New Releases

One of the supreme musical geniuses and most loved composers of all time, Mozart wrote prolifically and excelled in every genre to which he turned his hand. His symphonies are among his greatest achievements, a consummate blend of dazzling invention and tender lyricism. This collection spans his entire compositional career from symphonies written at the age of eight to those written in Vienna during the last three years of his life.

GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty explores three icons of “The Greatest Generation”, a turbulent period of adversity and achievement in the United States of America spanning the Great Depression of the 1930s through the Second World War. Mount Rushmore is a dramatic oratorio inspired by the monumental sculpture of four American presidents carved into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Radio City is a symphonic fantasy on the legendary Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in live radio broadcasts heard by millions across America. The Gospel According to Sister Aimee is an organ concerto inspired by the rise, fall and redemption of religious celebrity Aimee Semple McPherson. Under the masterful baton of Music Director Carl St.Clair, the renowned Pacific Symphony is joined by Pacific Chorale, one of America’s greatest choirs, and GRAMMY® Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs.

Michael Daugherty is already a well-established composer, with the Philadelphia Stories (8559165) described as “highly accessible… always great fun” by Gramophone, Route 66 (8559613) acclaimed for its “confident, loose-limbed performances” by BBC Music Magazine and the multiple GRAMMY® award winning Metropolis Symphony (8559635) dubbed “terrifically entertaining” and “hard to beat” by ClassicToday.com.

Fans will hardly need persuading in acquiring Daugherty’s major new oratorio Mount Rushmore, as usual given generous couplings of the composer’s latest large-scale compositions performed by some of the best musicians of our times.

Rossini’s ceaseless wit and invention are best exemplified in his series of operas.

His colourful orchestration and command of both comic and tragic elements can be savoured in this second of four volumes of the complete symphonic overtures. Guillaume Tell, with its overture in four movements, includes a scene for five solo cellos. La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), one of his most popular pieces, opens with an overture of charm and élan. Volume 1 (8570933) was described by MusicWeb International as “an admirable start to what looks like being a very desirable series”.

Witty and vital, but also darker and rather less well known, Rossini’s overtures cover a wide variety of moods and expressions. This disc includes the perennial favourite La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), and the witty Guillaume Tell. With little known operatic overtures included, it makes for a finely balanced programme; and whilst the favourites have been multiply recorded, others are very much under represented in the catalogue.

The richness of contemporary choral music is explored on this recording of works by some of today’s leading composers from across three continents. Eric Whitacre’s dramatic setting of Lorca’s poetry is contrasted with Frank Ticheli’s serene setting of There Will Be Rest, in which he attempts, in his own words, to “capture [the poem’s] purity of spirit and delicate lyricism”. Arvo Pärt has crafted an atmospheric setting of John Henry Newman’s 1843 sermon Wisdom and Innocence. David N. Childs’ Do Not Go Gentle, a setting of Dylan Thomas’ famous poem, embodies a foreboding and ominous undercurrent of desperation in the face of impending death. Vox Humana is a new 24-voice chamber choir based in Dallas, Texas.

Amongst the composers featured in this disc, Eric Whitacre is currently exceptionally popular, and Pärt and Tavener are perennial favourites. Composers such as Lauridsen and Ticheli, who are somewhat less well known but who have established followings and who contribute settings of great depth, are also included. The mood is largely consoling but not simplistic. There is no strictly comparable disc available.

The music of Fernando Lopes-Graça, one of the most significant Portuguese composers of the twentieth century, went through several phases of development. Though rooted in folk music, it absorbed influences not only from much earlier composers such as Scarlatti and Seixas, but from contemporaries such as Bartók. These influences are potent in the Piano Concerto No. 1 of 1940, a highly personal, atmospheric and superbly orchestrated work imbued with bittersweet romanticism. Though the Iberian Baroque permeates its finale, the Piano Concerto No. 2 is a much darker and more ambivalent work, marking a new milestone in his development.

Fernando Lopes-Graça collected the folksongs of his native Portugal, and his early compositions were strongly influenced by such music. Later he was influenced by Bartók and Stravinsky. The Piano Concertos represent two of his most contrasting and absorbing works. The First is richly atmospheric, the post-War Second Concerto dark. Both embed Spanish Baroque music, but are in no way pastiche works. Their appeal is direct due to imaginative orchestration and strong themes.

