Monthly Archive: March 2018
The Music Treasury, 18 March 2018
Ferenc Fricsay conducts Mozart! In another release in a series of historic recordings, The Music Treasury will this week feature the Hungarian conductor Frenec Fricsay and his performances of orchestral works by Mozart. Fricsay schooling included studies under the well known Hungarian musicians Bartok, Kodaly, von Dohnanyi, and Weiner. In addition to the piano, he was versed on strings, brass, reeds, and percussion, and began conducting professionally when he was 16. Although his life spanned less than five decades, he conducted significant organizations throughout the world—including symphony orchestras in Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Paris, Boston, Houston, and San Francisco, as well as opera houses in Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Berlin, Munich. In this week’s show, Fricsay will present a range of works by Mozart, including both early and later compositions, the bassoon concerto, and excerpts from The Marriage of Figaro. The show, hosted by Gary Lemco, can be heard Sunday, 18 March, from 19:00 to 21:00, PDG. It can also be heard through its live streamed counterpart on the ‘Net: kzsulive.stanford.edu
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis; Nobilissima Visione Suite & Konzertmusik – WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marek Kanowski – Pentatone
Hindemith Orchestral music well played and beautifully recorded Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis; Nobilissima Visione Suite & Konzertmusik- WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marek Janowski -Pentatone Hybrid SACD/CD with multichannel 5.0 surround sound – PTC 5186 672 TT: 58:26 (2/16/18) I’ve always felt that Paul Hindemith is one of the most interesting of the 20th century composers. Endlessly inventive, tremendously passionate, and never to to settle into a comfortable pattern, yet his style was ever present. Pentatone has given us this wonderful multi-channel SACD/Hybrid disc with the familiar Symphonic Metamorphosis and two lesser know works, the Nobilissima Visione Suite and the Concert Music for String and Brass known as ‘The Boston Symphony’. The Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, which begins the disc, were also conceived as a ballet, but eventually became a concert piece. Hindemith based the work on a collection of melodies that Carl Maria von Weber once wrote for a theatre performance of Friedrich Schillers Turandot. The Nobilissima Visione Suite is based on Saint Francis’ vision of the three allegories of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The piece represents the battle in which Francis is wounded, but most of the music is serene, focusing on the noblest vision […]
RUBBRA: Symphony No. 2 in D; Symphony No. 4 – BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Adrian Boult/ Edmund Rubbra) – Somm
British music has a significant document in this issue of two Rubbra symphonies in historic performance.
Bang on a Can All-Stars – More Field Recordings – Cantaloupe
From footsteps to snoring, space exploration to quilting: here’s another unique chapter in the Bang on a Can All-Stars oeuvre. Bang on a Can All-Stars – More Field Recordings [TrackList follows] – Cantaloupe CA21136 (2-CDs), 38:55, 37:43 [10/27/17] ****: (Ashley Bathgate – cello; Robert Black – bass; Vicky Chow – piano, keyboards; David Cossin – drums, percussion; Mark Stewart – guitar; Ken Thomson – clarinet, bass clarinet) Patterns are important to the two-disc More Field Recordings, the second installment of the Bang on a Can All-Stars’ ongoing series. More Field Recordings is like the first Field Recordings collection released in 2015 by the Cantaloupe label. Both incorporate classical and electronic influences and use found sounds, audio samples and archival audio elements as an underpinning and/or starting point. While the patterned groundwork is the same, this edition widens the idea of field recordings into a richer and more exploratory degree of sounds and music which includes ambient qualities, unconventional components and electro-acoustic segments. The key factor which aligns the 13 disparate pieces on More Field Recordings is that each composer was requested to go out into the world to find either new or old sounds and then act on those sounds […]
DEBUSSY: Pelléas et Mélisande – London Sym. Orch./ Simon Rattle – LSO Live
There aren’t that many readings of Pelléas on the market, so this surround version captures a lot of due attention! DEBUSSY: Pelléas et Mélisande – Christian Gerhaher (Pelléas)/ Magdalena Kožená (Mélisande)/ Bernarda Fink (Geneviève)/ Franz-Josef Selig (Arkel)/ Gerald Finley (Golaud)/ Elias Mädler (Yniold)/ Joshua Bloom ((Shepherd/Doctor)/ London Sym. Orch./ Simon Rattle – LSO Live multichannel SACD (3 discs) + Blu-ray Audio LSO0790, 165 minutes [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****: Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, based on the Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck, has long been regarded as one of the landmarks of twentieth century music even though it also goes far in the very redefinition of opera. The curious love triangle, involving Prince Golaud (who finds the lost Mélisande in the woods and marries her), and his half-brother Pelléas (whom Mélisande will come to love, for some reason not exactly clear), is not so much a plot as a series of emotional scenes that are in many ways self-contained. One could almost excise them and give them separately with little loss of continuity. You cannot really imagine a piece like Schoenberg’s Ewartung without Pelléas et Mélisande. The composer, who had been fascinated—like so many others at the time—with the music of […]
