk, widely acknowledged as the pioneers of modern dance music, also feature highly on this disc with arrangements for string quartet and a variety of percussive and electronic instruments. This disc is an Enhanced CD, and features a short video performance that can be viewed when using the disc in a computer.

TIMPANI 1152

FLORENT SCHMITT (1870 – 1958)

Quintette pour piano et cordes, Op. 51 (1908)
Hasards, Petit concert en quatre parties pour piano, violon, alto & violoncello, Op. 96 (1939)

Christian Ivaldi, piano
Quatuor Stanislas:
Laurent Causse, violin I; Bertrand Menut, violin II;
Paul Fenton, viola; Jean de Spengler, cello

Could Florent Schmitt be unloved? And could the reasons for his being ostracized be only non-music-related? In truth, yes and no. Yes, because as a figure he had to suffer the accumulated consequences of an uncompromising or even unpleasant temper. No, because the rarity of the production of these works in concert also has to do with the fact that they are extremely difficult to perform. Such is the case of the Quintet with piano, formidable to all starting with the pianist, whose fingers are put to a severe test! That being said, this quintet appears for one of the all-time greats of the genre, along with those from Franck, Vierne, and Fauré, but it is typical of Schmitt's writing. It is concession-free, opulent, ardently grabbing the listener. It needed a chamber musician who was experienced in such demanding task: It is Christian Ivaldi who successfully took up this challenge, surrounded by the members of the Stanislas Quartet, thus paying tribute to a “land” that was dear to them. And if it weren't enough, as if Schmitt were not bewildering enough, to the large, post-romantic emanations of the Quintet we added a piece of work almost diametrically opposed: Hasards, with its irony taken straight from the 1930's.

• • • JAZZ • • •

NEMU 008

Hot Trio
JINK

Artists:
Theo Jörgensmann, G-low clarinet;
Albrecht Maurer, violin, voice;
Peter Jacquemyn, double bass, voice

TRIO HOT – a name that inexorably evokes the bands that sprang up and around the Hot Clubs and enjoyed a heyday almost everywhere in Europe in the ‘30s. The TRIO HOT which consists of the violinist and founder of the band, Albrecht Maurer, a fixed member of the various string ensembles established by Kent Carter over the years, the clarinettist Theo Jörgensmann, one of the contemporary masters of the instrument, and the bassist Peter Jacquemyn, an acolyte of the late Peter Kowald whose legacy he honors by infusing new inventiveness, didn’t get its name merely by chance. In jazz history, the clarinet and the string instruments were first brought together during the swing era by such personages as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Stéphane Grappelli or Joe Venuti. Forgotten for a good many years – indeed, only the West Coast musicians would continue to play the clarinet, and how! – the two instruments reappeared at about the same time on both sides of the Atlantic when the first wave of free jazz re-united them in non-hierarchical instrumental groups, a trend which would then go on to grow accordingly as free music and free improvisation began to detach itself from the more established forms of jazz.

PIROUET RECORDS 3037

Marc Copland
“NIGHT WHISPERS”
NEW YORK TRIO RECORDINGS, VOLUME 3

Artists:
Marc Copland, piano
Drew Gress, bass
Bill Stewart, drum

"Night Whispers", part three of the much-acclaimed New York Trio Recordings, is a highlight of the subtle art of the piano trio: three sophisticated virtuosos on an exquisite flight of sizzlingly joyful musical discourse. To follow this highly-refined three-way conversation is an experience that can take your breath away.

PIROUET RECORDS 3038

Nicolas Thys
VIRGO

Artists:
Chris Cheek, tenor saxophone;
Jon Cowherd, piano; Ryan Scott, guitar;
Nicolas Thys, bass; Dan Reiser, drums

• • • WORLD MUSIC • • •

HUNGAROTON 10335

MY LITTLE SUNSHINE
Hungarian Songs

Artists:
Erno Kállai Kiss, the gypsy king of the clarinet
Erno Kállai Kiss, Jr. and his Gypsy Band

• • • MOVIE MUSIC / SOUNDTRACKS • • •

ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38043

SOUNDS OF HOLLYWOOD
MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra
Stefan Fraas

The Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1992 as a joint project between the German states of Thuringia and Saxony, and is thereby unique in Germany. It was conceived as a continuation and development of more than 150 years of orchestral tradition in Vogtland. Continuity and versatility are important criteria in the Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra’s engagements, with a particular commitment to the whole local area of Saxony-Thuringia. Guest appearances have taken “the region’s musical messengers” to all the important musical centers in Germany, as well as to Austria, Spain, Denmark, France, China, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the USA. They give an unusually wide spectrum of different performances and concerts. Whether it be symphonic concerts, “Classics under the Stars”, concerts in historical costumes, prom concerts, or serenades at historic sites … there is almost no limit to their musical possibilities. In order to reach new audiences, the orchestra has successfully developed special projects such as “Philharmonic Rock” and the new recording “Sounds of Hollywood” with a fine selection of Hollywood blockbusters.

