Blogger Musical (Beautiful Classical Music): junio 2011

Tcherepnin | Piano Concertos 2 & 4 · Symphonic Prayer · Magna mater

This is really delightful stuff. The Symphonic Prayer and Magna mater both contrast gentle chorale textures with inventive writing for brass and percussion, and come off sounding somewhat like a harmonically kinder, gentler, but no less energetic Honegger. Prokofiev serves as the model for the nose-thumbing but inventive Second Piano Concerto, whose obstinately catchy principal motif gets repeated what sounds like several thousand times--but always with such wit and point that it never becomes annoying (unless of course you have no sense of humor and dislike musical jokes). Its flashy 17 minutes breezes by in (subjectively speaking) a fraction of the time, and Noriko Ogawa dispatches the fun-filled piano part with unconcealed glee.

The clarity of orchestral playing, good humour and sheer enjoyment are just three characteristics in the hilariously enjoyable 'Le carnival d'Aix' with its jazzy piano part or the miraculously deft 'L'apotheose de Moliere'. Ronald Corp directs with empathy in the kaleidoscopic 'Le carnival de Londres' whilst the famous 'Le boeuf sur le toit' is also very well handled.

'This is a cracker of a disc, full of vitality, fabulous tunes, lashings of uncontrollable high spirits. All the players enter into the spirit of the music - tremendous fun' --Gramophone

Awards Diapason d'Or

This is a fascinating, thought-provoking coupling of two major late twentieth century additions to the violin repertoire. Those who possess Boulez' recording of Ligeti's Concertos (DG 439 808-2, with Saschko Gavriloff, who premiered the work, as violin soloist) may feel little need to obtain this new account. But there is a creative, symbiotic tension between Ligeti and Nørgard, which makes a complete play-through of this disc a compelling and rewarding experience.

As the New York Times put it when Danny Elfman’s Serenada Schizophrana was performed live at Carnegie Hall in February 2005: "Better good Hollywood music than second-rate Brahms." Elfman, better known for his soundtracks to Tim Burton movies, had been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra to write a concert work, and the Serenada Schizophrana in six movements was the result.

Very poetic character sketches as filtered through the mythologizing atmosphere of a nostalgic aural dream.

Recorded in 1982, the fact that [this album is] reentering the catalog suggests a select appeal which makes competition unlikely in the foreseeable future, thus [it enters] the Hall of Fame, if not - quite - by default (these are strong performances in better than average sound), less as outstanding sonic or interpretive artifacts and a great deal more on the strength of their artistic and musical import.

Recorded just before and after the period that she made the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, Ella Fitzgerald is in fine form on this obscure LP, performing a dozen standards. Although two songs are by Harold Arlen, the composers were in most cases less prolific than the ones she saluted in her songbook series. Ella is backed by a large unidentified orchestra conducted and arranged by Frank DeVol. Swingers alternate with ballads, and as usual, Ella uplifts everything, including "Let's Fall In Love," "Moonlight Serenade," "Gone With the Wind" and "East of the Sun." An enjoyable if not classic release. --S.Y.

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Vivaldi | Mandolin and Lute Concertos

“highly dramatic performances, deriving their from Guglielmo's ability to harness the propulsive nature of Vivaldi's writing while allowing a great deal of rhythmic flexibility and melodic embellishment...Guglielmo's wonderful cadenza linking the first two movements in RV82 is, like his direction throughout, tasteful and inventive.” --Gramophone

Latin-American Orchestral Works

Prepare for a journey of musical discovery on this new CD, which features works by composers from Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Colombia.

The pieces are all world premiere recordings, brimming with Afro-Cuban and Creole folk-inspired sounds, as well as dance influences from the Argentine tango. All performances are from the Wurttembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen conducted by Gabriel Castagna.

Penguin Guide Key Recording & Rosette Award, January 2009

Patrick Gallois is a masterly flautist, and he gives a superb set of performances of these fine concertos written for the court of Frederick the Great and arranged by the composer from works originally featuring the harpsichord as soloist. There is much sparkling vivacity in the allegros, and the expressive range of the slow movements, sometimes quite dark in feeling, is fully captured by both soloist and the excellent Toronto Camerata under Kevin Mallon, who ensures the consistent vitality of the music-making. Gallois uses Bach’s own cadenzas throughout, and he also gives an admirably spontaneous account of the Solo Sonata that shows his lovely tone at its most beguiling. With first-rate recording this Naxos set now sweeps the board…

The ballade was Frank Martin's specialty. The Swiss composer wrote six of them throughout his long career, each featuring a different solo instrument or group of solo instruments. They are all from about 10 to 15 minutes in length, and like Samuel Barber's Essays for Orchestra, they pack a great deal of concentrated, communicative music into a very small space.

