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Dvorak: Piano Quartet, Romantic Pieces, Sonatina / Ax, Stern, Ma
Sony Masterworks · Jan 2014CD$17.99 -
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- Mozart: Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra No. 10 in E flat, K365
- Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
- Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124
- Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
- Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
- Chambers, J C: All American
- Gould, M: Symphonette No. 4 'Latin-American'
- Reddick: Espanharlem
- Iturbi: Soliloquy
- Mozart: Sonata for 2 pianos in D major, K448
- Chabrier: Trois Valses Romantiques
- Iturbi: Spanish Dance
- Debussy: En blanc et noir
- Milhaud: Scaramouche, suite for two pianos, Op. 165b
- Nepomuceno: La siesta
- Infante: Guadalquivir
- Infante: Sevillana
- Debussy: Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune
- Liszt: Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major)
- Debussy: Rêverie
- Beethoven: Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO59)
- Schumann: Arabeske in C major, Op. 18
- Debussy: Deux arabesques, L. 66
- Falla: Dance of Terror (from El amor brujo)
- Rachmaninoff: Prelude Op. 3 No. 2 in C sharp minor
- Liszt: Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este, S. 163 No. 4)
- Falla: Ritual Fire Dance (from El amor brujo)
- Saint-Saëns: Allegro appassionato, Op. 70
- Albéniz: Malagueña (No. 3 from Espana, Op. 165)
- Chopin: Étude Op. 10 No. 12 in C minor ‘Revolutionary'
- Chopin: Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53 'Héroïque'
- Debussy: Estampe No. 3 - Jardins sous la pluie
- Schumann: Romance in F sharp major, Op. 28 No. 2
- Chopin: Prelude Op. 28 No. 9 in E major
- Chopin: Prelude Op. 28 No. 10 in C sharp minor
- Chopin: Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 in D flat major ‘Raindrop'
- Chopin: Nocturne No. 9 in B major, Op. 32 No. 1
- López-Chavarri: El viejo castillo moro
- Iturbi: Cancion de cuna
- Granados: Orientale (No. 2 from 12 Danzas españolas)
- Chopin: Mazurka No. 6 in A minor, Op. 7 No. 2
- Chopin: Mazurka No. 7 in F minor, Op. 7 No. 3
- Chopin: Mazurka No. 24 in C major, Op. 33 No. 3
- Chopin: Mazurka No. 27 in E minor, Op. 41 No. 2
- Chopin: Mazurka No. 25 in B minor, Op. 33 No. 4
- Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31
- Debussy: Children's Corner
- Ravel: Jeux d'eau
- Guastavino: Gato
- Mozart: Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra No. 10 in E flat, K365
- Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
- Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
- Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
- Bach, J S: Passacaglia in C minor, BWV582
- Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K331 'Alla Turca'
- Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, K332
- Chopin: Impromptu No. 4 in C sharp minor, Op. 66 'Fantaisie-Impromptu'
- Chopin: Waltz No. 6 in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 'Minute Waltz'
- Chopin: Waltz No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2
- Chopin: Mazurka No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 7 No. 1
- Albéniz: Sevilla (from Suite Española, Op. 47)
- Granados: Goyescas: Quejas ó La Maja y el Ruiseñor
- Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K27 in B minor
- Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K159 in C major 'La caccia'
- Paradies: Toccata in A
- Iturbi: Pequena danza espanola
- Beethoven: Andante Favori in F, WoO 57
- Albéniz: Cantos de España (5), Op. 232, No. 4
- Lazăr, F: Piano Sonata No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 15: III Tempo di Marcia funebre
- Saint-Saëns: Caprice arabe, Op. 96
- Debussy: L'isle joyeuse
- Infante: Danze andaluse (for 2 pianos): No. 2 Sentimento
- Debussy: Deux arabesques, L. 66
- Bach, J S: Fantasia in C minor, BWV906
- Granados: Danza española, Op. 37 No. 10 'Melancólica'
- Gould, M: Boogie Woogie Etude
- Gould, M: Blues
- Falla: Ritual Fire Dance (from El amor brujo)
- Falla: Dance of Terror (from El amor brujo)
- Debussy: Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune
- Liszt: Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major)
- Chopin: Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53 'Héroïque'
- Schumann: Arabeske in C major, Op. 18
- Debussy: Rêverie
- Haydn: Theme and Variations in C major, Hob.XVII:5
- Paderewski: Minuet in G major, Op. 14 No. 1
- Beethoven: Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO59)
- Schumann: Träumerei (from Kinderszenen, Op. 15)
- Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
- Rachmaninoff: Humoresque in G major, Op. 10 No. 5
- Infante: Danses andalouses
- Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37b: June (Barcarolle)
- Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37b: November (Troika)
- Mussorgsky: Une Larme (A Tear)
- Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 'Scottish'
- Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World'
- Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody, S244 No. 14 in F minor
- Falla: El sombrero de tres picos: Dance of the Neighbours (Seguidillas)
- Falla: El sombrero de tres picos: Danza del molinero (farruca)
- Falla: El sombrero de tres picos: Final Dance (Jota)
- Palau Boix: Marche burlesque
- Palau Boix: Hommage a Debussy
- Iturbi: Seguidillas
- Cuesta: Danza valenciana in A major
- Falla: Siete Canciones populares españolas
- Turina: Homenaje a Lope de Vega, Op. 90: I. Cuando tan hermosa os miro
- Granados: Danza española, Op. 37 No. 8 'Sardana'
- Granados: Danza española, Op. 37 No. 12 'Arabesca'
- Granados: Danza española, Op. 37 No. 9 'Romántica'
- Turina: Mujeres Españolas, Series 1, Op. 17: 2. La andaluza sentimental
- Turina: Mujeres Españolas, Series 1, Op. 17: 3. La morena coqueta
- Infante: Pochades andalouses: Canto flamenco
- Infante: ochades andalouses: Danse gitane
- Infante: Pochades andalouses: Aniers sur la route de Seville
- Infante: Pochades andalouses: Tientos
- Albéniz: Granada (from Suite española No. 1, Op. 47)
- Albéniz: Córdoba (No. 4 from Cantos de España, Op. 232)
- Cuesta: Danza valenciana in G major
- Lecuona: Malagueña
- Griffes: The White Peacock
- Infante: Guadalquivir
- Infante: Pochades andalouses: Ritmo
- Mozart: Sonata for 2 pianos in D major, K448: Allegro molto
- Granados: El Pelele
- Granados: Goyescas (piano suite)
- Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
- Chabrier: Scherzo-valse (No. 10 from Pièces pittoresques)
- Chabrier: Idylle (No. 6 from Pièces pittoresques)
- Chabrier: Bourrée Fantasque
- Schubert: Valses Sentimentales, D 779 Op. 50 (Excerpts)
- Schubert: 12 Valses Nobles, D 969 Op. 77: selection
- López-Chavarri: Danza de las labradoras Valencianas
- Shostakovich: Prelude for piano, Op. 34 No. 2 in A minor
- Shostakovich: Prelude for piano, Op. 34 No. 14 in E flat minor
- Shostakovich: Prelude for piano, Op. 34 No. 24 in D minor
- Fauré: Impromptu No. 3 in A flat major Op. 34
- Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 13 in B flat major, K333
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![Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1806865.jpg?v=1788543308&width=800)
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![Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/51EIHn6AKWL.jpg?v=1788543308&width=800)
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![Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1806865.jpg?v=1788543308&width=400)
Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]
Naxos AudioVisual · Feb 2011Blu-Ray$16.99 -
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Paderewski: Piano Concerto, Polish Fantasy / Kenner, Niesiolowski, Podlasie Opera Orchestra
DUX · Oct 2011CD$21.99 -
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Wagner Liaisons
Fruhling: Isasi Lieder
Malcolm Binns - A 90th Birthday Tribute
Mischa Levitzki - The Complete HMV Recordings
Mischa Levitzki (1898–1942) was born near Kiev to naturalized American parents who had returned to their homeland. He was a pupil of Michalowski, Stojowski, and Dohnányi and quickly established himself as a major rising star in the 1920s. Indeed, had it not been for his early death, he would surely have been seen as one of the major pianists of the century. He specialized in the virtuoso romantic repertoire, and his recordings include several of the warhorses of the period such as Rubinstein's 'Staccato' Etude and Moszkowski's 'La Jongleuse'. However, at the same time, there is a refinement to his playing which is heard to good effect in his Chopin and Schumann, making his Liszt noble rather than bombastic. The HMV recordings presented here form the most important part of his meager recorded legacy.
Festmusik: A Legacy / Onyx Brass
Described as 'easily the classiest brass ensemble in Britain' by BBC Music Magazine, Onyx Brass continues to be the leading light in establishing the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music, presenting it in the entertaining and articulate style that has become the group's trademark. For this, it's third recording for Chandos, Onyx Brass presents a programme steeped in the German romantic tradition. Arrangements for small ensemble of works by Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Rubinstein, and Franz demonstrate the musicality and virtuosity of the group, as well as a wide expressive and textural range. The programme opens and closes with three large-scale works by Richard Strauss, in which the quintet is joined by a host of other top UK brass players and the conductor John Wilson. Festmusik der Stadt Wien for brass and timpani, written for the city of Vienna, is the only original composition: all the others are arrangements made by members of the group.
Dvorak: Piano Quartet, Romantic Pieces, Sonatina / Ax, Stern, Ma
The duo performances are in a similar mold. The Sonatina is a delight, a blend of spirit and ease. The Romantic Pieces need a more luminous tone and vivacious expression than Stern provides. He receives sympathetic support from pianist Robert McDonald.
