Richard Strauss fans will find this music by another German composer, who was born four years later, quite irresistible. Considering the many written exchanges between the two, Hermann Bischoff could well be considered a correspondence course student of Richard's.

The hour-long symphony presented here testifies to the great influence the older man had on the younger. It's a strange work because you may come away with the feeling that each movement could stand on its own as an individual tone poem. The first is the longest and there's a certain tongue in cheek mischievousness about it that may remind you of Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche. The second is a really lovely adagio with a sound closer to Gustav Mahler than Strauss. The third is a diabolical scherzo that may at times call to mind such symphonic poems as Cesar Franck's Le Chausseur maudit and Camille Saint-Saens' Danse macabre. The final movement is a tune-swept peroration more like that found in Franz Schreker’s or Hans Pfitzner's more opulent scores.

While the usual nutty notes we've come to expect from CPO don't shed much light on this magnum opus, the performance is committed and the music pretty well speaks for itself.

The recording quality is good. (P061101)

-- Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO.com)

Here's another great American music discovery from the Naxos folks. Composer Romeo Cascarino was born in Philadelphia in 1922. He was entirely self-taught until the age of seventeen and this probably explains why he has such an individual sound. Highly melodic and late romantic in spirit, his music really flies in the face of all those modern compositions that were being turned out by his contemporaries.

Based on a Robert Browning Poem, Prospice dates from 1948 and was one of Romeo's first orchestral works. It's a very lyrical and brilliantly orchestrated ballet that at times owes a debt to Aaron Copland.

Pygmalion, another ballet, is based on the Greek legend and was written in 1956. With a quiet almost impressionistic beginning, it works itself up to a frenzied central dance section which gradually dissolves as the piece ends much like it began.

Four additional works are also included. Portrait of Galatea, written four years before the preceding, is an adagio inspired by the female protagonist in the Pygmalion story. There's an exoticism here that may call to mind the music of Miklos Rozsa.

Blades of Grass from 1945 is a very moving tribute to all those who've died in battle. The predominance of the English horn makes this piece all the more poignant.

Meditation and Elegy is a much later reworking for strings of two youthful piano pieces inspired by Poe's Annabel Lee. These two tiny gems certainly rank with the best American miniatures.

This compelling concert concludes with The Acadian Land. Written in 1960 and inspired by Longfellow's poem, impressionism is once again very much in evidence. Could that be Charles Tomlinson Griffes we hear lurking in the background?

The composer would have been delighted with these outstanding performances by the Philadelphia Philharmonia under JoAnn Falletta, and the recorded sound is very good. (P061031)

-- Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO.com)

Here's some distinguished concert music from a Japanese composer better known for his many film scores, including such greats as The Seven Samurai.

The piano concerto is atypical; it consists of only two movements and opens in most restrained fashion with a very moving elegy for the victims of World War II. Humiwo Hayasaka creates a sound world all of his own by combining western modal elements with ancient Japanese imperial music, which is known as Gagaku. Apparently he greatly admired Maurice Ravel whose influence is apparent at several points, particularly in the piano writing. The concluding movement is a spirited rondo which sounds much more Japanese, but has a bouncy almost nursery-tune like thematic simplicity quite reminiscent of Francis Poulenc's concertos. Curiously enough one of the recurring motifs in this work bears a strange resemblance to the familiar Old Hundredth hymn tune.

Ancient Dances on the Left and on the Right could be considered a ritual ballet based on Bugaku, which is a type of Gagaku involving dance. The sinistral numbers, which are associated with the sun and the emperor, are rather serious, formal sounding affairs. The dextral ones, which are identified with the moon and the people, are much more upbeat.

The program ends with an overture that was written in 1939. It's like no other you've ever heard and is in essence a march that's repeated with Bolero insistency. It may remind some of the stirring Conquest music that Alfred Newman wrote seven years later for the film Captain from Castile.

