Mayr: Sisara

Giovanni Simone Mayr (1763-1845)

Sisara, Sacred Oratorio for Soli, Chorus & Orchestra (1793)

Barkowski, Or, van der Mieden, Braun, Schneider

Franz Hauk, Simon Mayr Choir, Accademia I Filarmonici

Guild GMCD 7288/89 [2-Disc set]

Starting off the Holy Week with a Sacred Music.

[Flac & Scans]

Caplet: Le Miroir de Jésus - Corti (1996)

André Caplet

Le Miroir de Jésus

Miroir de Joie-Miroir de Peine-Miroir de Gloire

Béatrice Gaucet

Ensemble Vocal Benjamin Britten

Enfants de la Maitrise de Notre Dame de Paris

Nicole Corti

3D Classics 8017

The short life of André Caplet from Le Havre (1878-1925) was full and adventurous. His name is today barely known and only in association with Debussy. It is true that Caplet's music shows a striking influence from the Master's style, but Caplet's masterpiece holds a place by itself in the history of modern French music. Sadly, this magnificent chamber oratorio, crafted as a Rosary with poignant lyrics by devout Roman Catholic poet Henry Ghéon, has been almost forgotten since its first performance in 1923.

His relationship with Debussy was one of mutual great admiration. Debussy praised Caplet's "tenacity and prodigious musical instinct... (whom he thought to be) as bold as a lion". Caplet - who was a very good conductor - premiered "Pelléas et Mélisande" in London and Boston and had a key role in the creation of "Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien", as a conductor and by orchestrating some parts of the original score - namely the final chorus).

A winner of the Prix de Rome in 1901 with the cantata "Myrrha" (ahead of Maurice Ravel, no less...) Caplet lived in the shadow of Debussy, but quite in the same way Engelbert Humperdinck did with his idol Wagner. Caplet died, just 46, of his war injuries, he had been gassed on the front a few years before he had composed this amazing "Miroir de Jésus".

While listening to this touching and serene music you will find yourself thinking closely of "Le Martyre", as this beautiful oratorio, with its stunning and frugal orchestration (soprano, chamber choir, string quintet and harp) reaches our hearts through fervent religious spirituality, sublime harmonies and, very often, those strong medieval echoes which also characterize Debussy and D'Annunzio's everlasting masterpiece.

Recorded in 1995 and presented here in the most idiomatic release available, this is a very hard to find album which I bought two years ago at Gibert Joseph of Blvd. Saint Michel in Paris. It is offered here with full scans, including Ghéon's poems.

Flac, Covers & Booklet including Full Lyrics

Mozart: Don Giovanni for String Quartet

Quatuor Franz Joseph

Atma Classique 2-CDs

This is an arrangement for String Quartet made by the publisher Nicholaus Simrock in Bonn around 1799. It is a bit odd listening to this at first but give it a try, you might like it!

[Flac & Scan]

Jommelli: Armida abbandonata (1770)

Ewa Malas-Godlewsak........Armida, Soprano
Claire Brua................Rinaldo, Mezzosoprano
Gilles Ragon..........................Tancredi, Tenor
Véronica Gens....................Erminia, Soprano
Laura Polverelli.....Rambaldo, Mezzosoprano
Patricia Petibon....................Ubaldo, Soprano
Cécile Perrin............................Dano, Soprano

Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset

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A wonderful recording of an opera that perhaps influenced MozartThe first performance of Armida abbandonata was attended by the 14-year-old Mozart, who wrote to his sister that it was 'beautiful, but too serious and old-fashioned for the theatre'. That tells us something about the taste of the Neapolitan audience, which didn't care for the richness and subtlety of the music.And the music is superb. Jommelli was born in 1714 and, like Gluck, an exact contemporary, he moved away from the conventions of Metastasian opera seria to a more flexible style that included choruses and ballets in accordance with the French taste of his ducal employer at the Wikttemburg court. His accompanied recitatives are particularly fine, as I suggested in my review of Gluck's Paride ed Elena (8/05) which was premiered five months after Armida abbandonata, in November 1770. One example comes in Act 2: the recitative begins with a descending chromatic phrase in the second violins and includes a weeping figure that is incorporated into the following aria.Ewa Malas-Godlewska, so touching there, rages impressively in 'Odo, furor, dispetto' ('Hatred, fury, spite'): its staccato scales anticipate Elettra's outburst in ldomeneo. That Mozart owed a debt to Jommelli is also suggested by a florid metaphor aria for Tancredi that looks ahead to Idomeneo's 'Fuor del mar'; and although Erminia is no servant, her second aria might well put the listener in mind of Despina in Cosi fan tutte. Gilles Ragon and Veronique Gens are but two in a matchless cast from the rest of which there is space to single out only the gloriously rich-toned Laura Polverelli. Christophe Rousset conducts his fine musicians in a gripping, well paced performance. In its first incarnation this wonderful recording soon disappeared from the catalogue. I urge you to buy it now, in case it vanishes again.Richard Lawrence

Baguer: Simphonies

Carles Baguer (1768-1808)

Sinfonia No. 2 in d minor (before 1790)

Concerto in F major for Two Bassoons (ca. 1789)

Sinfonia in C major (Formerly attributed to Hadyn)

Sinfonia No. 16 in G major (before 1790)

Sinfonia No 15 in Eb major (before 1790)

Academia 1750/ Orquestra Historica del Festival de Torroella

Farron James

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Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer (Paris version, 1841)

Donald..............................Franz Joseph Selig, Bass

Senta.................................. .Astrid Weber, Soprano

Georg...................................Jörg Dürmüller, Tenot

Mary............................Simone Schröder, Contralto

Der Steuermann..........Kobie van Rensburg, Tenor

Der Holländer.................Terje Stensvold, Baritone

Capella Coloniensis Orchestra, Bruno Weil

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With this Dutchman on DHM, Bruno Weil attempts to refresh Wagner's classic by returning it to its original form. He deploys a scaled-down orchestra of period instruments (including both natural and valved brass, and an ophicleide in place of the modern tuba) and uses the original Paris version of the score, which predates even Wagner's own revisions made before the 1843 premiere in Dresden. Among other things, the Paris score eliminates Wagner's stylistically ill-fitting reworking of the overture from the 1860s, and transposes Senta's Act II ballad to the key of A minor. Far from an academic exercise in authenticity, Weil's effort is a compelling argument for rethinking the modern conception of Wagner's works, in which bigger is almost always better, and in which his early works are prized as much for their foreshadowing of his mature masterpieces as for their own qualities. Though smaller, Weil's orchestra is still majestic in sound while posing less of a balance problem for the singers; the subtle variety of wind colors shades the drama in unexpected ways. And the musical changes, though subtle to all but the most familiar listeners, leave the opera feeling more coherent, and less overgrown -- it was conceived as a one-act, after all. The performance is also musically compelling. Weil keeps the pot stirring at all times, and the Cappella Coloniensis sounds fantastic, especially in the restored overture. The singers are a capable and obviously experienced group of Wagnerians, led by Terje Stensvold as the Dutchman and Astrid Weber as Senta. But vocophiles are unlikely to prefer this journeyman group to the more marquees casts already available. Weber handles her transposed ballad capably, but her vocal timbre is anything but youthful. And Stensvold, though commanding, is uneven from moment to moment. Franz-Josef Selig is an unusually charming Donald (usually "Daland" -- this original version makes him a Scottsman), brimming with pride and warm generosity. In all, this is a performance of great value to those with a strong interest in Wagner, and of less to those who just want to hear great singing.

Handel: Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto HWV 25 (1728)

Tolemeo....................Axel Köhler

Seluce......................Linda Perillo

Araspe.....Brian Bannatyne-Scott

Elisa...........Romelia Lichtenstein

Alessandro.............Jennifer Lane

Bambino.........Julius Flishammer

Howard Arman, Händelfestspielorchester Halle

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Schmitt: Salammbo - Mercier (1993)

Florent Schmitt
Salammbô - Trois Suites d'orchestre Op. 76

Choeur de l'Armée Française
Orchestre National d'Île-de-France
Jacques Mercier
RCA Red Seal - BMG 74321 733952


"Who will be the Flaubert of French music?"

