RED PRIEST - JOHANN, I’M ONLY DANCING   RED PRIEST RECORDINGS RP007

The irreverent early music group Red Priest have been compared to the Rolling Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones and the Cirque du Soleil. This extraordinary acoustic quartet, founded in 1997, was named after the flame-haired priest, Antonio Vivaldi, and has gone on to give hundreds of concerts at many of the world’s top festivals. The group has also featured in a TV profile for ITV’s South Bank Show, which documented the launch of the Red Hot Baroque Show, an electrifying marriage of old music with the latest light and video technology. The group’s regular line-up comprises recorder player Piers Adams (‘the reigning recorder virtuoso in the world today’ - Washington Post), violinist Julia Bishop, cellist Angela East and harpsichordist Howard Beach. The musicians have redefined the art of period performance, creating a virtual orchestra through their creative arrangements, performing with swashbuckling virtuosity, heart-on-sleeve emotion and compelling stagecraft. The group’s repertoire ranges from obscure 17th century sonatas to the most famous works of Bach and Vivaldi. Their latest project is the exhilarating Johann, I’m Only Dancing, which turns the spotlight onto the most revered master of the era, Johann Sebastian Bach. Performed with Red Priest’s legendary blend of creativity, wit and virtuosity, the repertoire includes epic transcriptions of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and the great Toccata and Fugue in D minor, alongside a host of dazzling allegros, whirling dances and some of the most sublime adagios ever composed. Red Priest’s arrangements are inspired by Bach’s own improvisatory zeal, and they play with astonishing energy, creating a virtual orchestra from their four instruments. Previous recordings by Red Priest include PIRATES OF THE BAROQUE (RP004), an irresistible collection of stylishly performed Baroque music, with added sound effects in the case of Vivaldi’s sonata ‘Il Tempesta di Mare’ (The Storm at Sea). There is a high-speed performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso in D minor as well as pieces by Leclair, Simonetti, Albinoni/Giazotto, Couperin, Vitali and Tartini. Red Priest have also re-released their acclaimed back-catalogue of recordings, including Priest on the Run, Nightmare in Venice, and a sensational re-interpretation of Vivaldi’s popular masterpiece, The Four Seasons. ‘Red Priest puts the viva in Vivaldi’ - Strings Magazine. See here for details of the Johann I’m Only Dancing tour.

BAROQUE CELLO ILLUMINATIONS - ANGELA EAST         RED PRIEST RECORDINGS

Angela East is a versatile musician whose activities embrace music from the beginning of the 17th century, solo repertoire from the 20th century, classical and romantic chamber music and educational projects. Born into a musical family, she began tuition at the age of four and at fourteen was awarded the Arts Council’s prestigious Suggia Award to study with Muriel Taylor. She went to the Royal Academy of Music to study with Derek Simpson and afterwards with André Navarra and Christopher Bunting. In 1979, after a number of years of performing on the modern cello, she was inspired by the new early music movement to acquire a baroque instrument and became co-principal cello with the English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. With this orchestra she appeared in many inspiring venues, including La Scala Milan, the Palace of Versailles and the ruins of Pompeii. She also performed as a continuo player and soloist with leading baroque orchestras in London, including the first performance on original instruments at Glyndebourne with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Simon Rattle. She plays five different instruments, including the viola da gamba and the bass violin, and often performs as part of the theatrical and surrealist group, Red Priest. Her latest CD, Baroque Cello Illuminations, sheds new light on old favourites, bringing together some of the best baroque works popular with young cellists. The album, which also features Ruth Alford (cello) and Howard Beach (harpsichord), is an inspiring collection of music by Henry Eccles, Willem De Fesch, Vivaldi, Couperin (Pièces en Concert), Sammartini/Berteau and J S Bach (Suite no 1 in G major). Angela East plays with all the verve and technical mastery of one of the world’s finest baroque cellists.

ENGLISH MUSIC FOR VIOLA - ENIKO MAGYAR         NAXOS 8.572407

Praised by violists such as Yuri Bashmet and Atar Arad for her technique, musicality and passion, Eniko Magyar is the most prolific violist to have emerged from Hungary in recent years. She gave her solo debut with orchestra performing Hidas’s Violin Concerto at the age of 13, and since graduating from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest she has enjoyed a varied career as a soloist and chamber musician as well as performing as soloist with major orchestras. Now based in London, her debut CD features a recital of English music written for the viola by Sir Arthur Bliss, Frederick Delius and Frank Bridge. The viola, with its plangent tone, subtle sonority and lyrical qualities, is often overshadowed by its more brilliant-sounding sibling, the violin. An accomplished violist himself, Frank Bridge wrote little solo music for this instrument; only the Pensiero and Allegro appassionato were published in his lifetime, the other five works of his on this disc being the composer’s own arrangements of some of his charming violin pieces. Similarly, Delius’s Third Violin Sonata is heard here in an arrangement by the celebrated violist Lionel Tertis, the dedicatee of Bliss’s expressive Viola Sonata, in which Magyar’s gorgeous Giovanni Grancino instrument is heard to particularly wonderful effect. She is accompanied on these recordings by the award-winning Japanese concert pianist Tadashi Imai and plays throughout with superb musicianship and sensitivity to the English style. Highly recommended.

