Aaron Strumann

This disc substantially duplicates the repertoire on an all-Copland program produced by DG with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. However, where DG included the Short Symphony, Naxos offers the Clarinet Concerto. While the Nashville Chamber Orchestra doesn’t offer quite the tonal refinement and polish of Orpheus, it basically plays just as well, and its slightly weightier, gutsier, more rustic sonority arguably suits the music even better. In the famous rehearsal disc that accompanied Copland’s own recording of the original chamber version of Appalachian Spring, he can be heard exhorting his players not to sentimentalize the music: “…it’s a little too much on the Massenet-side,” he tells them. Obviously Paul Gambill understands this point, for he offers interpretations ideally poised between warmth and simplicity, full of those clean and clear sonorities that Copland made his own.

Beethoven’s three sonatas for Piano and Violin Op. 30 were dedicated to Tsar Alexander 1st. He had been educated by his grandmother Catherine the Great and was considered to be a true child of the Enlightenment. The three manuscripts of the Op. 30 sonatas are among the most expressive of the surviving original material of Beethoven’s chamber music. These works were a direct result of the collaboration with Beethoven’s violin teacher, Ignaz Schuppanzigh – who was in fact the dedicatee of the Op. 12 sonatas. The final piece on the CD was written by another significant influence on Beethoven’s work – Franz Clement. This is the third disc in a series that sets Beethoven’s sonatas in their social and musical context – in this case the context being Schuppanzigh.

This is the fifth disc in a series that sets Beethoven’s violin sonatas in their social and musical context. Beethoven’s three Sonatas Op 12, mark the beginning of an extraordinary group of works which would climax with the Op 96 Sonata which he completed at the end of 1812. Beethoven and Romberg shared a history as string players. In 1790, Romberg joined Beethoven in the electoral court orchestra in Bonn, led by Beethoven’s erstwhile violin teacher, Franz Anton Ries. This laid the foundations for Beethoven when he instituted his team of string players in Vienna in the years following his arrival there in 1792.

Sometimes it takes extremely talented and worthy musicians a long time before releasing an album in which they lead. Some of the musicians never do. Luckily, Aaron Heick got together with the Japanese label Venus Records to release his first album under his own moniker. Easily one of the best modern alto saxophonists in the United States, Heick has performed and recorded with stars such as Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Richard Bona. In this one-horn quartet setting with the extraordinary John di Martino and his Romantic Jazz Trio, Heick shows his phenomenal technique, solid sound, and emotionally charged soulfulness. Some of the selections on this album include Carlos Santana's "Europe," flutist Herbie Mann's funky "Comin' Home, Baby," a song by the Beatles "And I Love Her," and the evocative "Infant Eyes," written by Wayne Shorter. There are also two original compositions by Heick himself.

Gregory Groover's Criss Cross debut, recorded on the Boston born-and-bred tenor saxophonist's thirtieth birthday, is a tour de force. Joined by a bespoke sextet of his favorite players, all New York-based, Groover presents a recital of 11 original tone-parallels to family and friends, his intentions anticipated, illuminated and fulfilled by his gifted bandmates.