The question was asked by Charles Koechlin in his article from 1925 on the "current trends in modern French music". Later that year, after a showing of the film version of Flaubert'sSalammbô at the Paris Opéra, Koechlin himself could have answered - "Florent Schmitt will"

And although the lavish screen adaptation of Flaubert's novel was severely criticized for lacking the beauty and grandeur of the original, the critics praised Schmitt's score unanimously. It alone was "Flaubertian", a worthy match for the great writer's impassioned prose.

The score, with its luscious Orientalism, was the result of Schmitt's rich and varied experience as a composer and his longstanding fascination with things oriental. The composer won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1900 with the cantata "Sémiramis", and during his stay at Villa Medici he spent much of his time travelling the southern Mediterrenean countries, and experienced Islam at first hand from Morocco to East Turkey. The repercussions of his discovery of the real Orient became apparent in his work, including his two large scale biblical masterpieces, Psaume XLVII and "La Tragédie de Salomé" and the later Arabian Nights-like "La Légende" or the stage music for Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra".

When the film producer Louis Aubert and the director Pierre Marodon commissioned him to write the music for their silent film "Salammbô", Schmitt was not just one of the most famous composers of the interwar years, but also the greatest living orientalist composer, Saint-Saenshaving died four years earlier in Algiers.

The two-hour film score was written rapidly during the summer of 1925, for the Palais Garnier première of October 22nd that year. A few months later, the composer extracted three large orchestral suites from the massive score, the third of which added a chorus. The first concert perfomance took place in March 1927. They were published by Durand as "Salammbô: Illustration de quelques pages de Gustave Flaubert". This was the composer's way of quietly dissociating himself from the film, which he considered "rather incoherent".

(Adapted from Catherine Lorent original CD's liner notes).

With distant echoes of "Parsifal", and closely associated to Debussy's "Iberia", Ravel's "Shéhérazade" and "Daphnis et Chloé", Rabaud's "Marouf" and Ibert's "Escales", the 3 Suites from "Salammbô" are here performed by a magnificent Orchestre National d'Île-de-France and the world famous Choeur de l'Armée Française conducted by Jacques Mercier in this 1991 truly excellent recording.

The rare CD, a BMG France release, was purchased at the historic and charming Parisian oop shop "La Dame Blanche" in rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève, close to the Panthéon, on December 3rd 2000. Do not miss this hidden treasure on your next trip to Paris (http://www.ladameblanche.fr/), it is also conveniently situated at walking distance from another outstanding budget CD store of Paris, "Gibert Joseph" of Blvd. Saint Michel.

Flacs & Covers

Sor in London: Four Hand Fortpiano Works

Waltzes for Piano, Four Hands:

Second Set (1815-18)

Third Set (1819)

Fourth Se, (1820)

Fifth Set (1819)

Sixth Set (1819)

Seventh Set (1820)

Eighth Set (1822)

Tenth Set (1822-23)

Sonata for Piano, Four Hands on Several Swedish National Airs (1815-18)

Josep-Maria Roger & Rumiko Harada, Fortepiano Tritó TD 0033

(This piece posted in collaboration with member Ockeghem :-)

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Vanhal- Klavierquartett op. 40

Richard Fuller, Fortepiano

Musica Aeterna Bratislva

These three Piano Quartets were published in 1815 but were actually written in the mid to late 1780's (the same time Mozart wrote his two Piano Quartets.) It would be interesting to know who actually influenced who in this genre.

(This piece posted in collaboration with member Ockeghem :-)

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Paisiello: La serva padrona (1781)

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)

Cinzia Forte, Serpina

Antonio Abete, Uberto

La Cetro, Attilio Cremonesi

ZigZag Territoirres ZZT0701002

Paisiello recreated the libretto from memory for a production in Russia for Catherine the Great.