-- James H. North, FANFARE [9/2000]
Legendary Treasures - Segovia And His Contemporaries Vol 4
Includes work(s) for guitar by Luis de Milan, Gaspar Sanz, Federico Moreno Torroba, Francisco Tarrega, Robert de Visée, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados. Soloists: Andrés Segovia, Maria Luisa Anido.
The Rediscovered RCA Victor Recordings / José Iturbi
This collection stands as a valuable time capsule from which one comes away with a fuller understanding of Iturbi’s prominence in American wartime and postwar culture.
The complete RCA Victor Recordings by José Iturbi from 1933 to 1953, include his piano duo recordings with sister Amparo Iturbi as well as Amparo Iturbi’s solo recordings on 16 CDs, restored and remastered from the original lacquer discs and analogue tapes using high-resolution 24 bit/192 kHz mastering technology with about 95% of the recordings appearing on CD for the first time and 23 pieces previously unreleased. As well as a new, captivating essay by Grammy-nominated singer, pianist, and music anthropologist Michael Feinstein on the life and work of José Iturbi and a photo book with previously unseen photos and facsimiles from the Iturbi Archives in Hollywood.
There was a time when classical music was a natural part of Hollywood. From the moments with Jascha Heifetz in They Shall Have Music (1939) to the unrivaled performances of Oscar Levant and Isaac Stern in Humoresque (1946). In its Golden Era, Hollywood adorned itself with the Who's Who of classical music. Today, alongside icons such as Marylin Monroe and James Dean, the names of Leonard Bernstein, Maria Callas and Arturo Toscanini, as well as Rudolf Serkin, Joseph Szigeti, or José Iturbi were immortalized on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. This edition is a loving homage to Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, made possible through the generous support of the José Iturbi Foundation and the Hollywood Museum Board of Directors, who contributed to the lavish restoration of many previously lost unpublished recordings. The publication was also made possible by contributions of singer, pianist, and music archivist Michael Feinstein, the Ambassador for the Great American Songbook.
REVIEW:
During the 1940s and 1950s the “World’s Most Popular Classical Pianist” mantle fell comfortably upon José Iturbi (1895-1980). His recognition as a radio personality led to a movie career that yielded ten feature films between 1943 and 1951 where the pianist mostly starred as himself. Yet for all of Iturbi’s renown, he was hardly a poseur. He worked with Wanda Landowska in Paris, and gave Stravinsky’s Piano Rag Music its world premiere, as well as the first complete Carnegie Hall performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes.
He also conducted. When Eugene Ormandy assumed the Philadelphia Orchestra’s music directorship in 1936, his chief rival for the position was Iturbi, who wound up taking charge of the Rochester Philharmonic that same year. Once Hollywood beckoned, however, Iturbi became the brunt of intellectual critics, who basically wrote him off as a sell-out and an artistic lightweight.
Time, of course, brings perspective, and Sony/BMG’s lavishly produced 16-CD collection containing Iturbi’s complete RCA Victor recordings invites a fairly thorough examination of the musician behind the personality, plus an opportunity to reassess a largely forgotten body of recorded work. A 188-page coffee table book contains photos in abundance, with all original-jacket artwork represented, including the most politically incorrect cover art ever to grace Dvorák’s “New World” symphony. We get complete session and release discographies, an Iturbi filmography, plus a brilliant in-depth biographical essay by Michael Feinstein, who co-produced this collection with Robert Russ.
It’s a pity that the session discography is not cross-referenced to corresponding CD tracks, not to mention the absence of a discography by composer. This makes it difficult to navigate the contents with ease, especially in works that Iturbi recorded more than once. For example, it took some sleuthing on my part to discover that Discs 5 and 11 each contained the Liszt Liebestraum No. 3, Schumann Arabeske, Debussy Reverie, and Chopin Polonaise in A-flat Op. 53, and that the performances were not identical.
With few notable exceptions, Iturbi’s solo recordings mostly consist of short, encore-length pieces. He’s especially at home in Spanish music: Iturbi’s accentuation, phrasing, and timing throughout Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance define perfection, while he shapes Granados’ Spanish Dance No. 2 (“Oriental’) with sensitivity and tenderness. Classical selections also stand out for Iturbi’s bracing articulation. True, the outer movements of his Mozart K. 331 and 332 sonata recordings are overly facile and insufficiently inflected when measured alongside contemporaneous Mozartean rivals like Schnabel, Gieseking, Fischer, and Haskil. Yet the sheer evenness and poised symmetry of Iturbi’s finger-work easily explains why pianists like Julius Katchen and William Kapell praised his Mozart.
Iturbi also revels in the Haydn C major Theme and Variations’ sly wit. By contrast, introspection and sobriety characterize Iturbi’s measured unfolding of Beethoven’s Andante favori. Similar gravitas elevates Paderewski’s Minuet in G to near-masterpiece status. Iturbi’s virtuosic glitter befits his dashing Saint-Saëns Allegro appassionato more than in his glib Liszt Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este.