The work for viola, wind, harp, harpsichord and percussion is a particularly colorful and evocative work, but then all of them are marvelously written and all too rarely encountered in the concert hall for the simple reason that they're too short. These performances are terrific. --D.H.

“Julia Fischer certainly has the technical equipment for this challenging music...Her technique, however, is not of the showy kind; the particular strength of these performances is the way each piece emerges as an example of romantic tone-painting rather than just a virtuoso showpiece.” --Gramophone Magazine

“Fischer plays these notorious finger-breakers as though they were amongst the most treasured pieces in the repertoire...she dons the various rhetorical disguises Paganini assumes...with engaging aplomb...Fischer's ability to impart a convincing emotional narrative to each piece is hard to overlook - it makes for compelling listening.” --BBC Music Magazine

'Anyone interested in this particular program is unlikely to be anything but delighted with this disc' --Fanfare, USA

Mozart's contribution to the repertoire of music with wind instruments is of considerable significance. Not only did he write concertos for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn, but he also made frequent use of these instruments in his chamber music. His interest in varied textures and colours led to unusual, sometimes unique, combinations of wind or wind and strings, and many of these works have become cornerstones of the repertoire.

The disc finds the French pianist at her visionary best. It opens with a passionate yet unsentimental performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen that ranks among the finest ever recorded. Anne Sofie von Otter is the soloist in a turbulent group of Clara's songs, while Truls Mork joins Grimaud for a powerful version of Brahms's First Cello Sonata. The album closes with Grimaud playing Brahms's Op 79 Rhapsodies, another overwhelming performance that captures the composer's shattering isolation as well as his deep affection for his best friend's wife. A truly great achievement, this is unmissable. --The Guardian

“A first-rate sampler of Barber's late-Romantic style, from the Adagio for Strings through to valuable pieces such as the Dover Beach for baritone (Fischer-Dieskau on form).” --BBC M.M.

While anyone who loves the music of Samuel Barber will already have Thomas Schippers' heartrending performance of his Adagio for strings with the New York Philharmonic, anyone who loves the music of Samuel Barber will have to hear this disc because it contains many other superlative recordings.

There is plenty of graceful playing here (try the opening of the Symphony No. 39) and a fine sense of the music's drama. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Divertimento K334 and the Serenata notturna -- recorded in St. Moritz by a select group of the BPO -- have a delightfully playful air. --Gramophone

A collection of 18 songs performed by the greatest female jazz singers of all time. Ella, Nina, Dinah, Billy, Sarah, Shirley all are here, each one with her unique way, singing their original hits. A 'must have' for every authentic vocal jazz lover.

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Clementi | Complete Orchestral Works

If at all known Muzio Clementi will be associated with piano music first and foremost. But the English composer, pianist, teacher, music publisher and piano manufacturer of Italian birth did write a relatively small quantity of attractive orchestral works as well. Not surprisingly these include a piano concerto too.

This is truly classical music in every sense of the word. This set of 3 CD’s contains six symphonies, 2 overtures and the Minuetto pastorale. And of course the piano concerto, with Pietro Spada as the soloist.

Stanley, who was blind from an early age, studied music with Maurice Greene and held a number of organist appointments in London. He was a friend of George Frideric Handel, and following Handel's death, Stanley joined first with John Christopher Smith and later with Thomas Linley to continue the series of oratorio concerts Handel had established.

In 1779, Stanley succeeded William Boyce as Master of the King's Musick.

Stanley's works include the opera Teraminta, the dramatic cantata The Choice of Hercules, twelve other cantatas with texts by John Hawkins, the oratorios Jephtha, The Fall of Egypt and Zimri, and instrumental music.

