QUARTETTI ITALIANI - QUARTETTO DI VENEZIA         DYNAMIC CDS 486/1-10

The acclaimed Quartetto di Venezia consists of four excellent Venetian musicians: Andrea Vio and Alberto Battiston (violins), Luca Morassutti (viola) and Angelo Zanin (cello). The quartet has maintained its original formation for over ten years, during which time it has played at major international festivals in Italy (including Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence and Bologna) as well as in many countries around the world. They have performed for Pope Giovanni Paolo II and for the President of the Italian Republic, and have recorded extensively for television, radio and on CD. Like most of the musical forms that blossomed in the 18th century (the sonata for solo and continuo, trio sonata, concerto and symphony), the string quartet began its glorious parabola in Italy but bore its ripest fruits beyond the Alps, reaching an apex in the production of the great Austro-German classical composers, especially Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. Several Italian composers, however, also made original and important contributions to the genre. This stylish 10-CD box set from Dynamic provides a panoramic view of quartet music in Italy, ranging from Boccherini’s elegant classical writing to Malipiero’s controversial stance against Romanticism. Other composers featured include Bazzini, Verdi, Puccini and Respighi.

SHOSTAKOVICH - THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS     HYPERION CDS44091/6

Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period who had a troubled relationship with the government, including two official denunciations of his music in 1936 and 1948. Since his death, his life and work have been under much scrutiny, with debate over the extent to which he was secretly a dissident. After an initial avant-garde period, Shostakovich wrote mainly in the romantic idiom, heavily influenced by Mahler. He wrote operas, concertos and a large quantity of film music, but his greatest works are probably his symphonies and string quartets. He composed fifteen of each and it is in the quartets, mostly written in the latter part of his career, that he was most free to compose with maximum seriousness and minimum external pressure. Shostakovich adapted modern elements to his personal style and emotionally connected to the plight of the Russian and Jewish people under Soviet tyranny. His first string quartet was written after he had already composed five symphonies and it was only with mounting tragedy in his life that Shostakovich’s music began to reflect a profound melancholy and despair. The excellent St Petersburg String Quartet play this dark and intense music with passion and dazzling technique. As well as all of the string quartets, this six-CD box set (with over seven hours of music) also includes Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 and his Piano Quintet in G minor. ‘These are among the great interpretations that have been placed on disc’ - Fanfare.

TRAVELING WEST           NORTH SOUTH N/S R 1038

This album has the first recordings of five inspiring scores by living American composers selected from among the many compositions performed as part of a unique New York City concert series. The works exhibit diverse but complimentary aesthetic outlooks and a post-modern thread runs through all of them. The longest work here, Traveling West, is an ambitious song cycle written by Randall Snyder, Professor of Composition and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Inspired by the poetry of four women writers from Nebraska (Susan Strayer Deal, Marjorie Saiser, Hilda Raz and Kathleene West), the songs are wonderfully evocative of the Nebraska landscape. The other composers featured are Marilyn Jane Ziffrin (her lively Piano Concertino), William Mayer (Messages, an impressionistic work for virtuoso flute and instrumental accompaniment - violin, viola, cello and percussion instruments), Harry Bulow (Syntax 1) and Joseph Koykkar (Out Front, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and one percussionist playing both marimba and vibraphone). Max Lifchitz conducts the excellent North/South Consonance Ensemble and the soloists are Helen Lin (piano), Lisa Hansen (flute) and Margaret O’Connell (mezzo-soprano). Marilyn Ziffrin was born in 1926 in Moline, Illinois, and has devoted her life to creating brilliant and intense music that deserves to be much better known. More of her accomplished compositions can be heard on Songs & Arias (North/South N/S R 1041).

MAX KUHN - INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND SONGS     GUILD GMCD 7284

The prolific Swiss composer, conductor, organist and pianist Max Kuhn was born in Zurich in 1896. He studied at the Zurich Conservatory, as well as in Vienna with Richard Stöhr and Joseph Hofmann, and became organist and choir director at the Catholic church in Küsnacht near Zurich. He also founded the Choir for modern Music, which later became the Zurich Chamber Choir, and was a teacher for piano and music theory. As a composer, his early music followed in tradition of Bach, Schubert and Wolf, but Hindemith influenced his later work in matters of harmony and technique, enabling him to go his own way. Kuhn was was attracted to the music of Spain - especially the Canary Islands - so his compositions form a link between the Protestant North and the Mediterranean warmth of the South. He wrote in many genres, from operas to small piano pieces, and this CD features some of his imaginative instrumental music as well as 11 elegant songs (eight of them set to words by the Zurich-born lyric poet Albert Ehrismann). The singer is the mezzo-soprano, Jeanette Ager. The instrumental works include a performance by John Anderson of Kuhn’s expressive Suite for Oboe Solo, written in 1965 and dedicated to the singer Elisabeth Salzmann. The Three Preludes for piano, played here by Sophia Rahman, reveal the influences of both Scriabin and Busoni.

