Vaughan Williams from Pappano and LSO Live

RVW

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: SYMPHONIES 4 & 6, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano/LSO Live SACD  The conductor Simon Rattle (who has recently stepped down from his tenure with the London Symphony Orchestra) recorded a series of music programs several years ago about important composers from which he controversially excluded Vaughan Williams, considering him not to be of the first rank. Fortunately, that misjudgement is not shared by a conductor with an equally important position with the LSO, Maestro Antonio Pappano, and the latter’s highly impressive reading in impactful surround sound of Vaughan Williams’ two most muscular symphonies, 4 and 6, is an absolute winner, arriving in May. Both works have been lucky on disc over the years, with many stellar readings, but fewer in the SACD medium than one might expect. At a stroke, this new coupling becomes a highly competitive way of experiencing the drama and exhilaration of both works in truly exemplary performances, though some may prefer a brisker reading of the Sixth.

RESPIGHI: TRANSCRIPTIONS OF BACH & RACHMANINOV, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, John Neschling/BIS SACD  There was a time when the admirers of the composer Respighi had difficulties amassing a collection of his music on disc; two parts of the Roman trilogy, Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome, turned up, but the uproarious finale, Roman Festivals, was recorded far less often. How things have changed! Now there are multiple recordings – even in the surround sound medium – of the complete Roman Trilogy and virtually all the important orchestral music has made its debut in the SACD medium. A particularly valuable series has been that conducted by John Neschling, of which this latest edition is a valuable issue – although, in fact, everything on it has now made its debut in the medium. Performances here are not quite as incisive and dramatic as earlier entries in the sequence, but more than do the trick. The success of Ottorino Respighi’s ‘Roman Trilogy’ brought the composer international fame as an outstanding orchestrator. One side effect of this are the orchestral transcriptions gathered on this album: all made in 1929-30 and commissioned by eminent conductors such as Arturo Toscanini and Serge Koussevitzky for their American orchestras. Respighi’s arrangement of Rachmaninov’s Etudes Tableaux is a masterpiece of orchestration.

RACHMANINOV: SYMPHONIES AND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui/BIS SACD  This writer once spoke to the conductor Andre Previn after his campaign to get the entry on Rachmaninov in the Grove Dictionary of Music changed (the entry was notably unenthusiastic about Rachmaninov, and Previn rightly felt that this a major twentieth century composer who deserved much more acclaim, not least for his remarkable symphonies). And here is a further reminder of just how cherishable the Russian composer’s orchestral repertoire really is. These performances may not be definitive, but all of them are thronging with virtues, and the recorded sound is quite splendid. Sergei Rachmaninov was one of the twentieth century’s outstanding pianists, but the large body of purely orchestral music he composed is no less an expression of his musical character. With this four-disc box set, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui present a comprehensive collection of Rachmaninov’s music for orchestra – from the Scherzo in D minor, his first surviving piece for orchestra, completed just before his fifteenth birthday to the canonical works: the Symphonies and the Symphonic Dances.

RACHMANINOV: SYMPHONY NO. 2, London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle/LSO Live SACD  Apart from the set discussed above, here is further proof that Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony (in its uncut form) is now considered a cornerstone of the repertoire; Rattle’s full-blooded Rachmaninov 2 finds the LSO on blistering form in a panoramic recording acoustic, and is a particularly viable alternative to the Lan Shui performance discussed above.

MASSENET: ESPADA, DELIBES’ ‘LE ROI S’AMUSE’, OVERTURES BY THOMAS, BOIELDIEU AND AUBER, Neeme Järvi/Chandos SACD  Contributing to their exemplary series of neglected music by composers specialising in colourful and accessible orchestral works, this latest Chandos disc is a perhaps minor entry but still very attractive. Neeme Järvi and his Estonian forces give a sparkling reading of Massenet’s one-act ballet Espada. This is coupled with Delibes’ ballet music for ‘Le Roi s’amuse’ along with lively overtures by Thomas, Boieldieu and Auber.

JOURNEYS: ORCHESTRAL MUSIC FROM FIVE CONTINENTS, Audun André Sandvik, Cello, Norwegian Radio Orchestra • Miguel Harth-Bedoya/Naxos  For music lovers of an adventurous bent, here’s a chance to enjoy some unfamiliar repertoire in performances of great spirit and dash. Peruvian-born, American-trained conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is inspired to look at how music, like the poetic concept of peace, can unite the world. The idea behind Journeys is to create an example of that unity in a tangible form by bringing together music from every continent into one album. With works inspired by myths and mechanics, cosmic motion and human emotion, originating from Europe and the Americas to Africa, Asia and Australasia, the themes in this collection of world premiere recordings range as widely as their origins.

