Naxos 2019

Wolfgang Rihm, one of the foremost contemporary composers, has created a powerful body of music for the violin. Gesungene Zeit is one of his most performed works, and it demonstrates why Rihm is so admired: music that begins and ends in ethereal lines while embracing agitation and threnody alike. The beautifully transparent and sensuous Lichtes Spiel is ‘light, but not lightweight’ in the composer’s words, and COLL’ARCO takes the soloist to the extremes of virtuosity in his largest concertante work for the violin, teeming with reminiscences, intricacy, and drama. Volume 1 can also be heard on Naxos.

A selection of Richard Strauss’s most-loved lieder and songs, and Elisabeth’s arias from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, the role in which Lise Davidsen will make her debut at Bayreuth Festival. Plus Ariadne’s aria from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos: her 2017 Glyndebourne debut in the title role was named “one of those ‘I was there’ moments” (The Times).

The solo concerto emerged in Northern Italy in the first quarter of the 18th century and rapidly became popular across Europe. The five works here demonstrate how concertos for the flute differ in Germany, Italy and France. Outer movements usually retain the virtuosic elements that characterise the concertos of Vivaldi, but the Frenchman Michel Blavet infiltrates an exquisite Gavotte into his work, while Telemann’s superb melodies and rich harmonies are characteristic features of his Flute Concerto in D major. All five works exemplify the Baroque ideal of singing lyricism and passionate expression.

Classical musicians have always recognized the musicality and originality of The Beatles' songs, Leonard Bernstein declaring the Lennon-McCartney composing team 'the Schuberts of our time'. This sequel to Peter Breiner's multi-platinum Beatles Go Baroque (Naxos 8.555010) takes the original concept even further, keeping 18th-century masterpieces such as Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Bach's famously stylish and beautiful Violin Concerto No. 1 largely intact, elegantly combining them with The Beatles' most enduring melodies to create a joyously genuine 21st-century mashup. Peter Breineris one of the world's most recorded musicians, with over 200 albums released and multiple streams and downloads.

Herbert Howells’s style, immediately recognisable for its long melodic lines, rhapsodic nature and rich harmonies, defined the sound of English cathedral music in the 20th century. His studies in London imbued his works with sophistication and a French influence, which were intertwined with a nostalgic ‘heart-ache’ for the ‘real Gloucestershire’, as can be heard in String Quartet No.3. The charming little character stories in Lady Audrey’s Suite tell of countryside and church, while the Piano Quartet in A minor is dedicated ‘To the Hill at Chosen and Ivor Gurney who knows it’, portraying a favourite local vantage point at different seasons as well as poignantly remembering a lost friendship.