STANFORD - PIANO QUINTET & STRING QUINTET NO. 1     HYPERION CDA67505

Charles Villiers Stanford Stanford was born in Dublin in 1852, the only son of John Stanford, a prominent lawyer and an accomplished amateur musician. The precocious Charles learned violin, piano, composition and organ before winning a scholarship to Cambridge University at the age of 18. He was appointed organist of Trinity College while still an undergraduate and held the post until 1892. His appointment as conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society gave him great opportunities, and he completed his studies in Germany, where he learnt from Reinecke and Kiel. After graduation, he began his career as a composer with several operas and went on to excel in choral works, including two oratorios, his Requiem, a Stabat Mater and many secular works. He also wrote seven symphonies and  other orchestral works as well as many chamber compositions, including this richly scored String Quintet No 1, much admired by Parry, and the lively Piano Quintet dating from 1886. Piers Lane is the pianist with the excellent RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet and Garth Knox (viola). The famously irascible Stanford is perhaps best remembered today as the teacher of composers such as Holst, Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge and Herbert Howells, but he was also a notable and inventive composer himself. This recording should help bring his unjustly neglected work to a new audience. ‘A performance of white-hot intensity…an outstanding release’ - BBC Music Magazine.

MATTHEW TAYLOR - PIANO TRIO       TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0015

Matthew Taylor was born in London in 1964 and studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge with Hugh Wood and Robin Holloway, and later at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition to his work as a composer he has a busy conducting schedule, especially with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra and European Community Chamber Orchestra. He has completed two symphonies, concertos for piano (1992), clarinet (1996) and horn (1999), four string quartets, other chamber works, solo piano music and songs. His work has been played and broadcast regularly throughout the UK and performed in Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Baltic States. The three works on this album were composed between 1993 and 1996 and show the influence of Sibelius, Nielsen and Robert Simpson on Taylor’s music. They are his Piano trio (played by the Lowbury Piano Trio), the energetic String Quartet No. 3 (The Schidlof Quartet) and Conflict and Consolation (with members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabyns) This album is one of the first on the ambitious new CD label, Toccata Classics, which admirably specialises in neglected music that has not previously been recorded. Among the label’s other initial releases can be found music by Havergal Brian, the remarkable Norwegian composer Georg von Bertouch, and Mozart (three Cello Sonatas, brilliantly transcribed and played by Alexander Kniazev). Future CDs will include the complete symphonies, string quartets and piano music of Antonín Rejcha, the symphonies of Richard Arnell, and works by Latvian and Lithuanian composers, as well as string symphonies by Mozart’s friend, the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček.

SANCTUARY - THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS   WARNER CLASSICS  2564 62019-2

The Canadian trio Sanctuary is a classical ensemble that defies categorisation. For the past five years, Peter Togni, Jeff Reilly and Christoph Both’s adventurous partnership of organ, bass clarinet and cello has celebrated the mesmerising acoustics of St. Mary’s Basilica in Halifax, Nova Scotia, performing contemplative improvisations based on Gregorian Chant. Sanctuary fuses the melodic simplicity of traditional sounds with jazz and contemporary music to create unique compositions that lead the heart and mind towards inner reflection and stillness. On this debut album for Warner Classics the trio has expanded to feature a string orchestra, conducted by Alain Trudel. The title is taken from a quotation by the seventeenth century French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal - ‘The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing’ - and the graceful lyricism of the music (all compositions are by members Sanctuary) inspires profound thought and meditation. As well as the beautiful title piece there are eight others: Antiphon (two versions), Refuge, Vigil, Illuminations, Lament, Vigils And Stone, Passio and Adoro Te. ‘A completely addictive, achingly melancholy suite of compositions...perfect chill-out music whose subtle atmospherics and unashamed quest for beauty make it far more compelling than such a description normally implies’ - The Independent.

