Robert Moon Archive
Eriks Esenvalds: THE DOORS OF HEAVEN – Portland State Chamber Choir – Naxos
Choral music that celebrates religious faith and the beauty of nature
INTO THE LIGHT = Quartets by KIRCHNER, WEBERN, BRITTEN—The Telegraph Quartet— Centaur
The Telegraph Quartet album, “Into the Light”, shines a light of clarity on to works by Kirchner, Webern, Britten.
PHILIP GLASS: Complete Etudes for Piano—Jenny Lin —Steinway & Sons
Varied and repetitive short works from the minimalistic mind of Philip Glass
The Early 20th = IVES: Concord Sonata, and works by NIELSEN, ENESCU; SCHOENBERG – Andrew Rangell, piano. Steinway and Sons
Andrew Rangell’s performance of these early 20th century works (the Ives is a masterpiece) captures the essence of their romantic yet revolutionary roots.
Music@Menlo Live 2017 – The Glorious Violin
A feast for the violin and chamber music lover from a premier chamber music festival!
STECHER & HOROWITZ: COMMISSIONS – Aristo Sham, Charlie Albright, Daniel Kim, Mackenzie Melemed, Leann Osterkamp, Anna Han, Matthew Graybil, Larry Weng – Steinway and Sons
STECHER & HOROWITZ: COMMISSIONS—LIEBERMANN: Two Impromptus—TORKE: Blue Pacific—GABRIELA LENA FRANK: Nocturno Nazqueno—DORMAN: Three Etudes—MUSTO: Improvisation and Fugue—BROWN: Suite for Piano—PISTON: Concerto for Two Pianos Soli—performed by pianists Aristo Sham, Charlie Albright, Daniel Kim, Mackenzie Melemed, Leann Osterkamp, Anna Han, Matthew Graybil, Larry Weng—Steinway and Sons 30079, 69:59, **** The attraction of this disc will be for those who love great piano sound and are interested in hearing original works for piano. The performers are winners of the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation’s biennial New York International Piano Competition. Melvin Stecher and Norman Horowitz started as a professional piano duo in 1951 and performed recitals together for the next five decades in the United States and many other countries. These concerts were sponsored by the National Concert and Artists Corporation/Civic Music, Columbia Artists Management/Community Concerts, and the United States State Department. In 1960 they established their School of the Arts that later became the Foundation named after the duo. The purpose of the Foundation was to provide artistic development, educational enhancement, seminars, master classes and performance opportunities for pianists. The Two Impromptus of Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961) are melodic and subtle, music that, as Liebermann states, “deal in shades of dynamics…and require […]
DAG WIREN: Symphony No. 3 – Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Rumon Gamba – Chandos
Tuneful and entertaining 20th century orchestral music from a notable Swedish composer. DAG WIREN: Symphony No. 3—Sinfonietta—Serenade for Strings—Divertimento—Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Rumon Gamba – Chandos, 70:18 [Dist. by Naxos] ****: At the young age of 22, the Swedish composer Dag Wiren (1905-1986) went to a performance of Honegger’s oratorio Le Roi David at the Stockholm opera. It changed his life. “My eyes were opened and my ears heard what they had previously been deaf to,” Wiren exclaimed. He was studying organ, piano, conducting and composition at the Stockholm Conservatory. He visited Paris in 1931, a common practice for budding young composers in the world (Copland, Glass, etc.). He learned more from attending concerts Paris in the 1930’s (Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Les Six) than he did from studying orchestration with Leonid Sabaneyev. When Wiren came home he composed the most popular work, the Serenade for Strings (1937). Rather than embrace modernism, Wiren belonged to a group of Swedish composers (Larsson, Koch and others) often referred to “Composers of the Thirties” who embraced neo-classism. The Serenade for Strings deserves its popularity—there’s a clarity of structure, superb balance, abundant melodic content and droll humor that’s reminiscent of his Danish colleague Nielsen. But these are also […]
ELENA RUEHR: SIX STRING QUARTETS: Cypress String Quartet—Borromeo String Quartet – Avie
Approachable and absorbing modern string quartets from Elena Ruehr.
