The eMusic Dozen: Chandos

To attend a Richard Hickox recording session is to see a consummate professional at work. He realises that in the studio, with an orchestra of 120 or so players, time is money. Yet he creates an atmosphere that produces music-making of an extraordinarily high level. This recording of Vaughan Williams's Second Symphony, "A London Symphony," is typical of his artistry. Not surprisingly, it swept through the Gramophone Awards, picking up the Orchestral Award on its way to being named Record of the Year. But this is no ordinary performance of VW's "London Symphony"; instead, it brings us his first thoughts on a work he subsequently revised into the 1936 version we always encounter. This 1914 version gives us more music, much of it of remarkable beauty and craftsmanship. The LSO, longtime musical partners of Hickox, play as if their lives depended on it -- and Chandos capture it in sound of fabulous bloom and opulence.

One of Chandos's earliest major successes was a cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies that not only introduced the name Mariss Jansons to music-lovers, but also put the Oslo Philharmonic on the map as an ensemble of real distinction. The Fifth Symphony, the work that conductors in particular seem to love most of the seven, was the first to be recorded. I remember Brian Couzens telling me 20 years ago of the sensation he experienced when he heard a rough cassette recording of Jansons and the Oslo orchestra in action -- and this explains why. The sweep of the line is magnificent, the bite of the playing thrilling but, above all, Jansons never lets his interpretation descend into melodrama or hysteria. This is Tchaikovsky with dry eyes, rendered all the more powerful for that restraint. He knows at every moment exactly where the music is going, and where to 'land' a phrase. It's no wonder that he's considered one of today's greatest conductors.

One of those works that always brings a lump to my throat is Frederick Delius's setting of Walt Whitman, "Sea Drift" (from the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"). It's scored for solo baritone, chorus and orchestra and tells, touchingly, of a young boy watching two sea birds who have clearly bonded for life. Then, one day, the she-bird flies away never to return. The male waits for his mate singing his forlorn lament to the moon, the stars and the sea. Bryn Terfel's dark, rich baritone and his beautiful enunciation is a perfect complement to this powerful blend of words and music. The two choral works, "Songs of Farewell" and "Songs of Sunset" (where Terfel returns with mezzo Sally Burgess), are beautifully done -- the Chandos recording and Richard Hickox's innate feeling for Delius's music meshing to powerful effect. And Delius's musical voice was one of the most original -- you won't find more powerful advocacy in modern times.

This is one of the gems of the Chandos catalogue, a recording without a weak link. Hickox was one of the finest choral trainers until a burgeoning international career made him focus on work with orchestras. But he can still make a chorus sing at a level that I suspect surprises even the singers themselves. Britten's extraordinary "War Requiem," a vast choral work on the futility of war, was premiered in the newly built Coventry Cathedral in 1962, and has since become one of the late 20th century's most-performed choral works -- despite the complexity of the forces required. The soloists -- Heather Harper (who sang at the premiere at very short notice), Philip Langridge and John Shirley-Quirk -- are magnificent, singing with an almost unbearable intensity. They are matched by choral and orchestral contributions that tug at the heart strings. Chandos's recording is truly magnificent, adding to the power of this great work.

I've included this recording for a number of reasons. Not only does it demonstrate Chandos's discernment in choosing musicians of real stature from a younger generation (both Hayroudinoff and Ehnes are on their way to major careers) but it couples two wonderful but far-too-infrequently-heard concertos by Dvorak. Both pieces have abundant melodic charm, but also never abandon the rusticity that lies so near the surface in much of Dvorak's music -- either finale will have you smiling with delight and tapping a toe at the same time. The album also shows what a tremendous orchestra the BBC has at its outpost in Manchester, and in Gianandrea Noseda, the conductor who gave the world that free-for-download Beethoven symphony cycle back in 2005, the orchestra has a maestro with real personality. Add to that a fine, spacious but nicely detailed recording and you've a real winner. Just the sort of thing Chandos does so well.

This is another disc that secured Chandos a Gramophone Award in its early days. Neeme Jarvi's dynamic style of conducting is perfectly suited to Prokofiev's symphonic writing. The Sixth is arguably Prokofiev's finest symphony, tautly constructed, cogently argued but melodically rewarding, even if not in the opulent colours of the much-more-popular Fifth Symphony. This is steel to the Fifth's gold; it's a work that bears the scars of the Second World War (it was composed in 1947), and while the authorities may have been less than thrilled, it was a critical success. Jarvi draws playing of superior quality from his Scottish orchestra; indeed, it was always one of his skills as the RSNO's music director to make his ensemble play a class above its own (and the recording also shows these committed players in the best of all possible lights). The coupling is three pieces from the Waltz Suite, delightful recollections of his ballet Cinderella.