SAINT-SAENS - CHAMBER MUSIC          HYPERION CDA67431/2

The French composer, pianist and organist Camille Saint-Saëns, born in Paris in 1835, was a childhood prodigy. His precocious talent soon won him the admiration of Gounod, Rossini, Berlioz and Liszt, who proclaimled him ‘the world’s greatest organist’. He was organist at the Madeleine, a teacher (Fauré was among his pupils) wrote on musical, scientific and historical topics, travelled widely, and co-founded the Société Nationale de Musique (1871). Perhaps best-known for his Symphonies No. 3 (the ‘Organ’' Symphony) he also wrote many concertos, classically-orientated sonatas, sacred music, several ‘exotic’ dramatic works and a good deal of chamber music. This double-CD set features the Nash Ensemble in performances of  his Septet in E flat major for piano, trumpet, two violins, viola, cello and double bass; Tarentelle in A minor for flute, clarinet and piano; Bassoon Sonata in G major; Piano Quartet in B flat major; Piano Quintet in A minor; Oboe Sonata in D major; Clarinet Sonata in E flat major; Caprice sur des airs danois et russes for piano, flute, oboe and clarinet. These are elegant performances of music that exemplifies the composer’s melodic charm and refinement.

PAGANINI - COMPLETE WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND GUITAR   DYNAMIC CDS 466/1-9

Nicolò Paganini was born in Genoa, Italy in 1782 and was taught to play the violin from a very young age. He gave his first public concert at the age of 11 and went on to become the greatest violinist of his time, profoundly influencing the technique of violin-playing and, through his phenomenal virtuosity, the ambitions of performers on other instruments. During a two and half year period from August 1828 to February, 1831 he visited 40 cities in Germany, Bohemia and Poland, and his performances in Vienna, Paris and London were sensational. His concert tour of England and Scotland in 1832 made him rich. Paganini’s genius as a player overshadows his work as a composer but he wrote a number of accomplished works for violin and orchestra for his own use, including five concertos and several sets of variations for violin and orchestra. He also sometimes played guitar and wrote a number of works for that instrument and the violin, including groups of intimate sonatas and a set of quartets for guitar and string trio. This impressive 9 CD  box-set includes all Paganini’s compositions for violin and guitar, including brilliant performances of the Lucca Sonatas by Luigi Alberto Bianchi (violin) and Maurizio Preda (guitar). Highly recommended.

LAURIE CONRAD - VISIONS       FIGARO RECORDINGS 

This cycle of nine ‘Visions’ for flute and harp was written in July 2001 in Ithaca, New York, by the author, pianist and composer Laurie Conrad. Ithaca has many large and small waterfalls, two only a block away from the composer’s house, and much of the music here is a kind of meditation inspired by these natural features. Laurie Conrad writes: ‘I have been to the Falls nearby in the heat and sun of summer and in the cold and frost of winter, when massive icicles hung from the cliffs. A small waterfall is near the entrance to the Falls, to the right of a footpath. One then walks through a small forest to reach the large falls, which one can hear from the house on some summer nights.’ The cycle was written, for the most part, in a loose 12-tone technique. They are in almost a French Impressionist style, and the composer has made ample use of the whole tone scale, especially in the harp. The talented performers are Laura Campbell (flute) and Myra Kovary (harp), and highlights include an evocative Sunlight on the Falls, Winter Birds, Music of the Spheres and The Lighthouse.

FRENCH TRIOS - DEBUSSY, FAURE, RAVEL   CLAVES 50-2405

The harp virtuoso Xavier de Maistre, an acclaimed soloist with the renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, here performs a delightful collection of trios by five French composers. He is joined on these recordings by the flutist Gaby Pas-Van Riet and and viola player Gunter Teuffel. There are works by Claude Debussy (Sonata in F Major for Flute, Viola and Harp), Gabriel Faure (Fantaisie in C Major for Flute and Harp, arranged by Xavier de Maistre), Marcel Tournler (Sonatine for Harp), Ernest Chausson (Piece in C Major for Viola and Harp, arranged by Xavier de Maistre), Maurice Ravel (Sonatina en Trio in F-sharp Minor for Flute, Viola and Harp, arranged by Carlos Salzedo). Xavier de Maistre was born in 1973 and began studying the harp at the age of nine, winning his first international competition in Paris at the age of sixteen. In 1998 he was awarded first prize and two interpretation prizes at the prestigious International Harp Competition in Bloomington, USA. He also recently became a professor at the Hamburg Musik Hochschule.