HANS ROTT: COMPLETE ORCHESTRAL WORKS, VOL. 2, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Christopher Ward/Capriccio  For those who enjoy the richness of late Romantic music, there are still discoveries to be made, as this ongoing series proves — reminding us that the composer Hans Rott is not deserving of the neglect he has suffered in recent years. The 1989 premiere of Hans Rott’s Symphony No. 1 in E major (it was written more than 100 years earlier) introduced the international music world to a composer who had remained unknown, or known by name only, even among experts. His colleagues and friends included the younger composers Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf. Besides Wagner, Bruckner was the most important model for Rott’s first symphonic work.

RODRIGO: CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ AND WORKS BY FRANCISCO COLL & PETE HARDEN, Jacob Kellermann, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norrbotten NEO, Christian Karlsen/BIS SACD  There was a time when the only performance of Rodrigo’s celebrated concerto that listeners were familiar with was the 10 inch Narciso Yepes apology LP – and with the many recordings of the piece now available, that seems a very distant era indeed. This new take is one of the best, couched in sound that does full justice to Rodrigo’s delicate and beautiful scoring. When guitarist Jacob Kellermann and conductor Christian Karlsen devised the present programme, one inspiration was the legendary jazz album Sketches of Spain on which Miles Davis and Gil Evans performed arrangements of Spanish folk music, along with a version of the Adagio from Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. Rodrigo’s work is the perfect opening to Kellermann’s and Karlsen’s project, intended to conjure up Spain ‘as if through a prism – as a concept rather than a place’.

ELLIOTT CARTER: BALLETS: POCAHONTAS AND THE MINOTAUR ,Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose/BMOP Sound  This is very much Elliott Carter in the vein of his First Symphony: approachable dynamic scoring in the idiom of such composers as David Diamond and Paul Creston rather than in the more unforgiving idiom of his later music. The Grammy award-winning label BMOP/sound continues to release albums monthly, and  Elliott Carter: Ballets is the only album featuring both of Carter’s orchestral works made for ballet, Pocahontas and The Minotaur.

WEINBERG: COMPLETE WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, VOL.3, Yuri Kalnits, Michael Csanyi-Wills/Toccata Classics  Played with just as much gusto and feeling as earlier entries in the sequence, this third volume of Weinberg’s complete works for violin and piano is just as accomplished as its predecessors. Yuri Kalnits, together with pianist Michael Csanyi-Wills is on impeccable form. Weinberg rapidly made a name for himself as one of the rising stars of the younger generation of Soviet composers. The arena in which his reputation first soared was chamber music – a well-chosen field, since his new friend and mentor, Dmitry Shostakovich, had for some years been calling on his colleagues to cultivate it. One important difference between Weinberg and Shostakovich is that where the latter left only two mature piano sonatas and one each for violin, viola and cello with piano, Weinberg composed 29 sonatas in all, of which six are for violin and piano, and three for violin solo.

ALEXANDER TCHAIKOVSKY ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, VOL. 1, Siberian Symphony Orchestra, Dmitry Vasiliev/Toccata Classics  You are familiar with Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky. You are familiar with Boris Tchaikovsky. But do you know the music of the latter’s nephew, Alexander, which is well worth investigating? The Muscovite Alexander Tchaikovsky (b. 1946) – nephew of Boris Tchaikovsky but no relative to Piotr Ilich – is one of the most highly respected composers at work in contemporary Russia, and yet his music has had little exposure to western audiences. His symphonic style owes something to that of his uncle: it likewise patiently develops enormous power over large expanses of sound, although there is also room for gently ironic touches of nostalgia. Much of the Third Symphony (1995–2002), scored for a huge orchestra, is infused with waltz rhythms: it uses material from sketches for an abandoned ballet based on Dostoyevsky’s The Devils.

WEINBERG: VIOLIN CONCERTO & SONATA FOR TWO VIOLINS, Gidon Kremer, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Madara Petersone, Daniele Gatti/Accentus  Yet more Weinberg, delivered with considerable style and energy. The performances by Gidon Kremer and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig are first-rate, couched in serviceable sound.

