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GINASTERA: Panambi (complete ballet) – Piano Concerto No. 2 – Manchester Chamber Choir – BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena – Chandos

GINASTERA: Panambi (complete ballet) – Piano Concerto No. 2 – Manchester Chamber Choir – BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena – Chandos

by | Feb 23, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Exciting, atmospheric and complex orchestral music from South America. GINASTERA:  Panambi (complete ballet) – Piano Concerto No. 2 – Manchester Chamber Choir – BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena – Chandos 10923, 69:07 ****: The music on this disc represents the early and late music of one of the most influential South American composers of the 20th century, Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). The ballet Panambi (1934-36), represents his early blend of Argentinian folk music with his own nationalistic style – using polytonality, and pounding rhythms. It’s both thrilling and atmospheric. But in the 1950s Ginastera came under the influence of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern) and his music became “neo-expressionistic.” He integrated 12-tone and serial techniques with dramatic, ritualistic and expressive effects, while maintaining the earlier characteristics of ostinato (repetition of phrases). The Piano Concerto No. 2 is a good example of his later style. Audiophiles are familiar with the suite from Panambi, but this is the first recording of the complete ballet. It was an astonishing debut for the young composer and the popular music to the ballet Estancia followed in 1941. When Ginastera heard a performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1918, he commented, “The primitivism of the […]

British Music – Conducted by Sir Charles Groves = ELGAR, DELIUS, VW, BRIAN, HOLST, WALTON, BRIDGE & Many Others – Warner Classics (24 CDs)

British Music – Conducted by Sir Charles Groves = ELGAR, DELIUS, VW, BRIAN, HOLST, WALTON, BRIDGE & Many Others – Warner Classics (24 CDs)

by | Jan 30, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

True to its advertisement, this set brings together a fine selection of British music led by a devoted practitioner of his craft. British Music – Sir Charles Groves = ELGAR: Nursery Suite; Funeral March from Grania amd Diaramid, Op. 42; Severn Suite, Op. 87; Caractacus, Op. 35: Complete Cantata; Woodland and Triumphal March; The Crown of India – Suite, Op. 66; The Black Knight, Op. 25; Spanish Serenade, Op. 23; The Snow, Op. 26, No. 1; Fly, Singing Bird, Op. 26, No. 2; Imperial March, Op. 32; The Light of Life, Op. 29; Enigma Variations, Op. 36; Violin Concerto in b, Op. 61; Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Op. 39: No. 1 in D and No. 4 in G; DELIUS: A Song of Summer; Eventyr; A Dance Rhapsody No. 1; Paris: a Nocturne; Lebenstanz; North Country Sketches; Sea Drift; Songs of Sunset; An Arabesque; A Mass of Life; Koanga; The Song of the High Hills; VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Hugh the Drover; HOLST: The Hymn of Jesus, Op. 37; Short Festival Te Deum; Hymns from the Rig Veda – Second Group, Op. 26, No. 2; Ode to Death, Op. 38; Two Songs without Words, Op. 22: Marching Song; BRIAN: Symphony No. 8 in […]

MOZART: Serenade in B-flat Major; “Gran Partita”; Serenade in E-flat Major – EU Ch. Orch./ Santiago Mantas – Divine Art

MOZART: Serenade in B-flat Major; “Gran Partita”; Serenade in E-flat Major – EU Ch. Orch./ Santiago Mantas – Divine Art

by | Sep 29, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Conductor Mantas and his European Union Chamber Orch. Wind Octet do honor to Mozart.  MOZART: Serenade in B-flat Major, K. 361 “Gran Partita”; Serenade in E-flat Major, K. 375 – European Union Ch. Orch./ Santiago Mantas – Divine Art dda 25136, 77:21 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Of all the recorded music in rather generous collections of German conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler and the Russian Serge Koussevitzky, the one curiosity persists in their Mozart repertory, and that is the 1781 Serenade in B-flat Major, the so-called Gran Partita. I assume that is because the work presents a mammoth design for chamber wind instruments, it provides a masterful display piece for any philharmonic’s principal players. The seven movements of the Gran Partita consist of a sonata-allegro with a Lento introduction, a Menuetto and double trio, an Adagio, another Menuetto and double trio featuring an obvious ländler, a tripartite Romance: Adagio, a theme and variations with a curious interruption, and a spritely finale, Molto allegro, totaling nearly an hour of music. The one performance during Mozart’s lifetime occurred 23 March 1784, at a benefit concert created by clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler, though he auditioned only four of its movements.  Since answers to the questions of eingangen (little […]

DVORAK: Sym. No. 9 in e minor, “From the New World”; Sym. No. 8 in G Major – Czech Philharmonic Orch./ Frantisek Stupka – Praga Digitals stereo-only

DVORAK: Sym. No. 9 in e minor, “From the New World”; Sym. No. 8 in G Major – Czech Philharmonic Orch./ Frantisek Stupka – Praga Digitals stereo-only

by | Aug 6, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews, SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

For those unfamiliar with the veteran Czech conductor Stupka, these two Dvorak performances provide a brilliant introduction. DVORAK: Symphony No. 9 in e minor, Op. 95 “From the New World”; Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/ Frantisek Stupka – Praga Digitals stereo-only SACD PRD/DSD 350 134, 78:23 (8/12/16) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] *****: The name of Czech conductor Frantisek Stupka (1879-1965) certainly did not convey to me the same authority as I had accorded Vaclav Talich, Karel Ancerl, and Rafael Kubelik, but these performances – of the “New World” Symphony (6 January 1964) and the G Major Symphony (8 January 1959) – have changed my perspective. Stupka – having made his reputation with the Czech String Quartet – served as co-director of the Czech Philharmonic from 1946-1956 and director of the Moravian Philharmonic, the latter of which remained an “Eastern” ensemble without recorded documentation. The live broadcasts here preserved by Praga prove instantly refreshing and eminently affectionate readings of repertory that once more – under an inspirational conductor – throw off any sedimentation or ossification from long-wrought familiarity. The reading of the New World Symphony proceeds linearly but with inflamed interior voices from the […]

Willem Mengelberg conducts New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra = Works of MOZART, MEYERBEER, BEETHOVEN – Opus Kura

Willem Mengelberg conducts New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra = Works of MOZART, MEYERBEER, BEETHOVEN – Opus Kura

by | Jun 22, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Opus Kura extends its formidable Mengelberg legacy with the conductor’s 1929-1930 RCA recordings. Willem Mengelberg conducts New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra = MOZART: Die Zauberfloete Overture; MEYERBEER: Coronation March from Le Prophete; BEETHOVEN: Egmont Overture, Op. 84a; Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica” – New York Phiharmonic Sym. Orch./ Willem Mengelberg – Opus Kura OPK 2115, 69:44 [Distr. by Albany] ****: Willem Mengelberg (1871-1951) took time away from his hand-picked Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam to lead a series of concerts in New York, 1921-1930. The RCA Victor label was quick to contract Mengelberg and the orchestra – then about to merge with the Walter Damrosch Symphony Society – in order to commit to records a portion of the conductor’s powerful repertory, enhanced by his penchant – even mania – for precision of ensemble.  Even given the typical, “period” style of performance, with its fondness for homogenous portamento, what emerges from the shellacs remains an impressive testimony to the thoroughness of Mengelberg’s preparation. The recordings offered here by Opus Kura derive exclusively from sessions held 1929-1930. My former mentor at SUNY, Stefan-Bauer Mengelberg (1927-1996), praised the Overture to The Magic Flute for its ardent energy and uniformity of […]