Benjamin Frankel - Complete String Quartets, 1-5 (2 CDs) - Nomos Quartett - 1997 CPO

Benjamin Frankel's String Quartets are a big deal. Sadly known by few, these are some of the best quartets written during the 20th century, and indeed as a cycle I think they surely hold a candle among the very best and well-known quartet cycles of our time. I wish Frankel had written another dozen! I hope you all feel the same :)

I have zero time, so here's a review from Gramophone:

Benjamin Frankel’s string quartets are as impressive as his symphonies, which is saying a good deal. They are earlier, dating from a stage of his career when his success as a composer for films gave him little time to write large-scale concert pieces. With the exception of the Fifth Quartet they also predate his very personal (and by no means atonal) adaptation of serialism. But their beautifully spare, clean and economical textures seem to predict that development, just as their fertility of invention within a generally restricted time-scale (with a solitary exception there is no movement in the cycle that is longer than six minutes) points towards Frankel’s remarkable gift for symphonic concision.

Already in the First Quartet it is hard to believe that a movement as eventfully and absorbingly argued as the opening Andantino tranquillo lasts as little as 3'28'' or that the ensuing scherzo (which has more weight and boldness to it than most scherzos – other than Beethoven’s, whose presence is audible) is built from no more than a couple of pithy ideas. With the Second Quartet, bearing the very next opus number, Frankel’s tight, formal and thematic economy enables him to explore alternative formal plans: five movements now instead of four, with Bartok and Shostakovich joining Beethoven as reference points, with the first movement’s ‘development section’ appearing in stages or instalments and with an intense, radiant eloquence to the slow movement and finale, both audibly earned by precise control of formal structure.

There are further explorations in each subsequent quartet. The Third has two adjacent scherzos, the first nervous and Bartokian, the second a strange, disturbed dialogue between muted and plucked sonorities. In the Fourth the explorations are of mood, a quite unaggressive march and a charmingly gentle scherzo setting a deeply felt lament in poignant context, after which the delightful dancing simplicity of the finale has a subdued ache to it. But the Fifth Quartet is the finest here, and it is sad that it is the last, due to Frankel’s poor health and his subsequent concentration on the symphony. The fundamental lyricism of its predecessors is now even more distilled and refined, the process producing in the first movement two such simple but memorable ideas that for once their exploration needs nearly nine minutes. Or rather 22: euphonious and gratefully melodic though it is, this is Frankel’s first quasi-serial work, and not the least of its pleasures is working out (it is easy to do so, with the ear alone), how for example the serene lyrical Adagio at the centre of the work is derived from earlier material.

I wonder whether the Nomos Quartet knew these works before they were asked to record them. They sound delighted to have discovered them, eloquently concerned that their beauties and ingenuities should be apparent and grateful for their beautifully idiomatic quartet textures. The recordings are exemplary: clear, yet not uncomfortably close. Exceptionally but most valuably the accompanying booklet includes 14 pages of musical illustrations. A distinguished and important release.

Enjoy!

Frankel-Complete_Str.Qts_Disc1-Tzadik.zip

http://www94.zippyshare.com/v/7UIjK6oX/file.html

Frankel-Complete_Str.Qts_Disc2-Tzadik.zip

http://www67.zippyshare.com/v/V7JKNPw2/file.html

David Maslanka - Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion - Concerto No. 2 for Piano, Winds and Percussion - "Testament" - "Traveler" - Symphony No. 4 Illinois State University Wind Symphony, Stephen K. Steele - Alexandra M-David, Piano - Steven Hesla, Piano (2 CDs) Albany Records 2005

And now we have a 2 CD set of Maslanka's musical surprises. Everything here is imo wonderful (I do especially like the concertos...then again I especially like this whole program ;) and worth getting to know and love. As I am running out of posting time already I shall end here; I have included the booklet notes. 

-I would love to hear from some thus far "quiet" visitors...you know who you are...the 1000 plus a day folks who enjoy the music but do not comment ;)  Honestly, I would like to hear from a few "new" people...what do you fancy about the music? What have you been listening to lately?? What is your blood type and favorite color??? I'll take anything really, just reach out and share the passion, if only for two minutes..  

Enjoy everyone!