Iturbi’s Chopin hits and misses. His Mazurkas lack the ardency and rhythmic snap that distinguishes a Second Scherzo that gets better as it progresses. Also note the pianist’s dotting the duple rhythms in the A-flat Polonaise’s main theme that Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Lhevinne play straight on their rival RCA versions.
The later recordings reveal Iturbi’s pianism losing some of its erstwhile luster and subtlety, possibly exaggerated by the close microphone placement and twangy patina typical of late 1940s/early 1950s piano recordings stemming from RCA’s Hollywood recording studio. For example, the two Debussy Arabesques recorded in New York in 1939 have a supple elegance missing in their glassy-sounding 1950 Hollywood counterparts (sound clips). The blustery, hard-toned, and harshly engineered Liszt Concerto No. 1, Mendelssohn Concerto No. 1, and Beethoven Concerto No. 3 were non-starters in their day, with the piano way up in the mix, relegating the crackerjack RCA Symphony musicians to doormat status. Still, the Mendelssohn’s outer movements feature some of Iturbi’s most scintillating pianism on disc.
While Iturbi’s two-piano distribution of the solo part of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is surprisingly effective and discreet, he and his pianist sister Amparo turn in a crass, alternately whipped up, and sappily sentimentalized interpretation. Works of Mozart, Debussy, and Milhaud better represent their dazzling ensemble rapport, but again, the boxy, claustrophobic engineering undermines their efforts. Similar dryness typifies Amparo’s idiomatic solo recordings of Spanish repertoire. Still, it’s nice to have her rare 1954 Granados Goyescas back in circulation, although it pales alongside Alicia de Larrocha’s far more nuanced and texturally differentiated interpretation from the following year.
The collection also showcases Iturbi’s work on the podium. His 1940 Rochester Philharmonic versions of the Mozart D minor and Beethoven C minor concertos are more judiciously balanced than his orchestrally superior 1952 RCA Victor Symphony remakes. Each contains lively and engaging outer movements that flank wooden, hard-toned slow movements.
Iturbi’s 1951 Liszt Hungarian Fantasy with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra has a snarling rawness that differs from the sheen and suavity of the 1952 Arrau/Ormandy and late 1940s Solomon and Moiseiwitsch editions. As with many second-tier American orchestras in the 1940s, the Rochester Philharmonic boasted strong strings but less proficient winds and brass. Consequently, Iturbi’s Mendelssohn “Scottish” Symphony took a back seat to Mitropoulos’ powerful 1941 Minneapolis version, while the aforementioned Dvorák New World lacked the Szell/Czech Philharmonic recording’s flavorful ensemble discipline.
The prize of Iturbi’s Rochester discography is a snazzy and brilliantly turned-out Morton Gould “Latin American” Symphonette, which is surprisingly well-engineered for its 1944 vintage. Another delightful curiosity is William J. Reddick’s Espanharlem, a brief orchestral work whose quick changing moods and jazzy underpinnings wouldn’t be out of place in a Carl Stalling Bugs Bunny cartoon soundtrack. There’s also a previously unpublished recording conducted by Werner Janssen of Iturbi’s orchestral composition Soliloquy. The piece amounts to 14 and a half minutes’ worth of rambling 1940s film music clichés filtered through third-rate Lecuona. Why Iturbi is credited as piano soloist when there’s no piano to be heard is anyone’s guess!
Notwithstanding the artistic unevenness of Iturbi’s recorded output he always had the self-respect to keep his technique in world-class repair, unlike his rival classical pianist turned media personality Oscar Levant. Still, music lovers who don’t want to go the whole hog, so to speak, are directed to APR’s 2016 three-disc solo Iturbi compilation. I also hope to see Iturbi’s post-cinema EMI recordings restored. However, beyond purely musical considerations, Sony/BMG’s collection stands as a valuable time capsule from which one comes away with a fuller understanding of Iturbi’s prominence in American wartime and postwar culture.
-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)
CONTENTS:
BOLERO AND OTHER SPANISH FAVOURITES
Glazunov: Les Ruses D'amour / Andreescu, Romanian State Orchestra
Glazunov was a precocious student of Rimsky-Korsakov during the artistic ferment of the revival of Russian musical nationalism. Composed when he was a sixteen year old Glazunov gained sudden acclaim with the success of his Symphony No. 1. The audience would have been shocked when Glazunov took his bow at the premiere wearing his school uniform. International recognition was established with his symphonies, the tone poem Stenka Razin, the ballets The Seasons and Raymonda, and the ever popular Violin Concerto. He was still composing music in the manner of Rimsky, Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky. His works soon became marginalised having failed to compete with the growing enthusiasm for progressive composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, Stravinsky and his own pupils Prokofiev and Shostakovich. After a century or so we should now be able to reassess Glazunov’s music for its innate qualities rather than be reference to the dynamic of the era in which it was written.
