The various soloists are a delight to listen to, and handle both powerful and sensitive passages with considerable skill. The orchestras generally play well under their individual conductors but in certain passages the horns/trombones are insecure. The background notes are more than adequate though more could have been said about the works themselves. Something should be said about the new style slim double jewel case used by Vox. The internal leaf is poorly designed and the clips, too weak to hold the discs, break off in transit. (Why redesign when an robust version exists, one wonders?)
The analogue recordings of the 70s are clear with no background noise that usually shows up in recordings of this period. The recording of the Pierné work (from 1978) is disappointing; the acoustics are particularly dry and the higher frequencies are lost. These recordings, like all previous Vox concertos reviewed, are pleasantly balanced for piano. The recording venues are not given in the notes.
-- MusicWeb International (Raymond Walker, August 2001)
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (Original Cast Recording)
MASTERWORKS
CD
$17.06Feb 07, 2025
Sony Masterworks Broadway is pleased to announce the release of Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (Original Cast Recording). The best reviewed show in West End history, with 56 five-star reviews!, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical is directed by 2023 Olivier Award nominee Robert Hastie. With book, music and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, the album is produced by Grammy Award winning and Tony, Emmy, Olivier award nominated Steve Sidwell.
Union & Liberty / D. C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band
Sono Luminus
CD
$18.99Dec 08, 1990
Track Listing 1. Battle Cry of Freedom, for voice, chorus & keyboard, The 2. Star-Spangled Banner, The (National Anthem, USA), for orchestra & voice/chorus, ad lib 3. Uncle Sam's Farm 4. Vaillance Polka Militaire 5. Drums and Trumpets 6. Weeping, Sad and Lonely, for voice & keyboard 7. Columbian Quadrilles, The 8. Girl I Left Behind Me, folk song, The 9. Beauregard's Retreat From Shiloh, for narrator, chorus & piano 10. We Are Coming, Father Abraham for voice & piano 11. Kingdom Coming 12. Grafted into the Army 13. Picture on the Wall, The 14. Daniel Webster's Funeral March 15. Tenting On the Old Campground 16. Battle Hymn of the Republic, The ("Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," words by Julia Ward Howe; music attributed to Steffe)
D.C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band: Kevin M'Dermott (vocals), James H. Johnston (violin), Patrick G. Jordan (viola), Peter H. Bloom (flute, piccolo), Steven Jackson (clarinet), Henry Peyrebrune (acoustic bass).
Recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, New York in November and December, 1993. Includes liner notes by Kevin M'Dermott.
On UNION & LIBERTY!, D.C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band performs Northern popular music of the Civil War era on period instruments.
D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band: Kevin M'Dermott (tenor); James H. Johnston (violin); Henry Peyrebrune (bass violin); Patrick G. Jordan (viola); Peter H. Bloom (flute); Steven Jackson (clarinet). Personnel: Patrick G. Jordan (viola); Peter H. Bloom (flute, piccolo); Kevin M'Dermott (tenor saxophone).
Liner Note Author: Kevin M'Dermott.
Recording information: Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, NY (11/1993-12/1993).
Editors: Kevin M'Dermott; Jonathan Marcus.
Arrangers: Kevin M'Dermott; Patrick G. Jordan; Peter H. Bloom; Moore.
Nystroem: Sinfonia Espressiva, Sinfonia Seria / Paavo Järvi
BIS
CD
$21.99Nov 01, 1997
REVIEWS: Fanfare (5-6/98, p.173) - "The Swede Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966) is one of those undemonstrative composers whose quiet sobriety might lead the inattentive to pass him by unwittingly. But in his understated way Nystroem is a master, and BIS's ongoing series of recordings with Paavo Järvi in Malmö is something that deserves enthusiastic support..." BBC Music (3/98, p.59) - Performance: 4 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5) - "...the Malmö Symphony Orchestra reveals its greatest strength in a richness of string tone....Paavo Järvi keep[s] tight control on the music's sometimes diffuse dramatic flow..."