Four Pianos/Four Pieces = SCHUBERT: Wanderer-Fantasie; CHOPIN: Etudes, Op. 10; LISZT: Réminiscences de Don Juan; STRAVINSKY: Petruchka – Alexander Melnikov, pianos – Harmonia mundi
Four Pianos/Four Pieces = SCHUBERT: Wanderer-Fantasie in C Major, D. 760; CHOPIN: 12 Etudes, Op. 10; LISZT: Reminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418; STRAVINSKY: Trois Mouvements de Petruchka – Alexander Melnikov, pianos – Harmonia mundi HMM 902299, 79:34 (3/9/18) ****: Alexander Melnikov addresses four keyboard works in terms of their contemporary instruments, and the results often astound. Recorded October 2016-July 2017, these performances realize a project conceived by pianist Alexander Melnikov to select four significant keyboard works and to play them on instruments contextually relevant to the cultural milieu. The opening 1822 Wanderer Fantasy of Franz Schubert Melnikov realizes on an instrument by Alois Graf (c. 1828-1835), which permits Melnikov—even in spite of six and one half octave range—astonishing resonance and pungency, given the sheer technical virtuosity and sonority of acoustical motion the piece requires. The pounding opening bars pay homage to Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, while the later melodic tissue derives from Schubert’s own song—so spiritually endemic of the Romantic Age—Der Wanderer. The single-movement structure, subdividing into four sections, becomes a Schubert trademark, eventually spawning likenesses in Liszt’s b minor Sonata and the string sextet Verklaerte Nacht of Schoenberg. The lyrical transitions into E Major and E-flat Major occur with […]
Music of the Americas: Andres Orozco-Estrada, The Houston Symphony – Works by Astor Piazzolla, Silvestre Revueltas George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein – Pentatone
Familiar and not so familiar music from the Americas Music of the Americas: Andres Orozco-Estrada, The Houston Symphony – Works by Astor Piazzolla, Silvestre Revueltas George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein – Pentatone SACD Hybrid PTC 5186 619 TT: 64:42 (2/16/18) *** 1/2 What a nice disc from Pentatone. It offers music from George Gershwin’s 1928 piece An American in Paris, Silvestre Revueltas’ Sensemaya (1938), Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1961) and Astor Piazzolla’s Tangazo (1970). The works are all connected by being contemporary, and written by composers from the Americas. One should also note that each of these composers straddled the barrier between popular and classical music. Of course the Gershwin and Bernstein are well known, and I found myself most interested in the works by Revueltas and Piazzolla. Sensemaya, written in 1938. Although the composer was Mexican, this work could best be characterized as Afro-Cuban. It’s Revueltas’ most popular work, but it was unknown to me. I also enjoyed Piazzollas’ Tangazo. Although born in New York, the composers family roots were in Buenos Aires. Its title means ‘grand tango, and that’s exactly what it is. It begins with a slow tempo, then morphs into traditional tango music […]
Masters Legacy Series Volume 2 Emmet Cohen Featuring Ron Carter with Evan Sherman CellarLive
A release that is bursting with energy and anchored in a strong expressive foundation Masters Legacy Series Volume 2 Emmet Cohen Featuring Ron Carter with Evan Sherman CellarLive CL 062917 76:11****: ( Emmet Cohen piano; Ron Carter – acoustic bass; Evan Sherman – drums) Impresario and record label owner Cory Weeds, may have captured lightning in a bottle when he proposed to the dazzling young pianist Emmet Cohen to join the CellarLive label to lead the introduction of the Masters Legacy Series. Given the success of the first offering that featured the legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb, this follow-up release with the great bassist and composer Ron Carter is sure to establish these albums as essential listening experiences. It has been reported that Ron Carter has appeared on more albums than any other jazz bassist, and the list of those jazz greats with whom he has recorded spans decades and musical styles. Yet over the years there has not been any diminishment in his round muscular tone, and prodigious technique. All these Carter characteristics are fully evident on the opening track, Cole Porter’s “All Of You” which was part of the Miles Davis Quintet repetoire on which Carter was prominent player […]
Clara Haskil Complete Recital Ludwigsburg 1953 = Piano Works by BACH; SCARLATTI; BEETHOVEN; SCHUMANN; DEBUSSY; RAVEL – SWR Music
History enjoys a bit more closure in our having Clara Haskil’s complete recital from Ludwigsburg, 1953.