BACH SONATAS & PARTITAS - DAVID GRIMAL       NAIVE AMBROISIE AM181

David Grimal was born in Paris in 1973 and started to play the violin at the age of five. He won the First Prize in violin and chamber music at the Paris Conservatory in 1993 and went on to study with Regis Pasquier, Philipp Hirschhorn (to whom this new recording is dedicated), Shlomo Mintz and Isaac Stern. This release is his third recital for Ambroisie featuring Bach’s iconic solo sonatas and partitas interspersed with the world premiere recording of Kontrapartita, a piece by the exciting young French composer, Brice Pauset, born in Besançon in 1965 and cited by Grimal as a key influence in his understanding of Bach’s music. Kontrapartita was inspired by the ‘morphology and the metaphorical strength’ of Bach’s music. Pauset says this led him to transfer his ‘impressions of the relationship of the bow to the violin strings into a piece in which bow and violin are treated as found objects’. Bach composed his six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in 1720, at around the time he wrote such other works as the Brandenburg Concertos and solo cello suites.  The Sonatas each consist of four movements in a slow-fast-slow-fast pattern; the Partitas are suites of dance movements. This double CD release also includes a bonus DVD of David Grimal playing Bach’s stunning Partita No.2 in D minor, featuring the monumental and hugely popular ‘Chaconne’. These are exceptional recordings by one of the leading French violinists of his generation.

PURCELL EDITION, VOL. 4 - INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC   WARNER 2564 69139-0

Born in London in 1659, Henry Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his music, devising an original and particularly English style of Baroque music. Although he lived a very short life (he died in 1695) he benefitted from the renewed flowering of music after the Restoration of the Monarchy. As the son of a musician at Court, a chorister at the Chapel Royal, and the holder of continuing royal appointments until his death, Purcell worked in Westminster for three different Kings over twenty-five years. In addition to his royal duties he wrote operas, most notably Dido and Aeneas, as well as incidental stage music and chamber music in the form of harpsichord suites and trio sonatas. There is hardly a department of music to which Purcell did not contribute with great distinction and his epitaph in Westminster Abbey reads, ‘Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded.’ This 5-CD box set features some of the composer’s finest instrumental music, including Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting Concentus Musicus Wien in The Viol Fantasias. Six harpsichord suites and other keyboard works are played by Olivier Baumont, and the other outstanding soloists here include Max van Egmond (bass), David Blackadder (Sonata for trumpet and strings in D major), Christophe Coin (bass viol) and Christopher Hogwood (chamber organ and spinet). This is the fourth volume in Warner’s excellent Purcell Edition series - see the earlier releases here.

SZYMANOWSKI - MUSIC FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO     HYPERION  CDA67703

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski was born in 1882 to a wealthy land-owning family in Tymoszówka, then part of the Russian Empire and now in the Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father then continued at Gustav Neuhaus’s school in Elisavetgrad and had private lessons with Zawirski for harmony and with Zygmunt Noskowski for counterpoint and composition. The years 1907-19 were particularly eventful as he travelled in Germany, Italy, France and England before returning to Tymoszówka to study and compose. In 1917, Szymanowski’s house was destroyed in the civil war and the family moved to Elisavetgrad where he wrote poetry and a long novel, Efebos, before settling in Warsaw, where he campaigned to re-invigorate Polish music education. His own music influenced by the work of Wagner, Richard Strauss, Reger, Scriabin, Debussy and Ravel, as well as Arabic and Persian culture, Polish folk songs and the music of his countryman Chopin. This CD contains some of Szymanowski’s most overtly sensual and vividly gestural music; his lush, exotic textures intensified and crystallized in miniature. From his early Violin Sonata in D minor onwards, evidence of the composer’s unusual brilliance in writing for solo violin is paramount. The Romance in D major, first performed in in 1913, already reveals a considerable advance towards the exotic, strangely inward exaltation of mature works. In the extraordinary Mythes (1915) Szymanowski reaches the zenith of his artistry, creating ‘a new mode of expression for the violin’ and through this an intoxicating, other-worldly musical language. The other works on this recording are Szymanowski’s Nocturne and Tarantella, Three Paganini Caprices and La Berceuse d’Aïtacho Enia. The gifted young Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova plays this intense music with verve, technical skill and remarkable maturity, accompanied by the equally youthful and talented French pianist, Cédric Tiberghien.

J S BACH - BACH ON THE ITALIAN LUTE           GUILD GMCD 7321

Johann Sebastian Bach was a virtuoso organist and served as court musician and composer in Arnstadt, Weimar, Köthen and as cantor and director of music at Leipzig. His fame during his lifetime was due at least as much to his ability as an organist as to his reputation as a composer, but since the 19th century he has been hailed as a genius whose work represents the peak of the Baroque era. As well as famous works such as The Brandenberg Concertos, Well-Tempered Clavier and Art of the Fugue, Bach wrote a wide range of other music, including several suites for the lute. Modern lutenists have for years been faced with the challenges of adapting Bach’s lute suites for the German baroque lute. On this album, the excellent Peter Croton sheds new light on these works by presenting them on an Italian Lute, an instrument also used in Germany during Bachs lifetime. The selected works are performed without modification and in the original keys. This is a recording of intimate timbres and subtle expression, evoking the Lautenwerk, a keyboard instrument for which J.S. Bach apparently composed these works. In addition to performing three original lute works, Peter Croton has transcribed Bach’s delightful first cello suite for the Italian lute. The CD closes with his arrangement of Bist du bei mir, one of the most beautiful and popular songs of the Baroque era. These are intelligent, sensitive and lyrical performances of some of the most challenging and expressive music ever written for the lute. The beautifully recorded pieces are wonderfully calming and prove beyond doubt that ‘Bach teaches us how to be pious’.

