The Grieg And Schumann Piano Concertos: With Orchestral Reduction For Second Piano (Dover Music For _TOP

Golden Oldies - More Favourite Encores

Brodsky Quartet; Laura van der Heijden, cello; Julian Jacobson, piano

Chandos CHAN 20230

Release: 17 March 2023

Since its formation in 1972 the Brodsky Quartet has performed more than 3000 concerts on the major concert stages of the world and has released more than seventy recordings. A natural curiosity and insatiable desire to explore have propelled the group in many artistic directions and continue to ensure it not only a place at the very forefront of the international chamber music scene but also a rich and varied musical existence. The cellist, Jacqueline Thomas, writes: 'The Brodsky Quartet celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2022. Looking back, I find it wonderful that ten- and twelve-year-olds were already infused with passion and with a belief in the longevity that is now playing out. Two of us remain from the beginning; one joined as we turned professional, forty years ago, and our new fourth member has trodden her own similar path in the endlessly fulfilling life that is the string quartet. It has become something of a tradition that we release a compilation disc once every ten years, and so now, in our Golden Anniversary year, we have assembled a playlist from past and new arrangements, taking inspiration from the old days and even revamping some of our childhood efforts.'

The Jade Mountain - Songs by Edmund Rubbra

Lucy Crowe, soprano; Claire Barnett-Jones, mezzo-soprano; Marcus Farnsworth, baritone; Timothy Ridout, viola; Catrin Finch, harp; Iain Burnside, piano

Chandos CHAN 20182

Release: 3 March 2023

Whilst the English composer Edmund Rubbra is best known for his symphonic output, he

composed a good deal of vocal music, and wrote songs throughout his compositional life.

Rubbra studied with Cyril Scott and Gustav Holst, and was a great friend of his

contemporary Gerald Finzi. The songs are notable for their variation in accompaniment

(less than half are set for piano, the rest for harp, string quartet, string orchestra, or full orchestra). This album contains all his published songs with piano and harp accompaniment, and includes the first and last songs of the composer's output. Lucy Crowe, Claire Barnett-Jones, and Marcus Farnsworth are the three singers on the album, Catrin Finch (harp) and Iain Burnside (piano) the accompanists. Timothy Ridout (viola) joins for the Two Sonnets by William Alabaster, Op 87.

The Grieg And Schumann Piano Concertos: With Orchestral Reduction For Second Piano (Dover Music For

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Mozart: Divertimento KV563

Nuovo Trio Italiano d'Archi

Brilliant Classics 95959

Release: 1 March 2023

Franz Schubert (1792-1828) only ever completed one string trio, his Trio in B flat D581 (1817). The writing is clearly inspired by the works of Mozart, not from a great trio like the Divertimento KV563, but from easier and made-for-piano genres like the violin sonatas. The cello, in fact, still remains in the orbit of the basso continuo, while the viola accompanies the main theme with formulas similar to the Alberti bass. Schubert's spark, however, is present in this minor work, for example in his way of dilating time at the beginning of the development with a phrasing that stretches, with simplicity, to infinity. The writing reveals a glimmer of the orchestral sound of the great chamber works of the last period, but nevertheless it remains linked to the elegant style of the late eighteenth century.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (1756-1791) Divertimento in E flat KV564 (1788) was written for Michael Puchberg, a music lover who often financially supported Mozart in the last years of his life. The work bears the clear imprint of Masonic symbology, based around the number 3. The Divertimento presents several enigmatic aspects, firstly the choice of title. 'Divertimento', like cassation or serenade, was a genre of music entertainment, without intellectual ambitions or strong emotions. In Divertimento KV563, the three musicians must be high-level virtuosos to play their parts, which explore the full register of each instrument in a dialogue intertwined with contributions at the same level from the three participants. The only link with the traditional genre is the high number of movements (six), including two minuets. In this piece, Mozart's writing shows an extraordinary richness with respect to thematic invention, with an overabundance of ideas that feed a dense polyphonic dialogue. Mozart was experimenting with a fusion between the forms of instrumental music and the dramaturgy of his plays, with revolutionary results in both fields. The dynamism of the theatre, for example, is an essential element of the fluid liveliness of this Divertimento's sonata. The slow movement represents another point of contact with the work, and this Adagio, the expressive heart of the work, is structured like a great solo aria. Mozart chose the key of A flat major, rare in his music and always ambassador of special moments, to express the melancholy of this world. In certain moments, the intensity of the singing becomes so dramatic as to go beyond the boundaries of tonal language. Furthermore, the Masonic number has an almost obsessive importance in the writing, with counterpoints in three parts and variations in triplets. The spirit of Masonic Enlightenment is concentrated in the austere sonority of the minor variation, manifesting compassion and the detachment of true wisdom. The form of both the rondo and the sonata blend into an architecture of perfect proportions, developed in a movement full of grace and energy. There are two thematic elements - a lively Italian dance and a contrasting episode of vague militaristic tone. This material feeds an always alive and changing form, enriched by new harmonic ideas and ingenious transitions.

