Classical Music

Band Music - WARREN, G.W. / MELILLO, S. / DYKES, J.B. (One N

Classical Music

Recorded in: Dr Anton Philipszaal, The Hague, The Netherlands 24-27 September 1989 (orchestral works); 18-20 April and 3 & 4 July 1990 (symphonic songs) Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant: orchestral works) Peter Newble (Assistant: symphonic songs)

Classical Music

GIELEN: Pflicht und Neigung / SCHOENBERG: Die gluckliche Han

TOUR D'AFRIQUE

Dohnányi's works are characterized by their fluency, rich sense of harmony, and mastery of instrumentation and form. Dohnányi expressed his romantic hertiage in the perfect forms of the eighteenth century, which he used as a framework for his highly vivacious and lyrical music. Thsi does not mean the he simply produced replicas; rather, he succeeded in combining classical form with the Lisztian concpet of motifs being developed and binding together a large-scale work. Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 12-14 September 2001 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Mike George Sound Engineer(s) Stephen Rinker Christopher Brooke (Assistant)

POLISH CHRISTMAS CAROLS

All selections are performed twice on this box set. All selections on CD 1 are sung in their original languages. The same works are repeated on CD 2, where the German language songs are sung in English. The Hebrew and English language works on CD 2 are again sung in their original form.

REVIEW:

This release...offers an excellent musical programming concept, with all three works captured live in performances that are absolutely stunning and fully competitive with the best available. Both the Bartók and Martinů pieces were composed during their respective composers’ exile in America, while Gideon Klein’s Partita (an arrangement for string orchestra of his String Trio), is the result of “internal exile” in the Terezín concentration camp. All three men found ways to continue making music despite displacement, personal misfortune, and against the background of the rise of Nazism and the onset of war. More to the point, the program works because it offers plenty of purely musical contrast and variety.

Martinů’s Memorial to Lidice, a town wiped out by the Nazis as an act of retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, is a harrowing but ultimately hopeful orchestral elegy that receives the most gut-wrenching performance yet recorded. Eschenbach is about 50 percent slower than Ancerl (or anyone else), but he uses the extra time to excellent effect, revealing every luminous detail of Martinů’s orchestration and building the music to a shattering climax, with Beethoven’s Fifth balefully intoned by the horns. Klein’s Partita has much in common with Bartók’s Divertimento, with its folk-inflected thematic material. Its central movement is a very attractive set of variations on a Moravian theme, and it’s clear from this performance that the Philadelphia tradition of great string playing is very much alive and well. Eschenbach leads a performance both warm and incisive, revealing a major work in the process.

The Philadelphia Orchestra already has at least two recordings of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra to its credit, both with Eugene Ormandy--a fine early stereo version on Sony, and a mediocre early digital remake on RCA. This newcomer clearly is finer than either of those, as exciting a rendition as any available. Eschenbach thankfully eschews the excessive slowness that has marred his recent Mahler performances and lets the various sections of the orchestra display their considerable prowess in what remains one of the repertoire’s great showpieces. Listen to the rush of excitement in the transition to the first-movement allegro, or to the beautiful balance between woodwinds and harps in the second subject; notice the brilliant brass fugato that initiates the recapitulation, and the driving coda. It’s the real deal, from the very first note.

The sonics are markedly superior to what Sony, RCA, and EMI used to get in any of the various venues that they used, at least in stereo. The microphones are close to the players, the better to reduce the occasional noise from the audience (the occasional light cough isn’t at all bothersome), but the orchestra can take the exposure, and the sonic impact is pretty thrilling. I’m pleased (and honestly relieved) to be able to recommend it to you in the strongest possible terms.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Always Ready is the English translation of Semper Paratus, the U.S. Coast Guard motto. +On this album, The U.S. Coast Guard Band performs a wide variety of patriotic classics, some unique to their specific military branch. +This disc also provides timeless patriotic songs like America the Beautiful, marches like The Thunderer and concert works like Charles Ives’ iconic Variations on “America.” +Each of the nineteen tracks offers something different, while still maintaining the band’s core sound.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Wunderlich, FRITZ: Historical Recording (1954-1965)

Classical Music