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Pergolesi: La serva padrona (1733)

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Katalin Farkas, Serpina

Jozsef Gregor, Urbino

Capella Savaria, Pal Nemeth Hungaroton HCD 12846-2

Pierre Baurans [?]

Three arias to "La serva padrona" (1754, Paris)

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Locatelli: Concerti Grossi Op.7 - Kammerorch. CPEB, Haenchen

Pietro Locatelli
Concerti Grossi Op.7
Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Hartmut Haenchen
Berlin Classics 0011332BC

There are not many recordings available of Locatelli's op.7 so you should not hesitate to get this great release. Enjoy!

Felipe Rodriguez: Piano Works

Felipe Rodriguez (1760-1815)

Rondo in B flat major (1795)

Sonata No. 12 in C major

Sonata No. 14 in F major

Sonata No. 13 in F major

Sonata No. 11 in G major

Sonata No. 15 in C major

Sonata No. 3 in B flat major

Josef Maria Roger, Fortepiano

This is posted by the request of antehon There is a lot of good music here in the late classical style (ca. 1790.) Felipe Rodriguez wrote 15 Piano sonatas mostly in one or two movements. (Six are recorded here.) The earlier Sonata No. 3 is in three movements. The others are grouped together to give the appearence of a longer work.

Special Thanks to member Okeghem who provided the PDF booklet to me :-)

[Flac & Scans]

Mandolin & Fortepiano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Andante con Variazioni, D-dur WoO44 Nr. 2
Sonatine, C-dur WoO44 Nr. 1

Sonatine, c-moll WoO43 Nr. 1

Adagion ma non troppo, Es-dur WoO43 Nr. 3

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)

Grande Sonata per Clavicemballo o Piano Forte con accompagnamento di Manolino op. 37

Giovanni Hoffmann (1770-1814?)

Sonata for Mandolin and Fortepiano in d-moll

Sonata for Mandolin and Fortepiano in G-dur

Duilio Galfetti, Mandolin

Diego Fasolis, Fortepiano (Music & Arts 47610-0 (2000)

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Vivaldi: Les Ouvertures d'Opéras - I Solisti Veneti, Scimone

Antonio Vivaldi
Les Ouvertures d'Opéras
I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone
Erato 4509-96381-2

Now this is my kind of opera! The instrumental parts without the annoying vocal parts. The ultimate win-win deal. Enjoy!

Voriseck & Reicha: Symphonies

Jan Vaclav Hugo Vorisek (1791-1825)

Symphony in D major, Op. 24 (1823)

Reicha, Antonin (1770-1836)

Overture in D major, "in 5/8" (1799)

Symphony in Eb major, Op. 41 (1799)

Musica Florea, Marek Strynci (Original Instuments)

[Flac & Scans]

Tartini: Violin Concertos - Piero Toso, I Solisti Veneti, Scimone

Giuseppe Tartini
Violin Concertos
Piero Toso, I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone
Erato 0630-12988-2

If not legendary then at least a highly recommendable recording of some of Tartini's Violin Concertos. Enjoy!

Handel Arias: Russell Oberlin (rec 1959)

This one won't be everyone's cup of tea, but those of you who enjoy Baroque vocal music, pull a chair up to the fireplace and I'll tell you a story.

Long ago, before there were flowering plants, and dinosaurs roamed the earth (around the middle of the last century), things were different from the way they are now. Male singers with high voices weren't abundant; there were the Dellers --Alfred, and later his son Mark-- there was Grayston Burgess, there was Hugues Cuénod, there was Russell Oberlin... and that was about it. Unbelievable, but true. Bowman, Esswood, Brett, Jacobs, Ledroit... all those guys were later.

Another thing: you didn't find many Baroque recital-type recordings (for male or female voice). We're spoiled now. Look at the wealth of vocal music we can hear --Albinoni, Bertali, Bononcini, Caldara, Campra, Carissimi, Cavalli, Charpentier, Dumont, Ferrari, Galuppi, Gasparini, Grandi, Jomelli, Lotti, Lully, Mazzocchi, Porpora, Rameau, Sances, the Scarlattis, Strozzi, Vivaldi (I'm forgetting a lot of them, and all the Brits, Germans and Czechs, but you get the idea). Back then, even recordings of Handel arias were few and far between. Can you imagine?

