There are no finer period-instrument Haydn symphony performances available than these. Using a nearly 50-piece orchestra (thank God!), McGegan captures the music's full grandeur as well as its intimacy. These players sound like a real orchestra, a group with a corporate identity, an attractive ensemble sonority, superb wind soloists, and, miracle of miracles, period strings that don't sound like a den of dying cats. McGegan's phrasing of the "clock" theme in the eponymous symphony's second movement is a model of stylishness and wit--listen and I dare you not to smile.

His pacing throughout is ideal; allegros are swift but not so much as to blur characterful detail. The minuets are perfect; trumpets and drums cut through the texture without turning crude; tuttis really fill the acoustic space, and the dynamic range is aptly wide. No performance of these works follows Haydn's dynamic markings literally, but McGegan's adjustments flow with the music and invariably come across as natural--check out the finale of the "London" Symphony for some particularly telling examples.

The live sonics are generally very good, particularly given the fact that the recordings were made over a three-year period (2007-9). In Symphony No. 88 close miking makes the sound a touch rough in places, and I could do without the applause at the end of each work, but the audience otherwise is extremely well-behaved and extraneous performance noises are happily quite minimal. We need Haydn recordings like this: warm, humorous, affecting, yet fully cognizant of period scholarship and style. They are far too rare.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com



HAYDN Symphonies: No. 104, “London”; No. 88; No. 101, “Clock” • Nicholas McGegan, cond; Philharmonia Baroque O • PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE PBP-02 (75:16) Live: Berkeley, CA 2/10–11/2007, 11/15–16/2008; 9/12–13/2009


Nicholas McGegan and his San Francisco period-instrument ensemble are renowned for their many Handel recordings, but they play music of all eras. This is the first Haydn I’ve heard from them. This 2007 performance of the “London” Symphony is marvelous: The opening Adagio-Allegro brims over with high spirits, highlighted by blazing brass and pounding timpani; the Menuet has grace as well as bounce (McGegan does not play da capo repeats), and the Trio has a delicious lilt, with the merest hint of a luftpause in measure three. The finale is somewhat rough and ready, but its Spiritoso direction is fully realized. Comparisons with other performances do reveal a few shortcomings. As used to be the case in period ensembles, violins are rather dull; those in Richard Hickox’s Collegium Musicum 90 are clean and bright. Hickox’s forces are also better balanced and recorded (by Chandos); McGegan’s woodwinds are often drowned out by screaming trumpets. However, the Hickox has nowhere near the drive and élan of this performance. Nor can McGegan’s strings match the crisp attacks and phenomenal execution of either Colin Davis’s Concertgebouw or Leonard Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic.


The opening Allegro of No. 88 goes beautifully; the movement has no trumpets or timpani. Violins are brighter in 2008, as is the recorded sound. The Largo, however, is a disaster. Bassoons are weak; even when the pair shares the solo line, they are nearly inaudible. Taken even faster (5:30) than the impatient George Szell (5:53), this performance totally misses the movement’s calm beauty. Largos are always difficult; holding the line at a very slow tempo takes enormous concentration and ensemble discipline. Hermann Scherchen almost manages, at a lumbering 10:04; Bernstein’s 7:04 is ideal, in a uniquely lovely rendering. McGegan’s Menuet is back on track; his slow Allegretto works well. The Allegro con spirito finale, again reasonably paced, is also a success—until the coda. In this live performance, McGegan (adrenaline kicking in?) ups the tempo at the last minute, and the final three chords are smudged. Bernstein opts for a ludicrously fast tempo; his virtuoso ensemble pulls it off.


The “Clock” gets a fine performance at mostly consensus tempos; the 2009 sound (they were all at the same site, the First Congregational Church in Berkeley) is more reverberant than before but very well balanced. The Andante is too fast; is McGegan, like Szell, allergic to slow music? The bassoons revive here, but oboe and flute are a bit sour together. Menuet and Finale are magnificent; the wrong-note trumpet joke sounds cleanly, the clarinet-brightened score resounds, and this time the final three chords are crisp.


Good period performances of late Haydn symphonies have been hard to come by. This disc ranks among the best.


FANFARE: James H. North
"...Nicholas McGegan has been honing the San Francisco-based period-instrument Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for some 25 years. Nor are performances of Haydn’s music in period style anything new. But seldom have his elemental dynamic contrasts sounded so properly in proportion or so mercurial, with the 50 or so players able to play out lustily in fortes and pull back quickly to quieter modes, whether playful, subtle or mysterious...The recordings, made at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, Calif., from 2007 to 2009, were beautifully produced and engineered by David v. R. Bowles...The release of cumulative excitement at the end of each [symphony] is of a kind that tends to happen only in live circumstances."

- James R. Oestreich, The New York Times [June 24, 2011]

Music Director Nicholas McGegan leads Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and an acclaimed cast of soloists in this rarely performed masterpiece of Handelian opera. Writing of the live performance of the opera, the New York Times said, “Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by Nicholas McGegan, gave a performance of Handel’s ‘Teseo’…that confirmed its leading position in the field.” The cast, led by the glowing soprano Dominique Labelle, as the witch Medea, and the outstanding lyric soprano Amanda Forsythe in the title role is buoyed by the “irrepressible positive energy” (New York Times) of the Orchestra under McGegan’s direction.
The performances were recorded live at First Congregational Church, Berkeley, CA on April 13-14, 2013.