There is little enough genuine light-hearted fun in music, and the Palladian Ensemble and their guests make the most of their opportunities with verve, virtuosity and varied instrumental colour. --Gramophone

Nicolas Chédeville (1705-82) ingeniously adapted Vivaldi's The Four Seasons to create a new seasonal cycle of six concertos. They are arranged from various movements of the original but only ‘Spring' is used in its entirety. ‘Summer is omitted completely and the outer movements of ‘Autumn' embrace the central largo from ‘Winter'.

Music at the Spanish Court

"The sound of the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet is, as always, quite superb, and their subtle tonal blend and precise chording are shown to excellent effect precisely in those pieces one might expect to hear sung by voices, such as the motets by Gombert and Victoria" --Gramophone

40 Great Stirring Classical Anthems of Joy, Freedom, Hope and Brotherhood for all eras and ocassions

Orff · Wagner · Verdi · Elgar · Bach · Beethoven · Handel · Puccini · R. Strauss · Prokofiev · Tchaikovsky · Vivaldi · Parry · Holst · Mussorgsky · Saint-Säens · Vaughan Williams · Coates · Binge · Arthur Wood · Henry Wood · Fucík · Barber · Sibelius · Charpentier · Bizet · Ravel · Khachaturian · Arne

The Palladian Ensemble's very first recording featured a number of pieces by Nicola Matteis...and for a while they used one of them almost as a signature tune. Now they have drawn more items from his huge ragbag of short pieces for two melody instruments and continuo - Ayres with a whole range of titles from Adagio to Jigg to Aria Burlesca con molto bizzarie and Giga Al Genio Turchescho - and made them the main subject of their latest disc, borrowing its title from Roger North's description of Matteis's playing: flaming as I have seen him, in a good humour he hath held the company by the ears...for more than an hour together. --Gramophone

Indispensable — every collector who cares about the Beethoven Violin Concerto should consider finding a place for Schneiderhan's interpretation in their library. --Gramophone

There is no question that in the mono LP era the mantle of Kulenkampff passed directly to Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and to our great good fortune that remarkable violinist, who had directly inherited the spirit of the German classical tradition (just as Karajan did symphonically, when he took over the Berlin Philharmonic from Furtwängler), lived to re-record that greatest of all violin concertos in stereo.

The fact that Tchaikovsky never found romance in his life certainly did not prevent his music abounding in romantic moments, his ballets pure romantic fantasy.

It is often bitter-sweet music, None but the Lonely Heart a perfect example, but use band 12, the rarely performed Mélodie, to be wooed by the dreamy beauty of his composition.

"Not quite all of Mendelssohn’s inventive output for piano and orchestra, but a sizeable representation even so, spanning a period from 1822 to 1837. Such music, full of Classical sensibility and early Romantic imagination, finds Katin and Ogdon in limpid form, equally responsive to the Mozartian/Hummelian dimensions of Mendelssohn’s alternately bustling, thoughtful keyboard style. Detailed orchestral support, too." --BBC Music Magazine

“Mayer plays modern instruments, and the works are given at modern concert pitch, so even though the accompanying strings and continuo play with just one instrument to a part, the performances have a richness that is distinctly different from today's usual period-instrument accounts. Mayer is a superb musician, with a wonderful sense of line and articulation, and gives all this music a grace and poise.

There are no masterpieces here, but the disc is a more than pleasant, undemanding listen.” --The Guardian

Boris Tchaikovsky is clearly an important composer. Some may dine him deceptively minimalist, modern, or even New Age at first hearing; but these are misconceptions. Tchaikovsky sounds only remotely like Shostakovich and not at all like Vaughan Williams, Prokofieff, or his more famous namesake; but his music fits into their orchestral world. Not only is it romantic; it’s also haunting, involving and conducive to rehearings. From the evidence here, I have been introduced to a master. --American Record Guide

The debut recording of the new Rascher Saxophone Orchestra, based in Germany. The ensemble is conducted by Bruce Weinberger, tenor saxophonist of the famous Rascher Saxophone Quartet. This CD is a mix of old and new, with a new transcription of Steve Reich's New York Counterpoint, and the world premiere recording of a new work by Michael Denhoff. Beautiful sonorities throughout coupled with excellent playing and musical interpretations make this a must-have recording.

