Disc 1
1.   		No. 1. Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Pintor (Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Painter) 00:03:50
2.   		No. 2. Tal para qual (Two of a kind) 00:03:57
3.   		No. 3. Nadie se conoce (Nobody knows oneself) 00:02:02
4.   		No. 4. Ni asi la distingue (Even so he cannot make her out) 00:01:54
5.   		No. 5. Muchachos al avio (The boys getting ready) 00:02:37
6.   		No. 6. El amor y la muerte (Love and death) 00:03:57
7.   		No. 7. Estan calientes (They are hot) 00:02:04
8.   		No. 8. Dios la perdone: Y era su madre (God forgive her: and it was her mother) 00:03:40
9.   		No. 9. Bien tirada esta (It is nicely stretched) 00:02:59
10.   		No. 10. Al Conde Palatino (To the Count Palatine) 00:02:51
11.   		No. 11. Y se le quema la casa (And he's burning down the house) 00:02:45
12.   		No. 12. No hubo remedio (Nothing could be done about it) 00:06:28


Disc 2
1.   		No. 13. Quien mas rendido? (Which of them is more overwhelmed?) 00:02:34
2.   		No. 14. Porque fue sensible (Because she was sensitive) 00:04:12
3.   		No. 15. Si sabra mas el discipulo? (Perhaps the pupil knows better?) 00:03:42
4.   		No. 16. Brabisimo! (Bravissimo!) 00:02:50
5.   		No. 17. De que mal morira? (Of what ill will he die?) 00:04:56
6.   		No. 18. El sueno de la razon produce monstruos (The sleep of reason produces monsters) 00:05:15
7.   		No. 19. Hilan delgado (They spin finely) 00:03:24
8.   		No. 20. Obsequio a el maestro (Gift to the master) 00:03:43
9.   		No. 21. Que pico de oro! (What a golden beak!) 00:02:31
10.   		No. 22. Volaverunt (Off they flew) 00:01:47
11.   		No. 23. Linda maestra! (Pretty teacher!) 00:03:03
12.   		No. 24. Sueno de la mentira y inconstancia (Dream of lying and inconstancy) 00:05:27

Zoran Dukic - guitar

With its grotesque cast of supernatural beings and subhuman characters, the satirical etchings of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos (1799) portray the sufferings of 18th century Spain in some of Western art’s most influential images. Originally conceived for Andrés Segovia, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s 24 Caprichos de Goya has seldom been recorded complete, as it is here by Croatian guitarist Zoran Dukic, whose spectacular virtuosity, profound musicianship and artistic maturity have won him more first prizes in international competitions than anyone else in the world. ---naxos.com

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's set of 24 Caprichos of Goya is among the most important large-scale cycles of guitar music of the twentieth century. Castelnuovo-Tedesco had been a significant composer in the history of the instrument since meeting Andrés Segovia in Venice in 1932. Castelnuovo-Tedesco, an Italian-Jew who left his native country in 1939 in response to the Mussolini government's racial laws of that year and settled in the United States, was inspired by the association of the instrument with Spain to write a number of works with Spanish flavor.

Like most of his music since his self-imposed exile from Italy, Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Caprichos de Goya is tonal and melodic. There is a flirtation with twelve-tone technique in the 15th Caprice, but this has evident satiric intentions, which is fitting, because the whole cycle is based on a satirical work of art. (In this Capricho a tone row is stated in its base form, then in retrograde inversion, but after this by-the-numbers serialism, the music wanders away into the realms of tonality.)

The 24 Caprichos de Goya are representative of a major trend in the later part of his life, which was composing works that explored the relationships between music and other arts. Just the year earlier Castelnuovo-Tedesco had composed another set of 24 pieces for guitar, Platero y Yo (Platero and I), based on the poetry of Spanish writer Juan Ramon Jiménez. It uses a speaker to read the selections from Jiménez' book that pertained to each piece. The composer's purpose was clearly to make the audience aware of the extra-musical impulse behind each number played, for he said in cases where the audience already knew the original poem, the narrator could be omitted.

Following the success of Platero y Yo, Castelnuovo-Tedesco undertook this set of guitar works, again with Andrés Segovia in mind as its soloist. It was intended to be premiered as a recording project, rather than in concert. The entire work takes an hour and a quarter to perform.

