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SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major; SCRIABIN: Piano Concerto in f-sharp; DVORAK: Sym. Variations – Paul Badura-Skoda, p./ Polish Radio Sym. Orch./ Charles Mackerras – Pristine Audio

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major; SCRIABIN: Piano Concerto in f-sharp; DVORAK: Sym. Variations – Paul Badura-Skoda, p./ Polish Radio Sym. Orch./ Charles Mackerras – Pristine Audio

by | Feb 23, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Charles Mackerras makes his Pristine debut with a concert appearance in Scotland with the Polish Radio Orchestra. SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, Op. 70; SCRIABIN: Piano Concerto in f-sharp minor, Op. 20; DVORAK: Symphonic Variations, Op. 78 – Paul Badura-Skoda, p./ Polish Radio Sym. Orch./ Charles Mackerras – Pristine Audio PASC 487, 74:47 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****:  I had the privilege of meeting Sir Charles Mackerras (1925-2010) and his wife in Atlanta after a symphony concert. Mackerras’ fine recording of Handel’s Messiah for EMI having piqued my interest in a conductor of such nice proportions and instrumental balances, I felt no less curiosity about his having studied with one of my idols, Vaclav Talich. “We tried to convince Talich to leave Czechoslovakia,” urged Mackerras, “but by 1960 his health issues had become manifest and was simply too late.” The present disc from Pristine comes from the Edinburgh Festival (27 August 1962, in stereo), from a BBC transcription of a second concert by the Polish Radio Orchestra unissued in the United Kingdom but pressed onto vinyl for US broadcast.  The piano solo for the rare Scriabin Concerto, Viennese Paul Badura-Skoda (b. 1927), performs a work derivative of Chopin but already rife […]

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4; SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10 – Leningrad Philharmonic Orch./ Yevgeny Mravinsky (1955) – Praga Digitals

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4; SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10 – Leningrad Philharmonic Orch./ Yevgeny Mravinsky (1955) – Praga Digitals

by | Oct 21, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Two Mravinsky performances from the Prague Spring 1955, of which the Shostakovich seems “definitive.” BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60; SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10 in e minor, Op. 93 – Leningrad Philharmonic Orch./ Yevgeny Mravinsky (1955) – Praga Digitals PRD 350 115, 79:28 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: Praga Digitals restores two performances from the 3 June 1955 Smetana Hall concert of the Prague Spring Festival, here featuring the esteemed Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988). Already known for the intense discipline he instilled into the Leningrad ensemble, Mravinsky gleans alert responses from his woodwinds – especially his principal flute and bassoon – for the opening Adagio – Allegro vivace first movement in the Beethoven B-flat Symphony. No less commanding, Mravinsky’s tympani reveals the new power Beethoven had brought to the percussion of the Classical symphony. Once the mysterious and even ominous b-flat minor Adagio passes us, the ensuing Allegro assumes frenetic and unbuttoned energies, volatile as they are irreverent. The capacity for direct lyricism in Mravinsky’s color arsenal reveals itself in the Adagio second movement, a fervent song in sonata-form, sans development.  Winds and strings converge in massive – although not particularly warm – harmony. What makes […]

Wilhelm Furtwaengler conducts First Viennese School = MOZART: Marriage of Figaro Ov.; Sym. No. 40; HAYDN: Sym. No. 88 – Vienna Philharmonic Orch./ Berlin Philharmonic Orch. – Praga Digitals

Wilhelm Furtwaengler conducts First Viennese School = MOZART: Marriage of Figaro Ov.; Sym. No. 40; HAYDN: Sym. No. 88 – Vienna Philharmonic Orch./ Berlin Philharmonic Orch. – Praga Digitals

by | Oct 1, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

In restored sound, classic Wilhelm Furtwaengler restorations embrace his Mozart and Haydn.  Wilhelm Furtwaengler conducts First Viennese School = MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro Ov., K. 492; Sym. No. 40 in g, K. 550; HAYDN: Sym. No. 88 in G Major; Sym. No. 94 in G Major, “Surprise” – Vienna Philharmonic Orch./ Berlin Philharmonic Orch./ Wilhelm Furtwaengler – Praga Digitals PRD 350126, 73:18 (9/30/16) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: In my younger days, with my having read Bruno Walter’s Of Music and Music-Making, I became convinced that anyone – over the age of 50 – who could render Mozart’s 1788 Fortieth Symphony properly had discovered one of the great secrets of the artistic universe.  Listening to Praga’s restoration of Wilhelm Furtwaengler’s recording (7-8 December 1948 & 17 February 1949) with the Vienna Philharmonic, I am impressed with the intensity and willful drive of his vision, especially its tragically serene majesty, which moves not at all slowly or lugubriously, but with an urgent, relentless power. The “digression” into f-sharp minor in the course of the first movement provides but one of a number of agogic or harmonic ventures that indicate that below a controlled surface, dark rustlings of Dionysos prevail. The […]

SCHUMANN: Violin Concerto in d minor; Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, “Spring”; Phantasy in C Major – Thomas Zehetmair, v. & cond. / Orch. de chamber de Paris – ECM New Series

SCHUMANN: Violin Concerto in d minor; Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, “Spring”; Phantasy in C Major – Thomas Zehetmair, v. & cond. / Orch. de chamber de Paris – ECM New Series

by | Aug 23, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Zehetmair’s “double duty” as violinist and conductor produces poetry and happy energy music.   SCHUMANN: Violin Concerto in d minor, WoO 23; Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 “Spring”; Phantasy in C Major for Violin and Orch., Op. 131 – Thomas Zehetmair, v. & cond. / Orch. de chamber de Paris – ECM New Series 2396 48111369, 79:00 (4/29/16) [Distr. by Universal] ****: Founded in 1978, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris quickly established its reputation as one of Europe’s leading chamber orchestras. In 2012, Thomas Zehetmair was appointed the orchestra’s principal conductor and artistic advisor and on this recording, made at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in February 2014, does double duty as both soloist and conductor. Zehetmair has approached the 1853 Violin Concerto with a new urgency and respect, returning to the original version without the emendations accorded the “flawed” work from Joachim and Kulenkampff. Collectors well know the unhappy circumstances of the Violin Concerto and its suppression from publication by Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim after Schumann’s 1854 suicide attempt. The work found itself rediscovered in the 1930s, when its world premiere was to have been granted to Yehudi Menuhin.  The National Socialists, however, staged the premiere […]