César Franck hat seinen Platz in der Musikgeschichte vor allem seiner...

Obwohl César Franck von den Musikhistorikern als Haupt einer französischen...

One of the most striking works from Cesar Franck's middle period is The Seven...

The Czech composer Jan Novak (1921-84) was deeply interested in Latin literature and poetry. For him Latin was still a living language, and he even wrote poetry and prose in Latin. In 1983 he founded the Latin music festival Ludi Latini. Born in Moravia, Novak studied in America with Martinu and Copland. In 1948 he returned to Moravia, but the political turmoil and violence of the "Prague Spring" in 1968 forced the composer and his family to flee Czechoslovakia, moving to Denmark, then Italy, and finally Germany. As an ex-patriot Czech and a Latin humanist Novak found little acceptance. His catalog of compositions lists settings of many of the great traditional Latin masters: Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Seneca, Cicero, and Caesar. Perhaps the oddest of his compositions is a setting of recipes from the "Cook Book" of Apicius! From the play Dulcitius by Germany's first poetess Hrotsvitha von Gandersheim, Novak constructed a comic opera. Modern Latin texts included ones by Josef Eberle and Harry C Schnur . To teach children to enjoy Latin Novak even composed music for children with Latin texts.

Novak's cantata Dido gets its text from the fourth book of The Aeneid of Virgil. The cantata covers much the same territory as Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. It was first performed in 1967 in Brno. A mezzo-soprano (voce media) portrays Dido as a narrator (recitans) tells the tale with commentary by a men's chorus (here the Choro virorum symphoniacisque stationis radiophonicae Bavaricae adstrepentibus). The work bears some resemblance to Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, with a similar use of a men's chorus and a major role for mezzo-soprano. Novak's narrator plays a much more important role than Stravinsky's. The two works also have a similarity of propulsive rhythms, but in general Novak's music is much more romantic sounding, less detached, less acerbic.

This 1982 performance is a fine one, with Kubelik in firm command, driving the work to its dramatic conclusion. Schmiege may not have the most attractive voice, but she sings most musically, with a warmth and breadth of vocal power combined with dramatic insight. Fiedler was the first to perform the sprechstimme role of Moses in Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron (1954) and he performs here with immense dignity and expression.

The 13-minute Mimus Magicus (1969) is a setting of portions of Virgil's eighth eclogue, Bucolica. Like Dido it deals with love, but instead of seeking death as a remedy for love, the heroine here tries to win back her unfaithful lover through the use of magic spells. Here the musical forces are much reduced, requiring only a soprano soloist (voce acuta), a flute (calamo traverso), and a piano (clavibus pulsatis). Novak does less with these lesser forces, but it isn't quite fair to judge the work on the basis of this inadequate 1986 performance. Soprano (voce acuta) Kurokouchi should be voce acerba! Pitches are woefully misplaced, particular in the higher range, and an acidic quality colors the entire voice. Enjoy the Dido, but this is "Minimus Magicus".

A libretto in Latin, English, and German is included. Even the program notes and performance-recording credits are in Latin!

I acquired this disc under the mistaken impression that the composer was Jan...

Was zunächst auffällt, sind Durchsichtigkeit und Klarheit sowie das präsente...

„In dulci jubilo“ heißt eine Platte mit weihnachtlicher Orgelmusik, die...

CD des Tages – Am Mikrophon begrüßt Sie ganz herzlich Andreas Göbel. Ich...

Abbie Conant is known (perhaps unfairly) as a cause celebre for woman brass players. She won the principal trombone job in the Munich Philharmonic in 1980 and was awarded tenure a year later by her colleagues. New conductor Sergiu Celibidache tried to overrule the orchestra--"...we need a man for solo trombone", he reportedly said--before moving her to Second Trombone. Conant fought the action in the German courts, winning reinstatement in 1993. She then resigned, took a position at a German conservatory (Conant is American) and to my knowledge has never returned to orchestra playing. Today she teaches in Germany, performs solo (including electronic) works, and appears in pieces by her husband, composer William Osborne.

Conant is a fine player on this 1987 recording. Her technique is not flashy, but it is polished, and her legato is smooth and clean. She has a dark, Teutonic sound whose emphasis on lower overtones gives it a warm upper register and a slight burr and spread in the middle. Its contour is more flat than round and focussed, but it nicely complements her earthy, human approach to the instrument. I suspect Barry Kilpatrick (July/Aug 1995) likes her sound better than I do, but I essentially agree that "her golden tone, combination of lyricism and power, and heartfelt expressiveness--is present in everything she plays".

These qualities are especially present in the romantic works, and it's great to have them available in such fine performances. The Guilmant is a compact, rewarding bit of Franckian romanticism whose sharp structural changes Conant handles effectively while making the piece soar. The darker, more abstract Robert Helmschrott work varies from elegiac to declamatory to jubilantly technical. Conant introduced it in 1984, and its mysterious, yet heroic quality suits her well. Schnorr's Ives arrangement assigns melodic lines to the trombone, effectively adding the instrument as a stop to the original organ scoring. It too fits Conant's style. The Giovanni Cesare is said to be the first solo work for trombone (c 1621), and Conant's broad, extroverted approach is just right.

I am not quite as fond of her Handel and Marcello. The playing is solid and fluid, especially in the high register, and the ornamentation (mostly trills) is well executed and judicious. I just prefer a rounder, sleeker tone and a sweeter, more baroque style. I would like more lyrical shaping of the rhythmic figures in the Allegros and in the Larghetto of the Handel. There is also too much smoothing of the dotted rhythms in that Larghetto and a few crass measures in the first Allegro of the Marcello. Despite these quibbles, I enjoyed both performances. The only one I don't like is the Johann Krebs, where the trombone supplies a tenor cantus firmus to a vigorous chorale prelude. This calls for a round, noble sound, particularly given Schnorr's (fittingly) dynamic playing. Conant's flatish tone makes the part seem vestigial.

The recorded sound is good, though we are reminded that church acoustics favor organs at the expense of other solo instruments. The soloist is slightly distant to the point where Schnorr's fine organ playing sometimes threatens to push even the powerful trombone of Abbie Conant aside. Neither this nor the other minor problems detract seriously from a fine recital.

Mit Klemens Schnorr als perfektem Orgelbegleiter konnten wir in AO 1/1989 eine...