...in this stunning programme of 23 Russian miniatures his vocal elasticity and intensity work wonders . . . so masterfully played, so spontaneously felt are the results that listened to as one might a live event . . . it is easy to be swept away. I doubt . . . whether there is another cellist around who can so convincingly move from full-threated intensitiy to a half-whisper in an instant . . . Beguiling, too, is Maisky's always 'singing' tone at all dynamic levels . . . This is the very opposite of a relaxing, 'late-evening' experience, so overwhelming are Maisky's emotion responses . . . Pavel Gililov miraculously anticipates and responds to Maisky's every nuance with complete assurance. --Record Review

“These performances are sunny and spirited and ripe with confidence. The result is perfect textural clarity and timbral richness in equipoise, all well served by Naxos's bright and realistic sound.” --American Record Guide

As the Universal Classics publicity machine works overtime promoting its younger artists, I only hope the humans that run it have budgeted equal attention toward their senior contract players, specifically Nelson Freire, whose second Decca release--an all-Schumann recital--is an absolute beauty.

Brazilian born Nelson Freire presents a program of four of Schumann's most popular and descriptive works for solo piano. The album showcases Freire's complete technical mastery as well as his boldly original sound in music of strong contrasts and virtuosic showmanship. His international career began way back in 1959 and has continued with tours, recordings, awards and honors both at home and abroad.

These recordings have been in and out of the catalog since they were first recorded back in the late 1980s. They display all the virtues of other Cappella Coloniensis CDs of a similar vintage: moderate tempo choices, technically adroit playing, good blend between sections, and plenty of energy.

On the negative side, they suffer from the same problems: an oversized acoustic and distant miking, which results in less bite to accents and phrases, as well as a moderate loss of instrumental color (though to be fair, this isn’t the case with the three Graupner chalumeau soloists, placed in a sonic spotlight). The pleasure derived from these performances is consequently compromised, though not entirely lost.

This intelligently compiled bargain reissue demonstrates the strength of both Rimsky-Korsakov's music on disc (when was the last time you saw a live performance of either opera suite?), and EMI's "second string" of conductors in the late 1950s and early '60s.

The quartet of Kletzki, Cluytens, von Matacic, and Kurtz delivers an excellent series of performances, unified by the superb playing of the vintage Philharmonia.

“Here one finds an historically informed and wholly satisfying approach that has spring in its step in the exuberant allegros and beguiling grace and tenderness in the slow movements. Again, Naxos has mounted a formidable challenge to the full-price competition with a well-recorded release that is a steal at the price.” --American Record Guide

Hardly any other singer of our time has had such an uninterrupted and brilliant career as the Australian soprano, Joan Sutherland. Already described as `La Stupenda', the `Koloraturwunder' or `The Incomparable', she can look back on a career stretching over more than forty years which was soundly based and intelligently developed; but despite her international renown, despite the many honours she has received all over the world (in 1979 Queen Elizabeth II conferred on her the title of Dame of the British Empire) the artist has remained a completely natural human being.

Over the past three or four decades early music has changed from elitist and hardly known to being widely performed and appreciated. With the growing popularity of early music the recorder has emancipated from that rather ill-reputed “instrument to introduce children to music” to a serious musical instrument in its own right. Several highly successful recorder ensembles and soloists are proof of this change.

The composer who introduced the Mannheim galant style to Vienna, Georg Matthias Monn enjoyed a high reputation in Austria during his lifetime, although his music was not widely circulated beyond German-speaking territories and was generally ignored during the first 250 years following his death.

The Monn music that is being revived today tends to involve the orchestra; the sinfonia and the concerto represent him in the catalogs. At the same time, this music's textures tend to be thin, more akin to chamber music than orchestral scores.

Bach has always been thought of as an essentially practical composer, who wrote music because it was needed. Certainly this is true of the cantatas, produced usually for the principal Sunday service of the Lutheran church and scored for the available combinations of voices and instruments.

'James Bowman is on impressive form and his admirers need not hesitate here' --The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

'D'excellentes interprétations' --Ecouter, Voir, France

Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915) was a French composer of dance music. He was born in Strasbourg to a Jewish Alsatian family of musicians. His father Louis had a respected orchestra, and his brother Léon was a successful musician. When Léon won a place to study violin performance at the Conservatoire de Paris, the entire family followed him there. It was in Paris that Waldteufel would spend the rest of his life. Waldteufel studied the piano at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1853 to 1857. Among his fellow pupils was Jules Massenet. During his time at the conservatory, Louis Waldteufel's orchestra became one of the most famous in Paris, and Émile was frequently invited to play at important events.