VLADIGEROV: STRING CONCERTOS – VIOLIN CONCERTOS NOS. 1-2; BULGARIAN RHAPSODY ‘VARDAR’; CONCERT FANTASY, Georgi Badev, Dina Schneidermann, Ventseslav :Nikolov, Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Vladigerov/Capriccio  How did we neglect the music of Vladigerov for so long? Those with a taste for the colourful spectacular style of such composers as Khachaturian will find much to reward them in this series. Comparisons are invidious – simply because this is pretty well the only way we can hear this music. But it will be a source of discovery for many enterprising listeners. The third volume of Capriccio’s Pancho Vladigerov Edition, featuring his String Concertos. The recordings were conducted by Pancho Vladgierov and his son Alexander Vladigerov with the Bulgarian Chamber Orchestra and Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra.,

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 10 (COMP. COOKE), Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä/ BIS SACD  There are now a variety of choices for Mahler’s uncompleted final symphony, and, what’s more, in a variety of completions. Many have their virtues, but this new performance by Osmo Vänskä becomes, at a stroke, the definitive take on the piece. What’s more, it puts paid to those arguments which suggest the piece should have been left uncompleted. Not only is Cooke’s completion utterly convincing, the performance is one of the best in this slightly uneven cycle, and the BIS recording quality does full justice to the wide dynamic range. Left unfinished at the death of the composer, Gustav Mahler’s Tenth Symphony has exerted an enormous fascination on musicologists as well as musicians – a kind of Holy Grail of 20th-century music. Cooke’s performing version of the symphony is the one that Osmo Vänskä has chosen to use for the seventh instalment in his and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Mahler series.

PUCCINI: LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST, Melody Moore, Marius Vlad, Lester Lynch, Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir of Cluj-Napoca/Pentatone  Strange to think that Puccini’s Western Opera was once considered a poor relation, perhaps due to its the naivety of conception in its cowboy characters. But the music is (as Puccini admirers have long acknowledged) glorious, and is given a particularly sympathetic rendering in this new performance. Lawrence Foster conducts Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (1910), together with the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Cluj-Napoca and a cast of seasoned Puccini singers, including Melody Moore (Minnie), Marius Vlad (Dick Johnson) and Lester Lynch (Jack Rance).

MOZART SYMPHONIES 39 AND 41 ‘JUPITER’, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Gordan Nikolic/Tacet SACD Once again, Tacet undertakes its commendable mission to place the listener firmly in the centre of a sympathetic and pointed performances, this time of two of Mozart’s most popular symphonies. If the performances do not unseat such well-loved readings in the SACD field as those of Charles Mackerras, they are still delivered with great attention to detail, and the recording palette is sui generis for this company.

MOSOLOV: SYMPHONY NO. 5 • HARP CONCERTO *, Taylor Ann Fleshman, Harp * • Moscow Symphony Orchestra • Arthur Arnold/Naxos  If you are familiar only with Mosolov’s monumental Iron Foundry, be prepared for a surprise – the symphony recorded here in particular is far more tautly argued than that exciting but unremittingly noisy short piece, and the harp concerto, while much lighter, is genuinely winning. Alexander Mosolov was one of the foremost composers of the Russian avant-garde during the 1920s. His music was considered ‘a testament to the revolutionary spirit of his time’, but the legacy of his fame from that period now rests solely on The Iron Foundry. Soviet-era politics brought persecution and imprisonment, and these two recently rediscovered works were both composed after his ‘rehabilitation’. The Harp Concerto – a piece worthy of a place in the mainstream repertoire – is Mosolov’s ‘response’ to the concerto by his teacher Glière, and is heard here in its first complete performance. Coupled with the first recording of his final colourful Fifth Symphony, these are fascinating additions to the corpus of neglected Soviet-era works.

PROKOFIEV: THE FIERY ANGEL, Soloists, OECDTDDR, Alejo Perez/Naxos  If you are only familiar with such Prokofiev operas as The Love of Three Oranges, you will find this dark and spectacular piece is well worth your time. Those who know the composer’s Third Symphony (which utilises many of the themes here) will already have an entrée into this remarkable opera.

DANIEL JONES: SYMPHONIES NOS. 3 & 5, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, Bryden Thomson/Lyrita  The music of Daniel Jones has not enjoyed much currency on disc, but this welcome Lyrita issue may change that. The Third Symphony was written between March and May 1951 and played by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under the composer in a studio performance broadcast on 26 June 1952. It was first performed in public at the Cheltenham Festival on 9 July 1956 by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult.

