SOMM Recordingspresents Treasures from the New World – a compelling collection of late-Romantic and contemporary works for piano and string quartet from the Americas brimming with all the colour, energy, and emotion of that great continent.
Rio de Janeiro-born piano virtuoso Clélia Iruzun teams up with the Coull Quartet for a varied and vital programme championing the music of her Brazilian compatriots Henrique Oswald and Marlos Nobre and the pioneering American Amy Beach.
Influenced by Brahms and Schumann, Beach’s Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor (1908) is stamped through with a lyrically melancholic and pensive signature all its own. For her Romance for Violin and Piano (1893), a work of hypnotic gracefulness and aching emotions, Iruzun partners with the Coull Quartet’s first violinist, Roger Coull.
Receiving its first recording outside of Brazil, Henrique Oswald’s Piano Quintet in C major (1895) was composed in Florence. Imprinted with the European influences he absorbed there, it is lit up by his own gift for heartfelt melody.
Marlos Nobre’s Poema XXI – here in its premiere recording – carries itself with a distinctive character drawing on traditional South American dances to produce something effusive, elegant and exotic in equal measure.
Gavin Dixon provides illuminating, informative booklet notes.
Clélia Iruzun’s previous recordings for SOMM include two volumes of music by Federico Mompou (SOMMCD 0121 and 0155) and Piano Concertos by Albeniz & Mignone (SOMMCD 265) with the RPO and Jac van Steen – nominated for an International Classical Music Award in 2019 and hailed by International Piano: “Clélia comes into her vivid own, playing with a superb mastery and empathy; it is difficult to imagine… greater skill and affection”.
The Coull Quartet’s long association with SOMM has produced admired recordings of Mozart (SOMMCD 040 and 049), Nicholas Maw and Britten (SOMMCD 065), Sibelius (SOMMCD 096), Ian Venables (SOMMCD 0101) and settings of John Ruskin (SOMMCD 222).
On This Recording
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Amy Beach: Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor, Op.67
- I Adagio
- II Adagio espressivo
- III Allegro agitato Henrique Oswald: Piano Quintet in C major, Op.18
- I Allegro moderato
- II Scherzo
- III Molto adagio
- IV Molto allegro Marlos Nobre
- Poema XXI, Op.94 No. 21* Amy Beach
- Romance for Violin and Pianoa
Reviews:
“Clélia Iruzun’s performance with the Coull Quartet is beautifully paced… [Amy Beach’s] 1893 Romance has no fewer than eight competitors but Iruzun and Coull need fear no comparisons. … Brazilian-born Henrique Oswald[‘s] … Piano Quintet (1895) is substantial, its four movements (the sparkling Scherzo placed second) more redolent of Schumann than Brahms, so makes a nice foil to the Beach. … [Marlos Nobre’s Poema XXI is] a delight, as is the disc as a whole.” —Guy Rickards, Gramophone (June 2020)
