GREATEST HITS

Okay, there are no cannons in the 1812 Overture, but when the playing is this amazing you’re hardly going to care. These performances are fabulous. You also get Tchaikovsky’s Marche slave and the Marche miniature from his Suite No. 1; Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave Overture; Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon Overture; Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmilla Overture; Borodin’s Polovtsian March; Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1; and Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain. In this latter work, particularly, you’re not going to believe the precision and transparency that Reiner commands, as well as a climax that will blow you away. The couplings may be something of a grab-bag, but when everything you grab out of the bag is sensational, there’s no point in complaining. Vintage Living Stereo sound too, excellently restored. Wow!

— David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Reveries

FALSTAFF

"In her hands, the guitar takes on the precision of a diamond, each note a clear, shining facet that catches, prism-like, a glimpse of the spectrum."

- Anne Midgette, The New York Times

"Sharon's exquisite playing allowed me to revisit and fall in love with these songs all over again."

- Joan Baez

"The beauty and range of Sharon's guitar creates the perfect musical setting and imagery. America and the guitar have become inseparable in their musical manifestations, and Sharon's performance on this recording expresses these connections as richly as you will ever hear."

- Mark O'Connor

"Sharon's Journey to the New World is an exquisite listening experience that abounds with dynamics, rich tonal colors, mastery, and control—a warm place for the inner ear to dwell and swoon."

- Steve Vai

"Sharon Isbin's superbly lyrical playing endows these folksongs from the British Isles and North America with poetic beauty and enchanting intensity. The singing of Joan Baez is as sweetly evocative as ever."

- Graham Wade

WAGNER: DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDE

KORNGOLD: DIE TOTE STADT

Conceived on the basis of an original idea of Maestro Kent Nagano, CD 1, titled "The General" offers an entirely new interpretation of Beethoven's Egmont, itself based on a poem by Goethe. Offered as a tribute to Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the spoken text was written by author, critic and musicologist Paul Griffiths and is narrated by the noted actor Maximilian Schell with soprano Adrianne Pieczonka. The new narrative relates the events surrounding the Rwanda crisis in 1994. CD 2 includes Beethoven's 5th Symphony and excerpts from the incidental music to Egmont, performed by Orchestre symphonique de Montréal conducted by Kent Nagano.

THE CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT • Denis Matsuev (pn) • RCA 88697291462 (78:35) Live: New York 11/2007


SCHUMANN Kinderszenen, op. 15. LISZT Sonata in b. PROKOFIEV Sonata No. 7 in B?, op. 83. LIADOV The Musical Snuff-Box, op. 32. SCRIABIN Etude in d? , op. 8/12. GRIEG In the Hall of the Mountain King (arr. Ginzburg)


He has been called the “next Horowitz,” though I’ll wager that Horowitz never had the strength of Denis Matsuev. Now the fifth album of the formidable virtuoso is available, a live concert from Carnegie Hall no less, evidently recorded in one take. As far as I can tell, this is the entire concert sans one Stravinsky encore.


Matsuev has chosen well albeit somewhat dangerously for this debut, though the record proves he is more than up to the challenge. Schumann’s Kinderszenen is not a work that usually opens a program because it has relatively little thunder, lots of contrast, and confounds audience expectations for an initial hearing of a new artist. I am sure the Carnegie audience was expecting thunder and got poetry instead. Matsuev proves himself the gentle giant in this work, reining in any tendencies to turn Schumann into Beethoven, and for the most part rendering the work in an affable and engaging manner.


In fact, the last number of the set, “The Poet Speaks,” dovetails nicely into Liszt’s monumental opus almost as if that composer had taken his cue from Schumann. But not many bars pass when we hear what we came for, and truly this man is capable of some astounding virtuoso pianism that practically redefines the word. I have never heard Liszt’s propulsive and thunderous octaves sound like this before; in fact, I don’t remember hearing such an enormous and singly percussive sound from the instrument since hearing Jorge Bolet play the Tannhäuser overture at Indiana University back in 1973. This is so loud and so powerful that one fears the piano will come crashing down to the ground, and I am not at all convinced that the piano does in fact hold up well. RCA captures the sound of the piano and the hall quite effectively, but the percussive tsunami that Matsuev unleashes here distorts the tonal quality of the instrument; I was almost surprised that he didn’t stop between sections and have a tuner come out on stage. But this is a very good performance, almost eclipsing my favorite, that of Emil Gilels on RCA Living Stereo. Gilels also had this sort of power in his heyday—or at least close—but reveled in his own poetic instincts in the same manner that Matsuev does.