The stimulus for the music is a collection of etchings, 80 in all, by the great Spanish painter Francisco Goya y Lucientes. They are monochrome prints, and border on caricature. Their usual subject is the frivolity of social and amorous relationships, with sudden sharp excursions into the tragedies of life. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music is primarily in dance music forms, even in the etchings that are in darker mood, such as "Love and Death," where the embrace of the two is depicted with the feeling of a tango in its rhythms.

The composer organized his settings so as to begin and end with the painter. The opening movement is based on Goya's self-portrait, in which he shows himself as something of a vain dandy, and uses a musical motive based on Goya's name. The final movement depicts the love affair between Goya and the Duchess of Alba. Since this etching features mirror images, this final movement is in the form of a mirror fugue, in which the "Goya" motive returns. ---Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

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Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 31, "Concerto Italiano"
1.  I. Allegro moderato e maestoso 00:15:33
2.  II. Arioso 00:08:33
3.  III. Vivo e impetuoso 00:07:32

Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 66, "I Profeti" (The Prophets)
4.  I. Isaiah: Introduzione - Allegro appassionato 00:13:25
5.  II. Jeremiah: Espressivo e dolente 00:09:59
6.  III. Elijah: Fiero e impetuoso (ma sostenuto e ben marcato il ritmo) 00:08:03 

Tianwa Yang - violin
SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden
Pieter-Jelle de Boer - conductor

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco considered the 1924 Concerto Italiano to be his first truly symphonic venture. This tuneful, fresh and transparently scored concerto here receives its world première recording. It was admired by the great violinist Jascha Heifetz, for whom the composer wrote his Concerto No. 2 ‘I Profeti’ (The Prophets), an impassioned work ‘of biblical character and inspiration’ with an almost cinematic sweep. The recipient of the coveted Echo Klassik award for her album of Mendelssohn’s two Violin Concertos [8.572662], Tianwa Yang is widely recognised as one of the outstanding rising stars on the world classical music scene. ---naxos.com

The Violin Concerto No. 2 ("The Prophets") by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco is rarely played, and the Concerto Italiano of 1924 here receives its world premiere on recordings. Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang makes a good case that both should be heard more often. Castelnuovo-Tedesco termed the Concerto Italiano "almost Vivaldian," largely on the strength of the crystalline middle movement; the first movement is a big piece of Romantic heroics. Yang offers some real depth in the slow-movement melody and in the episodic structure of the Violin Concerto No. 2, programmatically depicting Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Elijah. This work, first performed by Jascha Heifetz, anticipates some of the film music the Jewish Castelnuovo-Tedesco was to write after emigrating to the U.S. It's a bit like the contemporary violin concerto Ottorino Respighi never wrote (he wrote several in the more antique mode of the Concerto Italiano), but it has a rather restrained Jewish flavor quite unlike the work of Bloch. Yang has these difficult works under total control, and her playing has some of the Apollonian quality of Heifetz's; she really holds your attention. Recommended for anyone interested in the national styles of the early 20th century. ---James Manheim, AllMusic Review

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1   Allegretto (6:39) 
2   Andantino Alla Romanza (7:47) 
3   Ritmico E Cavalleroso - Quasi Andante - Tempo I (6:24)

Alfonso Moreno – guitar
Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra
Enrique Bátiz - conductor

In the early 1930s Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco became concerned about the situation of Jews in his native Italy. When severe purges hit the country in 1938, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, himself Jewish and a well-known figure in Italy's musical community, was quickly targeted. "I happened to be the 'pioneer,'" he wrote later. "My music was suddenly banished from the Italian radio and some performances of my works were cancelled." Official anti-Semitism drove Castelnuovo-Tedesco to emigrate to the United States in the summer of 1939. Settling initially in New York, he eventually became an American citizen and lived in the country until his death in Hollywood in 1968. It was during the stressful year of 1939 that he wrote the Guitar Concerto No. 1; the work was dedicated to legendary guitarist Andrés Segovia, who gave its first performance in Montevideo.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed dozens of works for the guitar, both solo and with orchestra. He understood the instrument and knew how to balance the comparatively quiet guitar with the volume of an orchestra. The composer has indicated that the present concerto's orchestration was designed "to give more the appearance and the color of the orchestra than the weight." In later years Segovia used the Concerto as a counterexample to the proposition that a solo guitar cannot be heard over an orchestra.

