Georg Muffat’s “Missa in labore requies” alongside church sonatas of his contemporaries make up audite’s latest offering in the series of polychoral baroque music recorded by renowned Early Music performers.
With its octagonal layout and four galleries, the Abbey Church at Muri provides an ideal acoustic for performing polychoral music. The galleries surround the main body of the church, placing the audience in the midst of the musical event. This sound experience is unique, both in concert and in recordings. The considerable distance between the galleries creates challenges in the musical interaction of the different groups.

Not only do these players adopt some very deliberate tempos in movements such as “Sitio”, “Mulier, ecce filius tuus”, and “Consummatum est”, but they also include a quartet transcription of the wind-band introduction to Part 2 of the work’s oratorio version (my other preferred way to enjoy it). Strangely enough, though you might think that the last thing we need is yet another slow movement, it all works surprisingly well. Surely it helps that the group has taken care to compare the quartet arrangement with the orchestral original and to include some of the missing subsidiary musical lines otherwise assigned to the orchestra’s wind section, resulting in a slightly richer texture overall.

This is the second issue in the Chandos cycle of Parry's orchestral and choral works in which Matthias Bamert is conducting the London Philharmonic. It is splendid to hear this neglected music so sensitively and enthusiastically interpreted by a non-British conductor. Although two of the works on this disc—the Fifth Symphony and the Elegy for Brahms—have been previously recorded for EMI in 1978 by Boult with the same orchestra (11/87—nla), I have no hesitation in declaring that these are finer performances and interpretations. Boult loved Parry's music, but Bamert finds more passion and mystery in it. Sir Adrian seemed more concerned with its structure, trusting that the emotion would emerge of its own accord, as no doubt it would have done if he had been younger and fitter when he made his recording.

Mozart is on inspired form in these wonderful works, and so is Alfred Brendel.

This sensational recital—featuring some of the greatest keyboard music to emerge from these islands—is the perfect vehicle for Mahan Esfahani’s abundant talents. His accompanying booklet notes are an added bonus, guaranteed to inform, illuminate and provoke by turns.

The 1st and 9th complement each other perfectly, and this original pairing of the 9th with an equally fine performance of the 1st is a delight. The playing and acoustic of the Philharmonic is not as glorious as that of the Concertgebouw in some of Haitink's other Shostakovich recordings, but they acquit themselves quite well, capturing equally the light and the gloom, playfulness and tragedy, lyricism and satire that run through these both works.

The booklet for this fine disc from Montreal includes a wonderful characterization of Alessandro Scarlatti's music, especially of the cantatas recorded here. "His music's eloquence," wrote French pedagogue Ennemond Trillat, "does not implore; it stems from that spiritual intoxication which is the very essence of the Baroque. And this music sings without phraseology. It is free of all extrinsic intent, and its lyricism produces perfect forms. Its fluid grace is essentially melodic, but without a trace of exuberance."

The keyboard works of François Couperin – the most famous of the 18th-century clavecinistes – have never enjoyed quite the same popular revival as those of Scarlatti and Bach. No doubt Couperin’s comparative neglect is due partly to the fact that his intricate ornamental lines transfer awkwardly to the piano; but it is also true that the surface naivety and understated virtuosity of many of his pieces belie their musical substance.

These much-lauded performances deserve the highest possible recommendation. One example suffices to detail the level of Martinon’s interpretive perceptions. Ravel was, of course, a stunning orchestrator, and yet most of the music here was originally conceived for keyboard. The end of the Mother Goose ballet contains one of his rare orchestral miscalculations: the original glissandos for piano are given to the harp, which is almost never audible against the loud final climax–except here. Martinon, with his keen ear and evident knowledge of what Ravel intended, makes sure that the harp comes right through, and the result is magical. His textural awareness is matched by an equally natural sense of pacing, and the orchestra (not one of the world’s great ones) gives him 100 percent in music that it clearly knows and loves.

Mahan Esfahani veröffentlicht sein Debütalbum “Time Present and Time Past”, und damit erscheint auch die erste Cembalo Veröffentlichung bei Deutsche Grammophon seit über 30 Jahren! Sein Album, das maßgeblich durch Gedichte von T.S. Elliot inspiriert wurde, vereint Barockmusik von Bach und Corelli mit minimalistischen Klängen von Komponisten wie Reich und Gorecki. Mit seinen eingängigen Interpretationen begeistert Esfahani nicht nur seine Zuhörer für das historische Tasteninstrument, durch die Begleitung des “Concerto Köln”, einem auf historische Aufführungspraxis spezialisierten Orchester, gelingt es ihm, die Musik besonders authentisch wirken zu lassen.

The Parry revival gathers pace. This is the first disc in a Chandos series which is to embrace the five symphonies and some of the choral works, including the rare and lovely The Lotus Eaters. A special significance attaches to it because the conductor is not British. Who would have expected a Swiss conductor, Matthias Bamert, to explore such a rare English preserve as the Parry symphonies? It is an encouraging act of faith, and the quality of the performances and interpretations is such as springs not from duty but from conviction and enthusiasm. Chandos give the music one of their clear and faithful recordings, with admirable balance and slight resonance.

By today's standards, there's nothing particularly jarring or seemingly progressive about the mature works of Gabriel Fauré. In his own time, however, he was often criticized for his curious, almost experimental use of harmony in his chamber music, and for what some saw as his neglect of the individual qualities of the instruments for which he was composing. Some of these sentiments have endured and resulted in the infrequent performance of many of his chamber works, in this case the two sonatas for cello and piano. While the cello "miniatures," such as the Op. 24 Elegie and the Op. 7 Apre un Reve (transcribed by Casals), have enjoyed popularity particularly in high school and early college studios, they are not representative of Fauré's developed harmonic language.

Couplings of the two Balakirev symphonies are not uncommon. Naxos and Hyperion are examples although no doubt there are others. This set, which in terms of musical playing time is amongst the most generous in the BMG-Melodiya series, includes both symphonies and six other works, three tone poems and three overtures. Balakirev's dedication to folk music and the exotic orient is well known. It puts in an appearance to greater or lesser extents in all these works.

Who is María? Horacio Ferrer,librettist of this unconventional operita , said that she was a representation of Buenos Aires, embodying the spirit of tango itself. María de Buenos Aires lies outside any known genre. According to Ferrer, its highly poetic libretto was written not to be understood, but to create emotion and atmosphere .Piazzolla's music, too, offers a charged mix of classical forms and Argentinian traditions milonga, tango and the sparring spoken word of the traditional payada. In this,the first major recording since the 1980s, Delphian stalwarts Mr McFall's Chamber are joined by their long-term collaborators Valentina Montoya Martínez and Nicholas Mulroy, narrator Juanjo Lopez Vidal, and internationally acclaimed tango musicians Victor Villena and Cyril Garac.

Kirill Kondrashin is one of the few Russian conductors to celebrate an international career, next to Eugen Mravinsky, Igor Markewisch and Jascha Horenstein. In 1943 he became principal conductor at the Bolshoi theatre, an institution so important for Soviet musical life, to which he would belong for 13 years. In 1956 he was appointed chief conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic. This position opened doors for him internationally and Kondrashin was able to accept tour invitations from western countries.