The Prokofiev is not a work one associates with poetry; instead it is a mechanistic beast of the industrial age. Sviatoslav Richter premiered the work in 1943 after having learned it in four days. It does represent a world out of focus, and not only that but actively committed to a certain type of inhuman mania that creeps up every century or so. But for all that, it never ceases to excite and thrill listeners, possibly because in the end it does strike a hopeful note, though after a lot of struggle, something those in the Soviet Union at the time of the Great Patriotic War would certainly understand. Matsuev is on top of this one as well, ferociously committed to its unflagging anti-sentimentality. Though Richter will always have an authority here (Archipel), and Argerich turns in a barn-burner as well (EMI), this one has to be ranked with the very best.


The three encores given are but teasers—one would love to hear some extended Scriabin from this man, this short étude offering but a glimpse of his impetuous way with the music, while the Liadov and Grieg are simply contrasting icings on one cake. RCA catches the vast dynamic range of this artist as well as anyone can, and it’s quite a ride. You won’t fall asleep during this one, that’s a promise.


FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter
-------------------------------------------------------------

In concert and on disc Mr. Matsuev has mostly specialized in finger-busting virtuoso pieces. But what was most striking about the account of Schumann’s "Kinderszenen" that opened this recital was the delicacy and introversion of his playing. Starting at a hushed volume and a relaxed pace he phrased with a dreamy freedom that had the feeling of spontaneous invention.

A diaphanous account of the "Träumerei" movement threatened to disappear altogether, and the bold silences and aching sustained notes of the concluding "Der Dichter Spricht" had an almost daredevil feel.

...Liszt’s Sonata in B minor...gave him ample opportunity to take it out on the keyboard. Tumultuous passages here were almost overwhelmingly raucous. But his poetic instincts held fast in tender moments, with trills as thrillingly precise as one might ever hope to hear.

...He superbly captured the moody fluctuations of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7, from anxiety and brittleness to haunted rumination, and offered a primal performance of the roiling Precipato finale.

Liadov’s "Music Box"; a Scriabin étude (Op. 8, No. 12); "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Grieg in a flamboyant transcription by Grigory Ginzburg — each greeted with increased passion...When it ended, one fully expected to see smoke curling from his fingertips.

- New York Times
(Review of the Carnegie Hall concert, 11/19/2007)

Music by Stanley Silverman, libretto by Richard Foreman.

Tracks:
1 Elephant Drone; Elephants 3:01
2 Elephant Heartbeats 2:03
3 Don’t You Believe; My Ears 2:21
4 All Shook Up 1:33
5 Read My Palms; My Hands Are Inside the Wall; Gavotte 3:52
6 Read My Palm; Watch Me Move; I’m No Closer; Look at My Hands 6:33
7 Stop Seeing Reinhardt 5:23
8 Entr’acte; Watch Me Put My Right Foot 5:27
9 I Am No Longer Beautiful; Beautiful As Is 4:43
10 We Sit in the Window 4:13
11 Gypsy Tango; Shoot Them 3:31
12 You’re on the Radio; Radio Waves 3:34
13 Dreaming of Reinhardt 1:04
14 Midnight Sun 4:05
15 Photograph Song 1:29
16 Madrigals 2:50
17 Vaudeville Chase; Stirring Soup; A Strange Thing 4:32
18 Finale 4:35

Scrubwoman – Karen Altman
Hannah – Susan Belling
Max – Luther Enstad
Doctor – Roland Gagnon
Otto – Larry Marshall
Rock Singer – Luther Rix
Ragtime Lady – Marilyn Sokol
Hartman – PhilipSteele
Archangel – Michael Tilson Thomas

Chorus: Patti Austin, Jane Gunter, Dianne Higginbotham, June Magruder, Patricia Price, Albertine Robinson, Maeretha Stewart, Rose Taylor

Electronic music realized by Pril Smiley at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Laboratory.