CHOPIN, KORNGOLD, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: PIANO PROTAGONISTS: MUSIC FOR PIANO & ORCHESTRA, Orion Weiss, The Orchestra Now, Leon Botstein/BRIDGE  Have these three composers ever shared a disc? It will be fairly safe to assume they haven’t, but this turns out to be a program which will tempt many listeners, particularly as the performances are so on the nail. This new studio recording contains three works for piano and orchestra that virtuoso pianist Orion Weiss and conductor Leon Botstein first performed in concert at the Bard Music Festival. Together, the three works span almost a century of musical Romanticism and are as different from one another as the generations they represent.

PROUD SONGSTERS: King’s College, Cambridge: English Song featuring Michael Chance | Tim Mead | Lawrence Zazzo Ruairi Bowen | James Gilchrist | Andrew Staples, Gerald Finley | Ashley Riches | Mark Stone, Simon Lepper/ King’s College  Aficionados of the human voice will find this exquisite collection of English song particularly tempting, and, what’s more, it acts as an introduction to some unfamiliar singers along with more celebrated names. The programme, too, is exemplary and even if you already have some of this music, it is a disc worth investing in. The first album of the new year on the label of King’s College, Cambridge is a journey through the distinctive musical genre of ‘English Song’, performed by some of the finest former members of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge with one of this generation’s most exceptional pianists.

RESPIGHI: CONCERTO ALL’ANTICA *†,ANCIENT AIRS AND DANCES SUITES NOS. 1–3, Davide Alogna, Violin * • Chamber Orchestra of New York • Salvatorre Di Vittorio/Naxos  The selling point here is the Concerto  All’Antica, which many listeners will be unfamiliar with – it is given the best possible advocacy here, as is the more familiar Ancient Airs and Dances. Respighi was prominent in the synthesis of pre-Classical melodic styles and late-Romantic harmonies and textures. These are the elements that make the Ancient Airs and Dances so captivating and expressive, as Respighi draws on dances by 16th-century composers to brilliant effect. The Concerto all’antica is an early, beautifully poetic work that again draws on ancient styles,

IMMERSION Angele Dubeau & La Pieta/Analekta   A reservation often made about modern music is that it has abandoned the notion of being ingratiating. While there may be a degree of truth in that, this disc is a reminder that current compositions can be extremely pleasing, particularly when delivered with the musicality and intelligence of Angele Dubeau & La Pieta. This collection includes such composers as Arman Amar and Valentin Hadur, but there is a good reputation of modern masters such as Michael Nyman, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. A very attractive disc.

RESPIGHI: WORKS FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA: SUITE, GLI UCELLLI (THE BIRDS), Roberto Fabbriciani, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzze, Nicola Paszowski/Tacitus   Those thinking that a disc of Respighi’s works for flute and orchestra would be largely unfamiliar will be surprised by the inclusion of one of the composer’s calling card pieces, Gli Ucellli (The Birds), which is here given a very pleasing and affectionate performance. It is perhaps disappointing that none of the other pieces such as the Suite are really anything more than trifles, but Respighi completists may feel tempted.

BACH: SONATAS FOR VIOLA DA GAMBA AND HARPSICHORD, Marie Stockmarr Becker, Ilaria Macedonio/Channel Classics  Even for Bach admirers, these are not pieces which instantly give up their secrets, but for the patient listener, there are considerable rewards. It is harder to imagine them performed with more subtle musicianship than by Marie Stockmarr Becker and Ilaria Macedonio

BACH UNBUTTONED, Soloists, WKH/Pentatone  More Bach, this time a judicious selection from such masterpieces as the Brandenburg Concertos. The play is alert and pointed in the best modern (or should that be traditional?) fashion, and the recording captures all the nuances of the scores.

HANDEL: RODELINDA, Soloists, the English consort, Harry Bickett/Linn  There was a time when admirers of Handel would find it difficult to access anything other than a few oratorios and operas; Messiah reigned supreme. Things have changed in recent years as this splendid performance of the composer’s charming Rodelinda proves – and apart from anything else, the chance to hear the English Concert under Harry Bickett is an opportunity to sample a modern period orchestra at its most pointed.

SHOSTAKOVICH: CELLO CONCERTOS, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence/Audite  Such is the durability of these remarkable pieces that most of the performances committed to disc have been more than serviceable over the years – this one is considerably more than that, doing full justice to Shostakovich’s compulsive scores.

ROBERT CARL: WHITE HERON, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose/BMOP Sound  Another unusual disc of unfamiliar repertoire from the ever enterprising Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose. Patient listeners will find much to reward them in this intriguing if initially challenging collection.