Worner Botticher Kirchheimer Duben Consort - Nunc Dimittis - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

These five works, from three different stages of Hans Gál's long life (1890-1987), all show his consummate craftsmanship but are otherwise quite different in character. The passionate Piano Quartet (1914), downstream from Brahms and Dvorák, brings the grand gestures of Romanticism into the early twentieth century. The 1935 Sonatina in F major for violin and piano, recently rediscovered, and the three Sonatinas from 1956 put a premium on textural clarity and lyrical approachability; here the contrapuntal ingenuity, ceaseless thematic development, harmonic freedom and rhythmic unpredictability of Gál's language animate the music from within. Newcastle-born pianist Sarah Beth Briggs was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition at the age of eleven and studied with Denis Matthews and Edith Fischer. Katalin Kertesz is the leader of the Kertesz Quartet, with which she recently recorded the four string quartets by the nineteenth century Czech composer heinrich Wenzel Veit. Nichola Blakey, viola, enjoys a busy freelance career, giving performances across the UK. Cressida Nash, cello, is a founding member of Musicians South West.

?For some decades in the middle of the twentieth century, Paul Creston (1906-85) was one of the most frequently performed of American composers, though his music has sunk from prominence in recent years. He was himself a fearsome pianist, and his Three Narratives are Lisztian concert essays that require freewheeling virtuosity. Rhythmicon is a ten-volume collection of 123 brief studies that examine various aspects of rhythm. Their difficulty grows as the series progresses, reaching it's zenith in Volumes 7 - 10, where Creston presents 25 studies that range in mood from serious to light-hearted, from hymn-like introspection and calm to jagged, Bartokian energy.

With it's ciaconna bass, Hammerschmidt's sacred concerto Nun danket alle Gott perfectly exemplifies the programme of this recording devoted to the influences of the Italian Baroque on the works of seventeenth-century Lutheran composers. The vast majority of the repertory gathered here comes once again from the exceptionally rich library assembled at the end of the seventeenth century by Gustav Duben, organist of the German Church in Stockholm. His collection contains the only known copy of a Confitebor tibi Domine by Claudio Monteverdi. Other composers such as Bernhard and Rosenmuller had very close links with Italy and were among those who helped to disseminate Italian practices in the German-speaking lands. In all this sacred repertory, the role of instruments, and particularly that of the violin (the emblematic instrument of Italy), is highly developed. The instruments accompany the voice and comment on the texts in most expressive fashion. This programme also offers a chance to discover some gems by lesser-known composers such as Hanff, Pfleger and Pohle.