CHOPIN: NOCTURNES - SONY CLASS

"These are extremely fine recordings, topped only by Boulez himself on DG, performances not necessarily "better", but certainly sonically superior. Still, I retain a marginal preference for this ebullient and harrowing La Valse, and the super-precise and super-cool Cleveland interpretation of the Rapsodie is unique. Whether those qualities are what you want in this particular piece is very much a matter of personal choice; in his Berlin remake, Boulez put a little more meat on the music's bones. Boléro builds to a massively powerful climax...The sound suits the different orchestras: chamber-like in Cleveland, big and even boomy in New York, with a touch of glassiness to the strings in louder passages. At less than full price, this is an extremely good deal, even if you already have tons of Ravel in your collection." [4/20/2006]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com Reviewing earlier release

"These six overtures were recorded in a single day, November 22, 1958, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Intended originally by RCA Victor to be the stereophonic successor to Toscanini's recordings of five of the six, Reiner in this recording held to tempos in many cases a few seconds faster than Toscanini's; yet, notwithstanding, he managed to inject an element of geniality into the music absent in Toscanini's vivid thrust and forward drive. No one, however, could make The Barber of Seville Overture scintillate the way Toscanini did, be it with the New York Philharmonic or the NBC Symphony , but Reiner does bring a liquidity to the score that is quite refreshing. Reiner's The Thieving Magpie Overture and II Signor Bruschino Overture are even more successful, with sharp detail, bravura, and panache, totally exhilarating in their sparkling frothiness. Conversely, there is a decided lushness in the opening of The Silken Ladder Overture and in Reiner's approach to the Cinderella Overture that may not appeal to those who want the refined polish Karajan brought to the former or the tauter rhythms and dry finesse Abbado brought to the latter; but Reiner could, for all his discipline and precision, be a musical sybarite at times and he obviously relished this music. As if to make up for it, his opening to the William Tell Overture is more reserved, lacking the immediate plunge into darkness and mystery that characterized Toscanini's way with this music or the dramatic intensity of Leonard Bernstein in what is my preferred recording of it (but, actually, Reiner is only toying with the listener, holding back so he can finish in a flourish of brass that generates terrific excitement. The original recordings were magnificent sonically and that warmth, lushness, clarity, and vigor have been quite successfully transferred to the new format."

-- Jon Tuska, Fanfare [9/1990] Reviewing RCA 60387

Simone Dinnersteins first recording for Sony Classical, BACH: A STRANGE BEAUTY, has the critically-acclaimed pianist returning to Bach, this time combining three transcriptions of his Chorale Preludes, with one of his English Suites and two of his Keyboard Concerti, again revealing her intense and expressive playing style, as well as her individual approach to Bach's music. For her first orchestral recording Simone is joined by members of one of Berlin's most venerable institutions - Kammerorchester Staatskapelle Berlin, with Stephan Mai as concertmaster. Grammy Award winning producer Adam Abe's house, who produced Dinnerstein's Goldberg Variations disc and her follow-up album THE BERLIN CONCERT, returns to recapture her distinctive sound on BACH: A STRANGE BEAUTY.

...one of the supreme achievements of 20th-century music...

-- Andrew Clements, The Guardian
on Le Marteau Sans Maître

Displays all the merits, virtues and charms of von Stade’s mezzo range.

Frederica von Stade has husbanded her voice wisely and consequently had a long career, yet there is little doubt that the recordings she made in the mid to late 1970s display her beautiful voice at its freshest and most appealing. Affectionately known to her fans as “Flicka”, she has long vied with Marilyn Horne for the title of “America’s favourite mezzo-soprano”, but given the difference in their repertoires, she was never really in direct competition with Horne as their voice-types, although both nominally within the same category, are very different. The main overlap has come in their shared coloratura facility, especially in Rossini - although even there, they differ in areas of strength, Horne offers greater pyrotechnic facility and brilliance while von Stade excels in music requiring plangency and pathos.

