Griffes / Torquati - Charles Tomlinson Griffes: The Vale of Dreams - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Brilliant Classics has long been renowned for reviving little-known figures from the Baroque and Renaissance eras. Little enough is now known about Alessandro Melani, and his music has almost been forgotten, but this beautifully prepared collection of his religious music should go some way to reviving his reputation. Born in 1639 in the city of Pistoia to the cathedral's bell-ringer, the youngest of seven sons, Alessandro Melani undertook his musical apprenticeship at the cathedral before taking up directorships in grander Italian cities. A move to Rome in 1667 changed his career and established his reputation; he came under the patronage of the Medici family, and published three collections of sacred music. The last of them now receives it's first-ever complete recording. This is Baroque vocal chamber music at once sombre and sumptuous, reverent and yet richly decorated like the basilicas where Melani worked. Marian hymns, penitential psalms and liturgical propers all receive lavish treatments in combinations of two, three and five voices, buttressed in this recording by a five-part continuo accompaniment designed to draw out every one of Melani's luscious harmonies and featuring organ, harpsichord, cello, string bass, archlute and theorbo. The recording is the work of a dynamic young Italian early-music group founded in 2017 and led by the prodigiously talented Samuele Lastrucci, formerly assistant to the mercurial Baroque expert Federico Maria Sardelli. Since 2015 he has been the artistic director of the Tuscan-based Da Vinci Baroque Festival; he is presently maestro di capella of the Church of Ss. Michele and Gaetano in Florence. Album Tracks 1. Alessandro Melani Concerti Spirituali, Op. 3 2. XI. Ad Arma Cor Meum 3. XII. Peccantem Me Quotidie 4. V. Cantemus Domino 5. IV. Eia in Arma 6. X. O Felix Anima 7. VIII. Fallacicum Sono 8. XIII. Quid Do

The second half of the 19th century witnessed a proliferation of significant works for strings alone including the Serenades for Strings by Dvorák (1875) and Tchaikovsky (1880) and Grieg's Holberg Suite (1884), followed by a trio of works for strings in 1892 from Suk, Wolf and Elgar. Tchaikovsky's music for string instruments is notable for it's range and consistency - and this culminates in the magnificent Violin Concerto and one of the greatest works ever conceived for string orchestra, his Serenade of 1880. Earlier, in 1873, Tchaikovsky wrote incidental music to Ostrovsky's three-act drama The Snow Maiden. Though he abandoned the idea of adapting it into an opera, when Rimsky-Korsakov composed one on the same subject, he retained affection for this little-known work. Judging by the beautiful Melodrama of Act II, it's neglect is unjustified. Eight years before that, as a 25-year-old student at the St Petersburg Conservatory he composed a String Quartet in B flat. If, as some authorities believe, it had four movements, only one has survived. Such is the inner power of the music that it takes on a more expressive hue when performed by a full string orchestra as on this recording. Towards the end of 1884, the Moscow Society of Artists wished to honor veteran actor Ivan Samarin's 50-year artistic career, and Tchaikovsky enthusiastically contributed a musical entr'acte. Tchaikovsky's Jurgenson persuaded the composer the music was worthy of publication, under the title Elegy, as Samarin died the year after the celebrations. When Tchaikovsky suddenly died near the end of 1893, the slow movement of his Third String Quartet was arranged for string orchestra by Glazunov for performance at his funeral service. Glazunov's subtle and sympathetic arrangement of this fine music for full string orchestra honors his friend, the great composer, in truly noble fashion. Album Tracks

This recording fills a gap in our understanding of Sebastian Raval (c.1550-1604), a composer who has proved elusive to posthumous fame. Of noble origin, he was born on an unknown date in the region of Murcia (possibly in Cartagena). He fought in the Siege of Maastricht (1579) with the Spanish Tercios in Flanders, and, severely wounded, retired to Italy where he became a friar and worked as a musician.Although musician-nobles were abundant in the 16th century, the presumption of a certain amateurism has marginalized them in the gene- ral historical narrative. Additionally, following a musical argument with Sicilian composer Achille Falcone, Raval was painted unfairly by partisan critics as arrogant and untalented, a view that persisted in Italian historiography, whereas in Spain he was largely ignored (most likely due to a career spent outside his home country).Yet the canzonette on this album dispel any doubts about Raval's talent. A light genre setting anonymous texts inspired by Petrarch in a madrigalian vein, canzonette - and particularly Raval's - abound with themes of love. Although this genre was not inclined towards musical experimentation, there is a certain evolution from the classic canzonette of Orazio Vecchi (in the 1580s) to later examples by Luca Marenzio; Raval's compositions, created in his pre-Roman period, fall at an intermediate point therein.The choice of four voices with high tessituras and a baritone follows Vecchi's style. Raval however uses a more imitative language, and in this aspect he is closer to Marenzio without reaching the latter's declamatory style.Not only is Raval's book of ricercari the only one composed by a Spanish musician; it's content reveals a rare contrapuntal ingenuity and a restless, innovative spirit that cannot go unnoti- ced. The volume reached us by sheer good fortune. Only one copy of each part-book was preserved in th