LATE ROMANTIC           HARMOS RECORDS  HAR 101

Harmos Records is a new recording company that aims to promote a fresh approach to the classical music CD, exploring and establishing a variety of new performers and composers. The releases will be varied in style and mood, and there is an intention to promote both new and forgotten works with artists representing a mix of upcoming young talents and seasoned musicians. The label’s first release is an innovative collection of works for flute and piano from the late Romantic period. The flute has enjoyed great popularity and inspired many fine compositions over the course of its history, though it has not always provoked equal passions in all periods. The Baroque saw a surge of interest, with prolific writing from Vivaldi, Telemann, Bach, Händel and many others, and in the 20th Century the flute’s possibilities as a solo instrument were taken to new levels by avant–garde composers. Assembled, transcribed and performed by the renowned Portuguese flautist Luis Meireles, this disc features an original suite for flute and piano by Charles-Marie Widor, and transcriptions of violin sonatas by Pierne and Richard Strauss. Luis Meireles has long felt an affinity with this period of musical expression, and brings dedication and passion in this new and unusual recording, partnered with sensitivity and style by Maria Jose Souza Guedes at the piano. This is an unusual exploration of the sumptuous instrumental repertoire of the late Romantic period, played on a modern wooden flute which allows for an illuminating interpretation of these lyrical masterpieces. Luis Meireles and Maria Jose Souza Guedes perform this delectable music with spirit, expressiveness and true feeling.

FORTMAN - SAX MUSIC       METIER MSV28512

Thomas Fortmann was born in Switzerland and became a successful songwriter during the 1970s. He studied composition and music theory in Bern, Switzerland, and wrote his first hit at the age of 16. He subsequently released over a hundred other titles in more than 27 countries, working with artists such as  Alexis Korner, Love Generation, Dieter Dierks, Cockpit, Su Kramer, Italian singer Daniela Davoli and many others. He also wrote a successful musical, Wilhelm Tell, featuring German rock star Udo Lindenberg in the lead. After ten years, Fortmann turned his back on rock music and dedicated himself to further studies in composition and instrumentation. This album gathers together for the first time all of his works composed for the saxophone, in various combinations. All were written between 1984 and 2008, and show Fortmann’s development as a key composer for the instrument. The outstanding performers include Marco Falaschi (soprano and alto saxophones) and the Berlioz Saxophone Quartet, and the pieces have such intriguing titles as Catholic Blues, Three Piggies in Clover, Pop Oh Kakapitl and A Whale in the Circus (from the stage production ‘Collidis Pinocchio’, with soprano Ruber Marani).

TERRA NOSTRA – CONSTANTINOPLE   ATMA ACD2 2567

Constantinople is a Montreal-based early music ensemble inspired by the ancient musical traditions of Persia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Their ninth recording for ATMA, Terra Nostra is a musical journey into the sounds of 17th century Mexico. Joining Constantinople are Mexican guests and son Jarocho specialists José Angel Gutiérrez (requinto, voice) and the wonderful Teresita de Jesus Islas (jarana, voice). The line-up also includes Kiya Tabassian (setar - a plucked stringed instrument from Persia), Ziya Tabassian (percussion), Betsy McMillan (viola da gamba) and Matthew Wadsworth (baroco guitar). Masters of improvisation, Constantinople revisits the Xacaras, the Fandango and La Bamba and other traditional forms as they were performed almost 400 years ago. Terra Nostra was inspired by a meeting of musical minds during a tour to Veracruz, Mexico. A random encounter with Gutiérrez and Jesus Islas in their village, Lerdo de Tejada, resulted in an exchange of musical traditions and ideas. Jarocho is an old Spanish language word which meant ‘disordered’, and which evolved in Mexico to become a term for a person, item or music from Veracruz. Jarochos, the plural word, is often used to describe wandering bands of minstrel musicians, operating similar to mariachis, who dress and play in the Veracruz style. Jarochos are visually distinguished from mariachis by their traditional white suits and white cowboy hats and the music played is known as Son Jarocho. The heritage and depth of the ‘old world’ combined with the effervescence and openness of the 17th century ‘new world’ gave birth to the Mexican Baroque, resulting a new form of music with extraordinary rhythmic vitality and stunning melodic virtuosity. By turns mystical, effervescent, heartbreaking and emotional, this music from colonial Mexico is a revelation. Highly recommended.

SIMPLY ANNE-SOPHIE - CD & DVD     DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4777166

The German violinist virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter was born in 1963 and began playing the piano at the age of five before later taking up the violin. When she was just thirteen years old, conductor Herbert von Karajan invited her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic and in 1977 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and with the English Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. At fifteen, she made her first recording of the Mozart Third and Fifth violin concerti with Karajan, and in 1980 she made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and ever since has been in demand as a soloist and chamber musician, giving concerts in Europe, North America and Asia. Since her debut with Deutsche Grammophon at the age of fourteen, Mutter has received innumerable prizes for her recordings. Though her repertoire includes many classical works, she is particularly known for her championing of contemporary music. A number of pieces have been especially written for or dedicated to her, including Henri Dutilleux’s Sur le Même Accord, Witold Lutoslawski’s Partita, and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Second Violin Concerto. ‘Simply Anne-Sophie’ features the glamorous violinist’s personal selections, with excerpts from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, two Mozart Concertos, Beethoven’s Romance Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs,  Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid, Previn’s Song from Tango Song and Dance, Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 6, George Gershwin’s Summertime, and Pablo de sarasate’s Fantaisie de Concert based on Carmen. The DVD includes an excerpt from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the rondeau from Mozart’s Concerto No. 3, part of the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and a wonderfully intimate performance of Song with Andre Previn, as well as a picture gallery and discography.

