Even when he was the darling of the Darmstadt avant-garde, Hans Werner Henze was his own man. In time he moved away from the aggressive modernism of that school — literally and musically. Werner settled on an island in the Gulf of Naples, where he became a neighbor of William Walton. At the same time, […]
Naxos
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Auber Overtures Volume 5 goes beyond overtures
One thing I like about Dario Salvi’s Auber series is the variety. Yes, This release’s title is “Overtures 5.” But, like the previous volumes, it’s more than just a collection of overtures. This time the focus is on two Auber operas: Zanetta, and Zerline. Zanetta premiered in 1840. The opera’s heroine is the innocent daughter of […]
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HyeJin Kim beautifully performs early Clementi
Consider this the origin story. Muzio Clementi had a long and (mostly) successful musical career. He was a pianist, composer, publisher, and piano manufacturer. His popularity at times rivaled that of Haydn and Beethoven, both as a performer and a composer. There is no shortage of Clementi piano sonata recordings. Most focus on his mid-to-late […]
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Ukrainian Piano Quintets — Exceptional
Ukrainian musicians play piano quintets from three generations of Ukrainian composers. One would expect top-flight, engaging performances. And one would be right. There’s a passion here that’s palpable. The quintets are programmed in chronological order. When I listened straight through, I could hear how each composer built on the foundations of the previous. Boris Lyatoshynsky […]
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Xiaogang Ye – Road to the Republic truly epic
Xiaogang Ye is an important composer both in China and in the world. He does more than just blend Chinese traditional music with Western classical forms. He’s also an innovator, pushing past the limits of tonality. But doing so in a way that sounds both natural and logical. This is the third release of Ye’s […]
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East-West Chamber Orchestra completes Weinberg series in fine style
This release completes Naxos’ cycle of Mieczyslaw Weinberg Chamber Symphonies. The East-West Chamber ORchestra released Nos. 1 and 3 back in 2019. They conclude with Nos. 2 and 4. The level of musicianship in the East-West Chamber Orchestra is quite high. Its members are an international group of concertmasters and soloists. In my review of […]
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Romantic Piano Fantasies — entertaining if not elevating
In the early 1800s, Sir Walter Scott was a wildly popular writer. As wildly popular as J.K. Rowling would be in the early 2000s. His “Waverly” series started a new genre, historical fiction. Scott would write between 30-48 novels set in historic Scotland, all best-sellers. Carl Czerny published a series of four piano duets inspired […]
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Florence Price Symphony No. 3 blends traditions
Florence Price wrote this about her third symphony, “No attempt has been made to project Negro music solely in the purely traditional manner.” In other words, her symphony wasn’t a collection of spirituals. Rather, it was her own original musical vision. And one that blended European symphonic and African-American musical traditions. This 1940 work has […]
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Joan Tower scores a hit with Strike Zones
I’m a percussionist by training. And I’m an admirer of Joan Tower’s music. So a disc featuring Tower’s compositions for Evelyn Glennie was a must-review for me. Glennie is one of the foremost percussionists in the world. Her innovative technique is only matched, by her drive to enrich the repertoire. To that end, she has […]