Classical Music

Orff: Carmina Burana

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Classical Music

REVIEW:

Furtwängler famously considered himself a composer who conducted, rather than vice versa, and his most familiar surviving work is without question his Second Symphony. It’s a lovable outpouring composed in the last year of the Second World War but that has both its head and its heart buried among the dying embers of late Romanticism. Bruckner, Strauss, Brahms and Reger are all there in attendance and, although the work is well worth sampling, one laments the fact that, while we have at least four recordings of Furtwängler conducting it, we have none of him conducting the Missa solemnis or Parsifal. The 1954 Stuttgart RSO recording of Furtwänger’s Second, reissued here by Hänssler Classic, comes paired with a typically marmoreal account of Beethoven’s First. Both performances are characteristic...it’s nice to have seven minutes’ worth of Furtwängler in (German) conversation with the conductor Hans Müller-Kray, a privilege included only on the Hänssler Classic set.

-- Gramophone

Classical Music

United States Army Field Band: The Legacy of Edwin Franko Go

Caroling is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years as a joyful part of the winter holiday season. Since the Eisenhower administration, the Singing Sergeants have been caroling at the White House each December for guests from around the country and throughout the world. In the spirit of that tradition, this album contains some of the band's favorites, including songs that tell the Christmas story, celebrate the Hannukah tradition, and inspire hope, peace and joy. All of the songs are performed in the a cappella tradition. Caroling, directed by Captain Chad A. Steffey, is dedicated to all of the men and women of the United States Air Force who are away from home during the holiday season.

Classical Music

Lonely Motel: Music from Slide

Features music of Irving Berlin, Leroy Anderson, Frank Loesser, and more, arranged for wind ensemble.

In celebration of ARC Music's 35 years of dedication to world music, Hossam Ramzy presents Rock the Tabla. 10 years in the making, this explosive musical journey brings together musical genius from all corners of the globe. Featuring world renowned artists including Oscar winner & Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman, famed percussionist & drummer Billy Cobham, Manu Katche, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Jimmy Waldo, Chaz Kkoshi, Phil Thornton, John Themis and others. Rock the Tabla is an album that is sure to get your feet tapping, heads nodding and body swaying to this diverse combination of electrifying rhythmic collaborations.

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 9

Classical Music

Elgar: Enigma Variations

“Devine’s harpsichord Goldbergs can stand among the best in a crowded field.” - Phillip Kennicot, Gramophone – September, 2011

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Harpsichord versions of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations don’t seem to roll off the presses in quite the same quantities as piano versions these days, but this is still a hotly competitive field for any new entry. Just to pick on two good examples, I’ve been having a listen to Masaaki Suzuki’s recording on the BIS label, as well as making comparisons with another fairly recent harpsichord recording by Aapo Häkkinen on the Alba label (see review). Suzuki has plenty of drive and energy, going for brisk tempi and crisp articulation which keeps everything going with plenty of zip – something you may or may not want in your Goldbergs, but is good to have around if you are in the mood. Häkkinen is frequently more reserved in tempo, and more inclined to introduce a rubato flexibility into his musical narrative.

It’s a terrible thing to make sweeping generalisations, but Steven Devine falls somewhere in between these two players. He has a fairly flexible approach, using a certain amount of rubato to bring out the shapes of phrases but not distorting melodic lines in the process, and certainly not applying as much freedom as Häkkinen. Nor does he drive the music as hard as Suzuki. Tempi are decently forward moving without being tumultuous, and Devine’s articulation is clear without being overly picky, with a nice legato effect. Ornamentation is certainly not extreme, with a few extra passing notes here and there – certainly not exceeding the bounds of acceptable convention. There was only one point which made me check my references: Variatio 6 is played with a slightly odd semi-triplet rhythm, a sort of tum-ti-tum-ti effect, but not quite explicitly, and not quite all the time. Devine writes useful booklet notes about the history and some of the forms in this piece, but doesn’t go into his own interpretative choices when recording the work – probably not necessary when going for what is essentially an uncontroversial reading.

