Last Night Blues is Lightnin' Hopkins' 1961 album, featuring Sonny Terry. The second of three album collaborations, Last Night Blues showcases Hopkins' and Terry's different yet complementary styles to create a well-rounded listening experience. AllMusic declared, "this dynamite disc represents what the blues should be: stripped-down, soulful, and full of truth."

2022 release. The most unforgettable songs from Disney's iconic films reimagined by the greatest living pianist, Lang Lang's The Disney Book tells the story of a century of magical, joyous entertainment for all. Join him on an uplifting, virtuosic journey to experience beloved songs from Disney films with collaborators from across the globe, including Andrea Bocelli, Sebastian Yatra, and Jon Batiste, performing hits from Snow White, Encanto, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and many more.

"Sony's new transfer boasts greater definition in the treble and bass, with extra bloom in the strings. What's more, the finale no longer spills over to a second disc, enabling the listener to hear Bruno Walter's Bruckner 7th uninterrupted on one CD...Walter communicates his kinder, gentler vision of this music with love, authority, and conviction." -- Jed Distler

The Telarc Collection, Volume 7

Available for the first time in the United States, this set from the Sony Classical Masters Series features Alicia de Larrocha playing the works of Mozart, including the Complete Piano Sonatas, Rondos K 485 and 511 and Fantasias K 397 and 475. The Sony Classical Masters is a new series offering a huge wealth of recordings at a very attractive price. Combining the greatest recordings from the RCA, BMG, and Sony Classical labels in one series for the first time, the series houses the performances of the best-loved repertoire by preeminent artists such as James Galway, John Williams, Julian Bream, Lorin Maazel, Yo Yo Ma, Evgeny Kissin, Isaac Stern, James Levine and Glenn Gould, to name but a few. With 42 single-disc releases and 28 box sets, this is a truly all-encompassing range and a complete classical collection in itself, and includes many titles which have not been available for some time.

...an abundantly characterful, often exquisitely observant reading of the Enigma Variations set down at Walthamstow towards the end of 1954... Beecham sifts Elgar’s textures with rare mastery, and there are some delectable sounds throughout from his RPO wind principals (above all, Jack Brymer’s wonderfully hushed solos in the ‘Romanza’). Elsewhere, ‘Troyte’ fairly tears out of the blocks (distinctive, gun-shot timpani), and the finale struts with an irresistible physicality and unbuttoned thrust. By contrast, ‘Dorabella’ skips along in a more leisurely fashion than usual, and I love the tender intimacy Beecham imparts to ‘Ysobel’. A pity about the botched opening of ‘RPA’; otherwise, an Enigma to savour, if not quite ousting such legendary near-contemporaries as the evergreen Monteux or Barbirolli’s inspirational 1956 Halle account from the head of a very long list. It’s preceded by a terrific, swaggeringly exuberant Cockaigne (whose ripe coda heralds a startling change in both ambience and perspective) and a wholly disarming, gently affectionate reading of the Serenade for Strings.

-- Gramophone [8/2001]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35, Russian Easter Festiv

Track Listing

A CANADIAN BRASS CHRISTMAS:
1. Ding Dong! Merrily On High
2. God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
3. Sussex Carol
4. Here We Come A-Wassailing
5. I Saw Three Ships
6. Good Christian Men Rejoice
7. Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
8. Huron Carol, The
9. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
10. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
11. Little Drummer Boy, The
12. Silver Bells
13. White Christmas
14. Christmas Song, The
15. Winter Wonderland
16. Go Tell It On The Mountain
17. Frosty The Snowman

..."Dance of the Firebird"...is much more nimble and airy in Leonard Bernstein's performance, possibly because the American opts for the better-known 1919 Suite which uses a reduced orchestration... Bernstein delivers a brilliant account of the score...

