Late Romantic

Rachmaninoff: Symphonies Nos. 1–3; Isle of the Dead [3 CDs]

Sergey Rachmaninov’s symphonic career had a rocky start with the premiere of his First Symphony, now recognized as one of the Russian symphonic works of the late 19th century. Both the powerful First Symphony and the gloriously melodic Second, with its lush harmonic Adagio second movement, are haunted by the Dies irae chant melody. (Naxos)

3CD# 8503278 $24.99

Vaughan Williams Live Vol. 4

SOMM Recordings continues its acclaimed Vaughan Williams Live series celebrating the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth with Vol. 4 featuring his signature Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, the Concerto for Two Pianos and Eighth Symphony in recordings conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos and Sir John Barbirolli. (SOMM)

1CD# ARIADNE 5020 $18.99

Miaskowsky & Rimsky-Korsakov: Cello Concerto Cello Sonatas

For the last ten years or so, there has been a gratifying renewal of interest in the eminent Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky, whose career spanned the late Romantic to early Modern periods. His creative legacy deserves far greater attention than is currently paid to him: Myaskovsky’s music demonstrates the highest level of craftsmanship and explores a very unique realm of emotional and soulful experience. (CPO)

1CD# 555420-2 $16.99

Ravel: Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 2

In Ravel’s output, themes of Classical order and choreographic gesture run parallel to a sensibility in touch with the macabre and grotesque. All these aspects of his music are illustrated by the second volume of Oleg Marshev’s Ravel survey, from the elegance of the Sonatine to the vertiginous fantasy of Gaspard de la Nuit. “Marshev is a phenomenon.” – BBC Music Magazine (Danacord)

1CD# DACOCD904 $16.99

Casadesus, Respighi & Saint-Saëns:

Ronde de Saisons

Unlike other early period-instrument revivals, the Société des Instruments Anciens ensemble performed not only baroque pastiche, but also new works which they commissioned and composed for their rediscovered instruments. This disc presents the premiere recordings of music written in the first decades of the twentieth century by Henri Casadesus and Ottorino Respighi. (Olde Focus)

1CD# FCR922 $19.99

Labor: Quintets & Clarinet Trio [2 CDs]

What the concert pianist, organist, and composer Josef Labor lost in eyesight when smallpox left him blind at age three, must have been added to his ears. Although roughly a Brahmsian (and a friend of the composer), Labor wrote in an original style, informed by his knowledge of and love for early music. (Capriccio)

2CD# C5473 $16.99

Poulenc:

La voix humaine

Véronique Gens’ version of La Voix humaine has been eagerly awaited! This ‘lyric tragedy in one act’ might have been written for her, so ideally suited are her feeling for language and her dramatic intensity to Poulenc’s monologue on a text by Jean Cocteau, composed in 1958. This is a far cry from the ‘light’ Poulenc of the 1920s. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA899 $18.99

Jongen:

Preludes for

Piano

Born in 1873, Joseph Jongen showed an outstanding precocity for music from a very early age, Although he composed in numerous genres, including the symphony and concerto, as well as chamber music, instrumental pieces, and choral works, it is his output for the organ for which he is now best known. (Chandos)

1CD# CHAN 20264 $20.99

A Golden Cello Decade 1878–1888 / Steven Isserlis

Steven Isserlis has curated another typically imaginative recital, in which all the works date – in one guise or another – from an especially fruitful decade in the history of the cello. “No cellist alive can match the eloquent intent of Steven Isserlis’s line. Every phrase he threads through the warm embrace of Connie Shih’s pianism is articulated and ‘breathed’ with the ardour...” – BBC Music (Hyperion)

1CD# MOB283944 $19.99

Weigl: Piano Concerto Op. 21 – Rhapsody

The orchestral songs by the now almost forgotten Viennese composer and late Romantic Karl Weigl date from 1916, while the Rhapsody for String Orchestra goes back to the String Sextet composed in 1906, but was composed together with the Piano Concerto only in 1931 and, like the latter, reveals a progressive and yet completely organic, natural development. (CPO)

1CD# 555360-2 $16.99