This recording, live from the Vienna State Opera in 1955, was taped just weeks before virtually the same cast (there's only one major difference) entered the studio and recorded it for Decca. The performances are remarkably similar: Karl Böhm, a master of this complex, beautiful score, presents it almost complete (there are, I believe, very small cuts here and there) and has assembled a superb, enthralled, and enthralling cast. The one major change from the studio recording is that whereas Paul Schöffler was the Barak for Decca, here we get Ludwig Weber, whose voice may be somewhat less beautiful than Schöffler's, but is easily as expressive, endearing, and impressive.

Leonie Rysanek is the familiar Empress, seemingly hypnotized and enchanted, her voice settling down after some initial pitch problems mid-range to offer a glorious reading, with gleaming, cutting top notes and true sentiment throughout. She makes us feel for the character and her plight. Her Emperor is the beefy tenor Hans Hopf, who is less crude than usual and has the notes and stamina for the role, particularly in the seemingly endless final scene, which, when presented as complete as is it here, can be quite a challenge.

As the Dyer's Wife, Christel Goltz is not quite in the same class with the others; her singing is secure and good enough but she lacks any subtlety and can't compare with, say, Christa Ludwig in the role. Elisabeth Höngen's Nurse is nasty and biting, and she gets through the role without shouting. Kurt Böhme's Messenger is potent and the rest of the cast--Vienna stalwarts from the '50s--is top notch.

Böhm captures just the correct otherworldliness of the music, and the Vienna Philharmonic, tam tam, gongs and all, plays with great feeling and love. The sound is pure, clear monaural (the studio recording is early stereo but is essentially no better), with even the harps audible; Strauss' exotica is underlined but not so prominent that we can't hear the gorgeously tonal score. The vibrancy of the live experience is thrilling. If you own the Decca, you won't need this, really, but you must own one or the other.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Live recording: Festspielhaus, July 29/30, 1958

Lisa Della Casa and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - this was an ideally cast Arabella with a dream couple in the leading roles. For years this production was a model for Munich and Vienna. It can now be heard for the first time in its original version, with the incomparable Strauss sound of the Vienna Philharmonic under Joseph Keilberth - the sensation of the 1958 Salzburg Festival.

Hans Pfitzner’s 1901 opera Die Rose vom Liebesgarten sets a libretto by James Grum, which was inspired by an 1890 painting by Hans Thoma, Der Wachter vor dem Liebesgarten. While the premiere of the first act was quite poorly received, the entire opera finally received a successful staging by Gustav Mahler in Vienna in 1905. This production, featuring world-renowned vocalists Andre Riemer, Tiina Penttinen, Jona Buchner, Astrid Weber, and Andreas Kindschuh, is conducted by Frank Beerman. Beerman has gained international renown as a conductor both on the stage and with his many recordings. His always alert interest in new and undiscovered music and in new interpretations of the core repertoire has brought him numerous prizes and distinctions. His recordings feature the core repertoire as well as rediscoveries and contemporary works. They have won several awards, including Echo Klassik prizes in 2009 and 2015.

Wagner's German opera: Tristan und Isolde. Performers include: Ram�n Vinay (Tristan), Astrid Varnay (Isolde), Ludwig Weber (K�nig Marke), Ira Malaniuk (Brang�ne), Gustav Neidlinger (Kurwenal), Hasso Eschert (Melot), Gerhard Stolze (Ein Hirt), Theo Adam (Ein Steuermann), Eugene Tobin (Ein Junger Seemann). Choir & Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival, Eugen Jochum. Recorded live at Bayreuth in 1953.

Among the opera performances that deserve to be labeled “historic” is the opening night of the new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio unveiled at the Vienna State Opera on 5 November 1955. The accolade is deserved not least because this was the first time that the curtain had gone up in the rebuilt house since wartime bombing raids had reduced it to rubble at the end of the Second World War.

Of course, this says nothing about the musical quality of the occasion, but the present live recording, released to coincide with the start of the new regime under Dominique Meyer and Franz Welser-Möst, allows today’s listeners to judge this quality for themselves. Then, as now, the chorus and orchestra of the Vienna State Opera enjoy the highest reputation and have no equal anywhere else in the world, and under their then director, Karl Böhm, they amply demonstrated their credentials on this gala first night in 1955.