You’re right, the world probably doesn’t need yet another Four Seasons, but if it did, this new production from the newly launched house label from the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra would definitely justify its existence by the effervescent, crisp, technically assured playing of violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and the equally vibrant, articulate orchestral ensemble. Back in the late 1980s I received a recording from an orchestra’s newly launched label—interestingly the orchestra was another "Philharmonia", the Philharmonia Virtuosi—and the repertoire was, you guessed it, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I had the same reaction then: do we need another version of this over-recorded warhorse? But it turned out to be one of the more exciting things I’d heard in months, and the recording propelled the orchestra and its new label to happy success for the next decade or so.

Blumenstock and the Philharmonia Baroque inject these familiar pieces with exceptional dynamism and dramatic force, but without resorting to anything vulgar or cheap. This is honest music-making, allowing us to hear these works as just great, virtuosic violin concertos—and if you doubt their ability to still excite, just listen to the opening Allegro of “L’estate” RV 315, or to the Presto of the same work. Hopefully the fortunes of that earlier Philharmonia Virtuosi release will translate to the same result for this first-rate orchestra, conductor, and soloist. Bravo!

– David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Following CD releases for Sony Korea and ARS Productions, the first of pianist William Youn’s CD series of Mozart’s piano works was released by Oehms Classics in 2013, and honored with the Pizzicato Supersonic Award (Luxembourg). Now, Oehms Classics and William Youn proudly present the second album in their Mozart series. The press has praised the Korean pianist William Youn (b. 1982) as a “genuine poet” with a “bravura technique of touch”. In 2011 he was honored with the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize in his chosen home city of Munich.

Franz Schubert's rarely performed opera, more appropriately dubbed a Singspiel, Fierrabras, is heard here in a fine-sounding, well-sung 1959 Bern, Switzerland radio broadcast concert performance that features the one and only Fritz Wunderlich in the leading role. One of Myto's bestselling titles despite the lack of name recognition of nearly every other cast member, this recording of Fierrebras returns to the marketplace where its competition is slight and interest in anything Schubert is and will always remain high.

Glenn Gould maintained a very peculiar relationship, a sort of love and hate, with Beethoven's music, which he performed out of any traditional scheme or system. This CD presents two further Beethoven rarities in live recordings by the Canadian pianist, the first being the Piano Concerto No.1 in C, op. 15, recorded in Turin, Italy on 23 January 1951 when Gould was only nineteen. The Piano Concerto No.3 in c, op. 37, with the Canadian Radio Orchestra under conductor Heinz Unger, was recorded four years later, on 21 February 1955. This very significant addition to the discography of Glenn Gould furthers the image of this eclectic, fascinating and singular artist.

This third double CD set completes Gilbert Rowland's survey of these Handel's groundbreaking solo keyboard music, works that began to free the form from the formal constraints of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue. Forty-plus years of recitals, appearances at major festivals in several countries, together with regular broadcasts, have helped to establish Gilbert Rowland's reputation as one of Britain's leading harpsichordists. The standard of playing is very high indeed... a most enjoyable recording. (The Consort on Vol.1)

This fourth volume in Marin Alsop’s acclaimed Prokofiev symphonic cycle features two of his most viscerally exciting works. Using material salvaged from his opera The Fiery Angel, the Third Symphony was hailed by Serge Koussevitzky at its 1929 première as ‘the best symphony since Tchaikovsky’s Sixth’. Originally commissioned as a ballet by Sergey Dyagilev but rejected as un-danceable, the Scythian Suite has become a popular orchestral showpiece, while Prokofiev retained a lifelong fondness for his dark-hued early symphonic sketch Autumn.

Review:

Even die-hard fans will admit that Prokofiev's seven symphonies aren't always magnificent and Marin Alsop's elegant lucidity provides only a partial solution to the problem. She gets unfailingly good string playing, often more sensitively nuanced than that of her rivals, but her Sao Paulo team does tend to 'normalize' the invention, smoothing away rough edges in a manner that not everyone will find idiomatic. Still, Alsop's reading works on its own terms, and if she makes the music sound as much like Roussel as Stravinsky one can perhaps discern why Serge Diaghilev chose to reject the Scythian Suite as insufficiently Russian.

– Gramophone

The great piano virtuoso Claudio Arrau (1903-91) joined a transcendental technique with the gift of intellectual analysis, making him a superb Liszt performer as well as one of the most admired 20th c. performers of classical and romantic repertoire. "His" Beethoven had no comparison for clarity of musical logic. Arrau's Schumann perfectly joined strong passionate intensity with a sense of rigor regarding musical structure. All these elements are present on this CD that gathers two live Swiss recitals, captured by Italian Swiss Radio, from 1959 and 1963 during the apex of his career.