This was one of those early ones. Recorded in 1959, reissued in 2007 (and already out of print). Styles and approaches have changed in 50 years, but he's certainly worth hearing.
Oberlin retired from performance fairly young (in his mid-30s) and taught music at Hunter College in New York until about 15 years ago; he'll be 84 in the autumn.

.flac+cue+tracklist+"full scans" (note: for this reissue, DG was not especially generous)

Songs for Guitar

Songs for the Guitar by:

Fernando Sor (1778-1839)

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859)

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

Christian Hogman, Soprano

Jacob Lindberg, Guitar

BIS-CD-293 (1985)

I was asked if I had any of Sor's songs, well yes I do! Included here are the complete seguidillas boleras. I personally prefer the rendition by Marta Alamanjano on the Glossa label but she does not perform all ten of them.

[Flac & Scans]

Mozart: 3 Piano Concertos K107; Symphony No 14

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Concertos K107 Nos. 1-3

Symphony No. 12 in A, K114

Malcolm Bilson, Fortepiano

Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, Thomas Crawford

Music Heritage Society 513396K

For those of you familiar with Malcolm Bilson's complete recording of the Mozart Piano Concertos (with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Barorque Soloists on the DG Archiv Produktion Label,) they were not quite complete. The cycle began with his first true concerto (No. 5 in D, K175) but omitted all the pasticci concerti written before that. Mr. Bilson makes ammends by adding the the three concertos K107 based on sonatas by JC Bach thus making a true complete recording, by him, of all the piano piano concertos. As far as I know, this is the only CD ever made of these concertos played on a fortepiano (there are plenty on the harpsichord.) The CD is rounded off with the Symphony K114 which starts off this disc.

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Mozart: Piano Concerti Nos 1-4, Pasticci / Bilson

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Concertos No.s 1-4 (K37, K39, K40 & K41)

Malcolm Bilson, Forte Piano

Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, Thomas Crawford

Music Masters 01612-67095-2

For those of you familiar with Malcolm Bilson's complete recording of the Mozart Piano Concertos (with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Barorque Soloists on the DG Archiv Produktion Label,) they were not quite complete. The cycle began with his first true concerto (No. 5 in D, K175) but omitted all the pasticci concerti written before that. Mr. Bilson makes ammends by adding the four concertos (numbered 1-4) on this recording completing his canon of 27 Piano Concertos for Piano & Orchestra. More on the Concertos K107 on my next post.

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Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3 Op. 44 - Chailly (1984)

Sergej Prokofiev

Symphony No. 3 Op. 44 in C Minor

"The Love for Three Oranges" Suite Op. 33bis

Junge Deutsche Philharmonie

Riccardo Chailly

DGG 410 988-1 - 1984

Frustrated by the difficulties in having his rather eerie opera "The Fiery Angel" staged, Prokofiev readapted some of its symphonic material for his 3rd Symphony - which he completed in 1928.

This powerful and haunting work may well be seen as a musical example of the Futuristic style, with its extreme dynamics and pounding rhythmic patterns, well balanced by the idyllic tones of the Andante.

As always with the great Soviet composer, his orchestration is nothing short of masterly, and although the 3rd is certanly not as popular as his 1st or 5th, this work now stands among the most intriguing and often performed of his seven symphonies.

Riccardo Chailly has championed this beautiful symphony since his early performances at the RAI in Milan, and on disc with the Concertgebouw for Decca in 1991, alongside another Soviet Futuristic work by Alexander Mosolov – "Iron Foundry".

Dedicated to Myaskovsky, Prokofiev's 3rd Symphony is presented here in a very rare DGG disc from 1984 - never released on CD - with Chailly conducting the then up and coming Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in a brilliant recording, appropriately complemented by a stunning account of the suite from "The Love for Three Oranges".