For Böhm, this was the start of a conducting marathon, for the house reopened with no fewer than seven new productions within a matter of only a few days. His Fidelio is notable for its taut and even breathtakingly impulsive tempos, clearly intensifying the impression of a suicide mission on the part of the “angelic Leonore” that Martha Mödl characterized so magnificently throughout this period. Unfortunately listeners can form only a limited impression of her acting, which was every bit as intense as her singing. This was the first time that she had rescued Anton Dermota as her husband, Florestan, his refined singing giving the lie to the widespread belief that the part requires a youthful heldentenor to do it justice. The rest of the cast is likewise made up of legendary names: with her distinctive lyric soprano voice, Irmgard Seefried is almost under-parted as Marzelline, while her father, Rocco, is played by the great bass Ludwig Weber, who only a few days later took on the heroic baritone role of Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten. The villainous Don Pizarro is sung by Paul Schöffler, who that same week shone as Hans Sachs alongside Seefried’s Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. All these singers represent the sort of ensemble spirit that characterizes every great artist and ensures that performances like this one at the Vienna State Opera are always great occasions. - Orfeo

Recorded between 1950 and 1964, these holiday carols are sung by some of the finest recital singers of that time, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Rita Streich, Erna Berger, Elisabeth Grümmer. In tandem with exquisite arrangements that transcend the usual sentimental tropes, these famed carols gain a gem-like quality with the RIAS Symphonie Orchester (today known as Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin).

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony remains to this day the only work that does not belong to the Bayreuth canon – “Wagner’s Ten”, so to speak – and yet has nevertheless been performed on the Green Hill along with them. Both within and without the Bayreuth walls, the performance history of this symphony is associated with no conductor more than with Wilhelm Furtwängler. The opening performance of the first post-War Bayreuth Festival in 1951 was of Beethoven’s Ninth under Furtwängler, and there already exists an Orfeo release based on the original radio broadcast. Several technical hurdles had to be overcome before the performance of 1954 could also be released on CD, however, for none of the accessible sources could be prepared satisfactorily without employing the most modern mastering possibilities. The result is undoubtedly a vital document: both for those interested in the history of the Bayreuth Festival and for those who are enthused by the concurrent continuity and constant change that is a hallmark of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s style of interpretation. This Ninth would be his farewell to Bayreuth and was in fact one of his very last concerts anywhere, for it took place just three months before his death. Its interpretation is more direct and less ceremonial than in earlier recordings under this great conductor. In the last bars of this symphony’s famous choral finale he achieves a climax not just through his scorching pace, but also through a well-nigh breathless intensification of the musical content. The Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra and the solo quartet (led by the Dutch soprano Gré Brouwenstijn, here in magnificent voice) follow the maestro’s beat even here with an unmistakeable sense of tension and the utmost, unrelenting attention. It is surely herein that lies the secret of the fascination that Furtwängler exudes to this day. As perhaps no other conductor he always understood how to avoid the routine in the works that he conducted so many times. Instead he was time and again able to summon up and maintain an awareness of them as something extraordinary and unique: for himself, his fellow musicians and his listeners.

This Is the first release in any format of a performance of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg that took place in Milan on 13 Feb 1955, recorded on acetate discs and broadcast over the Rai airwaves. It's unique cast, singing under the direction of Hans Rosbaud, features Many Fine, and some more obscure, singers and/or Wagnerians of this glorious era in Wagnerian Production, including Otto Edelmann, Ludwig Weber, Ira Malaniuk, Gerhard Unger, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, renowned for her R. Strauss Roles, as Eva.

Charles Tomlinson Griffes only lived 35 years; his death in 1920 cut short one of the most promising careers in American music. During his short life span he created a collection of short, rhapsodic works that are full of color and romantic adventure. The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla-Khan is best known in its orchestrated version, expanded and altered somewhat from the original piano composition. It is a lush, lyrical, and dramatic work whose exotic melodies exude Middle-Eastern and Oriental influences. Of the other compositions, the Piece in D minor, from 1915, stands out. Elegant, impassioned impressionism reigns in this engaging work, and it certainly deserves wider recognition. Though the rest of the pieces on the CD are all worth hearing, the early transcription for two pianos of the Hansel and Gretel overture is most impressive. Griffes had gone to Europe to study with Humperdinck, and no doubt intended his masterful arrangement as a tribute. As performed here, it is one of the most charming duo-piano pieces in the repertoire. Michael Lewin plays the rest of the program with passion and precision, though his interpretations lack that last measure of urgency given by James Tocco on Gasparo. The latter, however did not record all of this music, so at the low Naxos price, no one should mind duplicating a few of these works. The recorded sound is exemplary, using 24-bit technology for the highest resolution. --Rad Bennett, ClassicsToday.com

Der Freischutz has since it's premiere been an indispensable part of the operatic repertory, possibly never more significantly than for the Dresden Opera. This exceptional addition to the Semperoper Edition, recorded in 1951, is presented as an historic recording of the 1000th performance of the work by Dresen Opera. This production was undertaken with the utmost care and attention to detail, focusing on ultimate fidelity to the composer's intention. An edition for all time.

The impetus of the Mexican Revolution galvanized the use of Indigenous melodies in a new and original wave of musical compositions that loosened dependence on European models. José Moncayo’s infectiously joyful ‘Huapango,’ one of Mexico’s best-known works is, in its distinct national character, deeply rooted in folk music. Silvestre Revueltas’s ‘La Noche de los mayas’ is a symphonic suite derived from film music that employs Mexican percussion instruments in a vividly inventive way. The process of linking folk influence with classical techniques continues to the present day with Hebert Vazquez’s ‘El arbol de la vida’ which uses the folk style known as the ‘son.’ Mexican guitarist Pablo Garibay has established himself as a leading force on the international classical guitar scene with a repertoire that includes the great guitar concertos, notably those by Rodrigo, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ponce, and Villa-Lobos. As a concerto soloist, he made his debut with the Orquesta Filarmonica de la Ciudad de Mexico and has since appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout Europe and the Americas.

