Stefano Grondona La Guitarra Callada, Complete Works For Guitar (2017)

This fine, triple-CD collection of music by Hungarian composer György Kurtág is titled with uncharacteristic imprecision by ECM: it is a collection not of works for ensemble and choir, but of ensemble, vocal, and choral works. As such, it covers a good many of the milestones of this composer's output, which hovered for many years between western Europe and the East Bloc scene, covering developments from the sparse text-setting of the earlier major song sets to the newer accessibility that were explored by other composers, but maintaining a distinctive voice all the while.

Here’s a genuine rarity: Ferdinand Rebay (1878-1953) has been hitherto unknown outside a small circle of guitar connoisseurs, but that should change thanks to this attractive set of sonatas and dances, all receiving their first recordings at the hands of two talented young Italian musicians. Rebay was Viennese born and bred. In 1901 he entered the piano class of Joseph Hofmann at the Vienna Conservatory and studied composition with the eminent pedagogue Robert Fuchs, who counted Mahler, Wolf, Sibelius and von Zemlinsky among his students. Four years later, when leaving the Conservatory with a distinction in composition, Rebay's catalogue already numbered around 100 works, including a piano concerto dedicated to Prof. Hofmann. He continued to compose prolifically, mainly in the area of vocal music, producing around 100 choral works, 400 Lieder and two operas.

Frank Bungarten has taken on a significant task: an entire album of works by legendary Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. The composer's music is lush, complex, and richly textured, which is not a surprise given that Villa-Lobos was classically trained. But Villa-Lobos also incorporated inspiration from music of native Brazilian peoples and African cultures, so one cannot consider him purely a formal art music composer. Thus it takes a very skilled musician to be able to technically master the music and to convey the emotion and rhythms. Bungarten is perhaps most successful in the first set of works, Suite populaire brésilienne, which is a set of five dances.