Bamert

Mathias Bamert's 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series now tackles Wesley, an English composer chiefly remembered for his sacred music but who was also quite a dab hand at orchestral writing as is evidenced here. These five symphonies are full of colour and imagination and resemble Ditterdorsf's 'Ovid' Symphonies for their range of flair and advanced orchestration. The Sinfonia obligato' contains a delightfully melodious Andante con moto which although lasting just three minutes is remarkable for what it manages to contain. The Symphony in A major has its final movement marked as Brillante, a strange term but fully in keeping with the boisterous nature of the music.

The best-selling Contemporaries of Mozart series is one of Chandos’ longest-running recording projects and we are delighted to add a selection of symphonies by the Salzburg composer Leopold Mozart to the collection. Conducted by Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players, the broad range of Leopold’s symphonic style is on clear display in the charming symphonies recorded here. All the works are recorded for the first time.

This program of Franz Xaver Richter (1709-89) is another in Matthias Bamert’s series of Mozart Contemporaries. These little-known late-18th Century musicians deserve more recognition. The London Mozart Players are a crack ensemble who readily follow Bamert’s outstanding leadership. The Chandos sound is among the best, and the notes are superb. Three of these five works are premiere recordings, which makes this all the more attractive.

Dohnányi's penchant for quality musical entertainment bore popular fruit with his perennially fresh Variations on a Nursery Theme. Howard Shelley's performance is a model of wit and style, blending in with the orchestra whenever the moment seems right and employing an ideal brand of rubato. Bamert's conducting is properly portentous in the Introduction and charming elsewhere, whether in the musicbox delights of the fifth variation, the animated bustle of the sixth or the seventh's novel scoring (plenty for the bassoons and bass drum).

The pioneering Chandos recordings of Parry’s symphonies by Matthias Bamert and the London Philharmonic confirmed that the concert world of Victorian England was not just a void waiting to be filled by Elgar. More than one expressive vein considered typically Elgarian was first tapped by Parry, and extended by him with professional flair. His symphonies established an independent vision, and cannot be dismissed as mere precursors of a greater composer.

Chandos's brave and important Parry series, conducted with sterling musicianship and remarkable insights by Matthias Bamert, adds another choral disc to the four out of the five symphonies so far issued. Recently The Soul's Ransom and The Lotos Eaters were released (1/92) and now comes the large-scale, nearly hour-long cantata Invocation to Music, a ten-movement setting of a poem by Parry's friend Robert Bridges and composed ''in honour of Henry Purcell'' for the bicentenary, in 1895, of his death. The first performance was at the Leeds Festival that year. How many have there been since then?

The Parry revival gathers pace. This is the first disc in a Chandos series which is to embrace the five symphonies and some of the choral works, including the rare and lovely The Lotus Eaters. A special significance attaches to it because the conductor is not British. Who would have expected a Swiss conductor, Matthias Bamert, to explore such a rare English preserve as the Parry symphonies? It is an encouraging act of faith, and the quality of the performances and interpretations is such as springs not from duty but from conviction and enthusiasm. Chandos give the music one of their clear and faithful recordings, with admirable balance and slight resonance.

The Dutch are way too hard on themselves. So far, Chandos has released three discs (including this one) in its ongoing Dutch composers series featuring the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, and all three have been excellent. And yet, the writer of the booklet notes treats this music as if listening to it were some kind of penance. He should take a lesson from his English colleagues, who indiscriminately promote any piece of native trash as God’s gift to the world of music. Well, maybe he needn’t go quite that far.

German-born English composer William Herschel (1738-1822) achieved fame as an astronomer, the discoverer of the planet Uranus; but his formal training was musical, and in the early 1760s he composed a series of symphonies, six of which are featured here. They are attractive works in simple forms, all centered on the keys of C or D, scored for continuo, strings, winds, and occasional brass in various combinations. Each has three movements, and none lasts more than about 12 minutes. Not surprisingly, Nos. 14 and 17, which feature horns and timpani, pack the largest punch, and Herschel wrote some surprisingly memorable tunes (particularly in the allegros), making these slight works easy on the ear and, if a touch formulaic in construction, seldom dull.