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Fanny tunesmith9/17/2023 Not being married, she was free of the spousal jealousy of Alma Mahler or Clara Schumann nor did she have a brother like Fanny Mendelssohn’s discouraging her from publishing her work. But the fact that she has managed to unearth some genuinely neglected works worth hearing – in one case going back to the unpublished manuscript – certainly earns her a welldeserved explorer’s hat.Įmilie Mayer (1812-83) was one of a number of women who, in the accepted parlance of the Romantic era, ‘composed music like a man’. She certainly leaves no stone unturned in the music itself, poring over each lyrical line with loving care (the piano and violin sound are deftly delineated and vibrantly rendered). Three unheard sonatas by 19th-century German Mayer Taking her artist statement in the bookletnotes at face value, violinist Aleksandra Maslovaric is a rugged musical adventurer. Reviving Mayer ( irst admired, then neglected): Anne-Lise Longuemare, piano, and Aleksandra Maslovaric, violinĮ Mayer Violin Sonatas – Op 18 Op 19 in E lat Aleksandra Maslovaric vn Anne-Lise Longuemare pf Feminae F 845 01722 54 (74’ The sound of the concertinos is excellent. This means a very wide dynamic range – so sit near the volume control. The vivid, occasionally strident sound of The Plumed Serpent fits tastes of 30 years ago when digital was new and raw, an essential part of the overall recorded mix and exuberant fun. The piece is based on the folklore and history of Mexico and Native America, using the mythical ‘Plumed Serpent’ Quetzalcoatl as a focal point, which explains the flashes of Latin colour. Serpent was recorded by some of Chicago’s finest in 1982 as a four-movement ‘jazz concerto’ for quintet and ‘studio orchestra’ (eight strings). The language is sophisticated, the structure almost invisible but leading inevitably to solo riffs by soprano saxophonist Rich Corplongo, drummer Rick Shandling, pianist Pete Sliwka and flugelhorn player Jim Teister. The reissue of The Plumed Serpent revisits an exuberant outpouring of youthful lyricism and cool jazz, circa the early Reagan years. There isn’t much in either Concertino that hasn’t been heard before – Richard Strauss and Hollywood musicals come to mind, though more svelte, brought up to date and internationalised – but they are both beautifully written for the soloists and exquisitely played. Recordings new and old from Chicago tunesmith Lofstrom Chicago composer Doug Lofstrom has coupled first recordings of two modestly appealing orchestral concertinos for oboe and harp with an archival reprise of his Plumed Serpent studio fantasy from 30 years ago. The Plumed Serpent c a Jennet Ingle ob b Kelsey Molinari hp ab New Philharmonic Orchestra / Kirk Muspratt c Studio Orchestra / Doug Lofstrom Origin Classical F OC33014 (41’ Lofstrom ‘Concertino’ Concertinos – for Oboe and Orchestra a for Harp and Orchestra b. The recordings, rich in detail and sonority, were made in Blue Griffin’s studio in Lansing, Michigan, known as The Ballroom. The Fourth was written two years later for Joel Sandelson, a 13-year-old prodigy.Ītapine’s dispassionate booklet-notes comprise a verbal road map to the four sonatas and the harmless Album Leaf. The Third Sonata, commissioned in 2006 on the occasion of a life insurance executive’s 90th birthday, includes an intrusion by Bach/ Gounod’s Ave Maria as a prelude to launching unaccountably into Shostakovich-like delirium. Passages in thirds for the cello matched by stupefying, mechanistic blocks of piano sound.
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