Maslanka_Concertos_Etc.[Disc 1]-Tzadik.zip

http://www93.zippyshare.com/v/2rnQZqCv/file.html

Maslanka_Concertos_Etc.[Disc 2]-Tzadik.zip

http://www97.zippyshare.com/v/UDlW0fKS/file.html

Booklet:

Maslanka_TR774.pdf

http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/6sFmWf2S/file.html

David Maslanka - Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble - Concerto for Marimba and Band - Joseph Lulloff, Alto Saxophone - Drew Lang, Marimba - University of Arizona Wind Ensemble - Albany Records 2000

Here are two great concertos by David Maslanka. A huge part of the appeal of Maslanka's music I think is that it is highly accessible while at the same time it inhabits an atypical, exciting sound-world that is wholly the composer's. His is a pen that is always full of surprises!

Cover art is actually by Maslanka, his "Self Portrait"

Here are the program notes by the composer:

Concerto for Alto Saxophone & Wind Ensemble


This concerto turned out to be a good deal larger than I would reasonably want. As I got into the composing, the ideas became insistent: none of them would be left out! The format of Songs and Interludes arises from my other recent works for saxophones (“Mountain Roads” and “Song Book”) and suggests a music that is more intimate than symphonic. There is a strong spiritual overtone with quotes from Bach chorales, and from my own works “Hell's Gate” and “Mass.” A story is being hinted at which has the Crucifixion right smack in the middle — the climax of the third movement quotes the “Crucifixus” from the “Mass.” I don't know what the story is, only that it wants to be music and not words.

I. Song: “Fire in the Earth”

Walking through a Montana field on a brilliant late Fall day, three images came in rapid succession: a distant row of red plant stems caught by the morning sun, snow on the surrounding high mountains, green grass at my feet. The following poetic image came:

Fire in the earth

Snow in the Heavens

New green grass in the middle of November

This is a quiet, emotional music — sometimes not so quiet — contained by a very simple song form.

II. Interlude: “Bright Window, Your Night is Full of Stars”

“Bright Window” is the soprano song right before the Credo in my “Mass.” I have transcribed it whole as a beautiful song for the solo saxophone. The words of the original song reach out in prayer to the Holy Mother and ask for a personal connection with all there is. This movement is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Christensen, Director of Bands at Iowa State University, whose untimely death was a shock to his many friends.

III. Song: “Dear Jesus, what have you DONE?!”

This music grows out of the chorale “Herzliebste Jesu, was hast du verbrocken” (“Dearest Jesus, what law did you break”). The chorale is the starting point for a huge upsurge of powerful emotion, cresting with the climax of the “Crucifixus” from my setting of the Mass.

Dear Jesus, what have you DONE to get yourself crucified?...

And then you drag the rest of us up there with you!!

IV. Interlude: “Starry Night”

“Starry Night” is not a quiet night! There is both mystery and playfulness in this music, and playfulness finally wins out, erupting into an extended dance episode with a very Baroque feel. Of all the movements, this one is most nearly a scherzo.

V. Song: “Mortal, have you seen this?”

In the Book of Ezekiel, The prophet has a vision of a man “whose appearance shone like bronze.” The “Bronze Man” shows him the Holy City. He then leads him into a deep and very wide river that cannot be crossed, and says “Mortal, have you seen this?” Where the river enters the sea the water becomes fresh; everything will live where the river goes; trees along the river will not wither, their fruit will be for food, their leaves for healing.

This movement is an echo of the third. It opens and closes with what has been called the “coronation” music from my composition “Hell's Gate” — in this case played very softly and inwardly.


Concerto for Marimba and Band


This concerto could easily be subtitled `rhapsody' or `fantasy' because of its meditative and free-flowing quality. It is easy to describe the overall shape — an extended slow to moderate opening section, an explosive fast section, a quiet closing section — but less easy to describe the internal working of the piece. I have been an observer of nature for many years. I am fascinated with the “is-ness” of nature. The earth, the sky, the variety of growing things, water — all are constants. They stay the same, but are continuously varied with the time of day, the weather, the changing seasons. I have tried in my concerto to reflect the inner working of na-tural systems, not to make nature sounds as in a tone poem, but to find a musical structure that parallels the natural flow.

The result in this piece harks back more than 20 years to a title I had thought of but never used. The title is ”Melodia” — a collection of melodies. My concerto is a continuous exposition of a large number of melodies, all growing out of a single impulse. There is no development in the Classical sense, but rather a flowing movement, a meditation which travels quietly, and sometimes forcefully from thought to thought, often extremely simple, with pleasure taken in individual colors, shapes, and combinations as they appear and dissolve. Meditations on nature become for me, ecstatic visions of color, light and force. All the musical elements — rhythm, melody, harmony, instrumental colors and textures — are all alive for me in the same way.