MOZART VIOLIN SONATAS – ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER   DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON  00289 477 5801

Anne-Sophie Mutter started playing the piano at the age of five and violin shortly afterwards. When she was only 13, Herbert von Karajan invited her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic and the following year she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival. At 15, she recorded Mozart’s Third and Fifth Violin Concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic and was named Artist of the Year. She has since enjoyed a highly successful international career with a repertoire that includes many classical works as well as much modern music. This superb four-CD box set of violin sonatas is part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s ambitious Mozart Project, timed to celebrate the composer’s 2006 anniversary as well as the 30th anniversary of Mutter’s stage debut in Lucerne. The CD recording, with pianist Lambert Orkis, took place live in concert in Munich in February 2006. The Sonatas featured are for Piano and Violin in F, K.376; E flat, K.302; G, K.379; B flat, K.454; A, K.305; B flat, K.378; G, K.301; E flat, K.481; C, K.296; E flat, K.380; F, K.547; D, K.306; C, K.303; F, K.377; E minor, K.304; A, K.526. Anne-Sophie Mutter’s playing is always elegant and pure, yet filled with colour and shade, and Lambert Orkis’s piano technique is superbly sympathetic throughout. Highly recommended.

VIOLIN SONGS - MADELEINE MITCHELL       DIVINE ART DDA25063

Madeleine Mitchell has been described by the Glasgow Herald as ‘a violinist in a million’ and is one of the most celebrated and accomplished violinists in the UK. She has performed in over 40 countries as a soloist in a wide repertoire in major venues and frequently broadcasts for television and radio, including the BBC Proms. As well as being an acclaimed violinist,  Madeleine Mitchell is also the mastermind behind ‘Red Violin’ - a festival celebrating the violin running in Cardiff from 1-9 October 2007 (it was first organised in 1997 under the patronage of Lord Menuhin). For full details please visit www.redviolin.co.uk Accompanied by her regular pianist partner Andrew Ball on this new CD, Madeleine Mitchell presents a selection of personal favourite music for violin and piano - classic songs, salon pieces and music from 1920s Paris. The works are by Elgar (Salut d’Amour, Chanson de Matin and Chanson de Nuit), Berg (Die Nachtigall), Bridge (Mélodie, Amaryllis, Romanze, Spring Song, Moto Perpetuo, Berceuse and a world première recording of Morceau Caracteristique), Copland (Nocturne), Prokofiev (Cinq Mélodies), Massenet (Méditation from Thaïs) , Boulanger (Nocturne), Poulenc (Violon), Ravel (Berceuse sur le nom de Fauré), Schubert (Ave Maria, arr. Palaschko) and Strauss (Morgen). The score for Frank Bridge’s lyrical Morceau Caracteristique, thought to have been lost, has only recently been rediscovered, so this is the piece’s first performance for over 100 years. This is an album of charming music, brought to shimmering life by Madeleine Mitchell’s spirited yet sensitive virtuosity.

RENOUNCEMENT – CHRISTIAN FORSHAW       INTEGRA ING1001

Christian Forshaw is a gifted musician who works in many different musical worlds. Born in North Yorkshire, he graduated from London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1995. He was the featured soloist with the (BT) Scottish Ensemble in a series of critically acclaimed performances of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Strings, and was soloist with the London Sinfonietta for the premiere of Aquas Liberas by Pedro Rebelo. As well as being Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School, Forshaw plays soprano saxophone with the Delta Saxophone Quartet and orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the London Sinfonietta, the Philharmonia, CBSO and the Britten Sinfonia. Renouncement, the first release on his own record label, Integra, is an intriguing venture into the imaginative world of church music. The pieces fall into two categories: Song based material derived from Hymn tunes and other simple melodies, and the more developed works with extended ideas. Highlights include Hereford, Not So Bad (with music by J. S. Bach), Renouncement (music by Christian Forshaw to Alice Meynell’s moving sonnet), Mortal Flesh (dedicated to Jenny Nicholson, who was killed in the London bombings on 7th July 2005), The Suite from Les Boreades by Rameau, and Songs of Sadness and Piety, with music commissioned from Gary Carpenter. The musicians are Christian Forshaw (saxophones), Grace Davidson (soprano), Sieve Lodder (church organ), and Jolty Burgess (percussion), with The Sanctuary Voices directed by James Weeks. The diverse and contemplative music on this album imaginatively combines Forshaw’s saxophone with an ethereal soprano voice, sonorous organ and mixed voice choir to create a haunting and evocative sound world.

VADIM REPIN         WARNER CLASSICS 2564632632

Russian violinist Vadim Repin was born in Western Siberia in 1971 and was acclaimed throughout Russia as a child prodigy. At the age of 17 he became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious and demanding Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels, since when he has played under such leading conductors as Yehudi Menuhin, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle and Mstislav Rostropovich. He specialises in Russian music and French music, particularly the great Russian violin concertos, and is a strong advocate of new music, receiving accolades for his performances of John Adams’ Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony conducted by the composer. He performed Gubaidulina’s Offertorium in his Boston Symphony debut, and shortly thereafter with the City of Birmingham Symphony. Vadim Repin has been a frequent guest at festivals such as the Hollywood Bowl and Tanglewood and at the BBC Proms. This splendid ten CD box set includes Nel cor piu and Caprice No.24 (Paganini), Polonaise Brillante and Variations on an original theme (Wieniawski), Sonata - excerpt Blues, Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2, and Tzigane (Ravel), Violin Concerto Nos. 2, 3 and 5 (Mozart), and Concertos for Violin and Orchestra by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Vadim Repin plays his Stradivarius ‘Ruby’ violin, made in 1708 and previously played by Pablo de Sarasate, with great elegance and virtuosity, giving substance to the claim that he is the finest violinist of his generation. ‘His playing is breathtaking’ - Classic FM Magazine.

