Echoes of History, Voices of Hope: May 2025 CD Review

War Silence: Rare Italian Piano Concertos

Guido Fano, Luigi Dallapiccola, Silvio Omizzolo & Christian Carrara
Roberto Prosseda – Piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Nir Kabaretti – Conductor

Hyperion CDA68458

For the collector of the obscure but rewarding, this disc is fascinating. War Silence is the title of the last work on it, written in 2015 by Christian Carrara (b. 1977) and a direct response to the fifty wars that were going on worldwide, and particularly the Russian annexation of Crimea. Its movement titles tell all: Trenches, Solititudes, Fruts (an alternative spelling to fruits, meaning product). For such grim subject matter, Carrara’s music is surprisingly tranquil. Shostakovich was much rougher with our emotions. The composer Carrara brings to mind more is Samuel Barber.

The record opens with Andante e Allegro con Fuoco—the Andante very much in the idiom of Tchaikovsky, the Allegro closer to Respighi—from 1900, by Guido Fano, who lived from 1875 to 1961 and was persecuted by Mussolini’s fascists. So was Dallapiccola’s Jewish wife, Laura, who was forced out of her job as a librarian in Florence.

The Piccolo Concerto per Muriel Couvreux was written during the worst years of WWII in honour of the seven-year-old daughter of a friend in Paris. It is a suite of eight movements rather than a traditional concerto and overlays its seriousness with a sense of innocence in troubled childhood.

The form of the Piano Concerto from 1960 by Silvio Omizzolo (1905–1991) is the most traditional here. It is close to Prokofiev in style but has more of the angular motifs of the post-war period. This is a remarkable CD, and huge plaudits go to Prosseda for championing the works—and to the LPO for mastering such unfamiliar repertoire in two days! More details on the Hyperion Records page.

Khachaturian: Piano Concerto and Other Works

Jean-Yves Thibaudet – Piano
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel – Conductor

Decca 487 0877

Another neglected piano concerto, from 1937, is that by Aram Khachaturian: very much Armenia’s national composer, though in his time also a pillar of Soviet musical life. He managed to tread a fine line between the establishment and political neutrality, which meant he was welcome in the West to conduct his music. In Britain he became famous when his Spartacus Adagio was used in the 70s TV family saga The Onedin Line.

It is on this disc but played as a solo piano piece, rather than in its opulent orchestral guise. Thibaudet loves Khachaturian’s music and brings passion as well as skill to his readings, as does the LAPO. The Sabre Dance is even more brutal on the piano than with orchestra.

When the band crashes in at the start of the concerto, it is something of a shock to the system. There’s a lot of the post-Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov in the concerto, but it has just enough 20th-century grit and Armenian root to save it from pastiche. Thibaudet describes it as ‘bravura’, and that is apt.

He has a lot of notes to play, which probably explains why so few pianists tackle it, but the middle Andante is exotic and rapturous—if rather spoilt by the composer’s use of the flexatone: an instrument great for ghost stories but not a concerto, where it sounds like an off-key whistle. The rest of the record has solo piano arrangements of Khachaturian’s marginally less frenetic works. I find Thibaudet’s touch too percussive in the Pictures of Childhood, but it is right for the more brittle Masquerade. More on Decca Classics.

Richard Blackford: Songs of Nadia Anjuman

Elizabeth Watts – Soprano
Britten Sinfonia

Nimbus Alliance NI6444

The short (18 minutes) CD of songs is a gem, though a sad one. Nadia Anjuman was an Afghan poet from Herat, beaten to death by her husband at the age of 25 in 2005. Blackford’s settings of English translations from the original Dari are strong and desperate by turn and make a fitting tribute to her memory, as does Watts’ committed performance.

Blackford, now in his seventies, is one of Britain’s most distinctive composers. His idiom is punchy without being aggressive, and his orchestration is wonderfully articulate. See album on Nimbus Records.

Richard Blackford: La Sagrada Familia Symphony, Babel

Rebecca Bottone – Soprano
Alessandro Fisher – Tenor
Stephen Gadd – Baritone
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Ikon Singers & Ensemble
Richard Blackford – Conductor
David Hill – Conductor

Lyrita SRCD 432

The La Sagrada Familia Symphony is his reaction to the monumental but complex façade of Gaudí’s cathedral still under construction in Barcelona. The Babel cantata interweaves the biblical stories of Noah and the destruction by God of the Tower of Babel—a metaphor for the division and misunderstanding among humans from which we have been suffering ever since. David Hill has become a loyal champion of Blackford’s work, and the performance by his Ikon group is superb. View release on Wyastone/Lyrita.

Angel of Peace

Choir works by Hildegard of Bingen, Arvo Pärt, John Taverner, Will Todd and Anna Clyne
Sarah Sexton – Violin
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers – Conductor

CORO COR16210

If one was in any doubt about how the early music movement has influenced contemporary composers, this is the record to make it clear. From the 12th-century Hildegard to the Tudor Taverner, composers have been borrowing constantly as their minds have opened.

Pärt, finding consolation as Estonia shook off Soviet restraints, drew heavily on Catholic and Orthodox chant in his beautiful Magnificat. The much younger Will Todd (b. 1970) has created a meditative piece for choir and solo violin that gives the collection its title, I Shall Be the Angel of Peace, which is full of the sense of mediaeval architecture (it was recorded in the Temple Church).

Anna Clyne, ten years younger, is open about the influence in Orbits, setting an English translation of Rilke, commissioned as a companion to Todd’s work. She writes, “in a world that feels fractured and tumultuous, music has the power to open spaces of deep connection and stillness.” In fact, the choir and violin move with more energy than that suggests in this fine work. Her orbits spin quite fast and cross each other constantly. The Sixteen, as always, sing immaculately. Visit The Sixteen’s official shop for details.