Composer
Vinyl · 1 disc
CD · 1 disc
CD · 2 discs
When Christian Ferras died at age 49. his friend and colleague Yehudi Menuhin wrote that Ferras was"possessed by music, immensely talented, and of both a generous and intense temperament."
Christian Ferras was one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Born in 1933, he was a guest soloist of the Nice Symphony orchestra in1942. In 1948 he won the First Prize at the International Scheveningen (Holland) Violin Competition and in 1949 won the top prize at the International Long-Thibaud Competition. Thereafter, he pursued a successful career as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and in recitals with his long time accompanist, pianist Pierre Barbizet. He recorded for EMI and from 1964 for DG where he recorded the four main repertoire violin concertos, Brahms, Sibelius, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Fortunately, Christian Ferras left behind a rich recorded legacy, that enable us to continue to enjoy his great artistry.
CD · 16 discs
This collection stands as a valuable time capsule from which one comes away with a fuller understanding of Iturbi’s prominence in American wartime and postwar culture.
The complete RCA Victor Recordings by José Iturbi from 1933 to 1953, include his piano duo recordings with sister Amparo Iturbi as well as Amparo Iturbi’s solo recordings on 16 CDs, restored and remastered from the original lacquer discs and analogue tapes using high-resolution 24 bit/192 kHz mastering technology with about 95% of the recordings appearing on CD for the first time and 23 pieces previously unreleased. As well as a new, captivating essay by Grammy-nominated singer, pianist, and music anthropologist Michael Feinstein on the life and work of José Iturbi and a photo book with previously unseen photos and facsimiles from the Iturbi Archives in Hollywood.
There was a time when classical music was a natural part of Hollywood. From the moments with Jascha Heifetz in They Shall Have Music (1939) to the unrivaled performances of Oscar Levant and Isaac Stern in Humoresque (1946). In its Golden Era, Hollywood adorned itself with the Who's Who of classical music. Today, alongside icons such as Marylin Monroe and James Dean, the names of Leonard Bernstein, Maria Callas and Arturo Toscanini, as well as Rudolf Serkin, Joseph Szigeti, or José Iturbi were immortalized on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. This edition is a loving homage to Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, made possible through the generous support of the José Iturbi Foundation and the Hollywood Museum Board of Directors, who contributed to the lavish restoration of many previously lost unpublished recordings. The publication was also made possible by contributions of singer, pianist, and music archivist Michael Feinstein, the Ambassador for the Great American Songbook.
REVIEW:
During the 1940s and 1950s the “World’s Most Popular Classical Pianist” mantle fell comfortably upon José Iturbi (1895-1980). His recognition as a radio personality led to a movie career that yielded ten feature films between 1943 and 1951 where the pianist mostly starred as himself. Yet for all of Iturbi’s renown, he was hardly a poseur. He worked with Wanda Landowska in Paris, and gave Stravinsky’s Piano Rag Music its world premiere, as well as the first complete Carnegie Hall performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes.
He also conducted. When Eugene Ormandy assumed the Philadelphia Orchestra’s music directorship in 1936, his chief rival for the position was Iturbi, who wound up taking charge of the Rochester Philharmonic that same year. Once Hollywood beckoned, however, Iturbi became the brunt of intellectual critics, who basically wrote him off as a sell-out and an artistic lightweight.
Time, of course, brings perspective, and Sony/BMG’s lavishly produced 16-CD collection containing Iturbi’s complete RCA Victor recordings invites a fairly thorough examination of the musician behind the personality, plus an opportunity to reassess a largely forgotten body of recorded work. A 188-page coffee table book contains photos in abundance, with all original-jacket artwork represented, including the most politically incorrect cover art ever to grace Dvorák’s “New World” symphony. We get complete session and release discographies, an Iturbi filmography, plus a brilliant in-depth biographical essay by Michael Feinstein, who co-produced this collection with Robert Russ.
It’s a pity that the session discography is not cross-referenced to corresponding CD tracks, not to mention the absence of a discography by composer. This makes it difficult to navigate the contents with ease, especially in works that Iturbi recorded more than once. For example, it took some sleuthing on my part to discover that Discs 5 and 11 each contained the Liszt Liebestraum No. 3, Schumann Arabeske, Debussy Reverie, and Chopin Polonaise in A-flat Op. 53, and that the performances were not identical.