FRANK MARTIN: Music for Winds—MSR Classics
A lost Suite from a pageant by Frank Martin is melodic and rhythmically incisive. FRANK MARTIN: Music for Winds—Concerto pour les instruments a vent et le piano—Concert Suite from Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943—Zwischen Rhone Und Rhein—Massachusetts Chamber Players/Matthew Westgate—MSR Classics, MS1602, 53:28, ****: In 2016 I reviewed a recording of Swiss composer Frank Martin’s (1890-1974) complete play Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943 (CPO 777 997-2). This is a performance of the concert suite along with his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (Concerto pour les instruments a vent et le piano) and the march (Zwischen Rhone und Rhein). At the suggestion of the composer’s wife Maria, the suite (probably written by the composer) was published in 2004. In the middle of the horrors of World War II (1943) Swiss mime artist Mariette von Meyenburg, asked her uncle Frank Martin to compose music for a theatrical performance that would portray death in a new way. The work’s purpose was to see death “as a positive happenstance and …to express in music that kind of peace with death,” as stated in the program notes for the performance. Martin liked this characterization, which comes from the central European […]
MICHAEL TIPPETT: Symphonies 1 & 2—BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins—Hyperion
New recordings of Sir Michael Tippet’s first two symphonies reveal their warmth and complexity. MICHAEL TIPPETT: Symphonies 1 & 2—BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins—Hyperion CDA68203—74:44, ****: What attracted me the most upon my first hearing of these two Michael Tippett (1905-1998) symphonies was their exuberant spirit and rhythmic vitality. There is a level of musical complexity that motivated me to listen often, a key to understanding Tippett’s musical genius. Emotional depth and moments of transcendent beauty make Tippett one of the great British composers of the 20th century. This new recording of his first two symphonies by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins illuminates these qualities. Sir Michael Tippett’s youth was formed by his rural English childhood (early works use English folk material) and the influence of his independent parents. He went to the Royal College of Music for compositional study, but taught French for a couple of years before returning for further study. Yet he learned almost as much from numerous attendance of concerts. In the 1930’s a break up with a gay lover led him to a lifelong journey with Jungian analysis (people can achieve full potential through individual growth) that became a basis for the […]
John Sunier Remembrance
As a listener and reader John Sunier’s radio show and website, Audiophile Audition has been a source of many superb classical music discs that has widened and deepened my love for classical music for over 20 years. As a writer for Audiophile Audition, John has given me an opportunity to identify and share with reader’s music that I love. Thanks, John for your passionate avocation for recorded music of the highest musical and sonic excellence. Your contribution to the people who value music will be remembered. Robert Moon
GORDON GETTY: The Canterville Ghost – Oper Leipzig/ Gewandhausorchester/ Matthias Foremny – Pentatone
A splendid addition to the Getty catalog, one of his best works. GORDON GETTY: The Canterville Ghost – Alexandra Hutton (Virginia)/ Jean Broekhuizen (Mrs. Otis)/ Denise Wernly (1st Twin, Boy, Voice)/ Rachel Marie Hauge (2nd Twin, Boy, Voice)/ Timothy Oliver (Cecil Cheshire)/ Jonathan Michie (Hiram Otis)/ Anooshah Golesorkhi (Canterville), Matthew Trevino (Ghost)/ Oper Leipzig/ Gewandhausorchester/ Matthias Foremny – Pentatone multichannel SACD PTC 5186 541, 62:08 [Distr. by Naxos] *****: Oscar Wilde’s deliciously slick The Canterville Ghost, a story of a haunting where nobody will take the Ghost seriously, has been made into films several times, and even a musical, but the work itself cries out for operatic treatment, and aside from someone like Samuel Barber—who obviously is not going to be able to take it on—it is difficult to think of anyone more suited to the task than Gordon Getty. Getty’s music doesn’t always persuade me—sometimes I think he gets lazy mid-composition—but in this piece, he gets everything right. Gramophone magazine didn’t like it much, which is an almost automatic recommendation for me, showing an inherent bias against Getty’s music, little of which they like. Fortunately, Pentatone seems committed to giving us as much Getty as possible, the good and […]
