This recording is no longer available on cassette.

Metamorphosen seems to be much in favour with conductors at present. It is small wonder since not only is it a great and moving work, but it is a wonderful vehicle for demonstrating the excellence of a string ensemble. Strauss may only have specified 23 solo strings, but he wrote for them with such richness and complexity that they always sound at least twice that number if they are any good at all. And the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra are extremely good... The work is wonderfully played here with a rich and warm recording to enhance the performance...[and] there are many lovely insights... If Salonen is perhaps a surprising Straussian, he is clearly a perceptive one. The Duet-Concertino was Strauss's last instrumental work involving soloists, and a charmer it is, too, even if slight and reminiscent. If we have heard most of its beguiling themes in other guises—as Daphne (in the opera of that name), for example there are few composers who repeat themselves so divertingly, variously and imaginatively. These ruminations on things past are beautifully played by the clarinettist Paul Meyer and the bassoonist Knut Sonstevold, both with the appropriate mellow tone, and Salonen here strikes the right interpretative stance, combining affection with a high regard for the craftsmanship that flowed as easily as melody from Strauss's pen.

The prelude to Capriccio is, of course, a string sextet, supposedly written by the composer Flamand in the opera in honour of the beautiful widowed Countess's birthday. But the temptation to transcribe it for full string orchestra must be hard to resist and Salonen has done the job well. If I prefer it in its original form, that is because I think it is essentially a piece of chamber music and, like Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht, loses something when it is inflated. On the other hand it gains in richness, and in any case it is such a beautiful piece of music that it seems only fair that it should be placed within the grasp of symphony orchestras looking for something different with which to open their programmes. So they should be grateful to Salonen.

-- Gramophone [10/1989]

Mozart: Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine kleine Nach

WEILL: THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS,

STRAVINSKY: RITE OF SPRING ZU

Pavarotti Sings Rare Verdi Arias

Having admitted to only qualified enthusiasm for Dame Kiri's recent CD albums of popular repertoire and folk-songs, it is a pleasure to recommend this programme of Verdi and Puccini arias without reservation. The beautiful voice has never sounded better and the clear well-balanced recording allows us to hear the expressive pointing of meaning and characterization to perfection. Orchestral sound too is excellent, though slightly set back in relation to the ideally perspectived voice.

-- John Borwick, Gramophone [5/1985]

No other recording of this work has approached this one for bringing out, on the one hand, the pungency of its satire and, on the other, the catchiness of the dance-band rhythm. Probably none ever will.

This is, of course, the classic 1958 recording (first issued in the UK in mono in 1961) of Die Dreigroschenoper, featuring the composer's widow, Lotte Lenya, in the role of Jenny that she created back in 1928. Though 30 years on Lenya's voice had lost its youthful characteristics, no other recording of the work has approached this for bringing out, on the one hand, the pungency of its satire and, on the other, the catchiness of the dance-band rhythm. Probably none ever will.

It is also the only absolutely complete version there has been, since it includes not only Mrs Peachum's "Ballad of Sexual Dependency" but even Lucy's rarely heard "Jealousy Song".

Originally the recording was on four LP sides, and then reissued on three. Now it finds its ideal format on a single CD, in which form it should be in every record collection. The sound is very good early stereo.

-- Gramophone [3/1989]

Includes 160 page libretto booklet in English, German and French.


