A couple of months ago we told you about a Sterling release with one of Sweden's most promising young conductors, B. Tommy Andersson (b. 1964, see the newsletter of 14 May 2012). But he's also an accomplished composer, and now they give us world premiere recordings of two recent Andersson orchestral works. Like his Finnish counterpart Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958, see the newsletter of 13 July 2009), his familiarity with a wide-ranging variety of scores probably explains his colorist... Continue

We're happy to welcome British composer Frederic Austin (1872-1952) to these pages with this recent magnificent release of his orchestral music from those enterprising folks at Dutton. A man of many talents who began as an organist, he would pursue a teaching career during the first and last years of his life. In between these academic stints he would take up singing, and became one of the foremost baritones of his time! He had a vast repertoire with Wagner's (1813-1883) operas one of his... Continue

Except for two years of piano studies in New York City, Venezuelan Evencio Castellanos (1915-1984) was very much a homegrown musician. And based on the sampling of his symphonic works here, he would seem to be that country's leading twentieth century composer. With a melodic flow recalling Villa-lobos (1887-1959) and a rhythmic urgency like that found in Ginastera (1916-1983), these brilliantly scored works cannot but impress. The program begins with two tone poems. The first from 1954 is... Continue

Up until a few years ago Italian-born, French-educated composer-pianist-conductor Alfredo Casella's (1883-1947) greatest claim to fame in America rested on his being the director of the Boston Pops (1927-29) who preceded Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979). However, that pales in comparison to the significant body of distinguished music he left us, which is nowadays receiving increased attention from record companies. These include Chandos, which not long ago dipped their toe into his... Continue

A couple of years ago we told you about some extraordinary orchestral music by Scottish composer Erik Chisholm (1904-1965, see the newsletter of 25 April 2010), and now Hyperion gives us his two piano concertos. Like the music of Béla Bartók (1881-1945), who was a good friend, these rely heavily on folk sources, but from Scotland and India rather than Eastern Europe. The four-movement first piano concerto (1932, revised 1937) is subtitled "Pìobaireachd," which is Scottish Gaelic for "Pipe Music." And so... Continue

Italian-born Victor de Sabata (1892-1967) is best remembered as one of the twentieth century's finest conductors. But he was also an accomplished composer as CD audiences discovered over ten years ago when Hyperion gave us some of his orchestral music. Now his time has come again with this enterprising world premiere recording from the La Bottega Discantica label. It features the complete incidental music he wrote for Max Reinhardt's (1873-1943) 1934 Venice production of... Continue

This is the third CD to appear in the past eighteen months devoted entirely to the music of German-born composer Paul Graener (1872-1944, see the newsletters of 6 January and 10 May 2011). A CPO release marked "Orchestral Works Vol. 1," it gives us the only currently available recordings of four additional symphonic selections with the promise of more to come. It opens with a ten-minute symphonic sketch from 1927 called Comedietta. The name is also the word for a theatrical farce, which seems in... Continue

There are those who consider John Cage (1912-1992) one of America's most important avant-garde composers in the post-World-War-II period. Accordingly there's been a recent flurry of celebrations honoring what would have been his 100th birthday. On the other hand, some less progressive listeners tend to dismiss his pieces as preposterous gimmickry where the performers are more foley artists than musicians. This new release from Naxos should appeal to both mind-sets, as it features selections... Continue

Most would agree Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996) was Denmark's greatest symphonist after Carl Nielsen (1865-1931, see the newsletter of 26 March 2010) and Rued Langgaard (1893-1952, see the newsletter of 10 September 2010). So it's something of an occasion that the three chamber symphonies from the latter half of his career finally see the light of day on this new hybrid, CD(2)/SACD(2/5.0), Dacapo release. Without a wasted note, this is rigorously compact, sinewy music that will grow on you with each... Continue

This Cameo Classics release gives us a treasure-trove of rarities by twentieth century British composers Dorothy Howell (1898-1982), Maurice Blower (1894-1982, see 25 April 2012) and Josef (sometimes spelled Joseph) Holbrooke (1878-1958, see 25 April 2012). Howell's fifteen-minute tone poem Lamia (1918) [track-1] was inspired by John Keats' (1795-1821) eponymous poem (1819). Set in Classical times it's about a Cretan woman who's been changed into a snake, and is later returned to human form by... Continue

One of the leading exponents of computer-generated music, American composer Paul Lansky (b. 1944) moves from "Silicon Valley" to Symphony Hall with the three orchestral works on this new enterprising Bridge Records release. With a nod to Star Trek I: The Motion Picture (1979), Lanksy humorously describes them as written for carbon-based life forms, in this case the members of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO), who give us these world premiere recordings. With a distinguished academic... Continue

Almost a year ago to the day we told you about a BIS disc that was a must for fans of Swedish composer Allan Pettersson (1911-1980, see 26 October 2011), and here’s another! While the earlier one premiered the first of his seventeen symphonies, this new hybrid, CD(2)/SACD(2/5.0), release is devoted to his neglected sixth, and blows away what little competition there is from both the performance as well as sound standpoints. In a single hourlong movement contained on one track, it must rank as among the most individual symphonic creations to come from a twentieth century... Continue

Born in Arkansas, Florence B. Price (née Smith, 1887-1953) moved to Boston at age fourteen where she enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with George Chadwick (1854-1931) and Frederick Converse (1871-1940). Upon her graduation in 1907, she went back to Arkansas where she taught until 1927 when her family moved to Chicago. Continuing her composition studies there, she'd go on to write some 300 works that include four symphonies. Consequently she'd become the first... Continue

As far as single disc compendiums of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns' (1835-1921) shorter orchestral works are concerned this new Chandos hybrid, CD(2)/SACD(2/5.0), release buries the competition! With nearly eighty minutes of music, there are several fascinating rarities as well as some old chestnuts. And all of them are played to the hilt in audiophile sound! The program begins with the ever popular "Bacchanale" from the third act of Samson and Dalila (1877). A wild dance done by the... Continue

With the cryptic album title "Out of Nowhere," DGG gives us another noteworthy release of Finnish conductor/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen's (b. 1958) music (see 13 July 2009) featuring world premiere recordings of two relatively new works. Once again they show him to be a brilliant colorist (see 12 September 2012), and generate a phenomenal amount of that boundless kinetic energy found in his other previous symphonic creations. Written in 2009 for our violinist here, Leila Josefowicz (b. 1977), the... Continue

Spanish composer Pedro Sanjuán (1886-1976) makes his CLOFO debut with this disc featuring two of his orchestral works in Claves' ongoing survey of Basque music. These are the only currently available recordings of either piece. Originally trained in Madrid, young Pedro would go on to study in Paris, returning to Spain in 1914. He'd complete his musical education there with private lessons from Joaquin Turina (1882-1949). Then in 1923 he moved to Cuba, where he founded the Havana Philharmonic and... Continue

Born into a poor Jewish musical family in Warsaw, conductor-composer Ignatz Waghalter (1881-1949) would journey to Berlin in 1898 to study with Philipp Scharwenka (1847-1917) and Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916, see 30 September 2012). He would then go on to a successful conducting career in Germany. However, the rise of Nazism with its anti-Semitic policies forced him to flee Europe in 1938. Then like Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942, see 15 June 2008), Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), Castelnuovo-Tedesco... Continue