SZYMANOWSKI - NICOLA BENEDETTI     DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 987 057-7

Violinist Nicola Benedetti from West Kilbride, Ayrshire, won the title of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004 when she was only 16 years old, giving a remarkably mature performance of the first violin concerto by Szymanowski. She went on to sign a £1m six-album recording deal with Universal Classics and this is her debut CD for the Deutsche Grammophon label. She began playing the violin at the age of four and six years later started attending the Yehudi Menuhin School. By the age of eight she was leading the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland and played before the Queen at the opening of the Holyrood parliament building. Her much anticipated album features  recordings made with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by 29 year old phenomenon Daniel Harding, who was recently appointed Principal Guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. As well as polished performance of the Szymanowski Concerto she plays a new John Tavener work (Fragment for the Virgin) written especially for her, and music by Saint-Saens (Havanaise for Violin and Orchestra), Chausson, Massenet (Meditiation from Thais) and Brahms (a wonderfully sonorous Wie Melodien zieht es mir). A novel feature of the album is a special backing track of the Meditation from Thais, giving listeners the chance to play along with the LSO. Nicola Benedetti’s website is at www.nicolabenedetti.co.uk

SCINTILLATION – YOLANDA KONDONASSIS         TELARC  CD-80361

Yolanda Kondonassis has been acclaimed by the New York Times as a harpist with ‘powerful playing and musicianly energy’, and has established herself as one of the world’s leading harpists, performing both as a concerto soloist and recitalist throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe. Since making her debut aged 18 with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, she has appeared as soloist with other major orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has also made many outstanding recordings, including much of the standard repertoire as well as her own transcriptions and compositions for harp, such as the first-ever transcription of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Scintillation is a collection of mostly standard, mostly French pieces, including Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro, Debussy’s Danses sacrée et profane, and the wonderful title piece by Carlos Salzedo. More unusual are Marcel Grandjany´s Fantaisie and arrangements of solo arrangements of works by Debussy (Bruyeres, La fille aux cheveuz de lin), Ravel (Pavane pour une infante defunte) and George Gershwin (Prelude No. 2). The virtuosic harp-playing of Yolanda Kondonassis is complemented by a group of gifted accompanists, including Joshua Smith (flute), Franklin Cohen (clarinet) and Richard Weiss (cello). Her flawless harp technique is allied with great musical sensitivity to captivating effect on this highly recommended album.

TANGO FOR ONE - WILLIAM WILSON           GUITARSOUNDS  GSCD3010

The accomplished American guitarist William Wilson’s professional career includes performing, composing, and recording in a variety of settings. As a soloist he brings Latin and world music influence to classical guitar, capturing an alive, passionate and refined sound for a diverse audience. His compositions range among works for symphony, opera, voice, piano, and guitar. On this atmospheric CD he plays vibrant and sometimes melancholy music by Astor Piazzolla, the great Tango revolutionary, and Alberto Ginastera. Tango for One is the music of solitude, reflecting the great fields of Argentina, the Pampas, and the legacy of the lone gaucho. Tango music draws on all aspects of the Argentinian people, combining the lyrical melodies of the Italians, the rhythmic intensity of the Spanish, and the lush harmonies of the French. Drama, passion and intensity can be heard in the music and seen in the dance. Highlights among the 17 tracks include three brilliant Danza Criollas, Adios Nonino (Piazzolla’s moving tribute to his father), Ginastera’s Milonga (aternatively titled ‘Song of the Tree of Forgetfulness’) and the evocative Chiquilin de Bachin.

ANNA MAGDALENA BACH’S BOOK       MOVE MD 3304

Anna Magdalena Bach-Wilcken was born in 1701, at Zeitz. Her father, Johann Caspar Wilcke, was a court trumpeter and her mother, Margaretha Elisabeth Liebe, was the daughter of an organist. Anna was paid for singing with her father in the chapel at Zerbst, and by 1721 she married Johann Sebastian Bach (age 36) at Cöthen, seventeen months after his first wife Maria Barbara Bach had died. They had thirteen children together, including composers Johann Christian Bach and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. Their marriage was a happy one, helped by their common interest in music. Johann Sebastian dedicated several compositions to her, most notably the two Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach, and she regularly helped him transcribe his music. Recent research suggests that Anna Magdalena Bach may have written several musical pieces attributed to her husband, including the famous six cello suites. She may also have been involved with the composition of ‘Bist du bei mir’, the aria from the Goldberg Variations, as well as the C major prelude later used by Gounod as the basis of his Ave Maria. This album by the acclaimed Australian harpsichord and organ virtuoso Elizabeth Anderson features music from the Anna Magdalena notebook. For the immortal ‘Bist du bei mir’ and many of the other works here she is joined by her son, the boy soprano Jacob Lawrence. The tuning system used in this recording follows the diagram left by Bach on the cover of the title page of his Well-Tempered Clavier, and this transcendental music is performed with outstanding expertise and expressiveness.