Nikolai Sokoloff and the Cleveland Orchestra: Complete Recordings, 1924-28 – The Cleveland Orchestra. Nikolai Sokoloff – Pristine Audio
Recording and audio restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has a coup in the form of the complete recordings (for the Brunswick label) of Russian-born conductor Nikolai Sokoloff (1886-1965), the first leader of the Cleveland Orchestra. Nikolai Sokoloff and the Cleveland Orchestra: Complete Recordings, 1924-28 = BORODIN: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor; BRAHMS: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in g minor; Symphony No. 2: Allegretto; DELIBES: Coppelia: Entr’acte and Valse; DVORAK: Slavonic Dance in D, Op. 46, No. 3; GRAINGER: Shepherd’s Hey; HALVORSEN: Entry March of the Boyars; NICOLAI: The Merry Wives of Windsor – Overture; PIERNE: Cydalise et le Chevre-Pied: Entrance of the Little Fauns; RACHMANINOV: Symphony No. 2 in e minor, Op. 27; Prelude in c-sharp minor; RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Song of India; SAINT-SAENS: Danse Macabre, Op. 40; SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8 in b minor, D. 759 “Unfinished”; SCHUMANN: Trauemerei, Op. 15, No. 7; SIBELIUS: Valse Triste, Op. 44; Finlandia, Op. 26; J. STRAUSS: On the Beautiful Blue Danube; Tales from the Vienna Woods; TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture, Op. 49; Sleeping Beauty – Waltz, Op. 66; WAGNER: Lohengrin: Prelude to Act 3; Bridal Chorus – The Cleveland Orchestra. Nikolai Sokoloff – Pristine Audio PASC 524 (3 CDs) TT: 3 hrs 20 secs [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: […]
The Music Treasury, 11 March 2018
The theme for this week’s show of The Music Treasury is the Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. His works span a range of large orchestral works, opera, and the music of Gilbert and Sullivan. Mackerras was regarded as an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart. He was the conductor at several several opera houses in Australia and throughout Europe. While he covered an expanse of musical traditions and styles, and was a particular champion of works by Janáček. The show this week, hosted by Dr Gary Lemco, will feature works by Mahler, Handel, Haydn, Franck, Delius, and Sullivan—including the latter’s Cello Concerto, as well as works from his collaboration w Gilbert. The Music Treasury can be heard on 11 March 2018, between 19:00 and 21:00 PDT, as well as a live streaming of the show from kzsulive.stanford.edu on the Internet. Sir Charles Mackerras
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonatas D. 784, D. 664; SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Sonata Op. 21 – Lucas Debargue, piano – Sony
The combination of Schubert and Szymanowski makes strange, emotionally charged bedfellows. SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata No. 14 in a minor, D. 784; Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, D. 664; SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 21 – Lucas Debargue, piano – Sony 88985465632, 68:00 911/17/17) ****: In these recordings (10-15 July 2017), pianist Lucas Debargue proves himself no ordinary Schubert disciple, opting for a deliberate, thoughtful approach that often eschews musical violence for soft gradations of nuance. He opens his Schubert portion of this disc with the 1823 a minor Sonata, D. 784, an often grimly turbulent work, likely related to a poem, “A Prayer,” that Schubert himself composed when alerted to the various bodily maladies that would eventually consume him. The dramatically fixated Allegro giusto moves in vehement, punishing units of sound, spare in texture, tragic in tone. Tremolandos and massive chordal progressions alternate without affording us emotional consolation, even in the key of E Major. Perhaps some relief extends outward in the brief F Major Andante, whose pianissimo unfolding subdues the mortal storm. The concluding Allegro vivace proceeds in the manner of a stormy Chopin etude, suddenly breaking off into a syncopated second subject. […]
Owen Broder – Heritage: The American Roots Project – ArtistShare
