Blogger Musical (Beautiful Classical Music): julio 2011

Pierné | Piano Concerto · Ramuntcho Suites · Marche Des Petits Soldats

“[Bavouzet] plays with an enthralling virtuosity...he makes it difficult to imagine a more bright-eyed and eloquent soloist, and his partners work with him hand-in-glove. For all those who delight in a wholly French grace and magic, this disc is a winner, and it is superbly recorded.” -- Gramophone

“This attractive disc would make an ideal introduction to the charms of Pierné's music...The revelatory heart, though, is the music from Ramuntcho...Inspired by the Basque setting, there is plenty of colour and vigour.” -- BBC Music Magazine ****

Though his recordings are relatively few (especially for a major label artist), Mischa Maisky is recognized as one of the most distinguished and celebrated cellists of our time. This recital of arrangements of familiar as well as undeservedly unfamiliar classical tunes amply demonstrates why.

His tone is impeccable, technique flawless, and most important he leaves the listener feeling as if they're hearing the piece in a wholly fresh new way. Joined by his long time accompanist Pavel Gililov, this is a recording all cello enthusiasts are sure to enjoy.

Ashkenazy and Previn play music for two pianos by Rachmaninov.

Michael Schneider is one of the top recorder players in the field of early music and he is the ideal interpreter of these Concertos of the German Baroque. Amongst concertos by Graupner, Schickhardt, Schultze, and Scheibe, Schneider performs the World Première Recordings of recorder concertos by Johann Friedrich Fasch and Mattheus Nikolaus Stulick.

Venetian & Neapolitan Music for Consort of Viols of the 17th century

Il Concerto di viole tra scuola veneziana e napoletana Arte dell'improvvisazione e retorica degli affetti · Vol.II

The symphonies are actually richer harmonically than the works of many of his contemporaries, such as Johann Stamitz. They are quite typical of very early symphonies. Four are in three movements, and two are in four. They tend to have a driving intensity in the quick movements and richly expressive harmonies in the slow movements.

The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra is perfectly suited to them with its 13 string instruments and harpsichord. The recording is superb… -- American Record Guide

"These pieces are played with great love, finesse, elegance and technical assurance by the German-based ensemble Parnassi musici.." -- Early Music Review

"Again we have period instruments in the hands of proficient and musically sensitive young performers" -- American Record Guide

These half-dozen symphonies were written about 1740, a few years before Franz Xaver Richter began his term of employment in what was then the most prestigious musical establishment in Germany: the court orchestra at Mannheim. They are driven works, characterised by an adventurous sense of harmony and freshness of idea, if also by an obsessive propensity for sequences. But the slow movements have great tenderness, and the overall impression is of an attractive and rather original art. Richter may not exactly be a composer of premier-league status, but he s certainly no idiot. Under Aapo Hakkinen, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra demonstrates that it is the equal of the finest European period-instrument bands. -- Sunday Times

'The performances by the Locatelli Trio respond with spontaneity and expressive warmth to the wide-ranging effects, sometimes playful, at others sober and idiosyncratic of these fascinating pieces. Violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch articulates Veracini's melodic line with clarity and communicative charm … A welcome return to the catalogue' -- BBC Music Magazine

“The first thing that hits you about Ehnes's reading is the rhythmic propulsion of the concerto's outer movements, which lifts the music, revealing its glorious bone-structure...the sense is of a joyous, exhilarating ride rather than anything overly driven...Another aspect which is particularly winning is the creaminess of Ehnes's lower register...this is absolutely up there with the best of them.” -- Gramophone Magazine

'The playing of Domus in these two masterpieces is as light, delicate and full of insight as one would expect. They make one fall for this music all over again. This is the best-ever version of these two pieces' -- Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

'Profound and fascinating works of alluring beauty performed with care and affection' -- Classic CD

The second album of French soloist Emmanuel Rossfelder, he performed Schubert, Verdi, Mozart and more.

John Eliot Gardiner is ... one of the supreme choral conductors, and it's been good to hear him in more recent masterworks of the choral repertoire. The balance of clarity and fervor he brings to Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms emphasizes its original blend of instrumental and choral color; this is its finest recording since Maazel's, and one of the best ever. The music of Lili Boulanger is an apt complement on all levels, and Gardiner delivers full emotional impact with expansive readings demonstrating the quality and importance of these works. -- Steve Holtje, Fanfare

With a tasteful selection of tracks commonly played at funerals, and included some of our most requested recordings.

The heart of this collection is 15 of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, those eternally lovely miniatures, well selected and played by Perahia with the lyrical sense the music needs. Too bad he didn't record them all. The disc opens with four of Busoni's Bach transcriptions, all organ chorale preludes based on sung hymns (hence the connection and the title).

“This is probably the finest single collection of trumpet concertos in the catalogue. When it first appeared in 1987 (the Hummel and Haydn have since been recoupled with a later set as listed here) it created overnight a new star in the firmament of trumpeters.

The two finest concertos for the trumpet are undoubtedly those of Haydn and Hummel, and Hardenberger plays them here with a combination of sparkling bravura and stylish elegance that are altogether irresistible. Hardenberger opens with the famous Hummel Concerto, played in E major rather than the usual E flat, which makes the work sound bolder and brighter than usual.