SCHOECK - THREE VIOLIN SONATAS       CLAVES  50-2503

Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) was a Swiss composer, conductor and piano accompanist, born in Brunnen near Lake Lucerne. He studied with Max Reger and became an internationally recognized artist, particularly for his songs and song cycles. He also composed operas and and instrumental works, including two string quartets and several fine concertos for violin. On this new recording, Simone Zgraggen (violin) and Ulrich Koella (piano) give discerning performances that capture the varying moods in these sonatas. Schoeck’s 1905 sonata was almost certainly inspired by hearing the beautiful violinist Stefi Geyer, with whom he fell passionately in love. Schoeck’s profound love for her is also apparent in his 1908/09 sonata (Op 16) with its wonderfully lyrical first movements (the following two movements are in Beethovenian style). Two weeks after meeting Stefi Geyer in 1908, Schoeck wrote an Albumblatt for violin and piano dedicated to her, and they premièred it together during a concert tour of Central Switzerland soon afterwards. Schoeck’s earliest instrumental work that he still acknowledged in later years was his violin sonata in D major (WoO 22), composed it in 1905, a few months after he enrolled at the Zurich Conservatory. Not as personal as some of the songs that he wrote at the time, it still has youthful and melodic charm. Schoeck’s lyrical compositions (he was dubbed ‘the Swiss Schubert’) deserve to be better know and should please anyone who loves late romantic music of the twentieth century.

SARABANDE - JONATHAN RICHARDS   DIVINE ART DIVERSIONS DDD 24115

Jonathan Richards was born in 1964 and started learning the guitar at the age of eight. Since graduating from Trinity College, London, he has been active as a guitar teacher, concert performer and recording artist, as well as composing prolifically for the guitar. His extensive repertoire includes much of the standard literature of the instrument, from the baroque works of Bach, Rameau and Weiss, through the classical period exemplified by Sor and Diabelli, and the Romantic output of composers such as Mendelssohn, as well as Spanish and South American music by Albeniz, Barrios, Falla, Granados, Llobet, Mompou and Villa-Lobos. He has also championed new and unusual music, giving world premières of works by Judith Bingham, Terence Croucher, John Franklin and John Williamson. This delightful new album features a selection of Jonathan Richards’ own transcriptions for guitar of works originally written by J S Bach for lute, violin, cello or keyboard. He plays these timeless masterpieces with grace and passion, creating music that takes the listener to a peaceful haven far from the hectic pace of life. The recording was made in the music room at Shute House and recreates the ambience of a country house recital, complete with occasional sounds of songbirds in the garden.

MAGNUS GUTKE - TOUCHE II           NOSAG DM902

Touché II is the result of more than ten year’s work by the classical guitarist Magnus Gutke, who studied in Paris with Alberto Ponce, . The pieces on this adventurous album are all by twentieth century composers and include Sainz de la Maza’s Platero y yo and Antonio José’s Sonata (a work with subtle melody and tonality in its beautiful Pavana triste as well as an explosive finale). The other works are by French composers: Maurice Ohana’s Si le jour paraît... (with its exciting virtuoso second movement) and Henri Sauguet’s elegant Solilioque. Magnus Gutke’s debut record was appropriately called Touché I (Nosag DM901) and came out in 1997. This more Spanish-influenced CD features works by composers such as Francisco Tárrega, Villa-Lobos, Frederico Moreno-Torroba, Fernando Sor, Segovia, Mompou and de Falla. The music throughout is romantic and peaceful, by turns fiery and contemplative. Both titles demonstrate musicianship of a very high standard.

YEHUDI MENUHIN - IN MEMORIAM             TAHRA TAH 533

The American violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York of Russian-Jewish parents. He soon became a child prodigy, his performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at the age of seven bringing him instant fame. His playing was a sublime blend of virtuosity and expression, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s he performed and made recordings of many great classical works. Menuhin’s long career also saw him exploring the worlds of jazz and Indian music, as well as conducting and taking part in important humanitarian work. His greatest pride was the founding of the music school in Stoke D’Abernon that bears his name. This new release in Tahra’s ‘Hommage’ series features J S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 for solo violin (recorded in Berne at a public concert in 1968) and Mozart’s Concerto for Violin (recorded in the Jesus-Christus Kirche of Berlin in 1951, with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Böhm). These typically passionate performances form a true tribute to one of the twentieth century’s finest musicians.

KINGA! PLAYS FLUTE MUSIC           NOSAG RECORDS  NOSAGCD 082

On these remarkable recordings the fine young Hungarian-born flutist Kinga Práda, accompanied by her mother Ilona Jánky at the piano, plays a well-chosen selection of Romantic flute music. The Transylvanian duo explore a wide range of classical repertory with works by George Enescu, Albert Franz Doppler (the popular Hungarian Fantasie), Cesar Franck (Sonate, adapted from his Sonata for violin and piano), the splendidly named Jules Auguste Edouard Demerssemann (a Dutch musician who composed many pieces for the flute) and the American Samuel Barber (Canzone, the composer’s own arrangement of the theme from the second part of his piano concerto). This is delightful music played with great skill and expression.

ILLUMINATIONS - JOSEPH ALESSI       SUMMIT  DCD-367

The brilliant American virtuoso Joseph Alessi, one of the world’s greatest trombonists, plays works that span more than a century of music written for the solo trombone accompanied by a wind band. On this recording he is joined by the excellent University of New Mexico Wind Symphony, conducted by Eric Rombach-Kendall, in performances of three pieces by trombone pioneer and original Sousa Band member Arthur. Pryor (an early arrangement of Blue Bells of Scotland, Fantastic Polka, and the seductive Love's Enchantment). Also featured on this enjoyable album are Illuminations (written specially for Joseph Alessi in 2002 by the contemporary American composer Joseph Turrin), Bolivar (composed by the mysterious Eric Cook), a technically demanding T-bone Concerto (Johan de Meij) and Atlantic Zephyrs, subtitled Novelette (written in 1915 by Michigan-born Gardell Simons).