The première of the ballet Les Ruses d'amour was given in the small hall of the Hermitage Theatre, St. Petersburg in 1900. Marius Petipa provided the choreography. The leading dancers were the Italian prima ballerina assoluta Pierina Legnani and her Russian partner Pavel Gerdt. Briefly the story of Les Ruses d'amour centres on the role Isabella who is the daughter of a titled Lady. Isabella pretends to be a maid in a bid to test that the love of her fiancé the Marquis Damis is true and not driven simply by her wealth and status.
The popularity of Les Ruses d'amour has certainly not endured to the same degree as The Seasons and the longer Raymonda ballets that have remained on the fringes of the repertoire. Reasonably appealing, the music of Ruses d'amour is not as recognisable as Glazunov’s other ballets. The composer has not managed to achieve the same melodically memorable quality.
Showing a convincing enthusiasm the Romanian State Orchestra under Horia Andreescu provide creditable playing. I enjoyed the gentle and swaying lyricism of the Introduction and Scene I and in the Recitatif mimique the woodwind-infused music has a distinct bucolic feel. Melody after melody is released in the Sarabanda but the themes are typically unremarkable. One notices the childlike lyricism of the Danse des marionettes and Scenes IV and V are gentle and romantic. The movement Ballabile des paysans et des paysannes is infectious and energetic. I was struck by the soft and tender love music of Grand pas des fiancés which is sugar-coated with a gorgeous line for solo violin and cello. The engaging La Fricassée brings the score to an exciting and energetic conclusion.
Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International
Herold: La Fille Mal Gardée / Royal Ballet
Ferdinand Hérold
LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE
Colas – Carlos Acosta
Lise – Marianela Nuñez
Simone – William Tuckett
Alain – Jonathan Howells
The Royal Ballet
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Anthony Twiner, conductor
Frederick Ashton, choreographer
Osbert Lancaster, set design
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 2 February 2005.
Bonus: Cast gallery and illustrated synopsis
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / 5.1 Surround sound
Region code: 0 (All regions)
Menu language: English
Running time: 112 mins
R E V I E W:
A delightful production … considerable charm and appeal.
Choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton was born in September 1904, so it was always likely that the Royal Ballet – of which he was Director for most of the 1960s – would take the opportunity to celebrate his centenary with revivals of some of his best works.
My colleague Ian Lace has already given a very warm welcome to Opus Arte’s DVD of the 2005 revival of Ashton’s 1952 production of Delibes’s Sylvia (see review). Now this new release, from the same television/DVD producers, is likely to offer just as much – if not more – pleasure to admirers of both the choreographer and several of the Royal Ballet’s most accomplished artistes.
The origins of the score are somewhat obscure. The earliest music – dating from 1789 - was cobbled together by an unknown hand from a variety of popular melodies. But by 1828 it was considered sufficiently dated for Ferdinand Hérold to be commissioned to rearrange and supplement it, using not just his own material but also unauthorized extracts from pieces by Donizetti, Rossini and others.
Hérold’s score held the field for less than 40 years, though, before it in turn was considered so old-fashioned that it was superseded by one penned by Peter Ludwig Hertel. Thus, from the 1860s onwards, it was Hertel’s music – at various times added to substantially by Drigo, Pugni, Minkus and Delibes, not to mention Anton Rubinstein and a certain Johann Armsheimer – that was associated with the La fille mal gardée story.
Had Ashton had a grander conception for his planned 1960 Covent Garden production, he might well have used the by now traditional Hertel score. But instead he envisaged a simple, pastoral, light-hearted and pastel-shaded interpretation of the old story – Watteau rather than Winterhalter. Thus, having retrieved Hérold’s long-neglected music from the archives, he asked John Lanchbery to edit and re-orchestrate it. [Ironically enough, a single bit of Hertel did eventually find its way into the new version and, as the theme of the famous clog dance, can be heard in one of the ballet’s best loved episodes!]
La fille mal gardée – yet another story of young lovers thwarting an ambitious parent’s plan to marry off one of them to a far wealthier suitor - is now considered the quintessential Ashton ballet and is certainly the best loved. The choreography’s apparent - but not actual! - simplicity and its sheer joie de vivre work in perfect harmony with the undemanding light-hearted story and the tuneful 1828 score to ensure that audiences invariably leave the theatre with faces wreathed in smiles. That would certainly have been so as patrons left the Royal Opera House on 2 February 2005 – and thankfully the BBC’s cameras were there to record the occasion.