Hoffman, a Viennese contemporary of Haydn, wrote around sixty concertos between 1758 and 1778, thirteen of them for flute. Until very recently only one, the Flute Concerto in D, Badley D1, was available on record but, despite Hofman's authorship having been authenticated in 1933, it continued to be advertised as being by Haydn (doubtless considered a more saleable composer). The flute was a favoured instrument in the mid-to-late baroque, and lends itself well to the shapely, elegant music of the classical period.

The orchestral playing is spry and, going by auditory appearances, wakeful. You will not encounter much if anything in the way of competition. I cannot pretend that this music is anything other than what my Belgian landlady of years gone by used to call 'zim-zim music' (minus harpsichord continuo) but it is smooth, handsome and unfacile.

If Mozartian legato given a conservatively romantic skew is your thing then this will be money well spent. Hofmann prepares the way for Weber and Schubert. --musicweb-international

Music for trumpets and strings from the Italian Baroque

'It comes as no surprise to have a well researched, well presented and beautifully played issue from this team of artists and recording company. The trumpeters, representing the pioneering and the newest generations of players, are well matched and sparkling in their duets and share the solo works equally. It scarcely needs it, but this gets the warmest of recommendations' --Early Music Review

The atmosphere was electric before a recital by the pianist Denis Matsuev at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night, and the accent of the throng was mostly Russian. Mr. Matsuev, 32, won the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998. He has since been heralded by some critics as the successor to Russian keyboard lions like Evgeny Kissin and Arcadi Volodos, and perhaps to Vladimir Horowitz as well. --New York Times

Like the Renaissance itself, Music for the Spanish Kings begins with a strutting fanfare and ends with a melancholic sigh. Attaining his usual high standards, Jordi Savall has fashioned a poignant and varied musical portrait of the century encompassing the reigns of three Spanish kings: Alphonso I (1442-58), Ferdinand I (1458-94), and Charles V (1516-56). Montserrat Figueras' rich mezzo-soprano voice carries over half the pieces on the first disc. Her stunning vibrato imparts a troupadour's sadness to the cancions. Her impeccable rhythms carry dance tunes like "Cingari siamo venit's giocare."

Best known outside Denmark for his flute and piano works, Friedrich Kuhlau was also important in his day as a composer of music for the stage, both Singspiel-type operas and incidental music. His most famous work is the music for the popular drama The Elf's Hill, while the magic opera Lulu, based on the same source as Mozart's Zauberflöte, still holds the stage in his adopted homeland. This new disc assembles all the overtures from his dramatic works, several here receiving their first recordings. And though Kuhlau's magpie tendencies can be a little disconcerting (echoes of Mozart, Beethoven, Cherubini, Paer, Weber and Rossini are liable to crop up at any point), all the music here is fluently crafted and expertly, often brilliantly, orchestrated.

“Characteristic Schubert, played with penetrating subtlety by the two young Germans Fischer and Helmchen...The CD ends with the D940 Fantasia for piano duet, with Fischer partnering in a powerful performance: one moment fiery, the next caressing. And all such heavenly music.” --The Times, 22nd May 2010 ****

“They give a magnificent account of this inspired work [the F major Fantasy]...It's a challenging piece...yet Fischer and Helmchen present as fine as any account on disc...They are a marvellous team, evidently giving each other ideas as they go along.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 *****

Alicia de Larrocha (1923–2009) was the leading Spanish pianist of her time, and widely considered the finest interpreter of two Spanish composers of the late 19th and early 20th century: Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados. She was also an outstanding exponent of mainstream repertoire by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Rachmaninov.

There’s no doubt as to which of these new Bruckner Ninths is the more seductive. The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado is of exceptional sensuous beauty and technical refinement, and the recording serves it well. Rather than creating an idealised conductor’s perspective, the placing of the microphones gives the listener the impression that he or she is hearing the performance from a good seat in the auditorium (with only the horns slightly recessed). In Abbado’s performance the music unfolds naturally and inevitably: tempi controlled but supple enough to prevent rigidity. --BBC Music Magazine

“These three sonatas are all lightweight, but when played with such sweet tone as Julia Fischer brings to them, and such sensitive and responsive pianism as the remarkable young pianist Martin Helmchen commands, the results are delightful.” --BBC Music Magazine

“Helmchen is adept at pinpointing the crucial harmonies… and his touch is unusually sensitive… Fischer similarly manages to combine restraint with warm expression, and the occasional moments where she plays with more abandon - as in her dramatic first entry in D385 and the ebullient Minute of D403 - stand out the more effectively.” --Gramophone

If you already have top-rated versions of either or both of these pieces you may rest content with them, but if you decide (for whatever reason) to add one of these new recordings to your collection then your choice may depend on the other items they contain... Barrueco adds two solos, neither one yet dulled by over familiarity. The Zarabanda lejana, Rodrigo’s first solo work for the guitar, is given with the utmost expressivity, and Un tiempo fue Italica famosa, a tribute to the history of a once-famous Roman city near Seville, is delivered with panache; rapid passages in Rodrigo’s guitar works are almost invariably scales, here (and elsewhere) appropriately testifying to the influence of flamenco.

The Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (1903-91) was described variously as ‘Prince’, ‘Emperor’, and ‘King’, of the keyboard, such was the awe in which he was held. Even more tellingly, he remarked: "When I play I am in ecstasy; that is what I live for".

The two piano concertos receive splendid performances, and they are marvelous works--certainly two of the finest 20th-century compositions for piano and orchestra. No. 2 combines memorably lyrical thematic material with a real opposition of personalities between piano (chromatic, full of wit) and orchestra (sweetly diatonic). No. 4 is a remarkable piece, almost athematic but full of arresting sounds and textures, written in two formally fluid movements. It's a mesmerizing work, and Robert Kolinsky plays the piano part with a winning combination of improvisational fantasy and firm rhythm.

. . . there are so many striking ideas, powerfully developed. And when you have an intelligent, technically almost superhuman ensemble like the Emerson Quartet, playing with obvious feeling for the music, reservations about quartet-style fly out of the window . . .

It's a compelling performance with plenty to say about the music, right from the seemingly austere opening solos. It's good to hear the Emersons finding a good deal more than lyrical charm in the Grieg Quartet . . . the playing is . . . richly enjoyable from every angle . . . it's good to hear this music taken so seriously, and so shaped so powerfully. The recordings are as fine as this truly outstanding playing deserves. --BBC Music Magazine

When the CD first appeared, the British Gramophone wrote that “though Dessay’s range extends upward far into the ledger lines, she has a sylph’s grace and lightness, and her timbre or character of voice is thoroughly human.”

“played with that tremendous flair and brilliance that accentuates the frothy aspects of the music” --The Strad

“The First Concerto plus popular display pieces played with panache and spontaneity.” --BBC Music Magazine

The Ultimate Piano Collection

This collection includes the most requested piano music including essential works from Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Satie and Grieg

Stravinsky famously quipped that Vivaldi didn’t write 400 concertos, rather he wrote one concerto 400 times. Rather unfair, though witty. For many people though, Vivaldi is the composer of The Four Seasons (the first four of the twelve concertos Op.8), and maybe the famous Gloria. He is a composer who repays closer attention. There are some superb concertos in his large output, and some of them were sufficiently striking enough to attract the attention of J.S. Bach and Johann Quantz.

Valery Gergiev gives the Fifth an admirably direct, clean performance full of excitement and intensity. He builds the first movement's central climax with unerring skill, makes due allowance for the Scherzo's ironic humor without overdoing it, and paces the great Largo just about as well as anyone ever has. He treats the finale as an unambiguous triumph, with crushing bass drum and timpani, and throughout the Kirov Orchestra gives a 100 percent effort. In sum, this is a very good rendition of an oft-recorded classic.

It doesn't quite plumb the emotional depths in the way that Rostropovich, Sanderling, or Bernstein have, but I can't imagine anyone being disappointed.

Sarah Chang: "amiable grace and pleasing understatement" (Mendelssohn) --Chicago Tribune

"beautiful unwavering intensity" (Sibelius) --Die Welt

Dave Brubeck is a world-renowned pianist and composer of jazz and classical music. Brubeck has been performing professionally since the 1930s. The Brubeck Quartet embodied the sound of “West Coast jazz” and was one of the most popular bands in the world during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1959 the Quartet released the groundbreaking album Time Out, which featured jazz performed in unusual time signatures. One of the tunes from this album, “Take Five,” became the best selling jazz single in history. Throughout his career, Brubeck has been a pioneer in exploring musical approaches such as polytonality (playing multiple keys within the same tune) and polyrhythms (playing multiple rhythms within the same tune).

Download here: Blogger Jazz

Tchaikovsky · Saint Saëns · Bruch | Cello Works

On this fabulous classical recording, internationally acclaimed cellist Pieter Wispelwey is joined by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (German Chamber Philharmonic), led by concertmaster Daniel Sepec. Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme" and "Andante Cantabile" are widely considered two of the greatest cello and orchestra pieces ever composed, and Wispelwey's playing makes you understand exactly why. Also featured is Saint-Saens gorgeous "Cello Concerto No. 1" and Bruch's "Kol Nidrei."

Murray Perahia releases this collection of the keyboard concertos of J.S Bach. Celebrated by his fans and media alike on first release, several of the concertos have been unavailable for some time and make a welcome return to the catalogue, The set contains some of Perahia’s all-time best-selling recordings. The initial releases of these recordings of the Concertos Nos. 1-7 have sold in excess of 30,000 units in the UK alone

“Most of the works on these discs started life in another form. Perahia is an eloquent advocate, not least in Bach’s wonderful slow movements, above all in a superb account of the Italian Concerto.” --The Sunday Time

“What an excellent idea for the brilliant young violinist Sarah Chang to couple her warm and powerful reading of the Dvorák Violin Concerto not with another concerto but with one of Dvorák's most popular chamber works. She shows again what a warmly sympathetic chamber-player she is. This time she shares the leadership with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, an equally imaginative artist who similarly conveys a sense of spontaneity in almost every phrase.

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