Well performed and recorded, this interesting Japanese music makes for a most desirable disc of discovery. (P061030)

-- Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO.com)

Following the spate of Scott Joplin releases a number of years ago there's been a ragtime hiatus as of late; but no longer with this highly enterprising disc from New World Records. Born in 1882 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Joe Jordan displayed an amazing musical memory and ability to "play by ear" at a very early age. This along with the family moving to St. Louis, Missouri, which was fast becoming a Mecca for black pianists and composers, sealed his fate as a proponent of ragtime.

Back then educational opportunities for blacks in the Midwest were rather limited, but Jordan managed to secure a good grounding in music theory. As a result he would later become a composer and conductor of some consequence in Chicago and New York City. In fact he wrote over six hundred songs several of which gained hit parade status. Some of his best are included in the toe-tapping ragtime review presented here by pianist Rick Benjamin and his Paragon Ragtime Singers and Orchestra.

Those who loved Joplin's Treemonisha are in for a real treat when they spin this CD. Highlights include Lovie Joe complete with clever quotes from Felix Mendelssohn's Wedding March and He's Coming Back!, which is a march-song that honored Teddy Roosevelt and his "Bull Moose" party when he returned to politics as a presidential candidate in 1912. Two brief, but informative interviews with Jordan conclude this outstanding bit of musical Americana.

The performances couldn't be more in keeping with those wonderfully naive days of the early 1900s, and the sound is superb. You'll love it! (P061029)

-- Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO.com)

Imagine your excitement if you were a musicologist who'd just discovered some long lost Sibelius tone poems. Those hearing this release may well feel that way as New Zealand born Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001) obviously owes a substantial debt to the great Finnish master as evidenced in some of the symphonic works presented here.

That's particularly true of the Aotearoa and Drysdale overtures as well as the tone poems Forest and A Song of Islands. This is not meant to imply that Lilburn's music is overly derivative, because he definitely has something new and interesting to say. In fact Aotearoa, which is the native name for New Zealand, stands very much on its own as a thrilling piece that's wowed British audiences for some time. You'll undoubtedly find it equally exciting along with the other three selections previously mentioned.

The program is filled out with three additional pieces. A Birthday Offering was written to honor the tenth anniversary of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, which is featured on this disc. It's a wonderfully impish sounding work with an opening quote from Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring plus some delightful orchestral eccentricities reminiscent of those found in Sir Malcolm Arnold's more irreverent creations.

Then there's the Festival Overture, which is a high energy piece that in places may remind some of the opening of William Walton's first symphony.

The program ends in stately fashion with a Processional Fanfare, which was originally composed for the University of New Zealand and contains references to the old student song Gaudeamus igitur.

It's too bad Lilburn isn't alive to hear these magnificent performances from one of today's truly great conductors, James Judd.

The recorded sound is excellent and audiophiles should take note.

By the way, if you don't already know them, you'll also want to investigate this composer's three symphonies. (Y061028)

-- Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO.com)

This is the sixth disc in the Naxos ongoing "English String Miniatures" series, and many may find it the best yet.

The concert begins with arrangements for strings of pieces by a couple of very well known English composers. The first is of Gustav Holst's A Moorside Suite, which was originally for brass band. And the second is the very moving chaconne by Henry Purcell in a setting by Benjamin Britten.

Then there are three suites by lesser known English composers Adam Carse (The Winton Suite), Paul Carr (A Very English Music) and Malcolm Lipkin (From Across La Manche) that will come as most welcome surprises. When you hear the Carse you'll probably find yourself scratching your head and wondering where it's been hiding all these years. The Lipkin is a highly charged affair that ends with a manic-depressive mazurka that at one point spoofs Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Two elegiac pieces by Paul Lewis (Rosa Mundi) and Peter Warlock (Bethlehem Down), a transfigured waltz by William Lloyd Webber and a pair of dusky, but lovely, nocturnes by Lionel Sainsbury fill out the program.

The Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Gavin Sutherland gives spirited, yet sensitive performances, and the sound is quite good. (P061027)

-- Bob McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO.com)