While not having any great emotional depths to plumb in their roles, attractive and charismatic soloists Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta are utterly convincing as youthful lovers. She is an exceptionally pretty girl, whereas he is the epitome of a virile and handsome young swain. Moreover, unlike many ballet productions, this is one case where the protagonists look genuinely and appropriately young. In fact, Nuñez was, at the time, just 23 and the Royal Ballet’s youngest Principal – though mere youth was clearly no handicap as she received, that same year, the Best Female Dancer accolade in the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Acosta, though actually nine years older, makes an ideal visual match – as his many admirers will certainly testify.
The pair are also very well matched as dancers and offer well-nigh perfect interpretations and performances. Ashton’s choreography may not offer too much in the way of flashy opportunities to bring down the house, but it is sufficiently taxing to require the dancers to demonstrate complete concentration and immaculate technique. Both are in clear evidence here.
As Widow Simone, the domineering mother determined to engineer an advantageous – if loveless – marriage for her daughter, William Tuckett plays the role for laughs. In full pantomime dame mode and equipped with a range of wonderfully exaggerated facial expressions, he certainly succeeds. He can, though, dance too – although I would have liked to have heard the clack-clack of his clogs more clearly over the orchestra, so as to emphasize his skillful footwork in the famous highlight solo.
Jonathan Howells’s interpretation of Alain, Widow Simone’s preferred rich-but-dim suitor for her daughter, is again strong on comedy but he also conveys an air of pathos that adds considerably to the role and was clearly appreciated by the Covent Garden audience.
The production keeps the corps de ballet especially busy portraying various types of cheerful, good natured country folk. These are remarkably sophisticated rustics, however – at least when it comes to their ability to interpret Ashton’s intricate, fluid patterns on stage. The maypole dance preceding the storm that brings the first act to a close - itself a striking coup de théâtre - offers an excellent example of the company’s strength in full ensemble, as does the exuberant finale to the whole ballet.
Meanwhile, conductor Anthony Twiner directs an appropriately jaunty and light-hearted account of the score and the Covent Garden orchestra responds with aplomb throughout.
The set is from designs by Osbert Lancaster who was, at that time well-known as a professional cartoonist for the Daily Express. Its simple, cartoon-like qualities and the exaggeratedly clichéd French peasant costumes also fit the mood of this delightful production perfectly and add measurably to its already considerable charm and appeal.
-- Rob Maynard, MusicWeb International
![Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1806865.jpg?v=1788543308&width=800)
![Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/51EIHn6AKWL.jpg?v=1788543308&width=800)
Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]
Nebolsin is the real thing, a genuine virtuoso who can interpret Chopin with imagination and style.
Most long-time admirers of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto are well aware of Artur Rubinstein’s classic 1961 recording, available now on an RCA CD. Other eminently worthy recordings include Argerich, on both DG (1968) and EMI (1999), Ax, on Sony (using a period-instrument piano), and Perahia, also Sony.
Young Uzbek-born, Spain-based pianist Eldar Nebolsin enters the ring. On no count is he ever less than thoroughly compelling in the concerto, from his dramatic and stormy entrance in the first movement to the brilliant but always tasteful virtuosity of his finale. His articulation is clear without sounding brittle, his phrasing elegant and warm, and his technique all-encompassing. Notice how deftly he captures Chopin’s lyrical side in the way he imparts delicate mystery to the first movement’s main theme or how he floats the main theme to the ensuing Romanza in lovely singing tones. In Nebolsin’s hands inner voices often emerge to impart greater impetus to the music: try the coda to his first movement where the left-hand figures - often buried in other performances - convey a sense of agitation and drive as the music hurtles nervously toward the ending. And if he doesn’t quite match the effervescence of Rubinstein’s finale coda, he comes very close.
In the end, Nebolsin makes the decision between him and the others a tough one. However, what tilts the scales in favor of Naxos is the clear and powerful sound and the incisive conducting of Antoni Wit, a conductor who, in an oxymoronic irony, is famous for being unknown. His extraordinary talents were overlooked for years, as critic after critic lobbied in the wilderness on his behalf. Now, owing to their persistence and Wit’s numerous acclaimed recordings on Naxos, he has earned much justly deserved recognition. Wit makes the most of Chopin’s generally bland scoring, often giving it weight and muscle, or pointing up inner detail, or simply letting the music sing where appropriate.
In the accompanying works, Nebolsin is just as compelling: the Fantasia on Polish Airs sounds fresh and vital despite its somewhat less inspired music. Krakowiak comes across with brilliant colors and chipper moods, Nebolsin’s fingers seeming to negotiate the thorniest passages with utter ease. Again, the sound is vivid. The Warsaw Philharmonic play with spirit and accuracy in all works. Notes by Keith Anderson are informative, as usual.
