Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Highlights)

Cello Recital: Hai-Ye Ni

20TH CENTURY MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA

Gramophone (8/98, p.46) - "...These new performances have much to commend them, but neither outshine the full-price competition..."

Includes work(s) by various composers.

Einojuhani Rautavaara is one of the most original and accessible composers of the second half of the 20th century. His music has a deep romanticism to it, yet he often uses twelve-tone and atonal constructs as an integral part of the process.
The First Piano Concerto is a very strong work, and though very original, seems descended from the colors of Debussy, the broadness of Tchaikovsky and the harmonic contours of Sibelius. The piano writing is full, rich and virtuosic, pitting the soloist against the forces of the orchestra. This is a work that truly deserves to be a part of the standard repertory.
The Third Symphony employs much of the same power, but adds the grandeur and religiosity of Bruckner at the opening. At its weakest, some of the orchestral colors and motifs seem borrowed and melodramatic, but it is an immediately accessible work which opposes the formalist academic tradition.
'Cantus Articus' is the strangest work on this recording. Subtitled a "Concerto for birds and orchestra," this work features recorded Arctic birdsong, not just as background, but as the featured element. Unfortunately, anyone who has seen Hitchcock's THE BIRDS recently will find 'Cantus Articus' more than a little creepy!

TCHAIKOVSKY: Songs (Complete), Vol. 1

RACHMANINOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3

The major work on this recording is a substantial composition, and justly representative of late French organ writing. The performance is altogether first-rate, and the work is gripping from the first bars. The 14 Stations of the Cross were bound to attract the interest of great organist-composers, and Dupre's composition is an excellent example of a thematic program lending interpretive guidance to a piece of music.

TELEMANN: 6 Sonatas for Two Flutes without Bass

NYMAN: Piano Concerto / Where the Bee Dances

BACH, J.S.: Well-Tempered Clavier (The) (Selection)

HUME: Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke, Vol. 2

MAHLER: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen / Kindertotenlieder

ELGAR: Enigma Variations / Pomp and Circumstance Marches Nos