Samuel Barber: Complete Songs

Leilah Dione Ezra, soprano; Elisabetta Lombardi, mezzo-soprano; Mauro Borgioni, baritone; Filippo Farinelli, piano

Brilliant Classics 96514

Release: 1 March 2023

The songs of Samuel Barber offer the beauty of his output in microcosm. 'Complete' in this context used to mean the 47 songs gathered in a Deutsche Grammophon 2CD set from 1994, but there are 65 songs here, making it the most complete survey yet recorded. Most of the lesser-known and unpublished songs on CD3 date back to Barber's student years, but he took up composing young, and was always inclined towards writing for voices and responding to poetry. He made his matchlessly evocative setting of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach when he was just 21 years old. However, by the time of the Op 10 Songs, Barber's harmonies have thickened in texture and expressionist harmony: these are heroic numbers demanding an interpreter of heroic projection, another world away from the almost painfully confessional mood of the music which has made his name such as Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Nevertheless, they paint a vivid portrait of Barber himself, who had a fine baritone voice and would delight in performing his songs while accompanying himself at the piano. Barber could read Proust in French, Goethe in German, Dante in Italian and Neruda in Spanish, and his erudite choice of poets and poems reflected facets of his complex character: a restless melancholy on the one hand, and an impish wit on the other. His part- Irish ancestry drew him towards Joyce, Yeats and James Stephens, and his interest in his Celtic heritage prompted the writing of his best-known song-prompted the writing of his best-known song-cycle, the Hermit Songs Op 29. Much later in life, he returned to song (and to Joyce) with Despite and Still Op 41 and the Three Songs Op 45. Both collections are coloured by introspection and resignation, but they are masterpieces of the song-writer's art. Among his many recordings for Brilliant Classics, the pianist Filippo Farinelli has made complete surveys of the song output of Berg, Ravel, Dallapiccola and Jolivet, in conjunction with colleagues who have immersed themselves in the idiom. Here he is likewise joined by a trio of Italian singers who show themselves at home with the wistful, changeable moods of Barber the song-composer.

Antonio Lauro: Guitar Music

Cristiano Poli Cappelli, guitar

Brilliant Classics 96627 (2 CDs)

Release: 1 March 2023

Born in Venezuela to Italian parents, Antonio Lauro (1917-1986) was very young when he began taking music lessons from his father. At the age of 9, Lauro, against his family's wishes, began lessons in piano and composition at the Academia de Msica y Declamacin. However, after he encountered the music of Agustn Barrios Mangor, Lauro gave up his violin and piano studies to dedicate himself completely to the guitar, moved as he was by Mangor's music. Lauro went on to become an exceptional guitarist, as well as a composer. Politically engaged, Lauro was a fervent nationalist, and it was his political convictions that drove him to celebrate, and make in-depth studies of, the origins and heritage of Venezuelan music. In 1951, Lauro was imprisoned by General Marcos Prez Jimnez on account of his democratic convictions; Lauro would later describe his prison experience as a normal part of life for a Venezuelan man of his generation. However, imprisonment did not deter him from organising a series of concerts, as well as continuing to compose wonderful pieces that

would later win him the National Music Prize, Venezuela's highest artistic award. And it was during his time in prison that he wrote two of his most important pieces: the Sonata for guitar and the famous Suite venezolana, followed by his Concerto for guitar and orchestra. His music, and particularly his pieces for guitar, transcended the confines of Venezuela's musical scene to become a hugely important benchmark for subsequent generations of players worldwide. His compositions for guitar aimed to create a synthesis of Venezuelan popular music with elaborate forms from the European tradition. He took inspiration firstly from popular and folk-inspired pieces such as the Venezuelan waltzes (valses venezolanos) and pieces written in traditional styles; secondly, from demanding works deploying the most sophisticated aspects and features of the Western compositional tradition, such as the Sonata and the Suite venezolana; and thirdly, contrapuntal styles. Lauro is a composer whose greatness is deserving of recognition above and beyond his accomplishments in the reinterpretation of music from the popular and folk traditions, hugely successful though these were. His great achievement as a composer was to absorb and synthesise, in an entirely idiosyncratic and personally creative manner, a range of highly distinct elements and to bring them to life in compositions of real substance. This recording aims to bring together all the different facets of Lauro's musical personality, while attempting to avoid the clich of a folk-based, instinctual interpretation, instead approaching his music in a more structured manner. be457b7860