The Italian composer Cambini was immensely popular with Parisian audiences in the 1770s and 1780s. He had a predilection for the symphonie concertante, a form enabling him to link his gift for captivating melodies with a flair for delightful combinations of sonorities, while his symphonies show a seriousness of intent and a restless sense of drama reminiscent of the Sturm und Drang movement.

World premiere recording.

“Captured in the Maly Hall of the Moscow Conservatory where much of Prokofiev's work was first heard, it's surprising to find so many aspects of the composer's style represented, from the Romanticism of the early Ballade through the spiky dissonances of Chout to the elegiac, unfinished Solo Sonata. Aided by characterful piano-playing by Tatyana Lazareva, Ivashkin's recital compares most favourably with his similar programme on Ode for which he was accompanied by a more reticent pianist; although the earlier disc includes the Concertino movement in the guise of Rostropovich's cello quintet arrangement, the absence of the Chout transmogrification makes the Chandos collection appear better value. --Gramophone

'I cannot imagine many piano lovers failing to fall for this delectable and all-too-brief collection of impressions, portraits and postcards. If you are not drawn to the imaginative programme of the familiar, the brand new and the entirely unknown, then the elegant, eloquent playing of this master pianist will surely seduce you ... We are treated to some of the loveliest pianissimos and and delicate shadings you'll hear, familiar from Hough's earlier Piano Albums and similar in his complete empathy with this kind of repertoire... Hough's own On Falla has an authentic ring that should provide him with a blistering encore for years to come... The piano sound (Andrew Keener and Simon Eadon) is as you would expect from Hyperion's dream team' --Gramophone

Elizabeth Maconchy was a most distinguished composer, whose music is still under-represented in terms of commercial recordings, although her present discography is far from negligible. Was born in Hertfordshire and trained at the Royal College of Music, London, where one of her teachers was Ralph Vaughan Williams. Although regarded as one of the most brilliant students at the RCM, Maconchy did not win the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship for study overseas because, in the director's opinion, "You will only get married and never write another note".

Intended as a showcase for violinist Julia Fischer, this is also the last recording made by the hugely talented and popular Russian-born conductor Yakov Kreizberg, who died, tragically young, earlier this year. Much of the music is itself extremely poignant, and the circumstances surrounding its release inevitably add to its impact.

Touching and very fine. --The Guardian

A fascinating disc, yet one that for a variety of reasons functions in a rather supplemental fashion. These readings aim to bring authenticity (viewed from a variety of angles) to bear on these familiar scores, presumably intending them to be able to be heard in a new light. Not that “authentic” performances of Beethoven are too thin on the ground—but such chamber-music forces as these certainly reveal detail in a way rarely encountered. --Fanfare

'This is amazing violin playing of a kind of virtuosity I do not recall hearing from a period instrument player ... No one who admires good violin playing will want to miss Elizabeth Wallfisch's crisp, rhythmic playing, her precise articulation or her impeccable intonation, or indeed her general command of the style and expressive content of this music' --Gramophone

Chopin has always been central to Vladimir Ashkenazy's long, rich and hyperactive career, ranging from his legendary 1959-60 Russian recording of the Etudes to his complete Decca cycle.

In 1955 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying with the great pianist Lev Oborin. In the same year he won second prize in the Fifth Warsaw International Chopin Competition.

The warmth and character of the music-making and Domingo's strength of feeling carry the day -- his Tchaikovsky is from the heart and stamped with his personality.

Domingo's Tchaikovsky is from the heart and stamped with his personality. There is individual shaping of all slower melodies, and plenty of time taken to do so. Even without foreknowledge of who is wielding the baton, you cannot fail to be struck by the 'operatic' emoting of the Capriccio iialien's first tune (after the opening fanfares), and the piece develops with numerous affectionate touches guaranteed to bring a smile to his admirers.

Over 2½ hours of glorious melodies

Essential Violin includes selections of popular repertoire from some of the greatest composers and performers in the classical world.

Artists include Nigel Kennedy · Akiko Suwanai · Joshua Bell · Mayumi Fujikawa · Arthur Grumiaux · Alexander Kerr · Alan Loveday · Ruggiero Ricci · Kyung Wha Chung

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