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Instrumental WOMEN

Bantock Rediscovered Couperin Women Piano Music Key board works Volume 1 Music by Gubaidulina, ,vlaria Marchan t BertrJ n d Cui lier hps d Saariaho et al SOM M SOIV!MCD1083 HARMO NIA MUN DI H MM9 02 3 7 576 Sofya Me likyan p ***trtr ***** IBS CLASSICAL I8S7201 8 A neglected figure receives All the wo rld's a stage, but ****-ti- committed advocacy Cuiller no mere player Female com posers shine in the hands of an Armenian pianist SirGraiw illc B~ntock (i868-19 46j 13est ofluck to h arpbich ord ist The Organ of St Bavo, v,as prominent in English music al 13ertra11d Cuil k r. Th is disc mar b 1\tmc n ian p ia nist Sofya lvfclikyan Haarlem life in the early 20th cenl u ry, nol th e start of a projected co mplete h Js assemb led a dazzling prog-ram Music by Bach, Mendelssohn ju st as a composer b u las a tireles s Coupe rin keyhoard ser ies, Jt ¼·on 't of styl istically and geogrnp hically Reicha teacher, musical .idministrator and be casy, sin ce it mi.' ans cove 1-ing the and Reubke d iv\"rsc pieces hy 20th -centur y Reicha Rediscovered Vol ume 2 entrepren eur. Like Beecham he Joseph Nolan org 27 ordres ove r fou r b ook s, totall ing­ female comp osers for th is disc. JI lvJ n Ilic p SIGN U l'1CLASSICS SIGCD546 established festivals, choral grnu p s more thai , 220 piece s, op ens with the sole Piano Sona ta CHAN0 0 SC HAN2003 3 and orchestras (he co- founded the Cu.illcr's prog rn tn min g for by Tatar-Ru ssian com po ser Sofia H*** City ofBirmingham Orchestra ). lhis d isc is solid, thoug h slightl y Gu ba iBerlin Conservat01y's best student. He became It's temporary, but thl- effect is stunning. Les Pavols - The Poppies - rela tes at the Kom itus Cons erw tory-in Fug ue, Se rb ian-Ame rican p ian ist Ivan llic's first volume de vot e d ,\foi (1930) and the Parade March J,jszt's lavourite when he studied with him in Sunlit in it, entirety is Buxtehude's F )>fojar to th e th eatre .. ,), it 's n onethel ess a Yere van, Arm l'nia . relu rt1ing for t o Reich a's so lo p iano wo rks feat u red fa£1t as ie s an d a cap riccio (1936), arc redolent th e pa st: ·weimar. In 1857he completed his masterful ]ciccataaud Fr.1g11e,which Nolandc>spatches Df ch arming sla rt to th e su rvey J len gthy teach in g caree i-the re. from 1803's Practisch e Beispi e/e a nd t h e Grande Son ate an d the se woul d fit neatly in to an B Flat Piano Sonata and C Mi nor Sonata on with a cheerful virtt1osity before leading us VI/h en Iti l'!lt sat down lo llstm , A rmeninn Bas-Rdie_fsis a suite of Sonata on o Theme of Mozart {both c.1805), Th is seco nd vo lume evening of Victoriana, though they the 94th Psalm for oi:ga n, A year later he i.nto the more dappled light ofl3ach 's Nun l was rnnv inced that Cuille r w as five lively m in iatu res strongl y comp rises search ing, sens iti ve ly -craf t ed perfo rma nces of t he po~t-datc the work of Schoenb erg was dead at just 28. Reubke's monolithic, Komm, di'r Heiden TTeiland- gentle - and Trio ovcr-orn am enli ng every p iece. infl uenced by J\ rm enian folk firs t 13 p re lu d es an d fug ues fr o m Re icha 's Op . 9 7, pu b l ishc d in and Stravinsky by decades, Th e Su re, the Fren ch Baroqu e tends to monothematic, programmatic organ scmata Jesus Christus Un;;erHei!and - slightly agitated. trad itions, inco rp orating local 1817, as we ll as an ear ly fug ue from h is 1807 O p. 36 set.Aga in, overture Saul is a piano redu ction fonns the centrepiece 0£\,Vest Australian­ These last three works feel I ike stops go pretty heavy on th e m orde nts mo t ifs an d mod al har mon ies. Pa ris­ Ilic pe rfo rms fr o m mo d ern edi t ions p ub lishe d by Sy me t rie and thot clearlv works better in its based Joseph Nolan's tenth organ - no pun intended - along the way and trills, but I w.is so sure th at it ba sed Kaija Saa ri a ho '8 Prelude, ed it ed by mus ico log ist Michae l Su lley. orchestra l garb, debpite )>larch.ant's wa s excessive th al Twa s surpr ised recital for Signum Classics, part of between the forbidding edifice of com p o&ed in 2007, "seem s lo p ay A child hoo d fr iend o f Beetho ve n, Reicha was no o rd inary com mitted advoca,·y. to read that Cui lle r here follows a significant body of recordings Influenced