This installment of Rosner’s orchestral music shows a wide range of emotional expression. The 1976 Five Ko-ans for Orchestra encapsulates the essence of Rosner’s style. The music’s mostly triadic, with chords resolving in delightfully unexpected ways. Rosner incorporated Renaissance modality and late Medieval counterpoint into his music. It’s no accident that the final movement of this work […]
CD Review
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Dussek Complete Piano Sonatas Volume 4 – Illuminating
This release features sonatas that span Dussek’s career. And since they’re played on fortepianos of the period, they also provide insight into the development of the piano. The Sonata in A-flat major, Op. 5 No. 3 and the Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 24 are relatively early works. Written in 1788 and 1793 respectively, Tuija […]
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Harald Genzmer Concertos – Zestful, Artful, and Comprehensible
German composer Harald Genzmer had a philosophy. “Music should be zestful, artful and comprehensible. As practicable, it may win over the interpreter, and then the listener as graspable.” The three concertos in this release, spanning 60 years, show Grenzmer remained true to his ideal. In 1938 Genzmer had just completed his studies with Paul Hindemith. […]
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Pacoloni Ensemble performs Thysius Lute Book with rough authenticity
Dutch philosopher, theologian, and musician Adriaan Smout collected over 900 compositions from the late 1500s. This massive collection made its way to John Thysius, a book collector, for whom the collection is named. The collection is a virtual cross-section of European lute music. While most of the sources aren’t listed, modern scholars have traced works […]
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Arnold Mendelssohn Piano Works – Inspired by Brahms
Arnold Mendelssohn is just beginning to be rediscovered. Recordings such as this will help immensely. Mendelssohn was the great nephew of Felix and rose to prominence at the turn of the 20th Century. He was an accomplished organist and held several Protestant church positions. He was a colleague of Hugo Wolf and counted Paul Hindemith […]
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A Vaughan Williams Christmas – A Refreshing Return to Basics
I tire easily of Christmas music — especially the traditional carols. Part of the reason is that I’ve heard the same overblown arrangements (and variations thereof) over and over. That’s what made this new Albion release so refreshing. It gets back to basics, and let me hear these pieces as Ralph Vaughan Williams intended when […]
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Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain – An Irish-Appalachian Celebration
In 2015 Apollo’s Fire released “Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering.” This Classical Crossover chart-topper celebrated the connection between Scotch-Irish mountain music and early Celtic and British music. “Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain” revisits the premise with a fresh batch of tunes. Rest assured these are no delicate forays into folk music by classical practitioners. Director Jeannette […]
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Margaretha Consort Delivers Authentic 17th C. German Christmas
Marit Broekroelofs and the Margretha Consort present a fascinating program of seasonal music. There are plenty of early Baroque Christmas albums to choose from, in just about every flavor. What makes this recording stand out is the consistency of the artistic vision. Broekroelofs has taken the seasonal repertoire of the early Protestant church and presents […]
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Das neugeborne Kindelein – Baroque Cantatas for the Season
This release presents Christmas cantatas from three German Baroque masters: Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach. All three wrote cantatas for each Sunday of the Liturgical calendar. Buxtehude was of the generation before Telemann and Bach and was a model to the younger composers. His cantata Das neugeborne Kindelein opens the program. It’s […]