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PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 6 in e-flat; Waltz Suite – Sao Paulo Sym. Orch./ Marin Alsop – Naxos

PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 6 in e-flat; Waltz Suite – Sao Paulo Sym. Orch./ Marin Alsop – Naxos

by | Oct 3, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Two contrasting Prokofiev works of 1947 capture our attention through the ongoing series by Marin Alsop. PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 6 in e-flat minor, Op. 111; Waltz Suite, Op. 110 – Sao Paulo Sym. Orch./ Marin Alsop – Naxos 8.573518, 68:21 (8/12/16) ****: Prokofiev conceived his 1947 Sixth Symphony as an elegy of the tragedy of the Second World War, as the “darker twin” to his victorious Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major. Prokofiev said of the symphony, “Now we are rejoicing in our great victory, but each of us has wounds that cannot be healed. One has lost those dear to him, another has lost his health. These must not be forgotten.” While Prokofiev had considered dedicating the music – due to the coincidence of opus number to Beethoven’s last piano sonata – “to the memory of Beethoven,” his more immediate influence lay in the music and pedagogy of colleague Nicolai Miaskovsky, whose work likewise suffered from the 1948 Zhdanov decrees that condemned music “hostile” to the Soviet version of “the spirit of the people.” While Yevgeny Mravinsky gave the world premiere, it was Stokowski’s New York performance of 1949 that announced to the West Prokofiev’s tragic vision and sense […]

MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in a minor – NY Philharmonic/ Dimitri Mitropoulos – Archipel

MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in a minor – NY Philharmonic/ Dimitri Mitropoulos – Archipel

by | Jan 26, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in a minor – NY Philharmonic/ Dimitri Mitropoulos – Archipel ARPCD 0440, 72:57 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Archipel issues the same performance of the Mahler Sixth (10 April 1955) previously made available on Music&Arts CD-1214, which I reviewed before. The inscription bears all the hallmarks of Mitropoulos’ eminently physical response to Mahler’s over-wrought emotionalism, touched by a palpable yearning for transcendence. When the music calls for overt tenderness and sentiment, Mitropoulos accords the moment a decided eroticism, tinged with imminent tragedy. I here reproduce the gist of my original printed reaction, with a few added remarks, given my “refreshed” familiarity with this epic reading. Mitropoulos provides us with a staggering, superheated Mahler Sixth, a work he first introduced to the United States in 1947, to a mixed critical reception. The 1955 realization has the typical earmarks of the Mitropoulos approach: committed, explosive, excruciatingly poignant, and unsentimental. Mitropoulos opts to place the Andante moderato second, a choice obviously not etched in stone, since his later WDR appearance put the slow movement after the Scherzo, which wins nods from self-styled Mahler scholars. The energized, focused quality of the Philharmonic string, wind, and brass choirs warrants praise, especially as […]

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in e minor; Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Ov.; SHULMAN: A Laurentian Ov. – NBC Sym./ Guido Cantelli – Pristine Audio

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in e minor; Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Ov.; SHULMAN: A Laurentian Ov. – NBC Sym./ Guido Cantelli – Pristine Audio

by | Jan 8, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

The talented Guido Cantelli appears in 1952 Carnegie Hall for some rousing Tchaikovsky and a rare Shulman performance. TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in e minor, Op. 64; Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Ov.; SHULMAN: A Laurentian Ov. – NBC Sym./ Guido Cantelli – Pristine Audio PASC 457, 72:08 [avail. in various formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Andrew Rose revives two live concerts from Carnegie Hall featuring Italian virtuoso conductor Guido Cantelli (1920-1956) at the podium, in flamboyant display of his persuasive, interpretative powers. The 1888 Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony did not glean much respect from the NBC’s official leader Arturo Toscanini, but Cantelli maintained a healthy, searching respect for the score. Cantelli remains attentive (1 March 1952) to the perpetual struggle of this “fate” symphony between darkness and light, the tensions between a nervous e minor and E Major in the first movement. No less lyrically tragic, the second movement Andante cantabile moves from b minor to periodic flights of D Major. What makes the first movement especially effective derives from Cantelli’s flexible sense of rhythm and inflected rubato, much in a Romantic style we might associate with Koussevitzky, but less flagrantly epic. The NBC woodwinds – the oboe, clarinet and flute […]