• • • SACD • • •

HUNGAROTON SACD 32506

BELA BARTOK (1881 – 1945)

Suite No. 2 for Orchestra, Op. 4
(1905-07, rev. 1921 & c. 1942, BB 40, Sz 34)
Rumanian Dance for Orchestra
(1911, BB 61, Sz 47z)
Rumanian Folk Dance for Small Orchestra
(1917, BB 76, Sz 68)
Dance Suite for Orchestra
(1923, BB 86, Sz 77)
Appendix: Suite No. 2 for Orchestra
(Original Movements III and IV of the 1921 version)

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Zoltan Kocsis

• • • FEATURED LABEL: ARS PRODUKTION SACD • • •

ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38019

FORGOTTEN TREASURES, VOLUME 2
FRANZ DANZI (1763 – 1826)
CONCERTOS FOR BASSOON & ORCHESTRA

Overture in E flat major (P32)
Bassoon Concerto in G minor
Bassoon Concerto in C major
Bassoon Concerto in F major

Jane Gower, bassoon
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens (on period instruments)

All three concertos have second movements marked Andante, suggesting o simple, cantabile style with an easily flawing tempo, never pressed but considerably faster than the often ponderous, overworked treatment Andantes are sometimes burdened with. In no way does it seek to compete with the weight of the first movement. Instead all three Andantes provide the bassoonist with opportunities to display the vocal lyricism of the tenor register as Danzi’s melodies unfurl. Entirely banishing the anxiety of the first g minor movement is a concluding Polacca (polonaise) a witty engaging dance-like piece very popular in solo concertos of the time. As in the F major Polacca, there are many chances for tongue-in-cheek jocularity lively dialogue, os well as some sparkling passagework. By way of introducing these bassoon concertos we hove added another lesser known work by Danzi, his Overture in E flat major (P32). This music was probably used as “Zwischenaktmusik” within a theatrical performance, similar in function to the incidental music Schubert wrote for Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern (d797).

ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38020

FORGOTTEN TREASURES, VOLUME 3
VIENNA DOUBLE BASS CONCERTOS

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!
FRANZ ANTON HOFFMEISTER (1754 – 1812)
Concerto in E flat major
WENCESLAV PICHL (1741 – 1805)
Concerto in D major
JOHANN VANHAL (1739 – 1813)
Concerto in E flat major

David Sinclair, double bass
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens (on period instruments)

The works recorded here present examples of the Viennese bass concerto from its early period of the mid 1760’s to its heyday around 1785. All were written for the specially-tuned Viennese bass. While the Pichl and Hoffmeister concertos are premiere recordings, Vanhal’s well-known work is recorded here for the first time on a Viennese bass. The instrument used dates from 1729 and was made by Johann Christoph Leidolff (1690-1785). One of Vienna’s foremost violin makers, the Leidolff workshop was also responsible for keeping the instruments and bows of the Esterházykapelle in good repair.

ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38026

FORGOTTEN TREASURES, VOLUME 5
BERNHARD ROMBERG (1767 – 1841)

Trauer-Symphonie auf den Tod der Königin Luise von Preußen in C minor, Op. 23; Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 28; Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 53

Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens (on period instruments)

At the beginning of the 19th century Bernhard Romberg was celebrated as a great virtuoso on the violoncello and recognized as one of the most important composers of his time. Yet towards the end of his life he considered himself to be obsolete. At the beginning of the century the press had nothing but eulogies and superlatives for him. As a “composer and connoisseur of the arts he is the best cellist on earth” (Hamburg 1801), he was perceived as the “most perfect of all currently living cellists” (Berlin 1805) and considered to be “one of the greatest composers and most masterful of all living cellists”, and as “the first and greatest virtuoso on his instrument”, who was also considered to be a “truly significant” composer (Leipzig 1807). Even his compositional legacy – with the exception of o few works that are still used for education purposes today – fell into oblivion and was soon forgotten after his death.

ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38027

FORGOTTEN TREASURES, VOLUME 6
CHANT D’AUTOMNE

CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS; JEAN-TOUSSAINT RADOUX; EMILE PESSARD; PAUL JEANJEAN; AYME KUNC; ROBERT GUILLEMYN; GEORGE TEMPLETON STRONG; EMMANUEL CHABRIER; THEODORE; JULES MASSENET; ADOLPHE BLANC

Ulrich Hübner, natural horn & valve horn
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens (on period instruments)

The CD gives a fine overview of what and how was composed for horn during the 19th century in France and its close surroundings. One searches in vain for large, multiple movement solo concertos from this period, finding instead a rich trove of shorter character pieces, emphasizing in particular the horn’s lyrical qualities. After his horn studies in Darmstadt, Stuttgart and Cologne Ulrich Hübner first played the modern horn for five years in the orchestra of the State Theatre of Mainz. In 1995 he left his orchestral position to concentrate on historical performance practice, playing since then in leading European orchestras such as Anima Eterna, Concerto Köln, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble and La Stagione Frankfurt. Ulrich Hübner’s recording of Mozart's Horn Concerto KV 447, with the orchestra Anima Eterna conducted by Jos van Immerseel, was highly praised by the critics and awarded the "Diapason d'Or" in 2006.

ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38029

FORGOTTEN TREASURES, VOLUME 7
VIRTUOSO CONCERTOS FOR OBOE

JOHANN CHRISTIAN FISCHER (1733 – 1800)
Oboe Concerto No. 1 in C major
Oboe Concerto No. 2 in E flat major
Oboe Concerto No. 7 in F major
CARL STAMITZ (1745 – 1801)
Oboe Concerto No. 2 in B flat major

Michael Niesemann, oboe
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens (on period instruments)

Johann Christian Fischer (1733-1800) was one of the most celebrated oboists of the Classical Era. Born in Germany at Freiburg-im-Breisgau, he played for a time in the court band at Dresden before entering the service of Frederick the Great. On coming to London, where he is first recorded in June 1768, he became a member of Queen's Band and played regularly at court. Fanny Burney, daughter of music historian and composer Charles Burney, praised “the sweet-flowing, melting, celestial notes of Fischer's hautboy”. From 1979 to 1987, Michael Niesemann studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln (Cologne), where he has taught modern and historical oboes since 1993. From 2004 to 2007 he was the professor for Baroque oboe at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. In October 2007 he was appointed the oboe professor at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. As a chamber musician Niesemann was a member of Musica Antiqua Köln (Reinhard Goebel) for ten years. As an orchestral musician, he was one of the founding members of Concerto Köln, with whom he played until 1993. From 1994 he has been principal oboist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s orchestras, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.

• • • CLASSICAL FEATURED TITLES • • •

BIS 1918/20

JEAN SIBELIUS (1865 – 1957)
THE SIBELIUS EDITION, VOLUME 7
SONGS
The Complete Solo Songs,
including preliminary and alternative versions
Helena Juntunen, soprano; Anne Sofie von Otter and Monica Groop, mezzo-soprano; Dan Karlström, tenor; Gabriel Suovanen and Jorma Hynninen, baritone
Folke Gräsbeck, Bengt Forsberg and Love Derwinger, piano; Jaakko Kuusisto, violin; Marko Ylönen and Joel Laakso, cello; Lasse Pöysti, narrator

This box contains a large number of previously unreleased recordings, as well as many world premières on disc. The 236 page booklet contains all song texts in the original language, with English translations. Sibelius’s earliest music was instrumental and it wasn’t until he was in his twenties that he turned to the solo song genre. From that time on, however, he wrote songs at regular intervals – more than a hundred in total. They form a substantial part of his output and are treasured highly by admirers of the composer, although only a handful have gained a regular place in the international repertoire. Undoubtedly his choice of predominantly Nordic poetry has contributed to this neglect – in his solo songs he turned overwhelmingly to poetry written in Swedish, his own first language. Given that it is his orchestral music which has earned Sibelius his greatest fame, it is natural that the songs as a whole give an incomplete picture of the composer’s mastery. Nevertheless, as Andrew Barnett remarks in his informative liner notes, ’listening to them in their entirety reveals considerable lightness of touch and many a flash of genuine humor. The finest of them certainly reveal his gift for melody and his acute response to nature imagery, especially when setting poems featuring pantheistic imagery.’ Many of the songs were written for or premièred by leading Finnish singers. Sibelius’s own favorite was the soprano Ida Ekman; another distinguished early interpreter was Aino Ackté, the dedicatee of Luonnotar. It is a fine cast of Finnish singers who perform their compatriot’s music on this collection, which also includes the highly acclaimed recordings by the Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter of some of the best-known songs, including Black Roses, The Diamond on the March Snow and But My Bird is Long in Homing. As for the accompaniments, the lion’s share is in the hands of Folke Gräsbeck, an undisputed authority on Sibelius’s piano scores and a key contributor to this edition.