MAHLER: Symphony No. 8 – Utah Symphony/ Thierry Fischer – Reference Recordings
Spectacular, moving, and, well, what else do you need? MAHLER: Symphony No. 8 in E-flat – Orla Boylan, sop./ Celena Shafer, sop./ Amy Owens, sop./ Charlotte Hellekant, mezzo/ Tamara Mumford, mezzo/ Barry Banks, ten./ Markus Werba, bar./ Jordan Bisch, bass/ Mormon Tabernacle Choir/ Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School/ Utah Symphony/ Thierry Fischer – Reference Recordings multichannel SACD FR-725SACD (2 Discs), 79:41 [Distr. by Naxos] *****: One of the highlights of my concert attending career was in the 1980s when Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony presented Mahler’s gargantuan Eighth Symphony. The performance was immaculate, the orchestra top notch, and the choral work spectacular. Add to that an all-star set of singers, and even the acoustics of Symphony Hall in Atlanta could not mar the experience, a sonic marvel that all who were there will never forget. Mahler’s opus is also one of those that conductors not especially noted for Mahlerian expertise like to tackle. Colin Davis made a wonderful SACD with the Bavarian Radio Symphony that still holds its own, and he was hardly known for this repertory. Shaw, who never shied away from anything big and choral, had a firm grasp on this work, which really is different […]
Best Classical of 2017 – I
Best of the Year Classical List for 2017 Recommendations by Steven Ritter Mahler: Symphony No. 8 – Mormon Tabernacle Choir/ Utah Symphony/ Thierry Fischer – Reference Recordings Spectacular, moving, and, well, what else do you need? Link to Review GORDON GETTY: The Canterville Ghost – Oper Leipzig/ Gewandhausorchester/ Matthias Foremny – Pentatone A splendid addition to the Getty catalog, one of his best works. Link to Review SHOSTAKOVICH: Symph. No. 5; BARBER: Adagio for Strings – Pittsburgh Symph. Orch./Manfred Hobeck – Reference Recordings A breathtaking release of crushing power. Link to Review Recommendations by Gary Lemco Reiner conducts Wagner Pristine Audio PASC 517 Fritz Reiner’s legacy of Wagner from shellac sources proves memorably striking, given a fine restoration by Pristine Audio. Link To Review Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 7 – Koussevitzky/BSO – Pristine Audio PASC 515 Previously unreleased Beethoven performances by Koussevitzky and BSO add significant documents to that conductor’s recorded legacy. Link To Review Kathleen Ferrier Remembered Somm CD 264 The restoration of long-buried Kathleen Ferrier archives warrants our unconditional praise and support. Link To Review Dvorak: String Quartet, Op. 105; String […]
ADAMS: Scheherazade.2 – St. Louis Sym./David Robertson – Nonesuch
John Adams’ new Violin Concerto is dramatically compelling. JOHN ADAMS: Scheherazade.2 – Leila Josefowicz, v./ St. Louis Sym./David Robertson – Nonesuch 557170, 47:35 ****: One of the characteristics that is so endearing about John Adams’ music is that it reflects the variety of emotional and intellectual Zeitgeist of our times. It can be deep and profound (The Wound Dresser), humorous (Lollapalooza), comment on politics (Nixon in China), or make a statement about a societal issue. He has showed a previous interest in portraying events from a women’s perspective—his oratorio El Nino expresses the Nativity from a women’s point of view. “How could you tell this story in the year 2000 and not have a woman’s voice?” he exclaimed. In his new violin concerto, Scheherazade.2, Adams uses the story of Scheherazade in the tales of the Arabian Nights to express his anger at violence against women in today’s culture. In 2013 the composer saw an exhibit in Paris at the Arab World Institute about the history of the “Arabian Nights” collection of folk stories. Scheherazade was forced into a marriage with a Persian king who seduced a virgin each night and executed her the following morning. Scheherazade’s clever stories delayed her […]
JOAN TOWER: Violin Concerto; Stroke; Chamber Dance—Cho-Liang Lin, v./ Nashville Sym./Giancarlo Guerrero—Naxos
New orchestral music from Joan Tower is colorful, exciting and well-crafted.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