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine [reviewing the Firebird Suite]

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Bernstein treats Scheherazade as the "Symphonic Suite" it's billed as, barely pausing between movements—the old Columbia LP has no bands on either side. This was the kind of personalized, excitable interpretation that made Bernstein beloved to many, though it won't be to everyone's taste... His shaping of the violin and cello statements of the theme in "The Young Prince and the Young Princess" is exquisite. The violin solos are played warmly and effectively by John Corigliano (the composer's father and, for 23 years, concertmaster of the Philharmonic.)... It's difficult to imagine Bernstein devotees not having these performances already. But for others who have missed them in their various incarnations, or want to replace aging LPs—don't deny yourself some considerable pleasure.

-- Andrew Quint, FANFARE [5/1999, reviewing Scheherazade]

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

Joe Hisaishi In Vienna presents two world premiere recordings from the world-famous composer and conductor: his Symphony No.2, captured live at the Musikverein with the Wiener Symphoniker, and Viola Saga, featuring soloist Antoine Tamestit.

A 4 CD extravaganza of John Williams’ soundtrack and film score music joins the 12th batch of box sets released as a part of the Sony Classical Masters Series and provides a colossal reminder of Williams’ prodigious breadth and ubiquity of his works in some of the most culture defining films of the recent Hollywood era. With a disc devoted to his Star War scores, and another to his orchestral works and Olympics inspired works; the collection also features popular orchestras and soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic and more.

Franz Xaver Richter, along with Johann Stamitz, is regarded as one of the driving forces of the so-called Mannheim School and the renowned Court Orchestra that was founded thanks to Prince Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate. In contrast to his equally influential colleagues, he represented a more reserved type of composer, clearly rooted in Baroque music, which may have hindered his own career, but certainly did not damage the reputation of this epoch-making circle of musicians. Consequently, this portrait presents us with an astonishingly broad spectrum of musical expression. There is no shortage of contrapuntal composition, lively gallantries, or examples of subtle genre pieces, which indulge in capricious playfulness with programmatic indications-ensuring an enjoyable listening experience.

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The psaltery is one of the oldest string instruments in human history. In the German-speaking world, it is described rather coarsely as a Hackbrett. In Farsi, it is known as a santur and in Hungarian a cimbalom (not far from the Italian word for harpsichord - cembalo). But in Italian, it lost it's first letter and was used for a multitude of elegant compositions as an obligato salterio. The fine, delicate sound of the struck strings is the focus of our newest production, with which the ensemble nuovo aspetto lives up to it's name. The musicians, led by virtuoso "top striker" Elisabeth Seitz, perform a series of Romanesque rarities from a new perspective. Thanks to the subtle yet prominent solo instrument, they seem to have achieved weightlessness for a time.

MOZART Symphonies Nos. 1, 4–31, 33–36, 39–41. Symphonies, K 19a, 42a, 45a–b, 73l–n, 73q, 111b • Ádám Fischer, cond; Danish Natl CO • DACAPO 8.201201 (12 CDs: 716:42)

I mentioned in my review of a single disc from this series, which included symphonies Nos. 28–30 (Fanfare 34:4), that I didn’t think that Ádám Fischer’s performances captured “Mozart’s drama as well as they capture his elegance,” but added the caveat that it’s difficult to gauge an entire series of symphonies by one CD. Alas, in later reviewing the disc including symphonies Nos. 31, 33, and 34, I had the opposite feeling, that Fischer was making a “race to the finish line” and playing the symphonies too quickly. Now, as it so happened, I reviewed those two discs about two years apart, and so did not have the first still on hand to compare to the second, or to think about the differences in approach. But now I have the full set of 45 symphonies to review, and my feelings have changed. Now I am inclined to agree with Patrick Rucker, who gave a rave review to the single disc of symphonies Nos. 15–18 in Fanfare 31:1 (a disc reviewed, I believe, before I joined the magazine staff), stating that he was “grasping for superlatives.”