The first movement, Allegretto, opens with a mock-stately melody in a neo-Classical style, and proceeds at an easygoing gait; its orchestration is quite transparent, sometimes taking on an almost Impressionistic shimmer. A short cadenza and a final flourish close the movement. The gently melancholy second movement, Andantino alla romanza, is based on three Italian folk songs. Segovia described it as Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "tender farewell to the hills of Tuscany which he was about to leave." A rustic, somewhat tongue-in-cheek tune is the basis of the third movement, Ritmico e cavalleresco. Slower, more mysterious regions are explored in a contrasting central section. An extensive cadenza, a return of the movement's opening melody, and a final flourish closes out the work. --- Chris Morrison, Rovi

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Sonatina canonica, Op. 196
1.   		I. Mosso, grazioso e leggero 00:03:13
2.   		II. Tempo di Siciliane 00:04:03
3.   		III. Fandango en Rondeau 00:02:34

Les guitares bien temperees (The Well-Tempered Guitars): Preludes and Fugues, Op. 199: Nos. 1-12
4.   		Prelude No. 1 in G Minor 00:01:56
5.   		Fugue No. 1 in G Minor 00:02:48
6.   		Prelude No. 2 in D Major 00:02:20
7.   		Fugue No. 2 in D Major 00:01:37
8.   		Prelude No. 3 in A Minor 00:02:18
9.   		Fugue No. 3 in A Minor 00:03:03
10.   		Prelude No. 4 in E Major 00:02:24
11.   		Fugue No. 4 in E Major 00:01:55
12.   		Prelude No. 5 in B Minor 00:02:33
13.   		Fugue No. 5 in B Minor 00:02:19
14.   		Prelude No. 6 in F - Sharp Major 00:01:23
15.   		Fugue No. 6 in F - Sharp Major 00:02:06
16.   		Prelude No. 7 in C - Sharp Minor 00:01:40
17.   		Fugue No. 7 in C - Sharp Minor 00:03:31
18.   		Prelude No. 8 in A - Flat Major 00:02:24
19.   		Fugue No. 8 in A - Flat Major 00:02:42
20.   		Prelude No. 9 in E - Flat Minor 00:03:02
21.   		Fugue No. 9 in E - Flat Minor 00:02:30
22.   		Prelude No. 10 in B - Flat Major 00:01:57
23.   		Fugue No. 10 in B - Flat Major 00:02:02
24.   		Prelude No. 11 in F Minor 00:03:20
25.   		Fugue No. 11 in F Minor 00:03:19
26.   		Prelude No. 12 in C Major 00:01:11
27.   		Fugue No. 12 in C Major 00:01:57

Brasil Guitar Duo (João Luiz & Douglas Lora)

With a catalogue of more than 200 works with opus numbers, and many others without, few composers have written such a wide variety of immediately appealing music, as rewarding for performers and listeners alike, as Castelnuovo-Tedesco. His Sonatina Canonica, Op. 196 is a staple for many guitar duos, its warm tonal language enlivened by ingenious counterpoint. Fired by profound admiration for the music of J. S. Bach, his Les Guitares Bien Tempérées, Op. 199 comprises 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, the first dozen of which are performed here by the award-winning young Brasil Guitar Duo. --- naxos.com

The Sonata Canonica, Op. 196, by the prolific Italian-American composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, has opened many a duo-guitar recital. It's a pleasant neo-classic romp that's over in 10 minutes, with the lively use of counterpoint implied by the title. Not so common, or so easily programmed, is another Castelnuovo-Tedesco work from the early '60s, Les Guitares Bien Tempérées, Op. 199, a set of 24 preludes and fugues for two guitars, inspired by Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's preludes and fugues, unlike other sets written in homage to Bach, are arranged not in scalar sequence but in minor-major pairs a fifth apart, beginning with G minor and ending with C major. They're also exceptional in that they can be classified as light music. The dominant spirit is playfulness, and this emerges most of all, oddly enough, in the fugues. Each one has something unexpected. Perhaps a long, complex theme will be recovered piecemeal for its subsequent appearances, or perhaps it will be derived, seemingly impossibly, from that of its corresponding prelude. The preludes itself are quite a varied lot, with effects such as flamenco rhythms and harmonics introduced in an unobtrusive way. There is logic to the whole set, but individual pieces could be included on any recital tracing Bach's influence and would contribute something unusual to it. The performance by the youthful Brasil Guitar Duo is clean and sensitive to the fun of the music, and the engineers avoid putting the listener too close to the players in the live environment of suburban Toronto's St. John Chrysostom Church. A pleasant guitar release that will insinuate itself into your playpile. ---James Manheim, Rovi