Deeply comforting Americana roots blend… Owen Broder – Heritage: The American Roots Project – ArtistShare #A50158 – 62:23 – ****1/2 (Owen Broder – leader, woodwinds; Sara Caswell – violin; Scott Wendholt – trumpet, flugelhorn; Nick Finzer – trombone; James Shipp – vibraphone, percussion; Frank Kimbrough – piano; Jay Anderson – bass; Matt Wilson – drums; Wendy Gilles, Kate McGarry, Vuyo Sotashe – vocals) Owen Broder has hit the musical jackpot with his exploration of American roots genres blending bluegrass, blues, folk, and spiritual idioms with a jazz swing feel that both warms the heart and provides a feeling of comfort and elation. It is much easier to experience than to describe. For lovers of Aaron Copland, Mark O’Connor, and Maria Schneider (and there are many of us), this is music to crave in these turbulent times. A brass fanfare, a soaring violin jig, and an ensemble blend are some of the features that weave in and out of both the original compositions, as well as the staple roots tracks (“Jambalaya,” “Cripple Creek,” “Wayfaring Stranger”), among the nine numbers on this CD. This is obviously a labor of love from Broder, and he is blessed by the contributions from some of […]
Ferenc Fricsay: The Mozart Radio Broadcasts = MOZART: Symphonies; Bassoon Concerto; Divertimenti, Serenades and Arias – Suzanne Danco and Rita Streich, sopranos / Johannes Zuther, bassoon/ RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/ Ferenc Fricsay – DGG
Ferenc Fricsay’s post-war Mozart sessions at RIAS return with all their stylistic verve, passion, and immaculate musicianship. Ferenc Fricsay: The Mozart Radio Broadcasts = MOZART: Symphonies 1; 4-9; Symphony No. 23 in D Major, K. 181; Symphony No. 27 in G Major, K. 199; Bassoon Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 191; Serenata notturna in D Major, K. 239; Divertimento in F Major, K. 247; Divertimento in D Major, K. 334; Cassation in G Major, K .63; Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major, K. 297b; Serenade in E-flat Major, K. 375; A Musical Joke in F Major, K. 522; “Sull’aria” from Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492; “In quail eccessi, O Numi. . . Mi tradi quell’alma ingrate,” from Don Giovanni, K. 527 – Suzanne Danco and Rita Streich, sopranos; Johannes Zuther, bassoon/ RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/ Ferenc Fricsay – DGG 00289 479 8275 (4 CDs) 72:27; 69:54; 76:49; 82:28 (1/19/18) [Distr. by Universal] *****: Between 1951 and 1954 Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay (1914-1963) occupied the recording studios at RIAS in post-war Berlin with the sole purpose “to lay the foundations for a better understanding of the greatest musical thinker ever to have lived: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” A fervent, romantic interpreter of the […]
Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error and Shame – Step3
Sparkling quartet jazz with brainy energy and inspired open-ended charts. Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error and Shame – Step3 – 007, 52:40 (2/27/18) ****: (Michael Herring; bass/ Don Scott; guitar/ Nick Fraser; drums/ Trevor Hogg; tenor saxophone) It was the great chess grandmaster and wag, Savielly Tartakower, who remarked with regard to initial setup of the chessboard “all the mistakes are there, waiting to be made.” Much the same could be said at the beginning of the day (or a life). Nature herself is profligate in failed experiments, which Natural Selection ruthlessly edits out. As for the individual opossum or human, a mistake (if it doesn’t kill one) provides just as much opportunity for learning as for shame. The record under review is called More Songs about Error and Shame. The charming cover depicts a graphic schema of humans in various poses of regret and embarrassment. The inner sleeve adds scenarios ranging from the Titanic to a broken window, an overfilled coffee cup, the space station flaming out, missing the trash can with a crumpled wad of paper, or an embarrassing email exchange. It is only February, but I predict this will be my choice for album cover of […]
The Music Treasury for evening March 4 — The Oscars
The Music Treasury for Sunday evening March 4, 2018, 7 – 9 p.m. — The Oscars This week, The Music Treasury celebrates The Oscars by going to the movies: Classic film scores that avoid computer-generated imagery technology, featuring Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra. As a former film critic and perpetual film aficianado, the host will comment on actors and actresses, directors and production values, along with the musical commentary. The Winter broadcast time of The Music Treasury on KZSU 90.1 FM remains Sunday, from 7 – 9 PM. You can also listen online at kzsulive.stanford.edu during the broadcast time. Max Steiner: Suite from Casablanca Alfred Newman: The Song of Bernadette Dimitri Tiomkin: Lost Horizon Suite Erich Korngold: The Adventures of Robin Hood Korngold: Between Two Worlds: Main Title; Mother and Son Newman: Captain from Castile Steiner: The Adventures of Don Juan Steiner: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – Suite Steiner: Gone With the Wind – Suite Korngold: Anthony Adverse: No Father, No Mother, No Name
