Volume 29 Issue 3 | December 2023 & January 2024

e Toccata by Osvaldo Lacerda (1927-2011) has a third movement
described as “deceptively modern”; the three-movement 1964 Sonata
by Brenno Blauth (1931-93) is “at times highly lyrical, at others
aggressive.”
Cheng has Villa-Lobos’ Valse da dor as a solo, and the 1912 song Lua
branca by Brazil’s first woman conductor Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-
1936) ends a disc full of fine playing.
There’s more really lovely viola playing
on Hans Sitt Viola and Piano Works, with
the Spanish violist Alicia Calabuig ably
supported by pianist Jorge Blasco (eudora
EUD-SACD-2305 eudorarecords.com).
Sitt was an outstanding violinist and
violist as well as a composer and teacher,
spending almost the last 36 years of his life
(1850-1922) as violin professor at the Leipzig
Conservatory, which tied him to the Mendelssohn-Schumann-Bruch-
Brahms composer tradition. The works here were mostly written
between 1891 and 1919, when the post-Wagner rise of composers like
Richard Strauss, Mahler and Zemlinsky rendered Sitt’s style somewhat
anachronistic.
Still, these are beautifully crafted works, not particularly virtuosic
and extremely attractive. Included are the Albumblätter Op.39, the 3
Fantasiestücke Op.58, the Romance Op.72, the 3 Morceaux Op.75, the
Romanze Op.102/1 and the Gavotte and Mazurka Op.132. Calabuig’s
warm tone is a perfect match, as is her beautifully judged vibrato –
never constant, and never too wide or heavy. It’s a delightful CD.
The French cellist Xavier Phillips grew
up with the music of Gabriel Fauré, and
on Fauré: The music for cello and piano
he teams with pianist Cédric Tiberghien
in a recital of the complete works (La
dolce vita LDV102 ladolcevolta.com/
catalogue/?lang=en).
Both players are fully aware of the
flowing, sensuous nature of the music. “To
work on Fauré,” says Tiberghien, “you need
to let go. . . you have to leave this music free to go its own way,” and
the warm, rapturous performances do exactly that. Presented here are
the Berceuse Op.16, the Élégie in C Minor Op.24, the Romance Op.69,
Papillon Op.77, the Sicilienne Op.78 and the Sérénade Op.98, together
with the two late Cello Sonatas No.1 in D Minor Op.109 and No.2 in G
Minor Op.117.
Casals’ transcription of the song Après un rêve Op.7 No.1 completes
a delightful CD.
On L’altra Venezia the Scaramuccia
ensemble of violinist Javier Lupiáñez, cellist
Inés Salinas and harpsichordist Patrícia
Vintém presents world premiere recordings
of chamber music by several of the
most prominent and capable Venetian
composers active around 1700, roughly
contemporary with Vivaldi but now littleknown
in comparison (Snakewood Editions
SCD202301 snakewoodeditions.com).
There are three works by Giorgio Gentili – his Cello Sonatas in A
Major and G Major and his Violin Capriccio XI in B Minor – and two
Violin Sonatas in B-flat Major and G Minor by Tomaso Albinoni.
Single violin sonatas by Diogenio Bigaglia (his “Dresden” Sonata No.2
in C Major), Antonio Caldara (in F major) and Giovanni Battista Reali
(his Sonata VII in B-flat Major) complete the disc.
Excellent booklet notes and an annotated map of Venice that details
the composers’ ties to the city add to a delightful and revelatory CD.
Instrumental fantasias from the continent, predominantly for lute
or keyboard were being published in England by the 1560s, and by
the end of the century William Byrd had established instrumental
ensemble fantasias, ranging from three to six parts as the pre-eminent
chamber music in England. By 1667,
however, Christopher Simpson, himself a
composer of fantasias noted their “rapid
decline into neglect.”
In 1680 the young Purcell wrote a set of
12, the very last ensemble fantasias to be
published in England. They are presented
in excellent performances on Henry Purcell
Fantazias in three and four parts by the
John Holloway Ensemble of violinist John
Holloway, violists Monika Baer and Renate Steinmann and cellist
Martin Zeller (ECM New Series 2249 485 6006 ecmrecords.com).
Purcell biographer Bruce Wood rightly called them “astonishing
pieces. . . among the most profound and searching counterpoint of the
17th century.”
On 1923 – 100 Years of Radio the Schumann
Quartett celebrates the year that saw not
only the first radio broadcasts in Germany
and Austria but also the First Chamber
Festival of the recently formed International
Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)
in Salzburg (Berlin Classics 0302968BC
berlin-classics-music.com/en).
All five composers on this fascinating
disc – Paul Hindemith, Alban Berg, Erwin
Schulhoff, Leoš Janáček and Aaron Copland – were present at the
festival. Janáček’s String Quartet No, “Kreutzer Sonata” was written a
few weeks later. Hindemith’s delightfully humourous six-movement
Minimax “Repertoire for Military Band” is from July 1923.
Berg’s String Quartet Op.3, written in 1910, was performed to great
acclaim at the festival’s opening concert, and Schulhoff’s Five Pieces
for String Quartet were written on his return to Prague from Salzburg.
Copland’s short Movement for String Quartet was written the same
year at the end of his studies with Nadia Boulanger, but the manuscript
didn’t come to light until 1983.
Over 80 minutes of outstanding performances of truly eclectic
music makes for an absolute gem of a CD.
Tendres échos
Anne Thivierge
French repertoire of the 17th and
18th centuries, this album highlights
works for flute and continuo by
Couperin, Blavet, Marin Marais, and
Jean-Marie Leclair.
The digital release Mendelssohn String
Quartets Nos.1, 2 & 3 by the Quarteto Carlos
Gomes is the first volume in a proposed
complete set of the composer’s quartets on
the Brazilian label Azul Music (AMDA1887
azulmusic.com.br).
All three works here – the String Quartets
No.1 in E-flat Major Op.12, No.2 in A Major
Op.13 and No.3 in D Major Op.44 No.1
What we're listening to this month:
Composing Israel: the First Three
Generations
Liora Ziv-Li, Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra, Voices of Bedouin
schoolchildren, et al
A panorama of ten compelling solo
piano, chamber, and electronic
works by nine noted Israeli
composers.
52 | December 2023 & January 2024 thewholenote.com