This is a fine recording made using a superb instrument by Colin Booth, indeed, the one seen pictured on the cover for this release. The microphones are placed close, but the lack of mechanical noise and the fine sonority of the harpsichord mean you can be close up and intimate without feeling assaulted by upper harmonics. There are some lovely effects in this piece, and the points at which the parts cross in the two-manual variations such as Variatio 8 are particularly distinguished here. Even after extensive listening it is however tricky to know where to place this recording amongst the pantheon. I have a nostalgia-tinted affection for Trevor Pinnock on the Archiv label, though even his fine recording can sound a bit ‘chunky’ these days. While I still like Aapo Häkkinen I accept his more obvious pulling around of the phrasing can sound a little mannered in places, and certainly by comparison with Steven Devine. The Alba recording is a little more respectful in terms of distance though and is ultimately a less fatiguing listen. Häkkinen’s Joel Katzman instrument also has a thrumming/ringing quality which I can take for long periods. The Booth instrument is a little more nasal in tone, though by no means unattractive. Both recordings are almost identical in terms of overall timing by the way.

It’s only when you start casting the net wider and encounter desperately pedestrian sounding recordings like that of Shin-ichiro Nakano on the Meister Music label that you come to appreciate the quality of these performances. There are also plenty of intolerably jangly ones around, but we’re still spoilt for choice. For every also-ran there’s another fine version, such as Ketil Haugsand on the Simax label, and the ancient and stately Wanda Landowska makes her own views on the piece more than emphatically clear despite an antique recording. All I can say is that Steve Devine’s recording of the Goldberg Variations is certainly amongst the best, making all of the crucial musical points very effectively and with plenty of expressive breathing room. There’s nothing stodgy about his playing, but neither is it lightweight and ephemeral. I can’t say it’s revelatory, but I doubt there are any of these left to come, at least, not on harpsichord. If you already have a much loved harpsichord version of this great work on your shelves then this might not push it aside, although you might by chance have one of the dodgy ones and not know what you are missing. Bearing this in mind by all means give this recording a try – you certainly won’t be disappointed.

- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano

Langgaard: Piano Works, Vol. 2

Classical Music

REVIEW:

There’s a very serious talent at work in this music by Stacy Garrop. Silver Dagger is a folk-song setting for piano trio, along similar lines to Vaughan Williams’ Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, and it’s extremely beautiful and quite fetchingly composed for the three instruments. In Eleanor’s Words is a cycle of six songs drawn from the newspaper columns of Eleanor Roosevelt. The concept is a good one: Roosevelt’s prose often approaches poetry, and her unfailing intelligence makes for texts that are worth reading on their own, and for which Garrop has found a similarly conversational musical style that fits them perfectly. The music is attractive and approachable, but not facile. There’s a version for chamber orchestra that I would dearly love to hear, but it would be difficult to imagine a more affectingly sung performance than that by mezzo Buffy Baggott—and Kuang-Hao Huang accompanies beautifully.

Gaia is an ambitious string quartet in five movements lasting about 34 minutes...I loathed Garrop’s Second Quartet “Demons and Angels”, and this one strikes me as far more appealing and successful. The sonics are just great...this disc makes an excellent case for exploring more of Garrop’s music.

-- ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

All four works on this disc rely on existing compositions, with titles that more or less specifically refer to this fact. In the case of Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations, it is the famous theme used by Corelli in his violin sonata La Follia which undergoes a radical pianistic treatment taking it through all the sonic and atmospheric possibilities offered by the instrument. With his celebrated transcription of Bach's Chaconne, Ferruccio Busoni had a very different aim, wanting to shed new light on the work without actually changing it. As he himself wrote, Bach taught him 'to recognize the truth that good, great and universal music remains the same, regardless of whatever means through which it resounds.' A virtuoso pianist, Busoni nonetheless had recourse to great skills in writing idiomatically for the instrument, and turned his transcription into a truly pianistic work. Ravel's collection of waltzes was composed as a nod to Schubert, who in 1823 had written two collections of waltzes, the Valses nobles and Valses sentimentales. In no way is it possible to call the work a pastiche, however - in it Ravel shows the range of his musical palette, in a manner that caused Debussy to call his ear 'the most refined that has ever existed'. Finally, Stravinsky's Three movements from Petrushka is the composer's arrangement of music from his own ballet, commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein. The origin of the music to Petrushka was in fact a sketched work for piano and orchestra, and the later arrangement was therefore to an extent a return to the original concept. The result is a virtuoso piece, in which an almost percussive approach to the instrument is combined with lightning-quick changes in atmosphere and sound. Freddy Kempf has previously recorded no less than ten highly acclaimed solo discs for BIS, of which the latest also contained a series of legendary piano works, namely Mussorgsky's Pictures, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and Balakirev's Islamey - according to Gramophone's reviewer 'a formidable programme formidably played... This is "live" virtuosity with a vengeance, with absolutely no hint of a safety net.'

Classical Music