The difference? Listening to the entire series in chronological sequence. By doing so, I noted that, despite an overall theatrical approach to these symphonies (in the liner notes, Fischer admits that he tends to think of orchestral music “operatically,” i.e., finding a dramatic theme or thread in the music that he then tries to bring out), he does make distinctions between the earlier and the later symphonies. Reducing his approach to a few basics, he plays the earlier symphonies with equal drama and electricity but with far fewer changes in dynamics and fewer rubato touches. In addition, I was able to download the scores of four of the symphonies—two of the most famous late works (40 and 41) and two early symphonies (Nos. 5 and 15, chosen pretty much at random)—and although these are not up-to-date, verified, Urtext scores like the ones Fischer worked from, they do include dynamics markings. And, as any number of conductors of the past have mentioned, they do not tell you what to do between the forte here and the piano four or six bars later (or vice versa). You are expected to follow your own good taste in approaching them.

Perhaps another deciding factor for me was in hearing Philippe Herreweghe’s more dynamic performances of symphonies Nos. 39 and 41 and, believe it or not, Bruno Walter’s historic performances of symphonies Nos. 39–41. Despite Walter’s slower tempos (and richer string sound), he actually elicited much more nuance and detail from those symphonies than did Jaap ter Linden, whose set I gave a good review to and suggested at the time that it was a fine historically-informed set of the Mozart symphonies. But, to be honest, what really sold me on Fischer’s approach were his performances of the early, lesser-known, oft-neglected, and unnumbered symphonies. Each and every one of them sounded as if it was just bursting with excitement, yet not too much that it overpowered the music on the printed page.

Moreover, what struck me in the single disc of symphonies 31, 33 and 34 as too fast now, suddenly, made sense in context. And, for the several Toscanini-bashers out there, I found it almost comical to note that Fischer takes the Finale of the “Jupiter” Symphony at virtually the same tempo that they consider “too fast.” The difference, of course, is that musicians of the 1940s and 50s weren’t used to playing Mozart this swiftly, and so they tended to sound pressed, whereas Fischer’s Danish National Chamber Orchestra skips through the music deftly and nimbly, like snow rabbits dashing across the landscape. It’s the comfort level of the executants that makes the difference, then, not the “wrong” tempo.

A good example of Fischer’s approach is CD 3, where he presents no less that four symphonies in a row that are all in the key of D Major (K 73l, m, n, and q). It would have been very easy for him, and the orchestra, to simply slip into an all-purpose style for these works, which of course would make them sound pretty much the same, yet he continually varies his approach from work to work. I do, however, caution the listener to approach this set one CD at a time. That is what I did, listening on consecutive nights to only one CD per evening, and it worked out pretty well. You get a better feel for the magnitude of Fischer’s achievement that way, and you are being fairer to both him and the Danish orchestra, whose players helped prod him on to take chances with the music and do things differently from the norm. After all, this was a seven-year project for them. These symphonies did not just get all rehearsed and recorded within a year or two.

I should also point out the work that went into Symphony No. 15, one of the four I obtained scores of. In the notes, Fischer asserts that if this work had not been by Mozart, who wrote so many symphonies and so many of good quality, it would probably be a much better known work, possibly a repertoire staple. Just reading the score, the music does look promising but certainly not brilliant. The first movement, for instance, is in a quick 3/4 time, featuring a jagged melody with the usual wide-ranging melodic leaps. From the first bar, the dynamics marking is forte, which changes to piano at bar 13, then back to forte at bar 22, piano again at bar 25, forte on the first beat of bar 30 with a sudden fp on the second beat (a half note played by the oboes, trumpets, and first violins, while the second violins play 16ths and the violas, cellos, and basses play eighth notes). It’s all pretty cut-and-dry, you might say, and this is how most conductors play it. Fischer adds a little burst of extra volume at the top of bar 5, when the agitated strings play against long-held notes by oboes and trumpets, and there are all sorts of little gradations of sound in various places, including slight crescendos to emphasize the musical drama. More interestingly, none of this sounds particularly fussy; if you didn’t have the score in front of you, or if you hadn’t heard any number of flat-response historically-informed performances, you’d think that this is simply the way the music goes. Toscanini once said it isn’t the f here or the p there that’s difficult to gauge, but what to do in between. Sadly, Toscanini paid little attention to most of Mozart’s symphonies because, except for the last three, he found most of them boring: “Is always beautiful, but always the same!” In Fischer’s performances, nothing is “always the same.” In the Andante of this Symphony, for instance, there are no dynamics markings at all, yet Fischer plays it at a moderate mp with further gradations down to p or pp and back again. By such means does he create and sustain interest.

