Alfvén: Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 19 'Midsommarvaka' (Midsummer Vigil)

Of the six orchestral works on this recording three are in the composers’ own piano duet versions; two others were transcribed by people in whom the composers had great faith (Rimsky-Korsakov here being considered the composer of Night on Bald Mountain, as Mussorgsky had died), and it must be presumed that Lyadov approved the choice of Kalafati who “was held in great esteem by his colleagues and pupils” (Baker’s “Biographical Dictionary of Musicians”). Three of the six pieces of music involve the supernatural, while the remaining three present “magical” soundscapes in their different ways. The first two items depict very different midsummer festivities.

As a further note, four of the pieces featured on this CD are World Première Recordings. The CD booklet contains highly informative notes by Anthony Goldstone.

With CDs around forty in number and a busy concert schedule stretching back more than a quarter of a century, the British piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow is firmly established as a leading force.

Described by Gramophone as ‘a dazzling husband and wife team’, by International Record Review as ‘a British institution in the best sense of the word’, and by The Herald, Glasgow, as ‘the UK’s pre-eminent two-piano team’, internationally known artists Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow formed their duo in 1984 and married in 1989. Their extremely diverse activities in two-piano and piano-duet recitals and double concertos, taking in major festivals, have sent them all over the British Isles as well as to Europe, the Middle East and several times to the U.S.A., where they have received standing ovations and such press accolades as ‘revelations such as this are rare in the concert hall these days’ (Charleston Post and Courier). In their refreshingly presented concerts they mix famous masterpieces and fascinating rarities, which they frequently unearth themselves, into absorbing and hugely entertaining programmes; their numerous BBC broadcasts have often included first hearings of unjustly neglected works, and their equally enterprising and acclaimed commercial recordings include many world premières.

With heavily atmospheric TV Scandinavian crime drama now all the rage, here is an essentially upbeat antidote to the leaden skies of northern Europe filling our TV screens! This collection features firm favourites such as Alfvén's Midsommarvake (Midsummer Vigil aka Swedish Rhapsody) and Grieg's Våren (Last Spring) and also less familiar works by Halvorsen, Svendsen, Bull and Nielsen. Completing the well-filled Smörgåsbord are three delightful miniatures by 'the Johann Strauss of the north' Hans Lumbye. Many of these performances, including six works conducted by Øivin Fjeldstad and John Frandsen's 1955 recording of Kuhnau's Elverhøj, are on CD for the first time.

This is the latest release in our on-going series of recordings by the legendary German conductor Fritz Busch, earlier issues of which have drawn exceptional reviews from the international classical press. The disc is made up of mainly overtures and orchestral preludes from the 19th-century, with Hugo Alfven's ever-delightful Swedish Rhapsody No 1, one of the most tuneful and popular of all 20th-century short orchestral favourites. The repertoire therefore is surprisingly wide, and contains the conductor's own orchestral version of a suite of dances compiled from Schubert's music. With outstanding orchestral playing from orchestras in Winterthur, Los Angeles and Malmo, this CD offers another unique conspectus of the mastery of this great conductor.