One of the finest Christmas recordings ever made, this 1994 production by the Baltimore Consort makes a welcome return (complete with a new cover) along with the revival of the Dorian label. Glowing with the high, clear soprano of Custer LaRue and brimming with versatile, virtuoso instrumental work by Mary Anne Ballard (viols, rebec), Mark Cudek (cittern, Baroque guitar, viols, bandora), Larry Lipkis (viol, recorder, gemshorn), Ronn McFarlane (lute), Chris Norman (wooden flutes, pennywhistle), and Webb Wiggins (organ), this program literally lives up to the promise of its title.
Many of these 20 tunes/carols/dances are among the most familiar Christmas standards--Ding dong merrily on high; Greensleeves; Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen; In dulci jubilo; The Cherry Tree Carol; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day--presented in both vocal/instrumental and strictly instrumental arrangements. But whatever the tune, and however it's presented, the result is invariably engaging, artful, classy, and infinitely repeatable, which means it's perfect for multiple repetitions, whether at Christmas or any other time of year. Chris Norman's flute improvisation on "Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen" is a classic, and Custer LaRue's rendition of the beautiful "Rorate coeli desuper" is not to be missed. In fact, that last instruction applies to this entire disc. If you're a Christmas music fan (and who isn't?) and you don't already own this CD, you know what you have to do.
Boulanger: Faust et Hélène, Etc / Tortelier, Dawson, BBC Philharmonic
Chandos
CD
$21.99Jul 01, 1999
This disc received the 2000 Gramophone magazine award for "Best Choral Recording." REVIEWS: Fanfare (1-2/00, pp.213-214) - "...Yan Pascal Tortelier makes a completely convincing case for Boulanger as an outstanding composer, potentionally a great one. Good sound, and a most elegant design. This disc gets a very firm recommendation indeed."
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 & Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118
PENTATONE
CD
$17.99$19.99Save 10%Sep 11, 2026
Following the 2025 release of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 and Intermezzi Op. 117 - an album that received rave reviews worldwide - Francesco Piemontesi, conductor Manfred Honeck, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their Brahms journey with a compelling new recording of the composer's Piano Concerto No. 1. A work of striking emotional force and symphonic grandeur, it was born from a profound personal and artistic crisis. Composed in the aftermath of Robert Schumann's tragic collapse, the concerto reflects Brahms' struggle for artistic identity, as well as his confrontation with grief, responsibility, and expectation. From it's monumental opening - once likened to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - to the deeply introspective slow movement, often understood as a portrait of Clara Schumann, this interpretation reveals the work's extraordinary psychological depth. Complementing the concerto are Brahms' Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118, works of introspection, farewell, and concentrated expression. Composed more than three decades after the concerto, these miniatures distil a lifetime of experience into music of remarkable intimacy and emotional restraint. From the consoling warmth of the Intermezzo in A Major to the desolate introspection of the Intermezzo in E-flat minor - often regarded among Brahms' darkest utterances - these pieces form a poignant counterpoint to the youthful turbulence of the concerto. Together, they trace a path from struggle to reflection, offering a profound insight into Brahms' artistic evolution and inner world. Francesco Piemontesi, one of today's most-cherished pianists, presents the sixth release in his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, following the widely praised Schubert - Last Piano Sonatas (2019), Bach Nostalghia (2021), Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel (2022), Liszt Transcendental Etudes & Piano Sonata (2023), and Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Three Intermezzi Op. 117 (2025).
The Canadian-American cellist Elinor Frey performs and conducts Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's three cello concertos with the Accademia de' Dissonanti. These dramatic works, rich in turbulent exchanges yet also in tender moments, bear witness to C. P. E. Bach's fiery imagination, where emotion and melody take precedence. In Bach's time, personalising a performance was both common and expected. The question of 'how a cellist premiering these works would have approached these concertos' lies at the heart of this recording. Drawing on a vocabulary of ornamentation and melodic analysis derived from the music of the composer and his contemporaries, Frey has reconstructed the social milieu and instrumental practice of Bach's time, in order to approach the way in which this music was once heard and felt.