I have long loved the melting luxuriance of her voice, with its plush low notes and light, sensuous, flickering vibrato and am delighted that three of her early recitals have been re-issued by ArkivMusic under licence from Sony. The standard LP length of around fifty minutes of music now seems short measure, but I readily admit that the current norm of 80 minutes on CD sometimes constitutes more than I want to hear at one sitting, especially of only one voice, so I have no complaints when the singing is of the quality on offer here.

This recital offers arias spanning three hundred years of Italian opera. The programme is eclectic and the last item might even seem a little incongruous, in that we leap from Baroque of Broschi (who?) to the verismo of Leoncavallo but the music has been chosen carefully to display all the merits, virtues and charms of von Stade’s mezzo range. She is always ideal playing suffering women in various states of distress, scorn and abuse and as such was always an adorable Cenerentola/Cendrillon in Rossini and Massenet respectively, but it is something of a relief to hear her sing two more upbeat Rossini arias in the trouser role of Tancredi and the exultant Semiramide. The latter features the one slightly less than agreeable characteristic of her voice which was apparent even in her prime and was to become more noticeable over time: the slight discoloration of notes from top B and above - in other words, the required “upper extension” of the Rossini mezzo with which Colbran (Rossini’s wife) herself soon began to experience difficulties. Conversely, it is also the aria which displays her perfect trill and equal gift for elation as opposed to unvaried melancholy.

She lives each character most convincingly; the least overtly characterised item is the aria from Broschi’s “Idaspe” which will constitute a pleasant surprise to new generations of operaphiles. It is a static, old-fashioned display aria, very grand and dignified with its soaring tune and staccato-obbligato trumpet accompaniment, originally written for the castrato divo Farinelli, Von Stade nicely encompasses the switches on this disc between male and female roles by colouring her voice differently, with a more mellow timbre. For Paisiello’s Nina, she adopts an aptly lighter, more feminine tone suggestive of innocence and simplicity as befits the music, which is reminiscent of Gluck in plaintive mode, especially given the prominence of the flute accompaniment.

The leap to Leoncavallo’s mezzo Musetta is a wrench but one is soon swept along by the gorgeous tune, lush orchestration and von Stade’s trademark ability to tug the heartstrings. In a sense, we have come full emotional circle from the opening item, in which von Stade recalls a famous Glyndebourne role and movingly delineates Penelope’s fidelity and devotion. She is ably supported here by fellow-mezzo Janice Taylor’s Eridea.

The support from Mario Bernardi and the Canadian orchestra is sensitive and flexible, the recorded sound ideal. This disc makes a perfect companion to “von Stade’s delectable French opera aria recital made in 1976 under Pritchard.

-- Ralph Moore, MusicWeb International

An ideal showcase for Ormandy and his Philadelphians, who provide plenty of excitement and drama amid the luster of those famous strings.

"Sir Malcom Sargent generally plays the purely orchestral passages more swiftly than when he is accompanying Heifetz. This introduces an element of drama that is missing in performances that reduce the music to a syrupy wallow in slow romantic schmaltz...Despite the relatively rapid tempos, the music never sounds rushed. [T]his is the finest recording of Bruch’s masterpiece ever made in terms of both performance and sound."

-- Arthur Lintgen, Fanfare [7/2006]

"Except for the human voice itself, probably no instrument of music so intimately reflects the individuality of the musician as the violin. So this record gives us, in addition to the fabled Heifetz technical wizardry, the Heifetz personality. That personality is encountered here in its maturity—and in the A major Concerto perhaps something slightly beyond that. Throughout the D major, however, the justly famous powers of intonation are exhibited at their nearly supernatural best."

-- Gramophone [9/1972] Reviewing Mozart Concertos

Sony Classical celebrates the artist’s 80th birthday with The Essential Julian Bream. Throughout his long career, the charismatic British guitarist and lutenist’s virtuosic playing has enraptured audiences, inspired composers and won him four Grammy Awards®. This special 2-CD collection reflects the vast variety of music that Bream has championed, ranging from such popular Spanish classics as Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Tarrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra, to the Elizabethan gems that Bream himself brought back to life. The Essential Julian Bream includes the artist’s own editions and arrangements of works by Albeniz, Boccherini, Falla, Granados, Handel, Paganini and Vivaldi as well as his famous collaborations with fellow artists, tenor Robert Tear and guitarist John Williams.