HANDEL RECORDER SONATAS - PAMELA THORBY/RICHARD EGARR LINN CKD223

Pamela Thorby (recorder) and Richard Egarr (harpsichord and organ) began their musical partnership as students at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, leading to acclaimed recitals at the Purcell Rooms and Wigmore Hall in London. On this first recording together as a duo thay play all six recorder sonatas by Handel sonatas, generally considered some of the finest music in the baroque repertory. They  were written in the 1720s, when Handel was at the height of his fame as an opera composer. The recorder was little used in the 19th century, but upon its re-emergence in the 20th, the four sonatas from opus one became the first pieces in the new recorder canon. The autograph manuscripts of all six scores finally became known in the 1970s, when it became possible to view the sonatas as a group, rather than as four plus two, as had previously been the case. The enduring appeal of these pieces lies partly in their unpredictability. Stylistically often vocal, the sonatas feature extremely inventive melodic lines with balanced, strong interplay between melody and bass, making them ideal repertoire for this excellent duo. The disc also includes Handel’s brilliant Harpsichord Suite in E major. Highly recommended.

AARON COPLAND - RARITIES & MASTERPIECES          BRIDGE 9145

Steven Richman and the excellent Harmonie Ensemble/New York perform two Aaron Copland masterpieces - the original version of his Appalachian Spring Suite and the jazz-influenced Music for the Theatre. In 1980, in celebration of his 80th birthday, Copland conducted the Harmonie Ensemble in the Appalachian Spring Suite and worked closely with conductor Richman and the Ensemble on a performance of Music for the Theatre. This album also features three less well-known pieces. ‘Two Ballads for Violin and Piano’ started out as a violin concerto but this never reached fruition. The arrangement is played here by violinist Eugene Drucker accompanied at the piano by Diane Walsh. Drucker, together with violist Lawrence Dutton, also plays Copland’s ‘Elegies for Violin & Viola’, composed in response to the suicide of the poet Hart Crane. The other work here is the little-known Toscanini transcription of Copland’s ‘El Salón México for solo piano’, receiving its premiere recording. Altogether, this is a most welcome addition to the recorded repertoire and should prove invaluable to all Copland enthusiasts.

RARE GOOSSENS             OBOE CLASSICS CC2005

These are all recordings not available elsewhere, and they show Goossens in rare form. Hear, for example, his ability to float a phrase in Pierné's Aubade. Léon Goossens was born in Liverpool in 1897, the son of violinist and opera conductor Eugène Goossens, and brother of the conductor and composer also called Eugène. After war service, during which he was wounded, he became acclaimed internationally as the finest oboist of his day. Many notable English composers wrote pieces specially for him, including Bax, Bliss, Britten, Elgar and Vaughan Williams. Goossens’ refined playing and brilliant technique can be heard to great effect on these early recordings. The performances range from a 1925 pre-electric recording of Charles Colin’s Concertino, to a 1947 reworking of Scarlatti themes. There is a reissue of the wonderful 1927 Bax Quintet (written for Goossens), and a several charming miniatures such as the Londonderry Air and Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Swan’. ‘...a fine after-dinner wine of a recording, worth listening to at leisure, without interruption, so as to marvel over the extraordinary facility and exquisite taste of one of the finest instrumentalists of any age’ - Fanfare.

PAULSSON - A DATE WITH A SOPRANO SAXOPHONE     CAPRICE  CAP 21668 SACD

This ground-breaking album featuring Anders Paulsson is a pioneering effort to promote the soprano saxophone as a classical solo instrument. A sensual and poetic relationship between the musician and his instrument, performed on these recordings with great feeling, breaks traditional boundaries and challenges convention. The works included are from many different time periods and often technically demanding, some with electronic sections, and others more lyrical and folk-music flavoured. Anders Paulsson has played and blazed new trails for the this instrument for more than 16 years, having started his playing career with the tenor saxophone. The wide range of music on this adventurous SACD is by Anders Paulsson (Lullaby), Paul Bonneau, Claude Debussy (Syrinx), Benjamin Britten (Six Metamorphoses), Luciano Berio, Fredrik Högberg, Sven-Erik Bäck, Johann Sebastian Bach, Nils Lindberg, Eugene Bozza, Niklas Breman and James Horner (Hymn to the Sea).

QUIET ON THE SET - JAMES GALWAY           RCA RED SEAL  82876579102

This latest album by one of the world's finest flute players, James Galway, is subtitled James Galway At The Movies and features attractive arrangements of a wide range of popular film themes. Among the 13 compositions are James Horner's Braveheart, Ennio Morricone's Cinema Paradiso, Rachel Portman's Emma, John Williams' Far And Away, Alan Silvestri's Forrest Gump, Thomas Newman's The Horse Whisperer and Luis Bacalov's Il Postino. Susprisingly, the CD does not feature any music from the third Lord Of The Rings film, Return Of The King, in which James ‘superflute’ Galway was one of the soloists featured in Howard Shore's score. On this recording he is joined by the excellent London Mozart Players, conducted by Thomas Kochan

WILLIAM PRIMROSE - THE EARLY RECORDINGS         PEARL GEM 0207

This fascinating album gathers together the early recordings, including those on violin, made by the finest British viola virtuoso of the Twentieth Century. Born in Glasgow in 1904, William Primrose earned an enviable international reputation and his first viola recordings ushered in a new era for the instrument. Some of the tracks featured on this CD are rare or unpublished and it is tantalising to wonder whether Primrose might have otherwise gone on to become one of the great violinists if he had not changed instruments. One of his undoubted achievements was to change the way we hear and appreciate the beautiful sonorities of the viola, which profoundly influenced the present generation of virtuosi. Violin tracks include Bach Sonata No. 2 and Purcell's Golden Sonata, and viola tracks include works by Schubert (Ave Maria), Paganini (Two Caprices, arranged by primrose) and Tchaikovsky (None but the weary heart). Among the other artists featured are Gerald Moore, Isolde Menges and Sidonie Goossens.