With few notable exceptions, Iturbi’s solo recordings mostly consist of short, encore-length pieces. He’s especially at home in Spanish music: Iturbi’s accentuation, phrasing, and timing throughout Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance define perfection, while he shapes Granados’ Spanish Dance No. 2 (“Oriental’) with sensitivity and tenderness. Classical selections also stand out for Iturbi’s bracing articulation. True, the outer movements of his Mozart K. 331 and 332 sonata recordings are overly facile and insufficiently inflected when measured alongside contemporaneous Mozartean rivals like Schnabel, Gieseking, Fischer, and Haskil. Yet the sheer evenness and poised symmetry of Iturbi’s finger-work easily explains why pianists like Julius Katchen and William Kapell praised his Mozart.
Iturbi also revels in the Haydn C major Theme and Variations’ sly wit. By contrast, introspection and sobriety characterize Iturbi’s measured unfolding of Beethoven’s Andante favori. Similar gravitas elevates Paderewski’s Minuet in G to near-masterpiece status. Iturbi’s virtuosic glitter befits his dashing Saint-Saëns Allegro appassionato more than in his glib Liszt Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este.
Iturbi’s Chopin hits and misses. His Mazurkas lack the ardency and rhythmic snap that distinguishes a Second Scherzo that gets better as it progresses. Also note the pianist’s dotting the duple rhythms in the A-flat Polonaise’s main theme that Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Lhevinne play straight on their rival RCA versions.
The later recordings reveal Iturbi’s pianism losing some of its erstwhile luster and subtlety, possibly exaggerated by the close microphone placement and twangy patina typical of late 1940s/early 1950s piano recordings stemming from RCA’s Hollywood recording studio. For example, the two Debussy Arabesques recorded in New York in 1939 have a supple elegance missing in their glassy-sounding 1950 Hollywood counterparts (sound clips). The blustery, hard-toned, and harshly engineered Liszt Concerto No. 1, Mendelssohn Concerto No. 1, and Beethoven Concerto No. 3 were non-starters in their day, with the piano way up in the mix, relegating the crackerjack RCA Symphony musicians to doormat status. Still, the Mendelssohn’s outer movements feature some of Iturbi’s most scintillating pianism on disc.
While Iturbi’s two-piano distribution of the solo part of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is surprisingly effective and discreet, he and his pianist sister Amparo turn in a crass, alternately whipped up, and sappily sentimentalized interpretation. Works of Mozart, Debussy, and Milhaud better represent their dazzling ensemble rapport, but again, the boxy, claustrophobic engineering undermines their efforts. Similar dryness typifies Amparo’s idiomatic solo recordings of Spanish repertoire. Still, it’s nice to have her rare 1954 Granados Goyescas back in circulation, although it pales alongside Alicia de Larrocha’s far more nuanced and texturally differentiated interpretation from the following year.
The collection also showcases Iturbi’s work on the podium. His 1940 Rochester Philharmonic versions of the Mozart D minor and Beethoven C minor concertos are more judiciously balanced than his orchestrally superior 1952 RCA Victor Symphony remakes. Each contains lively and engaging outer movements that flank wooden, hard-toned slow movements.
Iturbi’s 1951 Liszt Hungarian Fantasy with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra has a snarling rawness that differs from the sheen and suavity of the 1952 Arrau/Ormandy and late 1940s Solomon and Moiseiwitsch editions. As with many second-tier American orchestras in the 1940s, the Rochester Philharmonic boasted strong strings but less proficient winds and brass. Consequently, Iturbi’s Mendelssohn “Scottish” Symphony took a back seat to Mitropoulos’ powerful 1941 Minneapolis version, while the aforementioned Dvorák New World lacked the Szell/Czech Philharmonic recording’s flavorful ensemble discipline.
The prize of Iturbi’s Rochester discography is a snazzy and brilliantly turned-out Morton Gould “Latin American” Symphonette, which is surprisingly well-engineered for its 1944 vintage. Another delightful curiosity is William J. Reddick’s Espanharlem, a brief orchestral work whose quick changing moods and jazzy underpinnings wouldn’t be out of place in a Carl Stalling Bugs Bunny cartoon soundtrack. There’s also a previously unpublished recording conducted by Werner Janssen of Iturbi’s orchestral composition Soliloquy. The piece amounts to 14 and a half minutes’ worth of rambling 1940s film music clichés filtered through third-rate Lecuona. Why Iturbi is credited as piano soloist when there’s no piano to be heard is anyone’s guess!