I must point out, as is noted in the heading, that this Blu-ray disc is an audio-only, high-definition production. Also, there is a blurb on the album cover stating that this is the, “First recording to use the new Polish National Chopin Edition.” However, I noticed nothing different in the scores from other performances, and whatever differences there might be are probably negligible. On the whole, this is a splendid release and augurs well for a second DVD from these same forces shortly, presenting the Second Concerto and other Chopin works. In sum, Nebolsin is the real thing, a genuine virtuoso who can interpret Chopin with imagination and style.
-- Robert Cummings, MusicWeb International
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
![Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Nebolsin, Wit, Warsaw Philharmonic [blu-ray Audio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1806865.jpg?v=1788543308&width=400)
Paderewski: Piano Concerto, Polish Fantasy / Kenner, Niesiolowski, Podlasie Opera Orchestra
PADEREWSKI Piano Concerto. Polish Fantasy • Kevin Kenner (pn); Marcin Na??cz-Niesio?owski, cond; Podlasie Op O • DUX 733 (55:40)
Well, I’ve certainly been immersed in Paderewski lately … at least, Paderewski at one or two removes, which is not the same thing as the real deal. First, there was the Homage to Paderewski set on Hyperion 67903, which I reviewed in Fanfare 35:4, and now this new recording of his concerto and Polish Fantasy. As I expected, the concerto is very much in the big, late-Romantic mold of Brahms, Rubinstein, and other composers, but it’s a solid piece built around native Polish rhythms and with an interesting and exciting development section in the first movement. (In fact, at one point a solo piano passage sounds a little bit like a Russian folk song.) Although it is said that the second theme is an evocation of Chopin, it is an original melody and not one borrowed from that composer. The slow movement is even more delicate than Chopin’s andantes , almost Debussyan in its sparse use of the piano in the beginning and actually built around a three-part tune. Eventually, this delicate melody becomes more energetic, but never so much that the initial impression is forgotten. The lively rondo finale, based on a krakowiak, is likewise contrasted with a stately chorale that eventually caps the piece.
I find the Polish Fantasy an even more interesting work, having a more melancholy cast and somewhat related to Liszt’s Hungarian fantasies. It can be divided into four sections, each with its own character, though they are bound together by a mazurka-like motif. It is very nearly a concerto in itself, running over 21 minutes. I suspect that the composer refrained from calling it one simply because the four sections are played without a break, and such works in his day were almost always relegated to the “fantasy” category.
Kevin Kenner, despite his American origins, proves himself to be fully up to the task of interpreting this Eastern European music. Like all modern pianists, he eschews the slightly out-of-synch coordination of hands favored by Paderewski and many other pianists of his generation, preferring to play in a clean, rhythmically consistent manner, but he certainly gets the feel of Polish music very well. Of course, having a Polish orchestra and conductor helps, and I am more than a little amused to see that the orchestra hails from Bia?ystok (known as the “Jerusalem of Poland” because of its heavy Jewish population and the birthplace of Dr. Albert Sabin, immortalized by Mel Brooks with the name of his principal character—Max Bialystock—in his zany comedy The Producers ). All concerned play beautifully on this CD, giving us about as convincing a reading of these works as can be imagined. One can find more visceral and exciting readings from Janina Fialkowska, supported by the great Antoni Wit, on Naxos 8554020, and by the late, great Earl Wild (the concerto on Elán 2266 with Arthur Fiedler and the London Symphony, the Fantasy on Ivory 72010 with conductor Massimo Freccia), but this recording meets the demands of the music with a more convincing nationalistic flavor than Wild and less clattery sound than we get from Fialkowska’s piano. Recommended without hesitation for both the unusual repertoire and its presentation.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
Mahler: Symphony No. 3
MAHLER Symphony No. 3 1. BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 2 • Jascha Horenstein, cond; 1 Helen Watts (a); 1 Dennis Egan (posthorn); 1 Denis Wick (tbn); 1 Highgate School Ch; 1 Orpington Junior Singers; 2 Claudio Arrau (pn); 1 London SO & Ch; 2 French Natl RSO • ARCHIPEL 557, mono (2 CDs: 145:01) Live: 1 London 11/16/1961; 2 Montreux 9/17/1962
Sometimes you come to appreciate some of the conducting legends of the past when you have first listened to one of the conducting duds of the present, and that was my experience with this Mahler Third. I had just suffered (yes, I believe that is the precise word) through Carla Delfrate butchering the music of French opera composers when I put on this Mahler Third. The difference in musical intelligence, feeling, phrasing, rhythmic lift, and correctly judged tempos was like escaping the River Styx and being elevated to Valhalla.