BIS 1513/4

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)

Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II, Buch II:
Preludes and Fugues BWV 870 – 893

Masaaki Suzuki, harpsichord

Besides numerous discs with choral and instrumental works with his ensemble Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki is currently recording a complete series of Bach’s works for solo harpsichord. Releases so far include acclaimed interpretations of the Italian Concerto, the French Suites, the Partitas and the Goldberg Variations. The series began in 1997, with Book I of Das Wohltemperiertes Klavier – a release which was recommended by Spanish magazine CD Compact, as well as receiving three stars in the Penguin Guide. Reviewers were enthusiastic, for instance in Gramophone (‘a Bach player of distinction… He has great vitality and constantly conveys a strongly rhythmic sense of momentum – a thoroughly rewarding set’) and in American Record Guide (‘I devoured this recording when it arrived, and I was left with the feeling I'd made a new friend... a set that will hold pride of place over many others’). Suzuki now picks up the thread with Bach’s second set of 24 preludes and fugues, a key-work in Western music and a cornerstone in the repertoire for both piano and harpsichord. Like its predecessor, Book 2 traverses all the keys of the harmonic system, exploring each tonality during the span of one prelude and one fugue. In his informed liner notes, Bach specialist Professor Yo Tomita discusses various aspects of the collection. These include the interesting connections between individual movements and other works by Bach, such as the similarities between the prelude in B flat minor and the recitative from the St Matthew Passion containing Jesus’ cry ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me’. But as the liner notes point out, the movements in the Well-Tempered Clavier II are ‘not copies; rather they take the form of treasured ideas reworked as new and unique keyboard compositions’, by a master who in his late fifties had had more, and greater, ideas than most composers.

CELLO CLASSICS 1013

FEUERMANN IN CONCERT
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
GABRIEL FAURE; DAVID POPPER

Emanuel Feuermann, cello
Franz Rupp, Theodore Saidenberg, piano

New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Smallens

Enhanced Cd Includes 1939 Film of Dvorak Rondo and Popper Spinning Song
Originally a live broadcast, this electrifying performance of Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto, the only recording of the work by Feuermann, has been re-mastered and completed with the aid of the cellist Steven Isserlis and a certain amount of technical wizardry. Included as an encore is the only recording of unaccompanied Bach that Feuermann ever made. In addition there are previously un-heard takes of works by Bach and Fauré. Also included on this enhanced CD is the only existing film footage of Feuermann in a short film made in 1939 featuring two popular works from this great cellist's repertoire.
A hugely important Release.

CENTAUR 2954

ALAN HOVAHANESS (1911 – 2000)
VISIONS OF THE EAST

Ode to the Temple of Sound (First Recording)
Symphony No. 10 (Vahaken) (1959) (First Recording)
Floating World – Ballade for Orchestra
(First Complete Recoding)
Meditation on Zeami (First Recording)

Frost Symphony Orchestra
Chung Park

An important 20th Century American composer whose music anticipated many future musical trends and aesthetic values. Rejecting the vogues of Americana, serialism and atonality, he pioneered contemporary development of archaic models and was amongst the earliest to integrate Western musical idioms with Eastern ones, making him a pioneer of East-West 'fusion' decades before the term 'World Music' had been coined. Introduced 'ad libitum' or aleatoric counterpoint from 1944, almost two decades before the European avant garde. From the 1940s, his employment of incantatory melodies over static harmonies, plus use of rhythmic cycles, presaged the Minimalist vogue of the 1960s/70s. The visionary and mystical nature of his work, often intoxicating in its directness and simplicity, rank him as the musical progenitor to the later, so-called New Age-ists and Spiritual Minimalists, such as Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. His significance remains overlooked by musical academia, partly due to his aloofness from the establishment, and also because scholars have not looked for radical developments in post-War music which is broadly tonal and deliberately appealing.