TELEMANN/BODINUS - QUARTETS         MERIDIAN CDE 84523

The acclaimed Musicians of the Old Post Road ensemble perform three quartets each by Telemann and Bodinus. This American group specialises in period instrument performance of music from the Baroque, Classical and early Romantic periods, and has a diverse repertory that includes many works that have been unheard for centuries. Georg Philipp Telemann was a prolific, self-taught German composer who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach. He travelled widely and absorbed many musical styles, incorporating them into his compositions. Sebastian Bodinus, also born in Germany, was a violinist and composer at the courts of Baden, Württemburg, and Karlsruhe. Among his surviving chamber works are six quartets published in 1726 that show him to be an accomplished and original composer, often using unusual combinations of flutes, violin and continuo instead of the normal pairing of violins. All the works on this disc are played with exemplary freshness and style, and the Bodinus quartets in particular should be heard by anyone interested in exploring lesser-known music from the Baroque era.

MOZART/BEETHOVEN - STRING QUARTETS BERLIN CLASSICS 0002732/0002742CCC

The string quartet form was first used in the later part of the eighteenth century. Joseph Haydn’s first string quartets had five movements but he soon adopted the standard four movements form: a fast movement, a slow movement, a minuet and trio and a fast finale. Haydn, often called ‘the father of the string quartet’, sometimes played his quartets in an impromptu ensemble of which Mozart was a member. Mozart himself went on to write 26 string quartets but never quite reached Haydn’s achievement in this difficult musical genre. Beethoven composed brilliantly in this form throughout his career and his ‘late quartets’ brought the string quartet to a sublime level that has never been surpassed. These two great value boxed sets of music by Mozart (6 CDs)  and Beethoven (10 CDs) feature recordings made my the acclaimed Suske Quartet in the 1970s. Karl Suske played in the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig before becoming leader of the Staatskapelle in Berlin. In 1965 he founded the Suske Quartet with other musicians from the Berlin Staatskapelle and they made many tours in the West as ambassadors of culture. These fine recordings show a deep understanding of the music and the excellent digital remastering allows us to appreciate the quartet’s musicianship as never before. ‘The performances are articulate, they have a beautiful tone and are highly transparent in their execution’ - Fono Forum.

ACCORDO PERFETTO - DRESDNER STREICH TRIO         QUERSTAND VKJK 0409

The excellent Dresdner Streich Trio was formed in 1995 when its three musicians decided, apart from obligations to the Saxonian state State of Dresden and MDR Sinfonieorchester, to dedicate themselves intensively to chamber music. Invitations followed to perform at the Munich Philharmonic Concert Halls and at many famous music Festivals, such as the Rhine gau music Festival. Accordo Perfetto, volume1, includes works by the Austrian pianist and composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg (Trio op. 27 in F major) and Max Reger (Streichtrio op. 77b. Reger was born in 1873 and during a composing life of little more than 20 years (he died in Leipzig, in 1916) he produced a great deal of music for organ and orchestra as well as these chamber music trios that revela his characteristic energy and complexity.

ROMANTIC MUSIC FOR CELLO - SHAPIRA DUO       IRC 202 USA           

Acclaimed Israeli cellist Benjamin Shapira and pianist Shulamith Shapira have collaborated as a duo for many years. Among their recent performances are concerts at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall as well as tours to Chicago, Los Angeles and Nashville. Benjamin Shapira is the winner of numerous competitions and is in constant demand as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals throughout the United States and abroad. Shulamith Shapira was only sixteen when she graduated from the State Conservatory of Music in Bucharest under the supervision of Florica Musicescu, teacher of major pianists such as Dino Lipatti. On this enjoyable and accomplished CD the mother and son Shapira Duo perform Mendelssohn’s Song WithoutWords, Rondo (Dvorak), Elegy and Sicilienne (Faure), Polonaise Brilliant  (Chopin), Three fantasy pieces (Schumann), The Swan (Saint Saens) and Hungarian Rhapsody (Popper). ‘Deeply felt expressiveness’ - String Magazine.

