Devienne · 4 Bassoon Concertos

A celebrated bassoonist and flutist in late seventeenth century France, François Devienne is remembered now for the several concertos he wrote for his own performance, although he also wrote a dozen operas and many chamber works.

A. Scarlatti · 6 Sinfonie di Concerto Grosso · 3 Concerti

Alessandro Scarlatti was among the most important Italian composers of opera from the late Baroque period. He is credited with establishing the Neapolitan school of opera in the eighteenth century, rapidly improving the predominantly provincial state of music in Naples into a sophisticated and enduring tradition. He composed over 600 cantatas, more than 100 operas, many oratorios, serenatas, sonatas, and other instrumental pieces.

Oddly, his historical position declined after his death and his reputation was not rehabilitated until the early twentieth century. His importance in music is further bolstered by the fact he was the father of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), who in the keyboard realm was among the most individual and influential composers of his day. Another son, Pietro, also became a composer of some distinction. --allmusic.com

Yoshimatsu · Piano Concerto "Memo Flora"

"The style is international pastel: quiet, tonal, cool. Yoshimatsu’s concerto is delicately melodic and playful. Strongest are the elegiac And Birds Are Still, and While an Angel Falls into a Doze..., with Pärt-like textures..." --BBC Music Magazine

"...Excellent performances and sound engineering add to the beauty of this intriguing disc." --The Ottawa Citizens Week
Performance ****  Sound *****

"The more accesible end of contemporary, composition, with congenial performances." --Classic CD

"Manchester Camerata make their debut on the Chandos label with an interesting set of works by a living Japanese composer ... the real discovery is Yoshimatsu’s While An Angel Falls Into A Doze. Written this year, it’s a remarkable peice and reveals the Camerata at their best." --Manchester Evening News

Benda, J. A. · Sinfonias Nos. 7 to 12

"It makes one happy to know that the musical tradition of the bohemian Benda family continues without interruption until nowadays. A quality of execution more than excellent. The orchestra's vivacity in the first and last movements and its perfect soloists are exalting in the best way these symphonies." --CD Classica

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Rosetti · Clarinet Concertos 1 & 2 · Concerto for Two Horns

All three works here date from the early 1780s and clearly demonstrate that there is more to this period than Mozart. The highlight of the disc is the double horn concerto, which is performed superbly. Dieter Klocker’s playing is brilliantly efficient but rather charmless. --BBC Music Magazine

Rachmaninov · Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3

This is a perfect example of "opposites attract," with the coolly elegant Pierre Entremont paired with the passionate Leonard Bernstein, but instead of clashing, these two complement and play off one another rather well. In terms of sheer sex appeal, this performance threatens to go off the charts, with Entremont's crystalline passagework in the first movement glimmering against Lenny's darkly smoldering New York strings.

Bach · Variations dans le style italien

Bach · Variations dans le style italien

“Tureck's artistry is without question extremely compelling...she makes a strong case for Bach played on the piano” --Fanfare

“Consummate artistry...She makes us feel that Bach's keyboard music could be played in no other way than this--the hallmark of a great artist” --Penguin Guide

Liszt · Les Préludes, etc · Smetana · Die Moldau

The revamped digital transfers enable Karajan’s irresistibly virtuosic performances of these Liszt tone poems (some, like Mazeppa . . . are by no means as familiar as they deserve to be) and other orchestral works . . . to register with an impact and brilliance unimaginable on the basis of the original LP releases. Les préludes, of course, was a longstanding Karajan staple; this stunning 1968 account is almost certainly definitive, and nor will you hear any finer versions of the [Rhapsody] included here. These are vintage Karajan offerings, and brightly lit, richly detailed remasterings . . .  -- Michael Jameson, BBC Music Magazine [reviewing the Liszt recordings]

Baroque Music of Bologna · Torelli · Franceschini · Jacchini · Gabrielli

"The St James's players respond well; articulation is crisp and accurate, the sound well balanced, and vibrato all but eliminated. Above all there is some spectacular trumpet playing, and the skeletal continuo indications have been realized with imagination and restraint. The result is an enjoyable and undemanding sequence of pieces." --IF. Gramophone

During the sixteenth century Bologna was comparatively unimportant as a musical centre; musical life was centred on the principal churches and monasteries, but even there there were few musicians of any real significance apart from Giovanni Spataro (a highly-respected theorist whose fascinating letters have just been published), the first maestro di cappella at the major church of the city, San Petronio. As with painting, the real change came in the seventeenth century when an orchestra was added to the forces available at San Petronio, and when the foundation of the famous Accademia Filarmonica encouraged a school of local composition.

This new record from Ivor Bolton and the St James's Baroque Players provides a fair sample of the Bolognese baroque manner, and particularly of the San Petronio cappella. Inaugurated by Maurizio Cazzati, whose music is not represented here, it culminates in the music of Giovanni Battista Vitali and Giuseppe Torelli. It is Torelli's music that is by far the most interesting on the record, harmonically more varied, with a greater sense of drama and altogether more lyrical.

The St James's players respond well; articulation is crisp and accurate, the sound well balanced, and vibrato all but eliminated. Above all there is some spectacular trumpet playing, and the skeletal continuo indications have been realized with imagination and restraint. The result is an enjoyable and undemanding sequence of pieces, at times a little dull perhaps (Franceschini's stereotyped triadic figures, endless scale passages and simpleminded fugato writing doesn't encourage one to rush for more), but always played with great style and musicality. --IF. Gramophone

Telemann · Complete Violin Concertos Vol. 3

Volume 3 of Telemann’s Complete Violin Concertos is performed by The Wallfisch Band; a band which consists of Elisabeth’s friends and students.

“...this is the third instalment of a very fine series. The best work is the Concerto in D, which has movement titles like Badinage and is wonderfully inventive...Wallfisch is joined by Susan Carpenter-Jacobs for some very elegant duetting.” --The Guardian ****

Telemann's violin concertos, for the most part, are genre-bending pieces that are apt to tie musicologists in knots. Most of them date from his years in Frankfurt (1712-1720), and were composed for gifted amateurs rather than professional virtuosi. The solo writing, consequently, isn't anything like as prominent as we find in Vivaldi, for instance, which explains why some violinists have turned their noses up at them.

Structurally, many of them take French dance suites as their models, which has led them to be awkwardly renamed Ouvertures en concert in French, or Overture Concertos in English. Undaunted by this confusion, Elizabeth Wallfisch and her band have been recording them for CPO: this is the third instalment of a very fine series.

The best work is the Concerto in D, which has movement titles like Badinage and is wonderfully inventive. The late Concerto in A was triggered by a trip to Paris in 1737, and is an example of how Telemann, chameleon-like, could absorb and reproduce another composer's style, in this case Rameau's. In the beautiful, more conventional Double Concerto in G, Wallfisch is joined by Susan Carpenter-Jacobs for some very elegant duetting. -- Tim Ashley, The Guardian