Although Giorgio Federico Ghedini’s proud independence and lack of adherence to any particular school brought him into conflict with the avant-garde, he is now increasingly recognised as one of the finest Italian composers of the 20th century. Marking the 50th anniversary of Ghedini’s death, this recording reveals an aspect of his repertoire yet to be fully appreciated and is a significant addition to the repertoire. Contemporary with those of Respighi, Pizzetti and Alfano, the Violin Sonatas display a real sense of creative freedom and are notable for their structural originality, beautiful harmonies and tonal and rhythmic invention. Ghedini’s complete piano works can be heard on Naxos 8572329 and 8572330.

This release is preceded by two volumes of Ghedini’s complete piano works performed by Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi, and welcomed as a “long-overdue insight into an underrated and enigmatic composer.” (MusicWeb International on Vol. 2) Marking the 50th anniversary of Ghedini’s death, this CD reveals a further aspect of a repertoire yet to be truly appreciated, but due to take its rightful place as a significant part of Italy’s 20th century musical legacy.

During the remarkable and prolific period between his 72nd and 92nd birthdays, Havergal Brian wrote no fewer than 27 symphonies. Some seem to fall into groups, such as Nos. 22-24, all written within a nine-month period between 1964 and 1965. They all share a concern for march-rhythms, changeable moods and developing variation. No. 22 is Brian’s shortest symphony and exemplifies his art in its most compressed, nocturnal form, whereas No. 23 offers a more extrovertly scored and expansive scale. No. 24 provides the triumphant rejoicing that ends the trilogy. Influenced by Tchaikovsky, the 1906 English Suite No. 1 nevertheless hints at Brian’s sonic experiments to come.

Portuguese composer Luís Tinoco’s works are “as engrossing as they are entertaining” (Musical Opinion), and these première recordings represent some of the most exciting new orchestral work to appear in recent years.

Conductor David Alan Miller writes, “Drawing inspiration from sources as diverse as French Impressionism and Brazilian Jazz, Tinoco creates a sound world that is uniquely, distinctly Portuguese, equal parts sunshine, saudade and sensuality. I know it’s good when it makes my knees weak.” This entirely new program of orchestral/vocal works by Luís Tinoco is a significant event in contemporary music.

Slovak-born composer and conductor Peter Breiner has received considerable international acclaim for his adaptations, and his Tchaikovsky arrangements are particularly impressive examples of his art. He has already arranged The Seasons (8553510) and Songs (8555332) but here he turns to opera. With deftness and subtlety he has taken motifs from Tchaikovsky’s first opera Voyevoda to craft six richly scored movements, two of which have rôles for solo strings. The Queen of Spades was composed in 1890 and Breiner’s selections fully explore the music’s romance and drama in their new form.

Peter Breiner has won a particular niche for his ingenious arrangements, and he has arranged and recorded a number of Tchaikovsky discs before. Here he tackles opera in the same spirit of rich communicative warmth bringing to an early opera (Voyevoda) and the later The Queen of Spades the qualities of orchestral eloquence that he has displayed elsewhere. These excerpted pieces, so cleverly transformed from their vocal origins to orchestral form, communicate the vitality and lyricism inherent in the music.

Ira Hearshen is one of America’s most popular and successful orchestrators and arrangers. He has written for many Hollywood films, such as Toy Story and The Scorpion King. He has also written for the concert stage, especially wind band, notably his Pulitzer Prize-nominated Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa, which is adventurously constructed, richly melodic and colorfully scored. His unique takes on Strike Up The Band and There’s No Business Like Show Business provide moments of rich humor whilst the Divertimento for Band mines the American jazz vernacular with true rhythmic verve.

Ira Hearshen’s music is colourful and hugely approachable. It’s often also laced with broad humour and wit. The Divertimento has been recorded on a compilation album called Rendezvous released by a number of American composers’ band music back in 2001 (Klavier Record) and on a couple of Mark Records discs by the US Air Force Band, again compilation CD. The Symphony is also on a Mark Records compilation disc released in 2003.