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Tribute to Charles Munch – A Strasburger in Boston = Works of BERLIOZ, FRANCK, ST.-SAENS, ROUSSEL, DEBUSSY, FAURE, RAVEL – Praga Digitals

Tribute to Charles Munch – A Strasburger in Boston = Works of BERLIOZ, FRANCK, ST.-SAENS, ROUSSEL, DEBUSSY, FAURE, RAVEL – Praga Digitals

by | Mar 31, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

A generous sampling of the ‘Munch touch’ in Boston in the French music he championed.  Tribute to Charles Munch – A Strasburger in Boston = BERLIOZ: Romeo et Juliette Symphonie – Queen Mab Scherzo; FRANCK: Le Chasseur Maudit; SAINT-SAENS: La Princesse Jaune Overture, Op 30; Le Rouet d’Omphale. Op. 31; DEBUSSY: Fetes fr. Trois Nocturnes; FAURE: Penelope Prelude; RAVEL: La Valse; ROUSSEL: Suite in F Major – Boston Sym. Orch./ Charles Munch – Praga Digitals PRD 250 340, 80:17 (12/9/16) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: The wizardry of Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony in French repertory finds eloquent representation on this extensive program, from various discs originally recorded 1951-1961 for RCA Victor. Particularly endearing, we have the 15 January 1951 recording of the Saint-Saens 1872 Overture La Princesse Jaune (on LM 1701), a one-act opera that utilizes pentatonic scales to suggest the courtly life of Japan in a dream-vision, although Netherlands provides the setting of the drama. The BSO achieves a lithe, entirely flexible vocal line and resplendently transparent hues, including an amazing bottom and top line in the full complement of strings.  No less brisk, the symphonic poem Le Rouet d’Omphale, (1871) invokes the mythological enslavement of Hercules […]

Koussevitzky conducts Rare American Symphony Performances = HARRIS: Sym. No. 5; HILL: Sym. No. 1; DIAMOND: Sym. No. 2 – Boston Sym. Orch. – Pristine Audio

Koussevitzky conducts Rare American Symphony Performances = HARRIS: Sym. No. 5; HILL: Sym. No. 1; DIAMOND: Sym. No. 2 – Boston Sym. Orch. – Pristine Audio

by | Oct 24, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Three eminently American, powerful symphonies find their debut performances with Koussevitzky restored. Koussevitzky conducts Rare American Symphony Performances = HARRIS: Symphony No. 5; HILL: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 34; DIAMOND: Symphony No. 2 – Boston Sym. Orch. – Pristine Audio PASC 484, 77:49 [avail. in var. formats at www.pristineclassical.com] *****: Producer and engineer Andrew Rose deserves an honorable mention for the sheer effort lavished upon these previously unreleased, live performances by Serge Koussevitzky of classic American repertory, often from sources in originally sad shape. From BSO archives, 1943-44, Rose has virtually resurrected wartime concerts that fueled much for the aesthetic morale of our country during this critical period. The Roy Harris Symphony No. 5 – based on a process the composed called “autogenesis,” a kind of through-composed technique of building upon kernels of musical material played early and extended in their musical possibilities, a la Beethoven’s Fifth – is dedicated to the Soviet Union, at the time busy repelling the Nazi horde. The music contains aggressive, martial aspects: the first movement Prelude evolves from thirds, sixths, and repeated notes. The second movement Chorale capitalizes (rec. 27 February 1943) on the BSO’s strong suit of strings and brass: […]

Monteux at Tanglewood, Vol. 4 – BEETHOVEN: Sym. No. 2; R. STRAUSS: A Hero’s Life – Pristine Audio

Monteux at Tanglewood, Vol. 4 – BEETHOVEN: Sym. No. 2; R. STRAUSS: A Hero’s Life – Pristine Audio

by | Sep 24, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

A fourth entry into the Monteux legacy at Tanglewood delivers mirth and heroism, at once. Monteux at Tanglewood, Vol. 4 (1962) – BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36; R. STRAUSS: Ein Heledenleben, Op. 40 – Boston Sym. Orch./ Pierre Monteux – Pristine Audio PASC 481, 72:30 [avail. in various formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Producer Andrew Rose extends his rewarding survey of the Pierre Monteux legacy at Tanglewood, here in 1962, a year in which the famed French maestro appeared six times before his old colleagues of the Boston Symphony. The music of this concert comes to us on 29 July 1962. The reading of the Beethoven Symphony No. 2 (1802) revels in its boundless mirth, despite the fact that at the time of its composition Beethoven felt the first real strains of his oncoming deafness.  The first movement has Monteux’s urging his horns to exploit the ceaseless energy of its sudden injections of buoyant vitality. The strings whirl at dizzy pace, the tympani’s marking the cadences with gusto. Berlioz had claimed that the D Major Symphony smiles in every bar. The peroration that Monteux achieves at the coda becomes breathtaking, symmetrical in its ecstasies to the point […]

PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante in E Minor; Cello Son. in C – Zuill Bailey, c./ North Carolina Sym. Orch. / Grant Llewelly/ Natasha Paremski, p. – Steinway & Sons

PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante in E Minor; Cello Son. in C – Zuill Bailey, c./ North Carolina Sym. Orch. / Grant Llewelly/ Natasha Paremski, p. – Steinway & Sons

by | Jul 23, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante in E Minor, Op. 125; Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119 – Zuill Bailey, c./ North Carolina Sym. Orch./ Grant Llewelly/ Natasha Paremski, p. –  Steinway & Sons 30057, 61:56 (5/13/16) ****: Tough-minded Prokofiev in the tradition of Rostropovich—and with the same sensitivity to the gentler side of this great Russian composer. Toward the end of his greatly productive life, Prokofiev revisited some of his earlier works with which he wasn’t entirely happy. One of these pieces was the Fourth Symphony, Op. 47, written under commission from the Boston Symphony and premiered by that orchestra in 1930. The symphony was based on themes from Prokofiev’s ballet The Prodigal Son, composed for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Critical reaction to the work was lukewarm at best. The consensus was that Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony was much less successful in recycling music written for the stage than the composer’s Symphony No. 3, based on themes from his opera The Fiery Angel. Prokofiev was so stung by the criticism that he defended his new symphony in the press—and that hurt and embarrassment stayed with him when he went back to Russia in the mid-1930s. In 1947, Prokofiev returned to the symphony, […]

Audio News for May 24, 2013

by | May 24, 2013 | Audio News

Details on Google Glass; Auto Volume-Adjustment App for iPhones; Nearly 50% of Americans Sitting on Hidden Money; Classical News; GoldenEar Expands In-Ceiling Speaker Series

Serge Koussevitzky conducts The New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orch. = CORELLI: Suite for String Orchestra; RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloe Suite No. 2; SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5; DEBUSSY: La Mer; TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 – NY Philharmonic – West Hills Radio

Serge Koussevitzky conducts The New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orch. = CORELLI: Suite for String Orchestra; RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloe Suite No. 2; SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5; DEBUSSY: La Mer; TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 – NY Philharmonic – West Hills Radio

by | Mar 30, 2013 | Classical Reissue Reviews

In his New York appearances, Serge Koussevitzky revitalizes the “Dead End Kids” New York Philharmonic during a critical period of transition, with programs that include a Shostakovich Fifth, new to Koussevtizky’s repertory.