I am not a percussionist, but it has come to me to write percussion music. This is my fifth piece for marimba and my second marimba concerto. The marimba is a superior mood instrument. Over the years it has allowed me to find and give shape to parts of myself that could not be expressed in other terms.

-David Maslanka


Tracks:

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble

I. Song: “Fire in the Earth” [9:20]

II. Interlude: “Bright Window, Your Night is Full of Stars” [5:06]

III. Song: “Dear Jesus, what have you DONE!?” [9:05]

IV. Interlude: “Starry Night” [10:24]

V. Song: “Mortal, have you seen this?” [9:19]

Joseph Lulloff, saxophone

6) Concerto for Marimba and Band [19:34]

Drew Lang, marimba


Enjoy!

Maslanka-Saxophone_Marimba_Concertos-Tzadik.zip

http://www67.zippyshare.com/v/DjBoAWa8/file.html

Happy 150th Birthday, Jean Sibelius! Sibelius - 'Song of the Earth' - The Captive Queen - Two Chorales - Cantata - Scout March - Hymn of the Earth - Processional - Dominate Choir, Seppo Murto - Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä - BIS 2005

OK - so for me (and likely many of you) this is a HUGE birthday in music to celebrate. Looking at the clock right now, it would seem, that I missed (that is, in a declamatory, posting sort of way) Sibelius's birthday by 1 hour and 40 minutes. Well....that's just too bad, Jean (and by Jean, I actually mean you people - that's right it's code, for those of you who might just have ruffled feathers imagining that I was going to neglect posting in honor of the birth of Scandinavia's greatest composer. Well better late than never I say, you musical rapscallions! That's right, I showed you..

So, here we have a delightful disc of lesser-known works (most of Sibelius's vocal/choral output qualifies as lesser known..) for chorus and orchestra. And there are some real gems here, which will be evident from the start, with the 14 minute "Jordens Sång" (Song of the Earth), which Sibelius composed in 1919.

The three photos above are from the Sibelius Monument in Helsinki. I rather like the structure, needless to say I'd like it much more if I could be there in the pink! (Even almost 2 hours late, Eastern-Birthday time)

-I have included the booklet notes, which is especially helpful for all of you as I'm about to fall asleep at the keyboard.

Sorry all for not adding the information on the 'Clarinet Quintets on Jewish Themes' discs yet. Things have been difficult today however I shall take care of that Wednesday evening!

Enjoy!

Sibelius_Song_Of_The_Earth-Tzadik.zip

http://www52.zippyshare.com/v/FGI260wB/file.html

Esquissess Hébraïques: Clarinet Quintets on Jewish Themes - Gurowitsch, Kol Nidrej - J. Weinberg, Quintet - Gardner, Hebrew Fantasy - Gorodezky, Jewish Rhapsody - Krein, Esquissess Hébraïques - Secunda, A Gemóre Nigun - Levenson, Two Jewish Folk Songs - Gretchaninov, Variations - Binder, Variations on a prayer motif - Dieter Klöcker, Clarinet - Vlach Quartet - CPO 1999

This 2-cd set on CPO is chamber music heaven. For me. Perhaps for you too-I think it's high-time to find out. This project is exceptional on all levels really; the artists involved play superbly (I'm sure most of you will know The Vlach Quartet Prague, as well as the clarinetist Dieter Klöcker) and all of the music is well worth getting acquainted with-most of it is truly exceptional I think. All of the composers here have penned works borne from the Jewish experience in one way or another; it's music that you truly "feel" as you listen, even for the very first time. Intimate storytelling by way of the speaking clarinet (a Jewish 'soul' instrument) and the passion of the string quartet, this is music that emotes in every color, music that sings joyously and cries mournfully. It is the joy that prevails here.