The notes also explain the reason why the music sounds so vibrant and alive: His string players all use steel strings, which gives the music a consistently “edgy” quality that reveals, as Fischer put it, Mozart’s “earthily honest side.” The more you think about it, the more this makes sense, since Mozart was strongly influenced by both Haydn and C. P. E. Bach, both of whom exploited an earthy, dramatic quality in their symphonies.

Probably the most difficult aspect of the earlier symphonies to overcome was the monotony of orchestration. Clarinets, horns, and other instruments only begin to appear in Mozart’s symphonies later on; earlier, the composer had to rely on his ingenuity of counter-rhythms and occasional harmonic changes to sustain interest, and unlike Haydn, Mozart almost invariably sought the widest possible popularity for his music (perhaps one of the reasons why Toscanini found it “always the same”). Yet, as the notes also point out, in Mozart’s day no one bothered to listen to music more than three years old as a rule. It was all about what was new, not what had come before. No one gave a hoot back then about “historical performance practice” because they didn’t want it and wouldn’t have listened if you gave it to them.

I still feel that occasional movements, such as the Andantes of the “Paris” Symphony and No. 39, are a shade too fast for my taste, but in the context of Fischer’s overall musical conception what he plays works very well. I can now accept what I hear in those later symphonies because my tolerance was built up through what he did with the numerous early works. In short, I have taken this symphonic journey with Fischer, the only difference being that I did it in 12 nights rather than in seven years.

I have now replaced the Jaap ter Linden set of Mozart symphonies on my shelf with this one. I strongly urge you to give them a listen and see if you don’t agree.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

This series to mark the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner in 2024 is dedicated to his symphonic works. Hansjorg Albrecht will perform all of Bruckner's symphonies in many new transcriptions for organ at important locations such as Zurich, Leipzig, Linz, Vienna and London. Bruckner's works are framed by contemporary compositions that deal with Bruckner's work in the "Bruckner Windows". Hansjorg Albrecht concludes the extensive project to commemorate Anton Bruckner with the last recording of the Study Symphony.

Saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason has been one of Icelands most active jazz musicians for the past decades. Through out his career he's cooperated with some of Scandinavia's finest musicians. On his latest release, Blue shoes, his partners are Danes Kjeld Lauritsen on Hammond organ and Kristian Leth on drums, both of whom he has cooperated with on previous releases. New to the mix is the outstanding Swedish guitarist Erik Soderlind. On a few tracks they are joined by Danish percussion master Birger Sulsbruck. The music, all Flosason's originals, is a cross between jazz and blues with a personal and nordic twist. The album was recorded at Village recording in Copenhagen during the summer of 2025. Sigurdur Flosason has recorded over thirty CDs and is a multiple winner of the Icelandic music awards.

The highlight of this sunny, consistently delightful disc comes in the form of 26 Variations on "La folia di Spagna", based on one of the most famous tunes in Western civilization. A veritable "concerto for orchestra", this late (1815) masterpiece offers a compendium of orchestral tricks of the trade, with brilliant sectional writing, echo effects, and solos for everyone, including (alongside more traditional strings and winds) trombones, harp, and even snare drum. Why it's not an orchestral staple even today simply defies the imagination, and aside from a less-than-seductive principal violin solo, it's brilliantly played here.


