Vivaldi
Late Vivaldi Concerti
Guilliano Carmignola

With no particular axe to grind about the re entry in to the repertoire of the recently discovered late Vivaldi concerti, I discovered them to be fresh and exciting and like none of the earlier Vivaldi although the family resemblance is unmistakable.

Sergei Taneyev
String Quartets Volume 1
Krasni Quartet
Olympia OCD 697

These are beautiful lush quartets I have found myself listening to again and again. Clear and lyrical without being heart on your sleeve.

The Music of Takemitsu

I Fiamminghi, Rudolf Werthen, conductor
Telarc CD 80469

Toru Takemitsu died four years ago. There have been a number of recordings released of his music and many of them are very good. I was powerfully affected by the performances of this Belgian group, I Fiamminghi. The entire CD is of music for strings and includes excerpts of his music for the films, Black Rain, Death and Resurrection and Jose Torres. There are also performances of Nostalghia for strings and solo violin, A Way A Lone II for string quartet and oboe and finally a particularly moving performance of the now well recorded, Toward The Sea for strings, alto flute and harp. Takemitsu was a dear friend and a person whose music I have admired since even before we first met in the 1950s. This CD for me is one of the most powerful evocations of the depth and magic of his music.

Olivier Messiaen
OEuvres pour orgue
EMI Classics CDZD 7-67400-2

This is an old favorite. I first heard this when Richard Meale, the Australian composer told me about it. As a teenager, I had already heard Turagalila, in fact, heard the Bernstein Boston Symphony broadcast introduced by Koussevitsky. But the organ works were very much a part of my memory of the early 1960s, when I was fresh back from doctoral research in Japan. I prefer above all others, Messiaen's own performances of these works and I am very happy with EMIClassics release of the originals some years back. One can image the nuns at Sainte Trinite in Paris being disturbed by this music back in the 30s enough to ask Messiaen to play only between services. Rich, perfumed music, delicate and at times terrifying like seeing full mystic force of the power of creation.

English Music for Strings

Henry Purcell: Fantasias for the Viols, 1680
Jordi Savall Hesperion XX
Astree E 8536

Starting with the Jordi Savall recordings of the Fantasias of Purcell, an excellent recording, I delved into this repertoire. The Savall recordings are jewels with the tone of the gambas sounding like bells. The Purcell Fantasia were composed at a time when this style of music had gone out of fashion, although it had been much use by English composers prior to Purcell.

English Music for Strings

There are several other recordings of this repertoire and numerous ensembles, each a bit different from the others. I include here only a few of some 20 or so that I have been listening to.

Purcell. Fantasias for Viols.
Phantasm.
Simax PSC 1124

William Lawes. Consorts in Six Parts.
Phantasm
Channel Classics 17498

also

William Lawes. Consorts in Four and Five Parts.
Phantasm
Channel Classics 15698

John Jenkins: Fantasias & Airs
The Locke Consort
Channel Classics 17698

More of this marvelous music. In this early Baroque style the polyphony flows in imitative style and yet is filled with surprises. All these composers, Locke, Gibbons, Jenkins, Lawes and Purcell use free flowing style of polyphony that is unlike the later Baroque polyphony of Bach and Handel.

There are many more to explore.

Georges Enescu: Octet and Quintet
Kremerata Baltica
Nonesuch 79682

The violinist Gidon Kremer has managed to get into a number of different musics and projects. In the notes to this recent recording of the music of Enescu, Kremer states that he has just re-discovered this composer and intends to devote himself further to this great music. I for one, look forward to seeing what he does next. This recording is one of the best of any Enesco I have heard. The Chamber ensemble sings in both compositions with a richness and passion that seems perfectly appropriate for Enesco and that makes the music sound as I have never heard it before. THis one will be a favorite for a long time to come.

Robert Garfias
UCI

The MIDI page

rgarfias@uci.edu
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Last updated 12.26.03