Aya Yoshida, Fantasy 1720: Bach Arranged and Completed by Thomas Meyer-Fiebig

Where Johann Sebastian Bach is concerned, it seems I can never quite get enough. No, I would not sit down and try and listen to all the cantatas back-to-back, but aside from that I am nearly insatiable.

For those of you like me who can't get enough Bach, we have Aya Yoshida at the organ, playing Fantasy 1720 (Zoho 201-207). It's a world premiere recording of two unaccompanied violin works arranged for organ, plus the completion of two excellent Bach organ fragments--by Thomas Meyer-Fiebig.

The result is convincingly Bachian. Aya Yoshida does a quite decent job with the music, the organ sounds resplendent and Meyer-Fiebig has done a marvelous service to Bach fanciers in reconstructing/re-composing the missing pieces and re-conceiving the solo violin parts for organ.

So we have more to appreciate. I suspect all Bach lovers will be happy that this recording has come about.

Paul Sperry, Open House, Song Cycles by Robert Beaser and William Bolcom

Two song cycles come our way on Open House (Innova 815), written by two American composers of stature, both with texts by contemporary poets, both sung by Paul Sperry.

Robert Beaser's "Songs from 'The Occasions' of Eugenio Montale" (1985) has an affinity with Samuel Barber's music, though it has its own original stamp. Nobel Laureate Montale's text deals poignantly with personal loss. The chamber group builds an enchanting edifice to support the tenor solo, and the result is vivid aural-imagery.

William Bolcom's "Open House" (1975) centers around seven poems by Theodore Roethke, with whom Bolcom took a class in his student years. Bolcom has an eclecticism all his own and in this case it comes out with tone painting of extraordinary depth. The Roethke poems express the experience of a life in poetic terms, and work well as the basis of the song cycle. And Bolcom is at his best.

In each case Paul Sperry is magnificent. Kenneth Klein conducts the New York Virtuosi (for the Beaser) with distinction; Dennis Russell Davies and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra provide definitive Bolcom.

This is excellent fare that will captivate anyone with an ear for modern music.

Viviana Sofronitsky, Franz Schubert, Wanderer Fantasy

Some of Schubert's most compelling solo piano compositions are represented on the disk at hand: the Wanderer Fantasia and the Impromptus opp. 90 & 142 (Avi-Music 8553250). Viviana Sofronitsky for this recording plays a contemporary copy of a piano made by Conrad Graf (1819), not unlike the one Schubert himself played.

The pianoforte of the era, as most know, sounded quite different than its modern counterpart. It had a more delicate sonority and the upper range of the instrument did not ring out as much because of the way it was made.

Since of course Schubert composed on such an instrument the way he balanced the voicings in the various ranges would have been effected by what sounded best to his ears on that instrument.

Hearing the music matched with the piano sound of the period, in Sofronitsky's sensitive and capable hands, is quite revealing. Upper range passages of thematic importance often get reinforced with octaves or are brought out by a less sonically dense accompaniment. Ornamental passage work in the upper range sounds less imposing than on a modern piano. And the balance of parts in all ranges somehow hangs together with a new clarity.

The music of course is beautiful. Ms. Sofronitsky gives us versions that sing out well within a different aural landscape. And the Graf sound puts it all in a new perspective.

Mary Ann Joyce-Walter, Cantata for the Children of Terezin

Mary Ann Joyce-Walter has created in Cantata for the Children of Terezin (Ravello 7845) a kind of memorial to the victims of the atrocities committed in the 20th century.

The title work "Cantata for the Children of Terezin" pays tribute to the children incarcerated at the Terezin Concentration Camp. The text is based on actual poems the children wrote while imprisoned there. It is a moving work that interweaves Jewish traditional melody and original strains in a kind of post-Britten narrative lyric style. Soprano Oxnaya Oleskaya, the King Singers of Kiev and the Kiev Philharmonic do a great job with the work, which has a melancholy veneer but ultimately is a kind of prayer that these things will never happen again.

