March Archive
Slavic Soul Party! – Plays Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite – Ropeadope
Ellington as you’ve never heard Ellington: let the party begin. Slavic Soul Party! – Plays Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite [TrackList follows] – Ropeadope RAD-314, 52:14 [9/16/16] ****1/2: (John Carlson, Kenny Warren – trumpet; Peter Hess – saxophone, clarinet; Peter Stan – accordion; Matt Musselman, Tim Vaughn – trombone; Ron Caswell – tuba; Chris Stromquist […]
Tribute to Hans Rosbaud – Works of BERG, WEBERN, SIBELIUS, BARTOK – Rosbaud cond. – Praga Digitals
Praga presents a cross-section of Hans Rosbaud, a conductor who explores and experiments with all music. Tribute to Hans Rosbaud – BERG: Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6; WEBERN: Six Pieces for Large Orch., Op. 6; SIBELIUS: Valse Triste, Op. 44; Tapiola, Op. 112; BARTOK: Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion – Maria Bergman & […]
IPPOLITOV-IVANOV: Symphony No. 1 in e minor Turkish Fragments; Turkish March – Singapore Sym. Orch./ Choo Hoey – Naxos
Naxos restores some colorful scores by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, charming and effective, if not particularly colossal.
Benno Moiseiwitsch = in piano music of BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, MUSSORGSKY, RACHMANINOV & CHOPIN + radio interviews – Testament (3 CDs)
The “George Sanders of the keyboard,” Benno Moiseiwitsch, reveals his colossal gifts in previously unpublished performances and interviews.
PROKOFIEV: Cello Concerto in E minor; March No. 10 from Music for Children; SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major – Steven Isserlis, cello/ Frankfurt Radio Sym. Orch./ Parva Järvi – Hyperion
These less well-known works by Prokofiev and Shostakovich are worth listening to.
HAYDN: Symphony No. 57 in D Major; Symphony No. 67 in F Major; Symphony No. 68 in B-flat Major – Philharmonia Baroque Orch./ Nicholas McGegan – Philharmonia Baroque
Three symphonies from Haydn’s early, mature period of the 1770s receive expert realization in virile and “authentic” colors.
“Susan Merdinger – Soiree” = SCHUBERT: Sonata in B Major; BRAHMS: Two Rhapsodies; DEBUSSY: Estampes; LISZT: Concert Paraphrase on Verdi’s “Rigoletto”; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 – Susan Merdinger, piano – Sheridan Music
A genuinely honest virtuoso, Susan Merdinger impresses us with a recital set as a Romantic soiree in the grand style.
“Ja, vi elsker” – Staff Band of Norwegian Armed Forces/ Schola Cantorum/ Ingar Bergby – 2L Pure Audio Blu-ray+SACD
Patriotic? Yes. Norwegian? Yes. Nationalistic? Yes. Fabulous? Absolutely!
LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major; Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major; Piano Sonata in b – Sviatoslav Richter, p./ Moscow Philharmonic/ Kirill Kondrashin – Doron
The essential Liszt staples by Sviatoslav Richter in Moscow, potent alternatives to his commercial concerto records issued by Philips.
MOZART: March No. 1 in D Major, K. 335; Serenade in D Major, K. 320 “Posthorn”; Symphony No. 35 in D Major, “Haffner” – Concentus Musicus Wien/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt – Sony Classical, 74:00 (1/20/14) ****:
Nikolaus Harnoncourt celebrates the Mozart, whose Salzburg roots embrace pomp and elevated circumstance.
Home Page for March 1, 2014
Our March drawing/giveaway is for five new three-CD albums from San Francisco’s Foghorn Classics label. They are of the complete six Bartók String Quartets plus the two by Kodály, played by the sensational Alexander String Quartet. Here is our rave review of the album. Steven Ritter said they may be the best ever of these […]
Sean Chen: Crystal Award = BRAHMS: Variations on an Original Theme; BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 29 “Hammerklavier”; BARTOK: Thre Etudes – Sean Chen, p. – Harmonia mundi
To call Van Cliburn Competition winner Sean Chen’s performances of Brahms, Beethoven, and Bartok “crystalline” does more than make a pun, as you can hear for yourself.
SCHMITT: Complete Original Works for Piano Duet, Vol. 3 = Marche du 163 R.I.; Feuillets de voyage, Books I – II; Musiques foraines – The Ivencia Duo – Grand Piano
The Ivencia Duo extends its survey of Florent Schmitt’s four-hand music with charming fare conceived for musical explorers of all ages, including two world premier recordings.
Editorial for March 2013
Conductor Pieter Jan Leusink calls this month’s drawing “the greatest and most humanly moving corpus of sacred music ever written.” It is a 50-CD! set of all 200 Bach Sacred Cantatas (which survived from about 300 originally) on Brilliant Records, and in early April it will go out to two lucky readers who register this […]
Home Page for March 2012
During March we will be awarding this 31-Disc boxed set of The Ultimate Piano Concerto Collection from Brilliant Classics to four AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who register this month. It’s a must-have for any fan of the piano concerto, with the complete Beethoven cycle, all the Saint-Saens, Rachmaninov and Mozart piano concertos, plus those from Weber, […]
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