SONG OF THE BLACK SWAN - CAROLYN MILLS & DAWN HARMS   ATOLL ACD199

Dawn Harris (a first violinist with the San Francisco Opera) and Carolyn Mills (principal harp player with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) perform a charming collection of mainly French, Spanish and traditional music. Much of it has been sympathetically arranged by Kenneth Young, including such timeless tunes as Barb’ra Ellen, O Waly Waly and the Last Rose of Summer. The other pieces featured are En Priere (composed by Gabriel Faure), Latvian Prayer (Anonymous, arr. Harms), Song of the Black Swan (Heitor Villa-Lobos, ed. Owens), Nocturne (Gabriel Faure), Habanera (Maurice Ravel, arr. Salzedo), Nana, Astoriana, Cancion (Manuel de Falla), Pavane for a dead princess (Maurice Ravel, arr. Maganini/Lawrence), Fantasia for Violin and Harp (Camille Saint-Saens) and the hauntingly beautiful Meditation from Thais (Jules Massenet, arr. Salzedo).

MOZART/SCHUMANN - PIANO TRIOS     BERLIN CLASSICS 0017662BC

The brilliant Vienna Mozart Trio consists of Irina Auner (piano), Leonid Sorokov (violin) and Diethard Auner (cello). Since the ensemble was formed in 1991 it has achieved a steadily increasing reputation for musical excellence on the chamber music scene. Not being associated with any orchestra or other ensemble gives these musicians their true artistic independence to develop a free and unconventional sound. They are not three soloists who thrust themselves into the limelight, but a harmonized and flexible ensemble which enjoys making music together. This sparkling CD is the forst of a series featuring recordings of the piano trios of W. A. Mozart, in each case combined with a work by another composer. The first disc features an early and late work by Mozart (Trios K254 and K542) along with Robert Schumann's cheerfully exuberant Trio No. 2 op. 80.

STRINGS ATTACHED - NICHOLLS/HONORE           MERIDIAN  CDE 84456

The harp and violin have a natural empathy and many composers have discovered this to be an inspiring combination. A wide range of styles and periods are represented on this album of music performed by the internationally renowned Alison Nicholls (harp) and French-born Philippe Honoré (violin). There are works by Donizetti (Sonata for Violin and Harp), Louis Spohr (Potpourri from Mozart's ‘Magic Flute’), Saint-Saëns (Swan from ‘Carnival of the Animals’ and Berceuse, Fantaisie Op. 124), Alec Roth (a world premiere recording Nocturne, written specially for the performers here), the precocious Debussy (Beau soir), Massenet (a sublime Méditation from Thaïs), Jacques Ibert (his Spanish-influenced Entr'acte), Paganini (Cantabile), Ravel (Pièce en forme de habanera) and Astor Piazzola (the 'tango nuevo' style Café 1930). Delightful music thoughout, elegantly played by an outstanding duo.

SCHUBERT SONATAS - DAVID FINCKEL & WU HAN     ARTISTLED 10401-2

This disc features definitive performances of two late Schubert works: the majestic Sonata for Piano in A Major, completed a short time before the composer’s death, and the quintessentially Romantic Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano. This thoughtful and poignant performance of the Sonata for Piano marks Wu Han's solo recording debut on ArtistLed and was expertly produced at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, a landmark building renowned for its superb acoustics. David Finckel and Wu Han are acclaimed performers, frequently appearing in concerts worldwide either as soloists or as a duo and, in David Finckel’s case, as cellist of the renowned Emerson String Quartet. They have become widely recognized for their initiatives in expanding audiences for classical music, and for guiding the careers of countless young musicians.

LE JARDIN FEERIQUE                   CLARINET CLASSICS  CC0036

Le Jardin Féerique is an irresistible collection of French music, imaginatively arranged for clarinet sextet by Alan Andrews and Tim Payne, who also play on these recordings. The other performers are Victoria Loram, Ian Scott, Victoria Medcalf and Steve Morris. By using the complete clarinet family, from the Ab sopranino to the contra-bass, the sextet give these clever and entertaining arrangements added depth and colour. The disc features well-known works by Debussy (Petite Suite, Deux Arabesques, Six Epigraphes Antiques, Clair de Lune and La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin) and Maurice Ravel (Menuet sur le Nom de Haydn and Ma mère l’Oye).

POULENC - COMPLETE WORKS FOR PIANO AND WINDS     KLEOS KL5125

This engaging CD includes the complete `Music for Piano and Winds,` by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), a composer of  elegance and humour whose compositions feature music of great vivacity and tunefulness. He had his first successes as an 18-year-old and remained largely self-taught throughout his life, giving his music a wonderfully eccentric and individual flavour. As well as being one of the greatest religious and choral composers of the twentieth century hw wrote a magnificent organ concerto and a great deal of fine chamber music, including the pieces on this album. these are his Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn; Sonata for Flute and Piano; Sonata for Oboe and Piano; Sonata for Clarinet and Piano; Trio for Oboe Bassoon and Piano; Elegie for Horn and Piano. They are admirably performed here by Sergio de los Cobos, Hunju Sohnn (piano), and the EnSemble 5 +.

