20th Century Music for Recorder &Piano by Béla Bartók; Hans-George Burghardt; Walter

Leigh; Hans-Martin Linde; Gordon Jacob; Wolfgang Stockmeier; Albert Roussel; Les Six; Anita
Randolfi; Mary Barto; Marcia Eckert; Douglas Lima
Review by: Rick Anderson
Notes, Second Series, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Sep., 2003), p. 256
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4487115 .
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256
of soprano Uta Schwabe is especially so;
her delivery of the aria "Wie bang hat dich
mein Lied beweint" is by turns anguished
and exalted, and her voice is a thing of
both crystal clarity and impressive power.
This recording is highly recommended to
all libraries, both for its significance and its
quality.
Music of Russian Princesses. Talis-
man. Dorian DOR-93244, 2002.
Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia
from 1762 until her death in 1796, may not
have been a musical expert herself, but she
certainly knew what she liked, and what she
liked, it appears from this rather charming
collection, were elegant and easily digested
miniatures both instrumental and vocal.
The music on this disc was all composed
by Russian noblewomen of the era (hence
its title), and selected for court use by
Catherine herself. This particular collec-
tion consists of songs, solo pieces, and
sonata movements written for various com-
binations of high voice, guitar, violin, and
harpsichord; and, given their consistently
high quality, it is surprising that none of the
composers represented here has enjoyed
continued popularity. "Roses d'Amour," by
Countess Varvara Nikolevna Golovina, is a
lovely song for voice and guitar that con-
tains hints of Franz Schubert as well as cer-
tain chord movements that would not
sound out of place in a medieval chanson;
it is sung perhaps just a bit too fulsomely by
soprano Anne Harley, but her delivery
matches the song's theme nicely. Ekaterina
Siniavina's sonata for harpsichord with vio-
lin ad libitum, of which only the first move-
ment is presented here, is more refined
and delicate, in the French style. Oleg
Timofeyev's playing is worth special note;
as the world's leading exponent of the
Russian seven-string guitar, he brings a par-
ticularly high level of expertise and affec-
tion to this repertoire.
20th Century Music for Recorder &
Piano. Anita Randolfi; Mary Barto;
Marcia Eckert; Douglas Lima. [No la-
bel] 001, 2002.
This is an enjoyable, if ultimately some-
what uneven, survey of pieces written for
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
NOTES, September 2003
the recorder during the twentieth century.
It includes compositions by Hans-George
Burghardt, B61la Bart6k, Walter Leigh,
Hans-Martin Linde, Gordon Jacob and
Wolfgang Stockmeier, as well as assorted
miniatures by members of Les Six and an-
other by Albert Roussel. The unevenness
arises both in terms of the quality of the
compositions and of the playing: while
Anita Randolfi plays with great expressive-
ness and energy, her intonation is some-
times a bit off, most noticeably in the open-
ing movement of Jacob's Sonata and
throughout the Bart6k folk song arrange-
ments. Yet her rendition of Linde's lovely
Trio (for alto recorder, flute, and piano) is
exceptionally lovely, as is her playing on
Burghardt's Partita Brevis, op. 32. As for the
compositions themselves, they vary in qual-
ity from Bart6k's wonderful folk melodies
to the aimlessly meandering Sonatine of
Stockmeier; best of all are the miniatures
that end the program, particularly Francis
Poulenc's sweet and gentle Villanelle. This
disc may not be essential for all music li-
braries, but it should find a place in any
collection supporting a recorder curricu-
lum. (To purchase, contact Anita Randolfi
at anitaran@juno.com.)
Baltic Voices 1. Estonian Philharmonic
Chamber Choir; Talinn Chamber
Orchestra/Paul Hillier. Harmonia
Mundi HMU 907311, 2002.
The first recording by the Estonian
Philharmonic Choir since Paul Hillier as-
sumed its directorship in 2001, and its
debut on the Harmonia Mundi label, is also
the first product of what is planned as a
three-year recording project that will "ex-
plore the choral music from the countries
around the Baltic Sea" (Hillier, brochure
notes), focusing primarily on music from
the choir's native Estonia. That series of
recordings is off to an auspicious beginning
with this program, which features works
by Cyrillus Kreek (of Estonia), Sven-David
Sandstrom (of Sweden), Einojuhani
Rautavaara (of Finland), Veljo Tormis (of
Estonia), Peteris Vasks (of Latvia), and, of
course, the now-famous Estonian composer
Arvo Pairt. Those whose interest in the
choral music of this region was\piqued by
the 1980s recordings of Pirt's choral and