Notwithstanding the artistic unevenness of Iturbi’s recorded output he always had the self-respect to keep his technique in world-class repair, unlike his rival classical pianist turned media personality Oscar Levant. Still, music lovers who don’t want to go the whole hog, so to speak, are directed to APR’s 2016 three-disc solo Iturbi compilation. I also hope to see Iturbi’s post-cinema EMI recordings restored. However, beyond purely musical considerations, Sony/BMG’s collection stands as a valuable time capsule from which one comes away with a fuller understanding of Iturbi’s prominence in American wartime and postwar culture.
-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)
CONTENTS:
Krzysztof Meisinger writes of his new release: “When I was asked to write an introduction to my début album for Chandos, I wondered for a long time what it should be about. My artistic path? The key to the program selection for the album? Or maybe my subjective description of the pieces I have recorded? I decided to explain in a few words my relationship with the guitar – a difficult relationship, full of passion, but also of doubts. It all started with delight. The guitar has always been a magical instrument to me. While playing, the musician is in direct contact with the string and the sound. The players, these ‘magicians’, whose recordings fascinated me at the beginning of my musical education were Andrés Segovia and Julian Bream. Thanks to them, I understood that the guitar is the instrument of my life, and that it is to its kind that I want to devote my artistic energies.
"A little time later, I started to notice some imperfections, which made me ask different questions. Why is the guitar repertoire so small, when you compare it to that of other concert instruments? Why is the guitar not able to convey all those emotions which I want to express? It took me some time looking before I came upon the answer. And the answer was this: to turn all those ‘disadvantages’ into virtues. After all, a guitar cannot be pretentious. It is what it is, a guitar –an intimate, sublime, beautiful instrument... It is the most honest mirror of the musician. It reaches the deepest corners of the soul, and allows both the performer and the listener to touch heaven in a nasty world.”
Someone will eventually write a book about how and why so many excellent guitarists emerged from Eastern Europe, a region in whose music the guitar played only a minor role. This album, the Chandos debut of Krzysztof Meisinger, is one of the best so far.
The title, Elogio de la Guitarra (or "Praise of the Guitar"), makes it sound like a spiritual essay, but in fact, this is a piece of virtuoso display. None of Meisinger's selections is even close to being a chestnut, and fans will welcome these commanding performances... Chandos backs Meisinger with excellent sound, picking up the physicality of the guitarist's performances but not loading them down with extra-musical noise. An exciting, impressive debut.
-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)
Joaquín Rodrigo, composer of the renowned Concierto de Aranjuez(Naxos 8.579053), is acknowledged as one of the great Spanish composers of the 20th century. His music extends the Romantic Impressionist tradition of Albéniz, Granados and Falla, and is inspired by the French style and color Rodrigo experienced during his studies in Paris. From the thrilling and virtuosic Elogio de la guitarra to his swan song in the Dos pequeñas fantasías, Rodrigos guitar music explores the Spanish nature of the instrument and blends tradition with innovation. Always filled with variety, contrast and compelling atmosphere, his oeuvre is now appreciated as one of the central pillars of the entire guitar repertoire. Since his concert debut at the age of six, Turkish American guitarist and composer Celil Refik Kaya has received many high accolades. He was the youngest contestant to win First Prize in the 2012 JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, and is a prizewinner of international guitar competitions across Europe and the US. In 2017 he was named Rising Young Musician of the Year by the Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul and awarded a prestigious fellowship from Harvard Universitys Dumbarton Oaks. Kayas first recording, Jorge Morels Guitar Music was critically acclaimed by American Record Guide.
Signum’s first album with Mexican composer Rodrigo Ruiz combines the composer’s musical and literary passions in performances by world-class soloists Kerenza Peacock, Huw Watkins and Laura van der Heijden. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Ruiz has attracted commissions from a number of artists, with both the opening Violin Sonata and ‘A riveder le stelle’ commissioned by Kerenza Peacock for this recording. The second work is a duo for violin and piano that is accompanied by poetic quotations from Canto XXXIV of Dante’s Inferno. The booklet notes include an interview with the composer by Jessica Duchen, who describes how the programme “clearly shows Rodrigo´s roots in the traditions of Beethoven and Brahms, but with individual twists that clearly indicate we are in fact on new territory”.