This is also available in a Deluxe CD & DVD Set.

Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project has been on a mission to promote innovation and cross-cultural understanding through the arts for the last 15 years. The newest chapter comes with the Sony Masterworks release of the new album A Playlist Without Borders.

The vision of Yo-Yo Ma's limitless collective, the Silk Road Ensemble, is as timely as ever: to connect the world's neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences. From flashy surf guitar sounds to ninth century Chinese poetry, from modular playlists to Egyptian rhythms, the Silk Road Ensemble mixes the modern and the traditional, breaking boundaries of ethnicity and era. A Playlist Without Borders demonstrates once again that there are no barriers for those approaching music with an open mind.

"The quartets Nos. 21, 22, and 23 were composed by Mozart with the hope of a dedication to King William of Prussia. The king was a cellist, and Mozart lovingly favors the cello in these quartets of supreme craftsmanship." - Herbert Russcol

[Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590] "...makes an exciting culmination to them all, in Mozart's most mature handling of the style...The composer ends his adventures in the string quartet at the very top of his bent." - John Burk, Mozart and his Music

"Though CBS in its latter days of independence reissued the Juilliard Quartet’s recordings of the last Schubert String Quartets on a mid-price 2-CD set, re-reissued by Sony on SB2K89978, neither they nor their present owners Sony/BMG ever released these Mozart recordings on CD, to the best of my knowledge, perhaps because there is such strong competition in the Mozart, not least from the Quartetto Italiano and Amadeus Quartet in recordings of much the same vintage. With those stylish Italian recordings currently unavailable, however, either as part of their 8-CD collection of all the Mozart Quartets, singly, or on Philips Duo, except as downloads or from ArkivMusic, and the Amadeus as a box set only, it makes excellent sense to reissue the Juilliard recordings...If you are looking for a 2-CD set of the last four quartets, the ArkivMusik reissue of the Juilliards makes an obvious recommendation. There’s a detailed booklet with some useful analyses of the music and the recording has worn well." -- MusicWeb International

Renowned classical guitarist Sharon Isbin follows up her Grammy-winning album, JOURNEY TO THE NEW WORLD, with another extraordinary musical exploration, SHARON ISBIN & FRIENDS: GUITAR PASSIONS. This time, the journey is focused on Isbins musical mentors and has a Latin American flavor on many tracks. Joining Sharon on this new recording are Steve Vai, Stanley Jordan and Nancy Wilson, among others.

One of the finest violinists of the second half of the twentieth century, Isaac Stern (1920-2001) left behind a unique legacy that includes not only a great solo career in performance and recording, but also an impeccable reputation as colleague and mentor, and the glorious fact that he inspired the rebirth of one of the world’s greatest concert venues – Carnegie Hall in New York. Fifty years ago, in early 1960, Stern formed a citizen’s committee to protest the planned demolition of Carnegie Hall, sparking a movement that not only saved the building but insured its future as one of music’s great landmarks.

Carnegie Hall and Sony Masterworks have assembled a release that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the rescue of the Hall and the beginning of its renaissance, as well as the 90th anniversary of Isaac Stern’s birth. The accompanying booklet recounts the story of Stern’s efforts to stop the Hall’s demolition and his enduring leadership that re-established Carnegie Hall as America’s greatest concert venue.

Counted among the greatest violinists of the 20th century (if not the greatest), Heifetz's concerto recordings for RCA are among the unparalleled treasures of the catalog.

To music lovers throughout the world, the Marlboro Music festival represents a unique gathering place for some of the most distinguished and gifted musicians of our time. founded in 195I, Marlboro has come to be recognized as perhaps the world’s only fully professional center for advanced musical studies. Located at the end of a country road in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, Marlboro is a place where the young professional and the master artist rehearse and perform together on an equal basis. There, everyone can get away from normal routines and pressures to explore together new repertoire, exchange ideas, and cultivate the art of chamber music. In the words of one critic, this extraordinary community of artists has become “perhaps the highest concentration of artistic activity, of whatever kind, that takes place anywhere, anytime, in the U.S. and possibly the world.”