Similarly the companion work "Aceldaima" is a more general orchestral meditation on the atrocities of last century.

Both works are moving and memorable. Mary Ann Joyce-Walter is a composer we will be hearing more of, I hope.

Andras Schiff, Bach, Well Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (Complete)

When I was more or less a youngster and already under the spell of Bach I found his seminal Well Tempered Clavier on used vinyl as performed by the renowned harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. The recordings were made somewhat early in the fidelity era and her harpsichord sounded a little like a sewing machine. Yet there it all was, the prelude and fugues for every key, taken with all the trills and ornaments, and realized in all its glory.

A little later my piano teacher suggested I listen to Glenn Gould's pianoforte version and I duly did. It was an amazing feat, a modern performance with velocity the order of the day, a very different experience but equally exciting.

Those two versions have been my mainstays for the work, as they generally have been for many listeners. And over the many years I have ever grown into the music, its genuine genius, the many moods and nuances of the little masterpieces working together.

Pianist Andras Schiff, known as a pianist's pianist, has done a new full version of both books which are available as an ECM New Series box (4-cds B0017198-02) and it brings a third major performance of the cycle to the world.

Andras Schiff captures the moods and many nuances of the work with the sensitivity of a master poet. He spells out the lines and counterlines with beauty and clarity. He brings dynamics into the picture as an integrated part of his conception of each prelude and fugue. The velocity is there as Schiff feels the need, but it is not a horse race. It's a brilliant, eminently balanced pianoforte interpretation that brings a consummate pianism to the work that in my experience is unparalleled. Each segment, each prelude and each fugue has a way about it in Schiff's hands that sounds almost inevitable, right, though it takes a performer of extraordinarily abilities to produce such a version.

The box set is just out. The ECM sound is outstanding, the interpretation a landmark in Bach for piano, and the music remains the open form of cosmic dimensions, complex yet direct, allowing the performer to put his or her imprint upon it and let the music live on eternally, eternally. There is room for hundreds, thousands of great interpretations and endless aways different experiences of its many incredible moments, by listeners from now until humankind packs it in for all in all.

We are fortunate to have this new Andras Schiff performance. I will have the good fortune I hope to re-experience it many times for the rest of my days. Brilliant!

Cappella Romana, Live in Greece

An unusual program of choral music from Byzantine Chant to contemporary Greek composers is on tap on Cappella Romana's Live in Greece (Capella Romana CR409).

Director Alexander Lingas takes listeners on a journey that begins with spirited renditions of the austere Byzantine Chant and various gems of Orthodox choral music through the 17th century. The group then performs some Greek Orthodox music from St. Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles, where original choral music has flourished since Frank Desby founded a choral tradition in the beginnings of the last century. Finally contemporary Greek composer Michael Adamis gets some attention with several of his short sacred works, including the mystical "Radiant Cloud."

This is music of endless fascination, performed with impeccable attention to detail. Cappella Romana live up to their reputation as the foremost representatives of the Byzantine choral tradition.

Slices, A Cross-Section of Classical Works for Small Ensemble

Here is a good idea: a series of modern miniatures for various small chamber configurations. Slices (Navona 5874) covers seven relatively unknown composers of international provenance (Reynard Burns, Lionel Sainsbury, Hakan Sundin, Hans Bakker, Alan Beeler, Christina Rusnak and William A. Fletcher.

The music is mostly scherzo-like--lighthearted, not lightweight. I suppose you could say that many have a neo-classical post-Stravinskian feel to them. There's a short piece for solo violin (Sainsbury); a duet for flute and clarinet (Sundin); violin and clarinet (Bakker); then there are four quartets played by various combinations of instruments (two works for piano, viola, clarinet and flute by Beeler, two works by the Moravian Philharmonic Winds: flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, by Rusnak and Fletcher, respectively) and a quintet for the Moravian Philharmonic Winds--flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and horn--by Burns).

The works fit together well, are played well, and have a rather sunny, early morning disposition for the most part. This is a disc that may be easy to miss, but it is singularly appealing.