by the Chaconneand Mendc>lssohn's ho m age to a lin eage of Fren ch t e ache r, d evo t ed t o tr adit ion bu t alway s o pe n t o in riova t ion. " perhap, finest ,vork for org an, hls The best p icn'S arc ~rnon g Coupe rin's em bellish m.enb including a highly-acdnimcd Liszt, Reubkcpaints mu sic ran gin g from sp ectra lis m to His coun t e rp o int st ude nt s included Liszt , Berl io z., Go un od and the miniatures: Ban tock 's nod to tmversal of the complete solo ~hudder!ng visions Sonata in D Mi nor, its submerged prec isely Coup erin ap pa ren tly imp ressio nism, " as Jorg e Fernandez Franck , As Ilic w rites: "On e m ig ht g uess t hat a co mpo ser w h o cf trepidatkm and passion brought to the surface th e French Impressi onis ts in the thou ght play ers ignorin g or organ music of \Vidor, Gu err a obs,~rw s in h is liner no tes, spen t so m u ch ti me t eac hin g the rules of a st rict , co mp lex triumph atmospheric Like the other works here, by -'Johm with as much elegance Cloistm; at Midnight replacing his orname nt&w as with wa terfa Us of no tes ca,cad i ng mu sical st y le wo u ld w rit e d ry, life less mus ic. The rea lit y is the fou re--like the Sonata on the 94th Psalm is as clan. Mendelssohn's relative (1920), Barcaralle an '\m pa rdo nable ne gligence>" ' in timb ral drople t, _Raq uel Qu iaro t hat h is mus ic is fu ll of w it a nd charm," (1894), and ,\1mnnries of Sapphire, performed on Christian l'vffiller and conservatism serves as c1nideal Th ere's still plent y of Cuillcr 's is a Ven ezu elan com p oser now ·' Inde e d it is. Ma ny of t he p re Iu de s. su ch as t he no ct u rn e­ Jan van Logteren's magnificent 1738 organ '' introduction to, and foil for, Reubke's composed in Colorado for a lady pe rsonality in the playing here, based in Ma d rid. Her Cluster like Introd uction o r t he w ist fu l Air in G Majo r, are gent le who wu& not his wife. The neglect of St llavo, Haarlem, This superb three-manual more disturbing soundworld, which lakes thou gh - I pa rticu larly liked his Suite sh ares stylistic element s a nd sweet ly n ost alg ic; an E Maj o r Lento eve n reca lls Han d el's of Bantoc k' s music is blame d on instrumenl, played by Ha11del, Mozart and Psalm 94 - "O Lord God, to whom vengeance playfulness w ith tempo in lhe foster w ith Gu baidul inJ's Son ata "Har mon io us Black sm it h " air, Ot h ers, such as t he A Majo r '\IVmld ·war O ne, which swept Mendelssohn has over :.iOOOpipes and 64 stops. belongeth" -as its program. movcm c'nts, like the fabulou sly and Saariah o's sh immer ing Allegretto or t he A Min o r PocoA /leg ret to are sw ift e r, Edwardian tabtes asid e, bu t l th ink Nolan chooses to showcase the instrument's It's as though Caspar David Friedrich', nam ed sho wp iece T.'ftincdante (The textu res, conclud ing th is supe rb sp inn ing da nce s from a single id ea . il is equally due to inconsisten t Spa rk b), lnri :vlcssercr's arrangement of compositional and harmonic innovations, bass v iol on a sin gle lrnck for abo ut are com ma nd in g, vir 1L1osic first, wh ich fo llows on from t he E m ino r Introduction, ru shes secondhand pianistic decor at ion JS Bach's Chaconnefrom the D Mi nor Partita for Rcubkc paints such ~huddcring'\.isions of a mi n u te an d a ha lf, a nd l'mr ea lly an d sens itive tu the pa rtku lar ine xo rab ly towa rds it s final chor d w it h q uas i-me chan ist ic tu fill it out. Marchant does solo violin. It's one hell oi ~curtain-raiser, vvith trepkfotion and triumph that only organists of not sure wh y sh e's n ot featu red com p ositiona 1nua11e es of each fervo ur; l;ite r, Reich a leave ns the lug ub rio usness o f t h e A Mino r beau tifttlly. bu l this music is mostl y Nolan imbuing each variation with, by turns, Nolan's stature can do them justin:, Wh.it music mor e, Pe rbaps th at's being saved for compo ser, m;ikin g th is a most p re lud e's com pa nio n fugue w it h flut t e ring t rills and t u rns. Bach unmemorn ble, Phillip Scott urgency, poignancy; terror and gentleness, never And what a performance. Will Yeoman th e n ext dis c? Paul Ballam-Cross i mp rcs,ive release, LisaMacKinney is t he p re sid ing sp irit _ But the ge nius is all Re icha. Will Yeoman

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