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Les guitares bien temperees (The Well-Tempered Guitars): Preludes and Fugues, Op. 199: Nos. 13-24
1.   		Prelude No. 13 in G Major 00:01:42
2.   		Fugue No. 13 in G Major 00:02:51
3.   		Prelude No. 14 in D Minor 00:03:00
4.   		Fugue No. 14 in D Minor 00:02:18
5.   		Prelude No. 15 in A Major 00:01:28
6.   		Fugue No. 15 in A Major 00:02:02
7.   		Prelude No. 16 in E Minor 00:01:21
8.   		Fugue No. 16 in E Minor 00:02:28
9.   		Prelude No. 17 in B Major 00:01:19
10.   		Fugue No. 17 in B Major 00:01:33
11.   		Prelude No. 18 in F - Sharp Minor 00:01:54
12.   		Fugue No. 18 in F - Sharp Minor 00:03:03
13.   		Prelude No. 19 in C - Sharp Major 00:02:01
14.   		Fugue No. 19 in C - Sharp Major 00:01:55
15.   		Prelude No. 20 in G - Sharp Minor 00:01:25
16.   		Fugue No. 20 in G - Sharp Minor 00:02:06
17.   		Prelude No. 21 in E - Flat Major 00:01:50
18.   		Fugue No. 21 in E - Flat Major 00:02:16
19.   		Prelude No. 22 in B - Flat Minor 00:01:22
20.   		Fugue No. 22 in B - Flat Minor 00:02:18
21.   		Prelude No. 23 in F Major 00:01:48
22.   		Fugue No. 23 in F Major 00:01:44
23.   		Prelude No. 24 in C Minor 00:03:48
24.   		Fugue No. 24 in C Minor 00:02:09
Fuga elegiaca
25.   		Preludio: Agitato e tremante 00:01:30
26.   		Fuga: Moderato e mesto 00:03:06

Brasil Guitar Duo (João Luiz & Douglas Lora)

The Brasil Guitar Duo’s Naxos recording of the first twelve Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Guitars (8.570778) gained 5 stars and high praise from Audiophile Audition: ‘Sonics are first rate, and the interplay of the two guitars is a delight’. A landmark in the guitar’s history and the most ambitious undertaking for two guitars ever conceived, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s tribute to J.S. Bach is equally a demonstration of his own melodic inventiveness, wit, vivacity, introspection and lyricism. The Elegiac Fugue, composed shortly before his death, is a fitting musical epitaph. ---naxos.com

This 2009 album, together with their earlier “Complete Music for Two Guitars 1” marks the Brasil Guitar Duo’s complete collection of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s (1895–1968) works for two guitars. Coming toward the end of his fertile composing career (1967) and just before his death, these are his most mature works and mark a landmark in the genre. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s preludes and fugues for two guitars have defined the genre for the past 40 years, and they may define it for years to come, they’re that good. If you love classical guitar, this album is a “must have.” If you are new to this form of chamber music, it is merely a near “must have.” It was a welcome surprise for me.

The first work in this collection is Fuga elegiaca , or simply a “Melancholy Fugue,” or a complex “Fugue Lamenting Lost Youth.” It was written to commemorate the loss of guitarist Ida Presti, who died a still-youthful 43-year-old in 1967. It is deceptively simple and never gets too overwrought with death and grieving. It is paradoxical in the way it feels upbeat and celebratory, as many modern funeral services are said to celebrate the life of the recently departed. The Prelude starts with what might be seen as an arrival in heaven of a worthy soul. The Fugue seems, at first, to examine Presti’s personality in a major key, but then shifts to minor mode to emphasize her passing. In this way, the elegiac Prelude and Fugue is subtly successful. It is a complex miniature of high order, packing a lot into 4:36.

The rest of this album is unabashedly successful. An obvious hômage to J. S. Bach in many ways (the way it progresses in fifths around the circle of keys, for one; the use of counterpoint, for another), it is not a slavish repetition of The Well-Tempered Clavier . To demonstrate that it is not, nor will ever be, it begins with an academic sounding Prelude and Fugue No. 13 (tracks 3 and 4) that sounds a bit like Bach in its use of counterpoint. But in tracks 5 and 6, the composer develops a prelude and fugue on “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothin’” from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess . These four tracks set the tone and structure for the rest of the collection: classically modern. By looking backward and forward in time, this collection stakes for its playing field the whole of classical music from 1967 backwards, or nearly 250 years. This is done with good will, great taste, and superb musicianship.