SACD · 1 disc
Inspired by Miles Davis’s legendary album Sketches of Spain, this project intend to conjure up Spain ‘as if through a prism - as a concept rather than a place’. Guitarist Jacob Kellermann and conductor Christian Karlsen worked with hyped young composers Francisco Coll and Pete Harden, who have each contributed a concertante work for guitar and ensemble. With Turia, Coll has returned to his roots – the dried-out river that once flowed through his (and Rodrigo’s) hometown Valencia. He has described it as his most ‘flamenco-colored’ work so far, intended to ‘evoke the light and the respective shadows’ of Spain. Turia is followed by two classics of Spanish music: Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje for solo guitar and Evocación by Isaac Albéniz, here in Karlsen’s atmospheric arrangement for ensemble. The last word on the disc goes to British composer Pete Harden. His affinity to jazz and non-classical tradition shine through Solace and Shimmer, which is based on the same chords that underpins Rodrigo’s Adagio. Kellermann enjoys strong support by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (in Concierto de Aranjuez) and the seven members of Norrbotten NEO.
Kellerman has everything the Concierto de Aranjuez needs: excellent technical skills, singing tone, impulsiveness. His nail tone is relatively soft, not hard-edged; his timbral contrasts are heard more with vibrant fingertip tone. And the London Symphony has the horsepower as well as the fine soloists— especially the wonderful English horn in II—to make this a reading to remember.
– American Record Guide
Fleur de Son Classics is proud to release this stunning, debut recording of virtuoso Mexican guitarist, Ricardo Saeb. The program is a playlist of masterworks for the guitar, from the Spanish folkloric mannerisms in Aguado’s “Le Fandango”, to the metrical dichotomy of “Zephyr” by American guitarist/composer, Christopher Gainey (World Premiere Recording). The pieces herein comprise a collection of contrasting and continuously enthralling guitar music. Ricardo Saeb is enjoying an international concert career and we welcome him to the Fleur de Son Classics roster of distinguished recording artists.
Friedemann Wuttke, the internationally recognised guitarist, joins forces here with his musical friends and companions. The result is an entertaining programme which not only shows the musical association of these friends, but also demonstrates how eras and nations are connected through music. A colourful collection of interesting, popular pieces has come into being. This ranges from the Renaissance to the 20th century; from Argentina to Spain. We thus arrive at a very exciting interplay between widely diverging styles and a great variety of musicians, in musical encounters that arose from two decades of international concert appearances. The guitar is joined by various contributors who are carried away by the lightness and charm that Friedemann Wuttke allows to prevail through his choice of pieces. In everything, the will of the guitarist to do justice to his instrument, to the composers, and also to the listener, is displayed in ways that are both entertaining and demanding.
Joaquín Rodrigo is best known for his Concierto de Aranjuez, but the fame of this great work has hidden a prolific and courageous artist who struggled against blindness and hardship, and whose luminous, optimistic music is captured here in rarely heard works for violin that span almost his entire life as a composer. The timelessly beautiful Adagio from the Sonata pimpante is indeed comparable to that of the Concierto de Aranjuez, and all of these pieces are captivating in their intense lyricism and profound originality, from the Dos ezbozos expressing childhood memories of the Parterre Gardens in Valencia, to Rodrigo’s only piece for solo violin, the Capriccio, and the vivacious and nostalgic Set cançons valencianes.
This recording brings together two undisputed 20th century masterpieces and one from the 21st, all of which share surprising stories of neglect. With its sublime Adagio, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez has become a true phenomenon in the history of Western music, but like the original version of Frank Martin’s extraordinarily powerful Guitare it suffered disapproval from its dedicatee Andrés Segovia. Echoes of Rodrigo can be heard in the cinematic romanticism of Leo Brouwer’s Concierto de Benicàssim, described by the composer as “a panorama of my own ideas” and revived here by Miguel Trápaga a decade after its première.
Rodrigo’s music for solo guitar is not extensive but represents an important pillar of the repertoire, ranging from vignettes to sonatas over a six-decade period. The 1933 Toccata was rediscovered in 2005 and has since provided an ambitiously virtuosic vehicle for today’s guitarists. Rodrigo flecked his works with elements of fantasy, flamenco and bird song while Un tiempo fue Itálica famosa, one of his very greatest works in the genre, is superbly impassioned. The tender Pastoral, originally for piano, is here transcribed for guitar by Jérémy Jouve whose first volume in this series (8.570286) received a three-star review (“The young French guitarist plays brilliantly”) in the Penguin Guide.
CD · 7 discs
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