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Monthly Archive: April 2012

Gillian Weir – The King of Instruments (1987-88/2010)

Gillian Weir – The King of Instruments (1987-88/2010)

by | Apr 21, 2012 | CD+DVD

Gillian Weir – The King of Instruments (1987-88/2010) All six episodes of the BBC TV Series; six magnificent organs Performer & Host: Organist Gillian Weir [TrackList follows] Studio: BBC/Priory PRDVD 7001 (Distr. by Albany) CD + DVD Video: 4:3 color Audio: English PCM stereo on DVD Length: 152 minutes Rating: ***** When it was telecast on the BBC in 1989, this series of six programs had an audience of two million, second only to the Charles & Diana Wedding. It was a co-production which involved several different broadcasters, and made use not only of early color videotape but also of TV production techniques that were groundbreaking at the time. The material for the separate CD was recorded separately using the digital gear of the time, rather than from the soundtrack of the TV series, and the CD contains just six selections—one drawn from each of the programs on the six different organs: Works of Bach, Daquin, Liszt, Handel, Vierne and Franck. The DVD may be viewed all the way thru or just individual episodes. There are six great organs in all for the six episodes, with anywhere from three to six selections appropriate to each organ performed on them. The […]

"Through Brahms" Music by Brahms, Schumann and many other composers (TrackList follows) – Music@Menlo Live (7 CDs)

"Through Brahms" Music by Brahms, Schumann and many other composers (TrackList follows) – Music@Menlo Live (7 CDs)

by | Apr 19, 2012 | Classical CD Reviews

“Through Brahms” Music by Brahms, Schumann and many other composers (TrackList follows) – Music@Menlo Live, 7 CDs, available singly or boxed in paper wrappers, TT:7:57:00 ****: Music@Menlo chose Brahms as the inspiration for its 2011 chamber music festival and so out comes yet another seven-disc set, available singly or in a convenient slipcase, of programs that highlighted some of the composer’s most beloved chamber works, complemented by music by his most important influences, contemporaries, and artistic heirs. As with past sets, the performances, featuring stars and newcomers, vary unpredictably. Each disc seems to have its own personality, and it is worth noting that there are nuggets of Brahms and Schumann Lieder (with neither texts or adequate synopses) as well as of instrumental gold strewn about.  Disc one, for example, begins with Arnaud Sussmann sublime in Mozart, Eric Kim showing what a cello can do for a unassuming Vivaldi continuo, three dreary Schumann songs, and then a miraculous Brahms Op. 18 Sextet in which Kim gives perhaps the most lyrically beautiful and inventive reading of the first movement’s opening in memory—and that’s just for starters! On disc seven, Paul Neubauer plays Brahms’s Second Viola Sonata with incomparable supernal beauty, as if […]