This album is very worthwhile as the background for silent meditation, alone in the night, with a good headphone rig. It might also serve as a conversation starter as the background music for a dinner party. Sound is excellent, as Naxos engineers have a trail-blazing way of presenting chamber music; and performance is beyond super with each phrase expressed with much forethought. I am prompted to say something about welcoming the next super-stars of the guitar, but I won’t. It wouldn’t be the Oblomovian thing to do. I’ll just say, most highly recommended. ---FANFARE: Ilya Oblomov, arkivmusic.com

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1 	Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar), Op. 78 	11:19
2 	La Bisbetica Domata (The Taming Of The Shrew), Op. 61 	9:22
3 	Antony And Cleopatra, Op. 134 	17:49
4 	A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 108 	6:43
5 	The Tragedy Of Coriolanus, Op. 135 	9:14
6 	La Dodicesima Notte (Twelfth Night), Op. 73 	10:40

Cello [Soloist] – Michael Goldschlager
Concertmaster, Violin [Soloist] – Ashley Arbuckle 
Cor Anglais [Soloist] – Jay Harrison
Oboe [Soloist] – Joel Marangella 
West Australian Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Andrew Penny 

The Naxos series of Italian Classics has unearthed some real gems, not least the First and Second symphonies of Alfredo Casella. His compatriot, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, is also due for reappraisal, so in that respect these overtures are most welcome. That said, the composer’s Hollywood years – he wrote the music for around 200 films – made it more difficult to pursue a career as a ‘serious’ artist. Fellow émigré Erich Wolfgang Korngold faced much the same problem, but he seems to have been as successful in the concert hall as he was on the silver screen.

Doing the honours in this first volume of overtures – the second is available on 8.572501 – are Andrew Penny and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. The band may be unfamiliar, but the British-born conductor is not; indeed, his Naxos recordings of Malcolm Arnold symphonies and British light music have been very well received. Curiously, this ‘world premiere’ collection was recorded 16 years ago, and I have to say the overture to Julius Caesar doesn’t augur well. This is drab stuff, made even more so by a close, rather airless acoustic. And if that wasn’t enough, the strings sound scrawny, the brass poorly blended.

Yes, The Taming of the Shrew – which sounds good enough to eat in its Italian translation – promises to be light rather than lugubrious, but within seconds it’s clear this isn’t much better. A quick comparison with other Shakespeare-inspired works, such as Korngold’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Walton’s Hamlet or Henry V, confirms just how musically threadbare Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s efforts really are. True, the atmospheric start to his Antony and Cleopatra is more encouraging, but scrappy playing and a paucity of musical invention conspire to render this music instantly forgettable.

And I’m afraid it doesn’t get any better. For instance, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – of all Shakespeare’s comedies the one that has the most musical and dramatic promise – is not as vital or as varied as it might be. Yes, it would be utterly pointless to reprise Mendelssohn, but what we get instead can best be described as unsmiling and anodyne. But it’s the tragedies where the lack of dramatic thrust, of noble, stirring melodies, is most keenly felt. Just sample Coriolanus where, despite some grand flourishes, the music doesn’t even come close to capturing the spirit of the play. Ditto the leaden treatment of Twelfth Night; really, if these were film scores they would be considered second-rate at best.

Happily, dud discs are a rarity, but this collection comes perilously close to being one of them. The music itself is unremarkable, although I do wonder whether a better band – and more committed direction – would bring more life and sparkle to these pieces. But sadly, until there’s an alternative recording, we’ll have to make do with this one. ---Dan Morgan, musicweb-international.com

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1 	As You Like It, Op. 166 	12:00
2 	Il Mercante di Venezia (The Merchant Of Venice), Op. 76 	15:05
3 	Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 164 	10:14
4 	King John, Op. 111 	8:21
5 	Il racconto d'inverno (The Winter's Tale), Op. 80 	13:32

Cello [Soloist] – Michael Goldschlager 
Concertmaster, Violin [Soloist] – Ashley Arbuckle 
Cor Anglais [Soloist] – Jay Harrison
Oboe [Soloist] – Joel Marangella 
West Australian Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Andrew Penny 

I have often wondered why the music of the Florentine Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco has been so rarely heard at least in Britain. He was after all hugely influential and after moving to America taught well-known figures like André Previn and Henry Mancini. He was also an extraordinarily prolific composer.