The remaining works consist of opera overtures and symphonies created from them, in the purest pre-Rossini Italian tradition. Zesty rhythms, lively tunes, and daring wind writing make these pieces a joy from first note to last. The Sinfonia "Il giorno onomastico" and the overtures to Falstaff and Angiolina offer particularly enticing melodies set amid bold splashes of orchestral color. As noted, Matthias Bamert and his London Mozart players do the music proud, though Chandos' recording does not quite solve the problem of recording a small orchestra up close in an overly ample acoustic. Great fun.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The four symphonies of Arvo Part were composed over a span of forty-five years, and bear little or no relationship with one another - four individual pieces that represent his output at separate parts of his creative journey. The First Symphony was composed in 1963, shortly after Part had graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory. It's two-movement structure looks to the baroque - Canons and a Prelude and Fugue - but the harmonic language is extremely advanced, giving off a distinct whiff of twelve-tone serialism. The Second Symphony, from 1966, in three movements, again employs a combination of serialism and textures hinting at Penderecki and the Polish school. Also in three movements, the Third Symphony (1971) reflects the time Part spent in the late 1960s studying chant and mediaeval music. Symphony No. 4 'Los Angeles' came much later (in 2007 - 08) and now the style is directly inspired by sacred music. Part took as his models two great litanies of the Orthodox Church: the Canon of Repentance, and the Canon to the Holy Guardian Angel. Unusually scored for strings, harp, timpani, and percussion, this final work is also cast in three movements. With her elegant, expressive body language, natural stage presence, and infectious musicality, Eva Ollikainen is one of the leading conductors of our time. This former student of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2020.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s landmark series of Beethoven’s complete sonatas is now available as a complete set and at a very special price. Bavouzet has taken this programme to the most prestigious venues around the world and continues to perform it. Gramophone has nominated him several times for its Artist of the Year award, arguing that ‘Bavouzet’s chronological journey through the Beethoven sonatas has not been surpassed in the last 30 years. Yes, it’s that good.” Repackaged as a box of nine individual albums, and each including the original booklets with their usual personal ‘performer’s note,’ this is a must have.

Past praise of previously released sets that make up this complete edition:

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 2

His lean, pinpointed sonority, rhythmic directness, freedom from mannerisms, and strong linear awareness convey both a strong sense of classical style and expressive economy. Bavouzet’s dynamic range is not particularly large, yet his subtle variety of articulations, thoughtful accentuation, and very discreet use of the sustain pedal give the playing a distinctive profile that recalls other intimate, Apollonian Beethoven stylists like Wilhelm Kempff, Walter Gieseking, and Robert Casadesus.

– ClassicsToday.com

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 3

The meticulous workmanship and musical intelligence informing Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s previous Beethoven cycle installment are equally apparent throughout this third and final volume. Many pianists would be happy to claim Bavouzet’s authority and mastery

– ClassicsToday.com

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 21,22 January 1985 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Bill Todd [Assistant]

(2-CD set) Deben Bhattacharya celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Jewish State with recordings made in the first years of it's etablishment. They recall a time when people with the same religion but from different cultural backgrounds were arriving from the world over. These CDs are a precious archive of the musical and cultural encounters of those early days.

For Simon Rattle, Jean Sibelius is "one of the most staggeringly original composers that there is". And indeed, this music has a unique musical language whose many beauties are particularly succinctly conveyed in Sibelius's seven symphonies. There is sonorous warmth as much as there is austere Nordic folklore. Moreover, there is a conceptual boldness that takes the listener on exciting musical journeys of discovery. In 2015, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker presented the cycle live, which was met with unanimous delight by audiences and critics alike. "The Philharmoniker show that with them and Simon Rattle, Sibelius is in excellent hands," wrote the Berliner Zeitung, "because the orchestra has that astringency and sheer power which is so important for this kind of music." Simon Rattle was familiar with the music of Jean Sibelius from childhood. When, as a ten-year-old, he heard the Fifth Symphony live for the first time, it struck him - to use his own words - "like a thunderbolt". The Berliner Philharmoniker can also look back on a long Sibelius tradition and the orchestra was conducted by the composer himself in 1902. However, the first complete performance of the seven symphonies was not realized until 2010 under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, with the Third Symphony being performed by the Philharmoniker for the first time. For many music lovers in Berlin, this new encounter with Sibelius was an exhilarating experience, and so it was only natural to repeat the performance of the cycle in Sibelius's anniversary year.