Tonal and Consonant iconSomewhat Atonal or Dissonant iconChamber Music icon

Music from America & Abroad for Oboe, Bassoon...

This recording of 20th-century music from Italy, the British Isles, Canada, and Germany uses oboe, bassoon, and piano in various combinations. Everything is tonal, lyrical, imaginative, and truly beautiful. After spending many years holding principal positions in orchestras in the United...

Highly Atonal or Dissonant iconChamber Music icon

FourTune: Polish Flute Quartets of K. Meyer, Slowi...

FourTune is an ensemble of excellent Polish musicians who have put together a terrific program of later 20th-century Polish music for flute and string trio. The flute is clearly the soloist in Krzysztof Meyer’s Capriccio per sei strumenti, written in 1987 and 1988. The piece is a...

The Schultzen Sonatas: Barbara Heindlmeier breathes new life into forgotten Baroque recorder works Jun01

The Schultzen Sonatas: Barbara Heindlmeier breathe...

German recorder player and Baroque music specialist Barbara Heindlmeier has recently released a fascinating album of recorder sonatas by one A.H. Schultzen, an enigmatic composer of the German Baroque whose precise identity remains in dispute. Ms. Heindlmeier and her Ensemble La Ninfea...

Joanna Wallfisch: The Origin of Adjustable Things May28

Joanna Wallfisch: The Origin of Adjustable Things

There is today a revelatory voice afoot in the world of independent vocal jazz, and that divine gift belongs to Joanna Wallfisch. From a family of musicians and herself a Guildhall School of Music Masters graduate, this captivating British-born vocalist’s sophomore record, whimsically and...

Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902): Symphonies Nos. 1-4 / Brandenburg State Orchestra, Frankfurt; Griffiths May23
Tonal and Consonant iconOrchestral iconConcerto icon

Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902): Symphonies Nos. 1-4...

Having fallen into obscurity shortly after the composer’s death, the music of Salomon Jadassohn has enjoyed a re-evaluation in recent years. This cpo release was my first acquaintance with the German composer’s music and based on the merits of what’s to be heard here,...

Dave Stryker: Messin’ With Mister T May18

Dave Stryker: Messin’ With Mister T

Tenor saxophonist Stanley ‘Mister T’ Turrentine (1934-2000), one among the many influential jazz musicians to emerge from Pittsburgh, PA, provides the inspiration and focus for the album under review consideration here. Beginning in the 1960s, Mr. Turrentine’s most endearing and notable...

Vocal Soloist iconChamber Music iconHighly Atonal or Dissonant icon

George Crumb: Songs - Voices from the Heartl...

This Bridge Records release of two books of songs by George Crumb makes for a very nice collector’s item. The songs, which have made few appearances on CD, are collected here in their entirety, and receive an elegant and thorough presentation as Volume 16 of Bridge’s Complete George...

Carl Czerny (1791-1857): String Quartets / Sheridan Ensemble May11

Carl Czerny (1791-1857): String Quartets / Sherida...

What circumstances would compel a composer to purposely conceal his finest compositions, while at the same time publishing an abundance of, if not mediocre, certainly second-rate music? The name Carl Czerny (1791-1857) has been known to generations of pianists as the author of the most widely...

Music for Brass Septet, Vol. 2 – Instrumental suites from operas by Rameau, Blow, Purcell & Handel / Septura May08
Tonal and Consonant iconChamber Music icon

Music for Brass Septet, Vol. 2 - Instrumenta...

This album was an obvious recommendation hearing only the opening bars of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Suite from Dardanus, gracefully rendered with a sparkle and finesse that could stand easily beside any version I’ve heard. Musical sensibilities, tonal beauty, balance, intonation,...

Arif Melikov (b.1933): Legend of Love, a ballet in three acts / Moscow Radio SO; Valery Gergiev May06
Tonal and Consonant iconOrchestral icon

Arif Melikov (b.1933): Legend of Love, a ballet in...

Here’s one for lovers of lush, romantic orchestral scores. The ballet Legend of Love by Azerbaijani composer Arif Melikov was completed in 1961, only a year and a half after the composer had graduated from the Baku Conservatory. It promptly premiered on the stage of the Leningrad Kirov...

A.H. Schultzen (1682-1762): Recorder Sonatas / Ensemble la Ninfea, Barbara Heindlmeier, recorder Apr30

A.H. Schultzen (1682-1762): Recorder Sonatas / Ens...

The music of A.H. Schultzen (1681-1742) is a relatively new and exciting addition to the 18th-century recorder literature. Schultzen’s music first came to light in a 2001 article in the Journal of the American Recorder Society. A contemporary and compatriot of J.S. Bach and G.P....

Avishai Cohen Trio: From Darkness Apr22

Avishai Cohen Trio: From Darkness

My beliefs about Israeli-born bassist Avishai Cohen have evolved over the years. Upon the release of his 1998 debut CD as leader, Adama, on Chick Corea’s Stretch/Concord imprint, I was immediately intrigued by the double-threat emergence of this major talent and recent addition to Mr....