Music: The Listening is Easy

Because this column usually focuses on a specific composer or theme, I have fallen behind in bringing to your attention a flood of excellent individual releases. Herewith is an attempt to catch up in time for your summer vacation.

Summer is full of moments for music that is not meant to storm the heavens but to delight the listener. Such was the vocation of Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), certainly a composer who deserves and will get his own article in a future column. But why wait to entertain yourself with his 28 symphonies? They are deliciously offered in a complete eight-CD set by the CPO label, with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, under conductor Johannes Goritzki. The delights on these CDs are innumerable, and the level of invention so high that one is tempted to call Boccherini the Spanish Haydn (or the Italian Haydn who happened to live in Spain).

This conclusion is borne out by the Naxos label’s second release in its series of Boccherini’s Cello Concertos (Nos. 5-8), performed by cellist Tim Hugh and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Halstead. For something effervescent, the CPO label also offers Boccherini’s Six Flute Quintets, Op. 55, with flutist Michael Faust and the Auryn Quartet. Richer fare appears on the Virgin Veritas label in the form of Boccherini’s superb String Quintets Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6, from Op. 25, and the imperishable Minuetto from Quintet No. 5, Op 11. Though I usually deplore original- instrument performances, violinist Fabio Biondi and his Europa Galante quintet are so musical that I was completely won over.

If your tastes run to the Baroque, Naxos is offering a four-CD budget set of Telemann’s Musique de Table [Tafelmusik ], played by the original-instrument group Orchestra of the Golden Age. As the title indicates, this music is the essence of a civilized divertissement. Be assured, however, that the meal for which this is the entertainment is formal.

One cannot blame Ferdinand Ries (1747-1836) for trying to storm the heavens, since he was a student of Beethoven. When the CPO label issued his Symphonies Nos. 3 and 5 last year, I raved and begged for more. More has arrived with the release of Ries’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, performed by the same capable forces, the Zurcher Kammerorchester, under Howard Griffiths. Beethoven purportedly complained that Ries “imitates me too much.” That’s as good a review as I could give. CPO has also treated us to a Ries chamber music release featuring his cello sonatas, performed by cellist Guido Larisch and pianist Robert Hill.

Last year, I praised to the skies Friedrich Kiel’s Missa Solemnis, on the Capriccio label. Judging from its quality, you should pray that someone records his two Requiems and his Te Deum. Meanwhile, the Koch Classics label has offered us three of Kiel’s seven Piano Trios, ably performed by the Genberg Trio. If you love German Romantic chamber music from the mid-19th century, do not miss this release. Kiel (1821-1885) was apparently a modest man who did little to promote his works. These thoroughly delightful, accomplished, and engaging pieces indict him for false modesty.

Italy means opera in the popular imagination. That stereotype irked Giovanni Sgambati (1841-1914), who produced brilliant chamber works during the last half of the 19th century in defiance of his times. The ASV label has released two CDs of his chamber music, the second of which offers his Piano Quintet No. 2 and his String Quartet, Op. 17, beautifully played by the Ex Novo Quartet and pianist Francesco Caramiello. Imagine Sgambati as an Italian Dvorak with a love for Schubert, and you will be prepared to hear the gloriously melodic music on this indispensable release.

One of the most gorgeous recordings of orchestral music I have heard in the last year also comes from an Italian composer, Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880¬1968). The Hyperion label has released a CD of four of his orchestral works: Rondo Veneziano, Preludo a un Altro Giorno, Tre Preludii Sinfonici, and La Pisanella, played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under Osmo Vanska. Think of Pizzetti as Respighi without Respighi’s occasional cinemascope vulgarity. He offers a lyrical kind of Italian impressionism, mixed with the orchestral resources of a Richard Strauss. Lean back and let this sumptuous music flow over you.

For sheer delight, I must include Marco Polo’s latest installment in its priceless traversal of the works of Pizzetti’s colleague, Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973). The CD includes: Tre Commedie Goldoniane, a collection of orchestral music from operas Malipiero based on the comedies of 18th-century writer Carlo Goldoni; his ballet Stradivario; and two works based on the music of other composers, Giovanni Gabrieli and Domenico Cimarosa. All are brought vivaciously to life by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, under Christian Benda.

Nino Rota (1911-1979), known primarily as a film composer, is finally getting attention for his other works. ASV has released a wonderful CD of six of Rota’s chamber works performed by members of the Ex Novo Ensemble, including the Sonata for flute and harp, the String Quartet, and the Trio for flute, violin, and piano. These works marry French impressionism with Italian lyricism to utterly beguiling effect. Rota’s admirable ambition was to “do everything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness.” That is what this music gives me.

Received too late to include in my Gian Carlo Menotti interview in the May 2001 Crisis (“Gian Carlo Menotti’s Heavenly Muse”) was the Chandos release of Menotti’s Apocalisse (Apocalypse), his Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra, and the suite from his ballet, Sebastian, all performed by the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, under Richard Hickox. Known almost exclusively as an opera composer, Menotti here displays his prowess as an orchestral composer. His version of the Apocalypse is Italian rather than German, meaning kinder, gentler, and, yes, even charming. The attractive Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra will be no surprise to anyone familiar with Menotti’s excellent Violin Concerto. The music from Sebastian is some of Menotti’s most attractive, making this release particularly desirable in Hickox’s excellent performances, with cellist Raphael Wallfisch

Readers may recall my January 2001 column devoted to Laszlo Lajtha, the greatest Hungarian symphonist of the 20th century. The last installment of Marco Polo’s traversal of his nine symphonies, featuring Nos. 8 and 9, has now been released. The Pecs Symphony Orchestra, under Nicolas Pas¬quet, brings to close a now-integral set that is indispensable to a complete view of the music of our time. Bravo!

Marco Polo, true to its adventurous name, has released three CDs featuring the symphonies and orchestral works of Joly Braga Santos (1924-1988) in marvelous performances, directed by conductor Alvaro Cassuto, with the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Braga Santos wrote his first four symphonies while in his 20s. The first three of these, recorded on the Marco Polo releases, are astounding accomplishments for a youth. Strangely enough, I don’t hear any Iberian influences in these works, but I do hear the pronounced, unmistakable impact of Sibelius and, especially, Vaughan Williams. Braga Santos wrote on a large scale, with long-lined melodies and an impressionistic sense of atmosphere. Much of the music is bardic in utterance and heroic in cast. After the Fourth Symphony, he fell under the spell of teachers who indoctrinated him in the joyless school of atonality, as heard in these recordings of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. By all means revel in his youthful inspirations.

Author

  • Robert R. Reilly

    Robert R. Reilly is the author of America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding, forthcoming from Ignatius Press.

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