Yet even without such a quantum leap in conducting quality, one cannot escape the feeling that this Mahler Third was indeed one of the great, even momentous, concerts of the 20th century. Shockingly for such a late date, this was its first professional performance in England, and those familiar with Horenstein’s work will know that the British were extremely lucky to have him for this concert. Just about the only negative thing one can note about this recording is the somewhat dry mono sound—good for a 1961 broadcast (indeed, better than Horenstein’s equally legendary Mahler Eighth) but still restricted in sonics. But heavens, what a performance! I actually think that Horenstein’s performance of the first movement even outstrips that of Georg Solti, which up until now was my all-time favorite reading of it, largely due to the more finely detailed layering of the instrumental texture. Despite the boxiness, you hear everything, and every instrument or instrumental group seems to have something important to add to the overall “story” of the music. Nor was I alone in my reaction: At the end of the movement, the London audience does something highly uncharacteristic for the British at an orchestral concert: they roundly applaud the first movement. It’s quite an achievement, and it seems almost incredible that this is its first-ever commercial release.
Moreover, unlike Solti (and even unlike his Nonesuch studio recording of this Symphony with the same orchestra), Horenstein’s intensity and musical drive never slacken in this performance, not even for a millisecond. Seldom have I heard the second movement played so exquisitely, the strings singing sweetly and the rhythmic underpinning simply astonishing. Many years ago, before I began reviewing, I bought, heard, and was disappointed by James Levine’s Mahler Third recording, and I was only slightly more impressed by a live performance he gave with Jessye Norman as the mezzo soloist in Carnegie Hall. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong with it, but this Horenstein performance has everything right about it that Levine simply got wrong. Perhaps too much “devotion,” too much psychoanalyzing Mahler at the time he wrote it, and too little of just digging into the score and translating it into sound? It’s hard to say at the remove of 40 years, but let’s just say that Horenstein has the full measure of this Symphony while Levine only had a fair idea of it.
Now, one should be aware that Horenstein’s view of the score is not always 100 percent what Mahler wrote. He sometimes ignores tempo changes and gives his own spin on the music, but to my ears everything he does in this performance works well. Not to keep beating the same drum, but that first movement is an excellent example. In the studio recording, it went along at an almost dirge-like pace; here, it is utterly dynamic and thrilling. In both the studio and live versions, the posthorn solo is beautifully played by Dennis Egan, and this is one moment in this broadcast where the sonics are good enough to give the listener a fine sense of “space.” Helen Watts’s singing is rich and beautiful, although not quite as expressive in detail as Janet Baker with Michael Tilson Thomas (Sony-CBS) or Ewa Podle? with Antoni Wit (Naxos), my other two favorite Mahler Thirds. The Highgate School Choir is superb, having that sound that one somehow instinctively associates with British children’s choirs. Horenstein’s tempo in the last movement is brisk when compared to other Mahlerians (21:13 compared to Tilson Thomas’s 26:13 or Wit’s 25:31), which some listeners may interpret as a race to the finish on Horenstein’s part, but just listen to the feeling he elicits from the LSO; and, at this clip, the movement lacks its usual “draggy” feeling, as if it were an interminable exercise in bathos. Now, of course, it can and does also work well at the slower tempos that Tilson Thomas and Wit use, but that is the magic of Mahler. His symphonies, unlike almost any others I can think of, can withstand nearly any and every tempo change one can put into them. The only thing they cannot withstand is a boring reading, and boring is not a word one can apply to this performance.
As a bonus (since the entire Third Symphony clocks in at a few seconds under 90 minutes) we age given an equally spectacular reading of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with Claudio Arrau as soloist. My readers know that I like but do not really love Arrau as a pianist; everything he played was good and usually had the right style, but many of his performances and recordings are no better than those of several other pianists. Here, however, he truly sounds caught up in the moment, not least due to Horenstein’s exquisite shaping and phrasing of the music. Although I still love Fritz Reiner’s dynamic 1954 account with Rubinstein and Max Fiedler’s old-world and slightly eccentric (but still musical) performance from the early 1930s (with Alfred Hoehn as soloist), there is just something so shapely and well-phrased about Horenstein’s reading of the orchestral part that it grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. Arrau takes a while to heat up—his entrance is played very well but not with any particular abandon, but then just listen to the way he responds with both remarkable fire and stunning nuance to the equally nuanced playing of the French Radio and TV Orchestra. The best way to describe this performance, overall, is as an alternation of a singing line with ebb and flow against the dramatic outbursts, the latter never dull but also never so explosive that they ruin the line of the music. Oh, there are many of those among our young conductors today who could learn a thing or three from Horenstein about phrasing! True, the strings in the last movement sound a little scrappy, but no matter. The musical treatment and intensity of this performance trumps technical polish.
Archipel provides absolutely no liner notes with this release, not even a sentence or two to tell prospective buyers who Jascha Horenstein was. Even though I know that a recording like this is aimed at the collectors’ market, that very few people will bother with a 53-year-old mono recording of the Mahler Third when they can get digital stereo from Tilson Thomas, Wit, or the late Claudio Abbado (another outstanding version), but I still feel that the label owes it to those few who are under age 30 and buy this release to let them know who Horenstein was and explain his importance. Otherwise, I recommend this set highly.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