To speak of Franz Liszt is to enter a world in which categories collapse. Virtuoso, visionary, reformer, celebrity, mystic - none of these labels is sufficient, and yet each illuminates a facet of a musician whose creative presence reshaped 19th-century musical life. He inhabited his age with a rare duality: outwardly the most electrifying pianist Europe had ever known, inwardly a thinker preoccupied with the ethical, spiritual and imaginative potential of art. That tension - between public spectacle and private enquiry - lies at the heart of an oeuvre whose range and unpredictability remain without parallel. Liszt's early fame rested on a pianistic style that expanded the technical and expressive boundaries of the instrument. His performances were not merely demonstrations of dexterity but events that altered the nature of concert listening itself, whether in orchestral appearances or in the solo recital format he effectively established. However, virtuosity was never an end in itself. From the 1830s onward, Liszt's compositions increasingly acknowledged poetic, literary and philosophical impulses, often signaled through titles, epigraphs or extra-musical associations. This stimulus would later crystallise in his codification of the symphonic poem, but it was equally present in his keyboard music, where narrative, argument and symbolism frequently replace abstract formal logic. A central expression of this aesthetic is Liszt's lifelong engagement with the march - a genre that might seem, on the surface, to withstand the kind of reflective complexity he prized. The march offered something irresistible: a form already laden with public meaning, ripe for reinterpretation. In his hands, it's regulated tread becomes a medium for ambiguity, it's grand gestures inflected with harmonic adventurousness, it's civic pronouncements quietly complicated by covert sensibility. The same impulse that drove him to revisit and rework earlier compositions in the light of new understanding shaped his relationship to the genre as a whole: returning to it across decades, he treated it not as a fixed form but as an evolving channel for dramatic, national and personal expression.
Niccolo Mestrino: Violin Concertos and Chamber Music
Ramee
CD
$20.99Aug 28, 2026
The art of composition attained a wholly new quality and a totally new aesthetic status with the works of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an art that their contemporaries already described as Classical. The standards these two masters set through their creations continue to shape our perceptions and criteria of evaluation to this day, yet we rarely think of the virtuosos who brought them to life and to whose outstanding skill they frequently owe their very existence. The Italian violinist Niccolo Mestrino was one such virtuoso. After several engagements with various orchestras in Italy he was appointed by Joseph Haydn as concertmaster of Prince Esterhazy's famous court orchestra in Eisenstadt. Later he became the leader of the orchestra of the Theâtre de Monsieur opera house in Paris. The works that are recorded here for the first time demonstrate that Mestrino was not only an extraordinary violinist but also an accomplished composer.
This first volume of Joseph Marx's chamber music charts a period of 30 years from the cello works of 1913-14 to the Violin Sonata No. 2, written in 1944, shortly before he ceased all composition. The Pastorale is characteristically subtle with impressionistic devices harnessed to ever-changing variations. The Suite in F major, for which the Pastorale was originally intended, balances a rural idyll with more sombre elements, informed by a noble Classical design. Violin Sonata No. 2, subtitled Fruhlingssonate ('Spring Sonata'), consciously re-uses material from earlier works to form a lyrical dance-like work irradiated by ingenious harmonic twists.
Berliner Barock Solisten, Daishin Kashimoto - Antonio Vivald
Berlin Philharmoniker
CD
$39.99Aug 21, 2026
Whether as a phone ringtone, in hotel lobbies, or in commercials for luxury goods, Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons have achieved a presence in everyday life today that the composer could not have imagined 300 years ago. However, it would be a shame to overlook the innovative testament to Baroque inventiveness that these violin concertos are, given their enormous popularity. With this recording, the Berliner Barock Solisten and Daishin Kashimoto invite listeners to rediscover the atmospheric nuances of The Four Seasons - and to listen to it with fresh ears.