Lorenzo Feliciati – Elevator Man – RareNoise
Going up: next floor is prog-jazz. Lorenzo Feliciati – Elevator Man – RareNoise RNR084, 58:17 [11/17/17] ****: [Track and Artist List follows] The RareNoise label continues issuing memorable projects which commingle progressive rock and fusion jazz. One such album is Italian electric bassist Lorenzo Feliciati’s new, hour-long Elevator Man, which is a masterful mixture of King Crimson-esque grooves, hard-edged jazz fusion akin to Alan Holdsworth (acclaimed drummer Chad Wackerman, who was in Holdsworth’s band, contributes to one track) and some jazz/rock meets turntable production. For his seventh release, Feliciati (who is a member of RareNoise bands Naked Truth and Mumpbeak) put together a different line-up for most of the ten tracks (an approach he also did on his 2011 record, Frequent Flyer), working with a plethora of international artists, including trumpeter Cuong Vu (who has been a member of the Pat Metheny Group), and several Italian artists. Feliciati composed all the pieces during a three-month period and deliberately shifted toward a more progressive rock style than on his previous outings. Elevator Man is available as CD, 180 gms vinyl and multiple digital download formats. This review refers to the CD configuration. The progressive jazz/rock methodology is heard immediately on the […]
GRANADOS: Goyescas; Zapateado; Ochos Valses Poeticos; Allegro de Concierto – Xiayin Wang, piano – Chandos
Much in the spirit of the Iturbi duo, Xiayin Wang brings colossal technique and ardent affection to the music of Enrique Granados. GRANADOS: Goyescas, Op. 11; Zapateado; Ochos Valses Poeticos; Allegro de Concierto, Op. 46 – Xiayin Wang, piano – Chandos CHAN 10995, 70:00 (2/2/18) ****: Enrique Granados (1867-1918) felt a strong affinity with Madrid and its great artistic icon Francesco Goya (1746-1828), whose engravings and tapestries that embrace the eighteenth and early nineteenth century sensibilities of the national and Catalan idioms. Prompted by the more erotic of the Goya corpus, Goyescas (1909-1912) in two books captures the imagined rendezvous and dalliance of the various majos and majas of the old quarter of Madrid. The recording (8-9 September 2017) projects fine luster, courtesy of Recording Engineer William Schwartz and his crew. The florid writing for Granados’ piano contains “pieces of sweep and difficulty,” as he points out. The first piece, Los requiebros, utilizes a kind of jota as a pick-up line—almost a guitar strum in arpeggios—and its reception. Romantic in color, the piece develops a melody from one of the composer’s own Tonadillas. Castanet sonorities blend with triplet figures tempo changes that stop and start, eventually becoming rapturous. Coloquio […]
DAN TRUEMAN/ IARLA O LIONAIRD: Olagon, A Cantata in Doublespeak – Dan Trueman, fiddle/ Iarla O Lionaird, vocals/ Eighth Blackbird – Cedille
They should put a warning label on this: Listen to the end! DAN TRUEMAN/ IARLA O LIONAIRD: Olagon, A Cantata in Doublespeak – Dan Trueman, fiddle/ Iarla O Lionaird, vocals/ Eighth Blackbird – Cedille CDR 90000 174 (2 CDs), 91:09 [Distr. by Naxos] *****: I almost made a tremendous mistake after hearing the first track to this disc; I almost decided not to review it, for the cut, titled “Pillow Talk” seemed pseudo folksy, banal, and just not very interesting. A whole two discs of this did not entice me. What a terrible blunder that would have been! For the entire work, with its mélange of varied and skillful compositional techniques and styles (though that word must not be taken in too fundamentalist a manner) proves a riveting and thoroughly engaging experience OLAGÓN Cantata? Maybe. But not the way you are used to hearing. Instead the term refers more to a strictly organizational form than anything of a consistent “sameness”. There are instrumental interludes, as we might hope for considering Eighth Blackbird is involved, and the “style” (see above) for each separate piece is dictated solely by the inspiration of the moment as found in the particularities of the text. […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