One of the 20th c. greatest interpreters of the works of his contemporary Richard Strauss, W.A. Mozart, and the Austro-German masterworks more generally, the conductor Karl Böhm (1894-1981 was nearly halfway through his long Vienna Philharmonic association when this now historic 1956 Mono recording of Mozart's Requiem, KV626 was realized. The quartet of soloists - Teresa Stich-Randall, Ira Malaniuk, Waldemar Kmentt and Kurt Böhme - among the greatest Mozartian singers of the era, plus the sterling bonus 1957 Beethoven Choral Fantasy, op. 80, insure this disc's import.

Daniel Barenboim began his career as "child prodigy" with great technical qualities. The young pianist had studied first with Claudio Arrau, then with Edwin Fischer. He recorded this, his first LP, featuring three famous Beethoven sonatas, in 1958, when just sixteen. It can be seen as a sort of challenge: show to the public that a young pianist could compete with the most famous soloists of the time. We can easily tell that the young Barenboim met that challenge; his talent, interpretations and performance technique underlining the beginning of a long artistic and human story still being told.

One has no problem naming famous String Quartet ensembles; however, String Trios simply cannot make the same boast! Even on the repertoire of the side, composers have produced many more significant quartets than they have string trios. Thus, it was something of a minor miracle when three musicians such as violinist Arthur Grumiaux, Georges Janzer (Végh Quartet violist) and Janzer's wife, the cellist Eve Czako, finally met to perform works of Mozart and Beethoven. The resulting June 8, 1966 Schwetzingen Castle recital is a most memorable concert that will welcome repeated listening.

This Varied Piano Recital Release from the Bella Musica Label of Keyboard Works Stretching Across Three Centuries and Spotlighting Six Composers Highlights the Playing of the Doyen of German Pianists, Prof. Manfred Reuthe. A Berliner of Impeccable Degree, He Has Taught for Over 40 Years in Addition to Giving Concerts and Recitals All Over the World, Yet His Playing Remains Fresh and Vigorous Still. His Recital Programs Often Feature the Virtuosic Works of the 19th C. Romantic Piano Tradition, Including Those By the Austro-German Romantics and the French Impressionists.

Pianist Giacomo Di Tollo's New CD, Released on Andromeda, Is a Paean to Both Italian Opera of the 19th C. And to the Glorious Romantic Tradition of Piano Transcription and Virtuosity That Grew Up Simultaneously with the Technological Advancements in Piano Construction Across the Century. Mr. Di Tollo's Choice of Repertoire, Obscure Works or Otherwise, Intrigues and Delights in It's Insistence on Broadening and Deepening Our Contemporary Knowledge and Listening Enjoyment of a Nearly Lost Yet Proud and Insightful Art Form.

These keyboard pieces are just so agreeably written, the notes falling so easily under the fingers, the lines flowing so naturally, the melodies and harmonies so, well, Handelian, who wouldn’t love to play them–or hear them? And because of this it doesn’t seem to matter which competent pianist (and the piano is really the way to go here) does the honors–however, Philip Edward Fisher is an especially accomplished interpreter and more than able advocate for pieces that inexplicably don’t get the respect they deserve.

For some reason it’s been five years since the release of Fisher’s Volume 1 traversal of the first four of the eight suites known as “the eight great”, which colleague Jed Distler described as “an absorbing listen” and “provocative” and “inspired”. The same descriptors hold true here, driven by Fisher’s straightforward, discreetly ornamented, and clearly articulated interpretations of some of Handel’s most ingratiating and memorable keyboard inventions–including the famous E major suite No. 5 that concludes with a remarkable variations movement known today (but never titled by Handel) as “The Harmonious Blacksmith” (do yourself a favor and listen to the Swingle Singers’ faithful and very exciting version).

My long-time favorite recording of Handel keyboard suites–a selection that includes several of the “eight great” pieces–features Keith Jarrett (ECM) in somewhat more sharply articulated interpretations in a dryer, more close-up acoustic. I’m still a fan of those–Jarrett is a cool, capable master of the clear, simple, unadorned expression that defines one approach to these pieces, but Fisher employs just that slight bit of lyricism–more legato in this movement, a tiny bit of rubato there, a dynamic swell or fade in this or that phrase–that transforms these works from clever inventions to more deeply involving, affective performance pieces.

Fisher gives us big drama in movements such as the Prélude and Largo of the F-sharp minor Suite, makes it impossible not to join the dance in the concluding Gigue of the F minor, and makes us want to linger even longer over the gentle, mellifluous, caressing melodies and ingratiating harmonies of the Allemandes from the E major and F minor Suites. It all adds up to an hour of easy, happy listening–whether your interest is foreground or background. And the sound, from Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK, gives Fisher’s Steinway plenty of space while allowing the listener to hear every detail. Strongly recommended.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

This release marks the first appearance of the chief conductor of the German radio philharmonic orchestra, Karel Mark Chichon, on the SWR music label, and for his debut, the young London-born conductor has done nothing less than a complete recording of the symphonies of Anton Dvorak. but that's not all! in addition to the symphonies are other orchestral works of the Czech master, as is the case here with the early, Slavic-patriotic themed rhapsody, op. 14. future releases will include all the overtures and interludes from Dvorak's operas - works of exquisite beauty, but rarely appearing on recordings.