SOLOVISION - JENNIFER FRAUTSCHI         ARTEK AR-OO16-2

On this exceptional CD the rising star Jennifer Frautschi performs five works for the violin by Fritz Kreisler (Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice), Eugène Ysaÿe (Sonata for Solo Violin in E minor), Béla Bartók (Sonata for Solo Violin), Mario Davidovsky (Synchronisms No. 9 for violin and electronic sounds) and John Harbison (Four Songs of Solitude). Born in Pasadena, California, Jennifer Frautschi started playing the violin at the age of three and has since won numerous prizes, including the 1999 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prizes in the Washington and Irving Klein International Competitions. She will give her New York City recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in April 2004 and will later debut in ten major concert halls in Europe, including Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La Cite de la Musique in Paris and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. This is Jennifer Frautschi second album for Artek, her first recording for the label of works by Stravinsky and Ravel having received ecstatic reviews. ‘Crystal clear - committed and well played, with good sound to match’ - Fanfare Magazine.

NEW TUNES FOR THE BIG BASSOON - SUSAN NIGRO               CRYSTAL CD843

This impressive CD by the contrabassoon player Susan Nigro is her third solo album and features music written for her by five interesting American composers. The works explore all the beguiling facets of the contrabassoon and Susan Nigro plays her usual consummate ease and virtuosity, accompanied on the piano by Mark Lindblad. The music is by Barton Cummings (Concertino for Contrabassoon and Arioso), Timothy Grassel (Reminiscences), P. Kellaceh Waddle (Broken Icicle Twilight and Severe Thunderstorm Warning), Edward McKenna (Bagatelle), Ann Marie Kurrasch (Ponderings from the Pond) and Graham Powning (Sonata). Susan Nigro lives in Chicago and plays regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. ‘Nigro is a veritable Paganini of the contrabassoon’ - Fanfare. ‘Her musicality simply glows’ - American Record Guide.

EN SONATE - SONIA WIEDER-ATHERTON       RCA RED SEAL 82876552732

This double album features the fine French cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton performing a series of varied and sometimes little-known sonatas, together with Imogen Cooper (piano), Raphaël Oleg (violin) and Francoise Rivalland (zarb). The composers are Schubert (Litanei), Liszt, Rachmaninov, Gliere (8 Duets for violin and violoncello), Zoltan Kodaly, Maurice Ravel and George Aperghis. Born in San Francisco,  Sonia Wieder-Atherton began playing the cello at the age of nine. After meeting Mstislav Rostropovitch, who subsequently guided her progress, she studied at the Paris Conservatory and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. She is now a film music composer as well as a soloist with leading orchestras, in solo recitals, and in chamber music. ‘Her style is captivating since it combines audacity, purity and mastery’ - Natalia Shakovskia.

VAUDEVILLE ACCORDION CLASSICS               BRIDGE 9138A/B

The Italian-American virtuoso Guido Deiro was a great populariser of the accordion in the early 20th century and was the first accordionist to perform on the Vaudeville stage (1910). He was also the first piano accordionist to make sound recordings (Edison Wax Cylinders, 1911) and became a top attraction at vaudeville houses throughout America and abroad. In 1913, he met and fell in love with the young Mae West while they were both performing in a vaudeville show in Detroit. The couple secretly married and Henry Doktorski's sleeve notes detail their torrid relationship, with early photographs provided by Deiro's son, Count Guido Deiro. On this unique 2-CD set, Henry Doktorski gives dashing and dexterous performances of Deiro's music, with 27 delightful compositions that include Pink Slippers Valse, Hand Grenade Throwers March, Deiro Rag, Lola Fox Trot, Valse Pirouette and The Accordion Girl Waltz. This welcome release is a deliciously diverting glimpse into a world that has long disappeared.

THE FROBERGER EDITION, VOL. 3 - BOB VAN ASPEREN     AEOLUS AE-10064

On this remarkable double CD Bob van Asperen plays a series of suites for harpsichord by the Johann Jacob Froberger. Born in Stuttgart in 1661, Froberger was a choir-boy in Vienna before becoming an organist at the court there. He subsequently moved to Rome, where he studied with Frescobaldi, and later became one of the most highly regarded organists of his day. His compositions, all written for the keyboard, are of great historical importance, and the Aeolus label is to be congratulated for bringing us this latest volume in an outstanding edition of his works.

LES ELEMENS - PALLADIAN ENSEMBLE     LINN CKD 221

The startlingly dissonant opening to Les Elemens was a most shocking and original sound to the audiences of its time (the late 1730s). Amazingly, it was written by 71 year old Jean-Fery Rebel, who had enjoyed a long and productive career as one of Louis XIV’s favoured musicians. He wrote many successful instrumental works, of which this is the most famous. The composer’s introduction explains that it starts with ‘Chaos itself, that confusion which reigned among the Elements before the moment when, subject to immutable laws, they assumed their prescribed places within the natural order’. The suite which follows is filled with imaginative touches, as when the violin and bass portray Earth while the flute - in this case, recorder - imitates the flow of Water over the top. This beguiling album also features fine chamber music by his friend and contemporary at court, Marin Marais. The brilliant Palladian Ensemble consists of Pamela Thorby (recorders), Rodolfo Richter (violin), Susanne Heinrich (bass viol) and William Carter (guitar, lute, theorbo).