Weinberger's Schwanda used to be extremely popular, and even the formerly ubiquitous Polka and Fugue seems to have fallen out of favor. This is the opera's only major-label recording, and happily it's fabulous. The cast, led by Hermann Prey in the title role, is as strong as can be, and the story is delightful: it's yet another take on "great music can charm even the devil," with (naturally) some love interest thrown in to set the plot rolling. The music is ornately lyrical: glitteringly scored and full of luscious chromatic filigree. It deserves to be popular again. Weinberger, who committed suicide in 1967 at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida (if you've ever been there, you'd understand), was a fine composer who does not merit his current obscurity. In any event, thanks to Arkivmusic.com, you can get the complete opera "on demand" nicely packaged in a convenient slipcase, WITH THE ORIGINAL NOTES AND COMPLETE LIBRETTO! I kid you not. So if you missed this opera the first time around, go for it.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Bluebeard's Castle is a difficult opera to cast. Bluebeard himself must either be a bass who can get up to a high F or a baritone who can get down to low G. In the former category, to which Samuel Ramey belongs, the usual risks are that he will sound unsuitably fatherly or will be uncomfortably tense in the upper register. Ramey avoids both hazards with ease: he combines gravity with believable youth, and has no problems with the upper reaches of the part. His is a slightly cool, reserved, soft-grained Bluebeard, there is no swell of homage in the last scene when he hails his former wives as "immortal, unforgotten", but you may well prefer his sobriety to Fischer-Dieskau's meticulous but at times melodramatic expressive shading of every syllable. And in the grand phrases describing his kingdom, between the brazen paeans that follow the opening of the fifth door, Ramey sustains the majestically slow tempo set by Adam Fischer quite superbly.

Judith, more awkwardly still, should really be a mezzo with a top C, not a soprano with a serviceable extension down into the mezzo range. Marton is the latter, and a soprano with a distinct cutting edge to her tone at times, as well as a flutter that can become ungainly under pressure. But she is convincingly ardent and womanly, acts well (real passion and urgency to the scene before the opening of the seventh door) and uses both her words and an effective mezzo voce with intelligence: this is the best recorded performance I have heard from her.

The slowness of the music for the fifth door is characteristic of Fischer's approach to the score. So is its colour (dominated by the brass, not by the organ) and the fact that it is manifestly not the opera's summit: the hugest climaxes in this account are on either side of the seventh door, and Fischer leads up to the first of them with a tension that is increased rather than diminished by his deliberate tempo and his measured silences. It is a less overtly dramatic account than some (than Sawallisch's, say), with pictorial details less vividly coloured, but it has an impressive brooding solemnity and a greater sense than most readings of a drama emerging from and receding into darkness.

-- Gramophone [9/1988]

With a collection of titles, if the programme is well played and recorded one can only come up with the usual line of "go ahead if this is the selection you want". Three out of the four overtures here are early ones and for myself, I must say that the mellow blend of the orchestration of the Prelude to Die Meistersinger was a considerable relief after the brashness of Rienzi. But that the playing is fine cannot be denied. The Philharmonia violins sing the "Prize Song" with a softly expressive silkiness of tone that is most beautiful. The quiet blend of the wind at the start of Tannhduser is equally good to hear, while when the "Pilgrims' Hymn" returns towards the end all bombast is avoided by the soft and deft violin figuration being so delicate that the woodwinds can also play softly, as well as quite swiftly. Maazel does allow the greatest expansiveness later on, as the music demands. Nor is there any lack of brilliance or zest in such a piece as the Dutchman Overture or in the final polacca of Rienzi; though there is a top B just before the final molts put stretto (bar 344) where violins and woodwind do take a split second to become unanimous (not such a niggling criticism as it may seem, since the note is quite long and is an important one at the top of a climax).

-- Gramophone [3/1980]

[I] must say that I much liked the warmth and generosity of feeling that Bruno Walter brings to it. Fournier is quite magnificent and the orchestra respond with playing of genuine eloquence and feeling. Francescatti, of course, is not a violinist to all tastes: JN spoke of his "wiry, extrovert performance", for which he did not really care, though he admired the performance in every other respect. To my mind his playing lacks real inner repose and his tone here tends to be chilly. However, generally speaking, this is a most satisfying reading and the orchestra produce glorious tone.

-- Gramophone [3/1974, reviewing the Double Concerto]

SCHUBERT: SYMPHONY NO 9 GREAT

SMETANA SZELL, CLEVELAND ORCH

HAYDN: SONATA FOR PIANO NO 50