As a concept musical, Love Life was a real trailblazer, inspiring musical theatre favourites of the 1960s, 70s and beyond from Cabaret and Chicago (originally subtitled 'A Musical Vaudeville') to Sondheim's Company (told through a series of vignettes). It is "one of Weill's best scores" (conductor Jim Holmes), a masterpiece of putting different musical styles together, "a compendium of American musical idioms, cunningly chosen so that they suit the dramatic material". Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner teamed up in 1947, both riding high on recent successes (Street Scene for Weill, Brigadoon for Lerner) and looking for new projects. When Love Life premiered on Broadway in 1948, Weill called it "an entirely new form of theatre." Stephen Sondheim denoted it as "a useful influence on my own work."
This album brings together three major orchestral works by John McCabe, composed between 1970 and 2007, and reflecting key strands of his musical thought. Symphony No. 2 unfolds as a tightly integrated single span, notable for it's rhythmic energy, luminous orchestration, and structural clarity. Symphony No. 3, Hommages, acknowledges McCabe's lifelong engagement with the music of Haydn and Nielsen, blending quotation and allusion within a vibrant, tonal framework. The Cello Concerto Songline traces a continuous musical journey, combining virtuosity with introspective lyricism and a finely balanced orchestral palette.
The works of the late Romantic composer Felix Woyrsch stand as eloquent defenses of the creative successor. Perhaps it is precisely this too often disparaged generation of "late-born" artists who laid the groundwork for the great masters. By absorbing earlier achievements and reshaping them to serve their own expressive aims, they laid the foundation for later greatness. The Silesian-born Woyrsch, who established himself permanently in Altona-then still independent of Hamburg-demonstrated that even diametrically opposed models could be reconciled. He succeeded in bringing together Wagner, Bruckner, and Brahms almost imperceptibly, without sacrificing his own artistic identity. On the contrary, the cycle of six symphonies, now completed with the present release, emerges as a distinctive artistic statement-made all the more impressive by the fact that Woyrsch remained genuinely receptive to the developments of modernism.
The Holy Liftoff (2024) is the 11th installation of Claire Chase's 24-year Density 2036 project, an initiative to create a bold new repertory for the flute by the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse's seminal 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. Density 2036 has been called "one of the great musical undertakings of our time" by The New York Times, and "a quarter-century journey that has little precedent" by The New Yorker. Terry Riley began composing The Holy Liftoff in 2022 as an open score sketchbook brimming with colorful drawings that were intended to be played by Chase with any number of collaborating musicians. Over the following two years, the sketches evolved into a multidimensional work that now combines extensive through-composed material as well as graphic notation, evocative artwork, and Riley's signature open-form scoring that can be freely interpreted by the performers in variable durations and ensemble formations. Samuel Clay Birmaher's 60-minute realization of the work, which he composed in close collaboration with Riley and the performers, is scored for multiple flutes and string quartet. "When I improvised the first 16 bars of 'The Holy Liftoff' the melody and the chords whispered it's name while simultaneously urging me to make drawings of the experience. The drawings had angels and flying creatures and all the energies were rising up into a surrealistic skyscape... This piece could only have been written for Claire Chase." -Terry Riley
Wolfgang Kogert - Friedrich Cerha: Complete Works For Organ - Appearing in Cerha's jubilee year, this album pays tribute to an extraordinary late oeuvre by an extraordinary composer. / One of the central figures of European modernism, Friedrich Cerha is known for his monumental Spiegel cycle and his distinctive contribution to postwar music. This album presents his complete works for organ, composed between 2011 and 2020, marking a surprising late turn toward the instrument. Recorded by Wolfgang Kogert in close collaboration with the composer, these pieces reveal Cerha's characteristic clarity, concision, and expressive precision. Appearing in Cerha's jubilee year, this album pays tribute to an extraordinary late oeuvre by an extraordinary composer.