Those interested in getting to know Jewish music soon realize the difficulties inherent in such an undertaking. Jewish music is extremely complicated, because in order to understand it one must take into account ethnic, geographical and historical influences, which give rise to numerous musical structures, as well as varied styles.  It is also difficult to specify exactly what a Hebrew musical composition is. To this day musicologists have not managed to find an exact definition. As a general rule one can say that a Jewish work is one written by a Jewish composer and which includes musical material from the Jewish folk or religious tradition. Three distinct ethnic groups can be distinguished:

the Ashkenazi from Central and Eastern Europe, the Sephardi of Spanish origin, and the 'oriental' Jews from the Middle East, Yemen and North Africa. Each of these groups has its own particular music. All of the Jewish composers on this recording are Ashkenazi from Eastern Europe. The music of the Ashkenazi is infinitely varied, with different styles for religious and folk music. Its most important characteristics can be summed up:

1) use of a scale without the leading note, and which may contain one or more augmented seconds

2) melodies often comparable to improvisation or recitative, with free rhythm and exuberant ornamentation

3) melodic and rhythmic sequences

4) prominent use of anapestic (a musical foot consisting of two short notes, followed by one long note) rhythmic motives in popular style 

The birth of Jewish artistic creation in Eastern Europe took place at the beginning of the 20th century. 

This awareness of a specifically Hebrew art came quite naturally, in the wake of other nationalist musical movements that were forming in Europe from the end of the 19th century. In addition, Jewish and intellectual circles in Russia could already take as a model the 'mighty five' who had successfully established Russian classical music from the folklore of their country. In 1908 a 'Society for Jewish Folk Music' whose express aim was to collect, publish, and disseminate ethnic Jewish music was formed in St. Petersburg. Its success was such that branches were organized in other Russian cities. It also encouraged Jewish composers to create art music based on popular and liturgical themes. This new movement excited enormous interest among Jewish composers all over Europe and in the United States.

To be continued...

Enjoy the quintet treasures everyone!


Disc 1

Clarinet_Quintets_on_Jewish_Themes(Disc1)-Tzadik.zip

http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/oXoqhaNL/file.html

Disc 2

Clarinet_Quintets_on_Jewish_Themes(Disc2)-Tzadik.zip

http://www85.zippyshare.com/v/46N47itR/file.html

Khevrisa: European Klezmer Music - The Khevrisa Ensemble - Steven Greenman, Violin - Zev Feldman, Cimbalom - Alicia Svigals, Sekund (Trad. Fidlling) - Michael Alpert, Sekund - Stuart Brontman, Bass - Smithsonian Folkways 2000

I received a comment by Cecille, a representative of Smithsonian Folkways and thus the file to d/l this album I have removed. I am leaving the rest of the post here in hope that the cover art (and my enthusiasm!) will motivate you to seek it out and buy it,  as I did. Here is the Smithsonian Folkways
website (there's also a ton of important, historic recordings in their discography; one of my absolute favorites is all the original (1930s-40s) recordings of the legendary bluesman Leadbelly. Incredible stuff). Oh, I started to ramble, here is the website: http://www.folkways.si.edu/  Whether it's via Amazon or the direct link provided, please support this not-for-profit record label!!

Again, just the album art and my thoughts remain below:

Here's a very fine disc of traditional klezmer music; this is actual type of ensemble and music that my great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and other relatives living in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia heard growing up, whether walking through their villages or during times of celebration. I have quite a sweet spot for this music, and I was really obsessed with klezmer for a good period of time (traditional, modern/avant-garde/jazz inspired/"downtown NYC" and so-called radical "New Jewish Music", as is best represented on many Tzadik recordings (John Zorn's Label). The musicians here are some of the finest in the world, and all of them have performed in many ensembles, modern and more traditional over the years (such as Alicia Svigals, founder of the 'Klezmatics', Michael Alpert and Stuart Brontman, both of 'Brave Old World', and Steven Greenman and Zev Feldman, the founders of the 'Khevrisa' ensemble heard here).I have seen the Klezmatics and Brave Old World at least 10 times each, and the atmosphere created by these passionate players in concert-ecstatic and mournful both, is hard to describe. I can say it's a rollicking good time though!   

Aharon Harlap - Symphony No. 2 "L'oiseau de la guerre" (The Bird of War) - Oded Zehavi - Concerto for Viola and Orchestra - Rivka Golani, Viola - The Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Stanley Sperber - Music In Israel 1997

As it is the second night of Hanukkah (Happy Hanukkah/Holidays to all!) and I have a bit of time I am posting a few discs by Jewish and Jewish/Israeli composers, however just one now-until I return home tonight. Here we have Israeli composer (originally from Canada) Aharon Harlap's powerful and exciting Symphony No. 2, "The Bird of War", which relates to the Gulf War of 1991 and was directly inspired by Dutch artist Hans Hogendoorn's painting, "The Bird of War". It is a moving and beautiful work (I especially enjoy the third movement, an almost Prokofievian or Satirical Shostakovich-like Allegro that features piano accompaniment of a dancing energic nature) that includes in the finale a part for soprano performing passages from Genesis and Isaiah. 