REVIEW:

This youth orchestra — founded in 2011 by the conductor — sound magnificent here. They are associated with Eduardo Mata University, and they consist of the finest young musicians of Mexico. They play with real mastery and joy — ensemble is precise, no matter how difficult the music; and the strings, in particular, can sound really lush and lovely. Anyone with interest in Mexican music should have this—or guitarists who are looking for a new, exciting work with orchestra.

– American Record Guide

TRISTAN & ISOLDE

FLYING DUTCHMAN

Classical Music

WEBER, LUDWIG SINGT WAGNER: HO

20 years ago, Helen Buchholtz was an enigmatic unknown. In 1999, two suitcases containing around 250 music manuscripts were found, which have since become accessible in the archive of Helen Buchholtz in CID | Fraen. Only by chance had they survived: the notes, packed in sacks after the death of the composer, had been saved from a fire by a nephew at the last minute. Helen Buchholtz, daughter of a wealthy brewery owner, received early lessons in music. At the age of 36, she married a German doctor and moved with him to Wiesbaden. Widowed early, she returned to Luxembourg, where she frequented poets and musicians. There her music was performed in concerts and on the radio. The double album presents a selection of her best 51 songs and ballads, which are selectively placed in a dialogue with contemporary music: Inspired by Helen Buchholtz’s late Romantic music, Catherine Kontz, Albena Petrovic-Vratchanska, Stevie Wishart and Tatsiana Zelianko composed four new songs.

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, SONY Opera and Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible pressed import editions, smartly-designed and graphically-pleasing, featuring the most sought after recordings by the world's preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

COLOURS OF CHLOE

Classical Music

Classical Music

Richard Strauss‘ father, Franz Strauss, was one of the most prominent horn virtuosos of the time, and the horn was one of the instruments for which Richard had a predilection throughout his life. With his “Serenade,” Strauss junior convinced conductor Hans von Bülow of his talent. Von Bülow took the piece into the program of his famous Meininger Hofkapelle. There is a close relationship between the first concerto in C Minor op. 8 by Franz Strauss to the horn concerto op. 11 of his son who orientated him-self at the romantic stile of his father. The horn virtuoso himself premiered his own concerto in C Minor in spring 1865 during an academy in the Odeon concert house in Munich. Born in the same year as Franz Strauss, Franck received his first music lessons and made his first public appearances as pianist before moving with his parents to Paris, where he became a pupil of Anton Reicha. In 1871 he was a co-founder of the Société Nationale de Musique, and later elected its president. Characteristic of Franck’s mature style is the so-called “cyclical form” – a formal concept that attained full significance only in the works from Franck’s last decade. This period also saw the composition of his today most well-known works, which of course attained their great popularity only after his death. The Piano Quintet is considered the beginning, the “portal work,” whose tendencies and motifs are taken up again in later works such as the D-Minor Symphony, the Violin Sonata, and the String Quartet. Premiered in its original form on 17 January 1880 in the Société Nationale de Musique, the work experienced its premiere in the expanded form of a “Symphony for Orchestra and Piano” on 8 June 2008 with Mathias Weber, who made the arrangement, performing the piano part.

Fred Frith describes the Swiss pianist Katharina Weber as a "piano icon". The classically trained pianist and composer moves in the large world of today's music, where borders no longer exist and new music and jazz improvisation merge. In M�rta's Garden is her second solo album. The musical framework is formed by two piano pieces by Gy�rgy Kurt�g dedicated to M�rta Kurt�g and at the centre is his composition "... eine Wanderung mit Robert Walser... ". The exchange with the Kurt�gs, which has now lasted three decades, has left intensive traces in Katharina Weber's work - as a performer, as an improviser and as a composer. Like Kurt�g, Weber creates her own sound cosmos. Inspired by intimate listening in meditative contemplation, not shying away from tonality, but emphasising colour, tonal tensions and overtones - at the same time an invitation and space for deeper listening, pondering, spinning forth," writes Nina Polaschegg in the liner notes.

LATER THAT EVENING

Florian Weber - "Imaginary Cycle" [2 LP] Idiosyncratic, large-scale and in it's fundamental disposition one-of-a-kind, Florian Weber's Imaginary Cycle, conceived for the unique instrumentation of brass ensemble and piano, is a hybrid of multiple musical languages that seamlessly blends the harmonious with the oblique. Here, Weber presents a cycle in four parts, plus an opening and an epilogue, in which the German pianist is joined by a group of unexpected artists, together performing a work that blurs the line where improvisation ends and composition begins. 2 LP set. Verve Label Group; ECM; Jazz.

IMAGINARY CYCLE