I have known the Violin Concerto for several years and it has received a few good recordings for example by Itzhak Perlman (EMI Classics 754296 2). I also knew a little about his film music in the 1950s and 1960s but little else. I suspect that he has been elbowed out because he appears less important or original than his contemporaries Pizzetti, Dallapiccola and Casella. Despite my interest and the purchasing of a few piano pieces - mostly when in Italy and second-hand - I did not realize the composer’s obsession with Shakespeare: two operas The Merchant of Venice and All’s Well That Ends Well, thirty-five sonnet settings and thirty three separate songs. There are also eleven concert overtures which are less overtures and more like symphonic poems. I somehow managed to miss Volume 1 in this series, which is a pity because it includes his first effort in this genre, The Taming of he Shrew. Nevertheless what we have on the present disc are five overtures ranging from the longest, composed in 1930, to the last of over twenty years later.

Let’s take them in chronological order. The Merchant of Venice, weighing in at over fifteen minutes, could almost be described as a tone poem. It has an opening unison string melody which does indeed sound rather Eastern - perhaps I could say Jewish - and it does, of course, represent Shylock. The mood later on however is sometimes reminiscent of Scheherazade. There is, suitably, a romantic moment when, after about seven minutes a lyrical tune enters possibly representing the lovers Jessica, Shylock’s daughter and Lorenzo with whom she elopes. Although printed in the Comedies the work ends in the minor key in a serious and almost tragic vein, which seems quite appropriate.

A Winter’s Tale is something of a disappointment in many ways. Whilst it is true, to quote the excellent notes by conductor Andrew Penny and Graham Wade, that when listening to these pieces we should know that they the composer set out to “create impressions of specific aspects of the drama rather than following closely the details of the plot” I still found that there was a lack of momentum and power. The first part of the play is taken over by King Leontes’ all-consuming jealousy when he comes to believe that his wife has produced a bastard son by his childhood friend Polexenes. There is a faster and slightly wild passage half-way through but this does not convey the mood satisfactorily. The beautiful Bohemian second half of the play as well as a strong mood of nostalgia earlier in the music dominate the work therefore not representing the contrasts found in the plot.

Shakespeare’s quite early play King John is a misunderstood and rarely performed political drama. Castelnuovo-Tedesco heads up his score with a quote from the end of the play beginning “That England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror”. This sonata-form structure begins with a militaristic Elgarian march and there is even a touch of lyrical English pastoralism in the second subject that possibly reflects the (brief) feminine influences on the King or of his innocent young son Prince Henry. The piece though is not particularly programmatic but it was a suitable choice for a work written in 1941 during a time of fervent hopes for an allied victory in Europe. I really took to it. Concision and memorable ideas abound and this should be heard in Britain.

You will spend a most enjoyable ten minutes in the presence of the Much Ado About Nothing. This features those two young bickering characters, later lovers, Beatrice and Benedict who became also the leading personalities behind Berlioz’s comic opera. The overture is divided into five sections: an Introduction recalling pipers and general gaiety, then Badinage followed by a fine Funeral March which reaches a great climax and finally a Love Duet ending happily and in elation. This is suitable music for a most joyous play.

The last Overture is for As you like it. In this we hear hunting horns setting the forest scene in Arden where Duke Senior has been exiled. There also Rosalind and Celia, his daughters, will hide away. A general sense of anticipation and jollity rules the day. The style is a little Hollywood at times and while I know that Shakespeare had a wobbly sense of geography Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s forest seems to be more Mediterranean than a fresh English Spring or summer wood. We even have a dance section with castanets! That said, it’s a successful piece of really light music; and none the worse for that I hear you cry.

The disc is recorded at a slightly low level and the volume control will need to raised otherwise some sections of the orchestra can sound rather recessed. Unless I’ve missed a trick I can’t see why this disc has had to wait sixteen or so years to emerge, but it has been worth it. The music is unfailingly attractive, is colourfully orchestrated and sympathetically played. And so, for such a modest outlay, this is well worth searching out. ---Gary Higginson, musicweb-international.com

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