BACH - SIX SONATAS FOR VIOLIN & HARPSICHORD     CARUS 83.164

On this impressive double-CD recording, Christine Busch (violin) and Kay Johannsen (harpsichord) play Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Sonatas for violin with obbligato harpsichord, composed during his time at Cöthen. This was the most carefree period of creativity in his life, when Bach transformed the trio sonata to create a new genre by freeing the harpsichord from the role of a continuo instrument. He made it carry two equally important voices and gave it anew role as a true partner in dialogue with the violin. Performing here on historical instruments, Christine Busch and Kay Johannsen bring to life these elegantly expressive movements in an intimate, almost contemplative manner. Highly recommended.

TRIO FONTENAY - PIANO TRIOS       K&K  ISBN 3-930643-84-7

The internationally-reowned German piano ensemble, Trio Fontenay,  always perform with impressive intensity and faithfulness to the composer’s intentions. This exceptional  trio were awarded the annual prize by Deutsche Schallplattenkritik for their complete recording of the Beethoven Trios, as well as being given the French ‘Diapason d’Or’. On this latest album Trio Fontenay play the Piano Trio No. 1, by the Spanish pianist and composer Joaquin Turina, a composer who’s work was influenced both by French Impressionism and by the folk music of Andalusia. The second part of the concert features Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat Major, written soon after his Sixth Symphony. These intense, elegant performances are another triumph in the excellent Maulbronn concert series from K&K.

FAURE - THE PIANO QUARTETS             OTTAVO OTR C120282

Gabriel Faure wrote two piano quartets, the first and most poular of which was composed when he was in his early forties. Its sweeping first movement is followed by a witty scherzo embracing a mellifluous trio, then a soothingly elegiac and lyrical slow movement leading to a brilliantly vigorous finale. Faure’s less well-known second piano quartet has an identical sequence of movements and closely related keys but is much more dramatic in character. The final movement’s waltz may well have inspired his pupil Ravel in the latter’s famous Valse Nobles et Sentimentales. Faure himself played an Erard grand piano on the second quartet’s premiere performance and on this authentic recording Jet Röling plays an 1861 Erard,.with the excellent Aldebaran Quartet.

LEIPZIGER BAROCKSOLISTEN           QUERSTAND   VKJK 0227

Leipziger Barocksolisten give fresh and joyful performances of baroque music by Arcangelo Corelli (Sonate D major for trumpet, oboe, violin and B.C.), Johann Friedrich Fasch (Sonate for violin, oboe, bassoon and B.C.), Joseph Bodin de Boismotier (Sonate for violin, bassoon and B.C.), Gottfried finger (Sonate C major for trumpet, oboe and B.C.), George Philipp Telemann (Quartet for violin, oboe, bassoon and B.C.) and Johann William Hertel (Concerto A cinque for trumpet, violin, oboe, bassoon and B.C.). The excellent on this recording are musicians are Stefan Arzberger (violin), Thomas Hipper (oboe), John Roderick MacDonald (trumpet), Thomas Reinhardt (bassoon), Tobias Martin (retort bass) and Michael Schönheit (Cembalo).

MODERN AMERICAN CHAMBER MUSIC      VIENNA MODERN MASTERS VMM 2008.

This collection of ground-breaking chamber music written by modern American music includes fascinating works by Harold Fortuin (Untitled #3: A Transcendental Etude for Computer-controlled Keyboard), David Loeb (Yuukuu ‘The Elegant Sky’ for five shakuhachi), Aaron Rabushka (Ballade, Toccata, Madrigale ‘E la Virtute un Raggio’) and Mark Polishook (The Tribute).

THOINET ARBEAU - ORCHESOGRAPHIE         SYMPHONIA SY 02196

Thoinet Arbeau, a scholarly canon of Langres in France, published his Orchesographie in 1588. Without this treatise on the dances practiced in his time and social environment we would know little of this aspect of the French Renaissance. This fascinating album contains interpretations (mostly premiere recordings) of 21 of the 50 works Arbeau included in Orchesographie. The lively performances of this evocative music are by Florigelo Ensemble with Alta Cappella, directed by Marcello Serafini.