Digital Recording

LP Rip

Flac (RS)/Ape (MF) & Covers

M Haydn: Chamber Music

Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806)

Quartet in C, for Violin, English Horn, Cello & Bass, P. 115

Divertimento in Eb, for Viola, Cello & Bass, P. Deest

Vivertimento in C, for Violin, Cello & Bass, P. 110

Divertimento in C, for Oboe, Viola & Bass, P. 98

Piccolo Concerto Wien

Symphonia SY 97154

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After Baroque: Music for the Natural Trumpet

Marches, Fanfares & Divertimenti by:

L. Mozart, CPE Bach, W.A. Mozart, Ott, Gebauer, Diabelli, Starzer, R. Wagner, Neukomm, Daverne, Dvorak, Epstein & Britten

The Seattle Trumpet Consort - Original Classical OC 33001

I purchased this CD because of the inclusion of the two Divertimenti for 2 Flutes, 5 Trumpets & Drums K187 & 188 (K240b.) Yes, I know that K187 Is a compilation of movements by Starzer and Gluck arranged by Leopold Mozart in 1773, but this is the only recording on original instruments of both these works. There is plenty of music here for everybody ranging from the 18th to the 20th Centuries.

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Pergolesi: Sinfonia, Sonatas, Concerto - OFM, Fabio Maestri

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Sinfonia, Sonatas, Concerto
Orchestra Filarmonia Marchigiana, Fabio Maestri
Bongiovanni GB 2114-2

You don't want to miss this golden opportunity to get some of Pergolesi's rarely recorded instrumental works! Enjoy!

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater - Freni, Berganza, Ettore Gracis

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Stabat Mater (Scarlatti; 3 Concerti Grossi)
Mirella Freni, Teresa Berganza,
Solisti dell' Orchestra 'Scarlatti' di Napoli, Ettore Gracis
Archiv 427 123-2

A unique and memorable recording of Pergolesi's vocal masterpiece. Comment, download, unpack... Enjoy!

Wagenseil: Six Quartets for Three Cellos

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777)

6 Quartetti per 3 violoncelli & Contrabasso
o 2 viole, violoncello & contrabasso (1760's)

Piccolo Concerto Wien (2-Discs)




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Mozart: The Nannerl's Notebook

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Pieces, K1-K5b, K9a, K9b & K33
Minuets, K94, K315a & K355
Suite in C, K399Giga in G, K574

Bernard Brauchli: Clavichord

This set is worthwhile just for the inclusion of the hard to find Allegro K9a and the incomplete Andante K9b. Some sites offering MP3 dowloads of this CD list track #23 as the incomplete G minor Sarabande movement of the Suite K399. This is not true as this movement is not recorded anywhere on this disc. It is mentioned in the program notes but unfortunately not recorded here.

[Flac & Scans]

Russian Clavichords of the XVIII Century

Sonatas, Rondos & Variations by:

Vasily Fyodorovich Trutovsky (ca. 1740-1810)
Vasily Semyonovich Karauluv (late 18th Cent)
Ivan Pratch (ca. 1750-1818)
Dimitry Bortnyansky (1751-1825)

Aleksei Lubimov- Clavichord & Fortepiano

The title is a bit of a misnomer. The CD is named "Russian Clavichord music of the 18th Century," but of the 12 tracks, two are played on the "square piano" [Thanks to Ant for the translation] and the rest are played on the fortepiano. I believe this is a mistranslation of the Russian word "лавирная" which I translate into "clavier" or more aptly "keyboard," but not clavichord. Maybe a native russian speaker can clarify this after reading the russian program notes. At any rate, this is all clavier music from the 1780's...All in the Viennese Classical Style.

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Musica Napoitana - Accademia per Musica, Christoph Timpe

Ragazzi, Barbella, Fiorenza, Avitrano, Marchitelli
Musica Napoletana - I Virtuosi del Violino (3 CDs)
Accademia per Musica, Christoph Timpe
Capriccio 49546

Thrilled by discovering relatively unknown baroque composers? This 3 CD set is your chance for such new discoveries. Enjoy!