The Viola Concerto by Oded Zahavi is also a powerful work, not unlike his Violin Concerto, which I posted a while back. You can enjoy it here, if you haven't already:

http://nocturna-artificialia.blogspot.com/2015/03/israeli-violin-concertos-paul-ben-haim.html

Aharon Harlap (born 1941) is one of Israel's most prominent and well known (within Israel) composers and conductors. He was born in Canada, where he began his musical career as a pianist. He completed his studies in Music and Mathematics at the University of Manitoba in 1963, and in 1964 immigrated to Israel. 

He studied composition under P. Racine Fricker at London's Royal College of Music and with Oedoen Partos at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. Harlap also studied conducting with Sir Adrian Boult in London, Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and Gary Bertini in Israel. Harlap is a senior lecturer in choral and orchestral conducting at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and he is also Music Director and conductor of the Kefar Sava Chamber Choir (since 1997).

Aharon Harlap has composed music in most genres, including vocal and choral works, chamber, music, many concertos (including a Viola Concerto dedicated to the international violist Rivka Golani, who is the soloist on this disc for the Zehavi Concerto), orchestral music (including two Symphonies - that is, I am only aware of two, there could very well be more) and Opera. In Israel he has appeared as guest conductor with most of the major orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonette Beer Sheva, the Kibbutzim Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. 

In 1979 Harlap was awarded a prize for his oratorio "The Fire and the Mountains" in an international competition on the subject of the "Holocaust and Rebirth". In 1983 he was the recipient of the ACUM prize for "Three songs for mezzo-soprano and symphony orchestra" set to poems by Leah Goldberg and Yehuda Amichai. In 1993 he won the Mark Lavry Prize for Composition, awarded by the Haifa Municipality for his choral-orchestral work "For dust you art, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis III). 

Aharon Harlap

In 1997 Harlap's opera "Thérèse Raquin" (based on the Emile Zola novel of the same name with libretto by Dana Gur) won a prize sponsored by the New Israel Opera, and in the same year he also received the ACUM Prize for his Clarinet Concerto. In 1999 he received the Prime Minister's Award for composition, and in 2004 the ACUM Prize again, this time for his Bassoon Concerto. 

The opera Thérèse Raquin was performed in May of 2005 at the annual Israel Festival, and received public and critical acclaim. 

2002 saw the world premiere of "The Divine Image" by the Illinois Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Kiesler, at that time music director and principal conductor of the orchestra. The work is written for soprano, mezzo soprano and baritone soloists, choir and symphony orchestra, and based on texts from William Blake, Psalms and Isaiah. Other Harlap works performed by Kenneth Kiesler and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra include the overture "Anniversary" and an orchestral suite based on Hanukah songs entitled "Music for the Festival of Lights". These works have also been performed throughout the years with other orchestras in the USA as well as in Israel. 

In 2001 Harlap was invited to Hungary to conduct the Dohnanyi Symphony Orchestra in Budapest. Among other works, the program included Harlap's Clarinet Concerto and "Pictures from the Private Collection of God", a song cycle for soprano solo, oboe and strings, composed to texts by Yaakov Barzilai, a Holocaust survivor originally from Hungary. The work met with great success, following which Harlap was again invited in 2003 and 2004 to conduct the Solti Chamber Orchestra, which again performed the same song cycle as well as another Harlap work based on texts from Psalms – a song cycle for soprano solo, clarinet and strings. Recently Hungary’s MAV orchestra performed another song cycle by Harlap, "My father will no longer bless the bread" also set to poems by Yaakov Barzilai and conducted by the Israeli conductor Yaron Gottfried. 

Aharon Harlap received the "Life Achievement Award" in 2008 from ACUM (Composers and Authors Organization of Israel) for his life's contribution to music in Israel as a composer. 

Hans Hogendoorn's "The Bird of War" can be view on this page: 

http://hanshogendoorn.exto.nl/kunstwerk/263250_L%27oiseau+de+la+Guerre+%28+ntk%29.html

Enjoy everyone!

Music_In_Israel-Harlap_Symphony_2_Zehavi_Viola_Cto-Tzadik.zip

http://www54.zippyshare.com/v/h1BPN8Z1/file.html