GLOSSA 921108

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 – 1791)
Violin concerto No. 1 in Bb major, KV 207
Violin concerto No. 2 in D major, KV 211
Violin concerto No. 3 in G major, KV 216
Violin concerto No. 4 in D major, KV 218
Violin concerto No. 5 in A major, KV 219
Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola
in E flat major, KV 364

Thomas Zehetmair, violin; Ruth Kilius, viola
Orchestra of the 18th century
Frans Brüggen

Six years of recording silence is about to come to an end! Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century are making their return in style and once more this is in partnership with Glossa – and within The Grand Tour collection (now provided with a brand new design), a cooperation which provided the home for all the orchestra’s productions between 1997 and 2002. Five new titles are planned over the next 18 months, releases which are bound to be enthusiastically welcomed by the numerous devotees all over the world of this inspiring orchestra who have been continuing to enjoy the four or five tours each year that Brüggen and his musicians have been making. From three of these tours (in Brazil and The Netherlands) originate the recordings presented here now, replete with a Thomas Zehetmair on top form and offering a lesson in judicious playing and a boundless musicality in repertory which he dominates like nobody else. With his Stradivarius of 1730 and a classical-period bow, Mozart’s music sounds fresher than ever, supported moreover by an orchestra which has lost nothing of its energy since its foundation back in 1981. As a distinctive extra to the complete set of violin concertos Zehetmair and Ruth Killius engage in a superb version of the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful ever recorded.

• • • JAZZ • • •

NAGEL HEYER 095

The Antti Sarpila Quintet
A HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY, VOLUME 1

Artists:
Antti Sarpila, clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax;
Eddie Erickson, guitar, vocals; Chris Hopkins, piano; Ingmar Heller, bass; Jake Hanna, drums
Recorded on February 12, 2005
at Birdland Jazzclub, Hamburg.
Mixed and mastered in June 2005 and August 2008
at Blue Noise Studio, Hamburg.

Victor Young’s beautiful song "A Hundred Years From Today" always brings the hard fact to my mind that we still have enough kisses "to pass them around" but not too much of a chance, though, to do so. The tune, sung here by Eddie Erickson also reminds me that most of us will be well and truly forgotten in a hundred years time. Or even earlier! However, Antti Sarpila’s performances on this recording suggest that there may still be hope that this music we all love so much will survive and never be forgotten. To put it simply – audiences loved the band. They liked their light swing, their great ideas, their artistry and their humour. The band had fun all the way, enjoyed being together and playing together, and the audience soon sensed that spirit and reacted to it in a very positive way. The House was packed to capacity and it was very hot in the club. The band was hot, too. To see the beaming faces of the audience and to hear their joyous reaction at the end of a great solo or at the end of a tune, made all the time and effort involved in organising the concert and tour worthwhile. So, for those of you who were unable to attend the concert, here is the recording. Since everything went so well, we decided to release the entire concert over two albums (Volume Two is to be released later).

NAGEL HEYER 2082

Judit Pixner Quartett
KEIN WEG ZU WEIT
Artists:
Judit Pixner, vocals; Michele Giro, piano;
Fabrizio Larentis, bass; Roman Hinteregger, drums

Special Guest: Pedro Tagliani, guitar

Recorded on July 17 and 18, 2007
at Realistic Sound, München.

NEOS JAZZ SACD 40808

DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE 2007
WAR ZONES
WORLD PREMIRIERE RECORDINGS!
ELLLIOTT SHARP (*1951):
Ripples From The Bang (2007)
BERNHARD LANG (*1957):
Paranoia (2007)

Artists:
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, text & vocalist; Philip Jeck, turntables; Hans Koch, reeds; Bernhard Lang, keyboard, electronics; Elliott Sharp, guitar, electric bass, electronics; Fredy Studer, drums, percussion

BERNHARD LANG ON "PARANOIA"
Paranoia is a sequence of eight semi-improvised blocks that were extracted from the sketches to Act III of the music theatre work Der Alte vom Berge and developed further. Three text groups are used:
– "Justifications", a cut-up from Internet researches on paranoia as a political function.
– The "CIA Protocols Of Political Assassination", a collection of various strategies for political murders.
– The contents page of the American magazine "Paranoia".
The improvisations are based on scratched loops and "damage beats", which make reference to the turntable art of Phil Jeck and the films of Martin Arnold as well as to my series of compositions Differenz/Wiederholung. Both parts lie above the loop scenario as contrapuntal rap poetry. The work was inspired by the book Conspiracy Nation: The Politics Of Paranoia In Postwar America (ed. Peter Knight): paranoia as a new feeling in our lives, paranoia as a political instrument.
ELLIOTT SHARP ON "RIPPLES FROM THE BANG"
Ripples from the Bang is a set of reflexions on causality.