Copland: Appalachian Spring (Complete Ballet) & Hear Ye! Hear Ye! / Slatkin, Detroit Symphony
Naxos
CD
$19.99Sep 09, 2016
Aaron Copland wrote his rarely-heard ballet Hear Ye! Hear Ye! for Ruth Page, the dancer and choreographer who was to become the Grande Dame of American ballet. Its scenario is a murder in a nightclub and the ensuing trial in a Chicago courtroom. Copland infused the score with the spirit of his jazz-influenced pieces, controversially distorting part of the National Anthem, and infiltrating music from some of his earlier works. In complete contrast, Appalachian Spring is his most famous work, a true American masterpiece founded on transfigured dance tunes and song melodies.
Complete Symphonies and Selected Overtures, from the legendary October-December 1939 NBC cycle. CD 1: Symphony No 1 in C Major, Op. 21 & Symphony No 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica" (Studio 8H, 28 Oct. 1939. CD 2: Symphony No 2 in D Major, Op. 36; Symphony No 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60 & Leonore Overture No. 3 (Studio 8H, 4 Nov. 1939). CD 3: Symphony No 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale" & Symphony No 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (Studio 8H, 11 Nov. 1939). CD 4: Egmont Overture & Symphony No 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (Studio 8H, 18 Nov. 1939); Leonore Overture No. 1 & Symphony No 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Studio 8H, 25 Nov. 1939). CD 5: Leonore Overture No. 2 (Studio 8H, 25 Nov. 1939}; Symphony No 9 in D Minor, Op. 1(Jarmila Novotna, Kerstin Thorborg, Jan Peerce, Nicola Moscona, Westminster Choir, Carnegie Hall, 2 Dec. 1939). New 2013 digital transfers by Aaron Z. Snyder using the revolutionary harmonic balancing process. Notes: Christopher Dyment. Total time: 6 hrs 12 min. BUZZ: "With Chris Dyment's uncommonly informative notes, this release is essential for anyone who cares about Beethoven or Toscanini" --Mortimer H. Frank in Fanfare [on the previous edition] "a must for every experienced music lover... 5.0 out of 5 stars " --Peter Dietrich, amazon.com customer reviews [on the previous edition] "These are superb transfers... They give a great cycle its best sonic shout to date." --Rob Cowan, Gramophone [on the previous edition] "The NBC Orchestra is in fine form and the great conductor's sometimes controversial genius combines with that of Beethoven to produce dazzling and memorable performances." -- www.new-classics.co.uk [on the previous edition]
Track Listing 1. Samba Cantina - Paul Desmond 2. Our Waltz - Gary Burton 3. I'll Take Romance - Dominique Eade 4. Isfahan - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra 5. Sweet Lorraine - Coleman Hawkins/Henry "Red" Allen 6. Lazy River - Hoagy Carmichael 7. Petals Danse - Tom Harrell 8. My Ship - Sonny Rollins 9. Blues for Bessie - Bud Powell 10. After the Rain - Don Braden
Personnel: Dominique Eade, Hoagy Carmichael (vocals); Romero Lubambo (guitar, acoustic guitar); Everett Barksdale, Jim Hall, Peter Leitch (guitar); Joe Venuti, Regina Carter (violin); Ron Lawrence (viola); Akua Dixon (cello); Greg Tardy, Jimmy Dorsey, Buster Bailey (clarinet); Johnny Hodges (saxophone, alto saxophone); Don Braden (saxophone, tenor saxophone); Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Benny Golson (tenor saxophone); Tom Harrell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Henry "Red" Allen (trumpet); Tommy Dorsey (trombone); Duke Ellington, George Colligan, Herbie Hancock, Marty Napoleon, Bud Powell (piano); Gary Burton (vibraphone); Dwayne Burno, George Duvivier (acoustic bass); Connie Kay, Cozy Cole, Joe Morello, Matt Wilson , Roy McCurdy, Art Taylor (drums).
Recording information: New York, NY (11/30/1930-??/??/1997).