Before he founded Chandos, Brian Couzens was involved in the production of a large number of very fine brass-band recordings; in the years since he founded the label, the lighter side of the classical repertoire has not been neglected. Of all the 20th-century British composers, few contributed to this genre more delightfully (or more stylishly) than Malcolm Arnold -- himself an orchestral brass player in an earlier life. Rumon Gamba, a hugely talented conductor of the younger generation, has made a series of wonderful discs for Chandos, many with the BBC Philharmonic. And this Arnold overtures collection is no exception. All the old favourites are here: "Beckus the Dandipratt," "Tam O'Shanter" and the wonderfully hyperbolic "A Grand Grand Festival Overture." There are some less often encountered pieces here too, yet all are done with infectious high spirits and some very classy orchestral playing indeed.

Lili Boulanger, the younger sister of one of the greatest composition teachers of the last century, Nadia Boulanger, died at the tragically early age of 24. Hers was a prodigious talent that embraced a quite extraordinarily original musical vision. Almost as if she were aware of what Fate had in store for her, many of her songs and choral works take loss and mourning as their theme. This collection, featuring the BBC Philharmonic and Yan Pascal Tortelier, is a wonderful introduction to her unique and surprisingly powerful art. My own first encounter with Lili Boulanger's music was her setting of Psalm 130, "Du fond de l'abime," for mezzo, tenor, choir, organ and orchestra -- it's a remarkable achievement and sounds nothing like any other composer's work. Equally fascinating is "Faust et Helene," a dramatic cantata that won her the Prix de Rome -- she was first women to win that coveted bursary. The orchestral works are also deeply rewarding.

Among the many strings to Richard Hickox's bow is an interest in period performance and he has made some superb discs of baroque and classical music with his Collegium Musicum 90 choir and orchestra. As well as Masses by Joseph Haydn, he opened many ears to the wonders of Johann Nepomuk Hummel's sacred choral music. Also written for the court of the Eszterhazy in lower Austria, Hummel's Masses are works of infectious vitality and colossal imagination. The Mass in E flat is a splendid creation and it's hard to imagine it done with more panache, or authority, than here. As throughout the series, the soloists include the radiant tones of the soprano Susan Gritton, who casts a wonderful halo of light over the proceedings. The couplings are also fine works, a Te Deum and a Graduale, "Quod quod in orbe" -- both find the choir of Collegium Musicum 90 on top form.

I only encountered this work -- in this performance -- quite recently and have been bowled over by it. Amy Beach was the first female composer of large-scale music in the United States to receive major acclaim. (She is also the only woman to have her name included on the famous Hatch Shell under which the Boston Pops plays.) Born in Boston she showed remarkable musical promise at an early age, but her family wouldn't hear of her studying music in Europe (as most American composers did at the time). So she studied in Boston but was largely self-taught. Her three-movement Piano Quintet, at nearly 30 minutes, is a large-scale work with major ambitions and is played with terrific style by the Ambache, a group committed to rescuing music by women composers. No less appealing are the Piano Trio and a Theme and Variation for Flute and String Quartet. If you respond to Brahms's chamber music then you will certainly love Beach's work.

Opera in English, a fine enterprise supported by the philanthropist and opera-lover Sir Peter Moores, forms a very important cornerstone of the Chandos catalogue. It's opera offered to English-speaking listeners in a way that makes its appeal direct and immediate. This classic recording of Handel's Julius Caesar, a memento of one of Dame Janet Baker's greatest theatrical triumphs, was originally made by EMI, but takes its place among other English-language performances in the Chandos catalogue. With Sir Charles Mackerras giving idiomatic and wonderfully dramatic support in the pit, Handel's greatest opera -- vivid, full of psychological insight and still totally relevant -- is heard to amazing effect. Baker's Caesar is a creation of impregnable firmness and authority yet when Cleopatra, gloriously and sweetly sung by Valerie Masterson, prises open a chink in his emotional armour, the change is stunningly conveyed.