New music from a few countries by the water – Estonia, Latvia, and the British Isles – is added to WFMT’s music library. From elsewhere in Europe, Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 present new works of Jan Dismas Zelenka, a composer born in Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic). Plus, two celebrated pianists dedicate their latest recordings to women composers and Francis Poulenc.
New Releases Feb 3: Music by the Sea
Collegium 1704 & Collegium Vocale 1704 (Photo: Petra Hajská / Collegium 1704)
Pianist Claire Huangci’s new album celebrates women composers and the struggles they’ve endured, with a collection of works by Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Fanny Hensel, and Florence Price. Clara Wieck (who became Schumann after her marriage to Robert in 1840) was a mother of eight and the main breadwinner, constantly on tour. Fanny Hensel composed largely in private, often publishing under her brother’s name (Mendelssohn). Amy Beach’s career was practically silenced during her marriage; only upon her husband’s death did she return to the stage. Florence Price faced both racial and gender discrimination and later raised two children alone. Huangci writes, “The realities these women faced are difficult to imagine for any modern woman in the field. In their music, we don’t just hear history. We hear transformation. Heroines is my way of listening back — and adding my voice to theirs.”
Over several decades, Pascal Rogé has gained the reputation as one the greatest interpreters of the French piano repertoire with his recordings of Satie and Debussy regarded as benchmark performances. On his latest release, Rogé is collaborator in a charming program of superbly crafted, elegant, and often witty music by the 20th century French master Francis Poulenc. Rogé is joined by cellist Lidy Blijdorp in Poulenc’s cello sonata, and pianist Elena Font in the composer’s Sonata for two pianos and the Sonata for piano four hands. Font is also featured on solo works by Poulenc: Mouvements perpetuels, Nocturne No. 1 in C, and select Improvisations.
The Amsterdam Sinfonietta under the direction of violinist Candida Thompson and the Netherlands Chamber Choir led by Martina Batič present an innovative program of Baltic and English works recorded live in concert. The program is bookended by two performances of Arvo Pärt’s meditative work Spiegel im Spiegel, the first with cellist Tim Posner, and the original version for violin (Candida Thompson) as the concluding selection, both performed with pianist Hülya Keser. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis supplies late Romantic lyricism to the program, while Veljo Tormis’s Curse Upon Iron for choir and shaman drum shocks the listener with primal cries. New to the WFMT library on the program: the tone poem Plainscapes by Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946), evoking the vast expanses of the Baltic plains; and the Concerto per voci e strumenti by minimalist Estonian composer Lepo Sumera (1950–2000), bringing the two ensembles together for a tonal, yet disquieting three-movement work which plays with the sounds of words rather than interpreting the words’ meanings.
For two decades now, Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 have been dedicating concerts and numerous recordings to the work of Jan Dismas Zelenka, the long-underrated composer from their homeland. To mark their 20th anniversary, Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 present another work from Zelenka‘s extensive sacred vocal oeuvre: the solemn Missa Circumcisionis, for the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord in the Temple, now known as Epiphany. The Missa is one of the most extensive and richly orchestrated of Zelenka‘s approximately 20 mass compositions. It was written in 1728, when Zelenka stood in for the ailing Dresden Kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen. The festive Christmas spirit implied by the feast day pervades the entire work. Václav Luks and his Collegium 1704 complement the program with the Missa Corporis Domini, which was composed about 10 years later for a less important feast in the liturgical calendar (Corpus Christi), featuring only strings and oboes.
Rumon Gamba directs the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for this third instalment of his exploration of overtures from the British Isles. As in the case of the previous volumes, the recorded repertoire is rarely played, and the album includes three world premiere recordings: Daniel Jones’s Comedy Overture, Robin Orr’s The Prospect of Whitby, and Alan Bush’s Resolution. Other composers include Havergal Brian, Geoffrey Bush, Alan Rawsthorne, Frank Bridge, Richard Arnell, Benjamin Britten, Clifton Parker, and Eric Fenby. All the works were composed between 1938 and 1949, against the background of the horrific world events of that era. Presenting an eclectic mix of musical styles, the album, like the others in the series, sheds light on numerous neglected gems of the repertoire.
