The All-Star Orchestra gives you a front row seat to the world’s greatest music, performed by top players chosen from over 30 great American orchestras, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz. The programs feature complete performances of popular masterpieces and world premieres of new works by leading American composers. Filmed in High-Definition with multiple cameras in and around the orchestra, the All-Star Orchestra celebrates the symphonic experience in the 21st c. Gershwin’s immortal Rhapsody in Blue is featured in the rarely heard original jazz-band version from the 1924 New York premiere. This iconic work is complemented by Aaron Copland’s 1925 jazz-age classic “Music for the Theatre.” Robert Beaser’s “Ground O” offers a contemporary musical perspective of New York after the attacks of 9/11. (Program 9: Visions of New York) This exotic orchestral showpiece is based on fantastical tales that - according to tradition - were told by the ingenious wife of a cruel Sultan so as to prolong her life for 1001 nights. Concertmaster David Kim conveys the voice of the wily heroine Scheherazade in virtuosic violin solos. (Program 10: 1001 Arabian Nights – The Legend of Scheherazade)

THE ALL-STAR ORCHESTRA
Programs 9 & 10

Program 9: Visions of New York

George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Aaron Copland: Music for the Theatre Suite
Robert Beaser: Ground “O”

Program 10: 1001 Arabian Nights – The Legend of Scheherazade

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Lola Astanova, piano
David Kim, violin
The All-Star Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, conductor

Recorded live from the Great Hall, Purchase College Performing Arts Center, New York, 26–27 August 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Language: English
Running time: 114 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

This highly dramatic album includes the most famous moments from Verdi' ever-popular operas, in which public splendour and private pathos, true love and tragedy, vie for supremacy at every turn.

Giacomo Puccini is one of the most celebrated and beloved operatic composers that has ever lived. Included in this first installment of Puccini Operas are his breakthrough opera Manon Lescaut, his chef-d'oeuvre La boheme, and his controversial work Tosca. Opera enthusiasts will, without a doubt, relish in this essential collection of superb performances of Puccini's treasured operas. 1. Puccini: Manon Lescaut 2. Puccini: G.: Boheme (La) (Humburg) 3. Puccini: Tosca

The Music � Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Piet�, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his concertos for flute.

La Favorita is, among Donizetti's operas, the most difficult in terms of reference editions. In fact, besides the original French version, there are several chances also in Italian. This high quality edition from 1955 is one fo the best recordings to date. Beyond the magical detail in the recording, this is one of the most beautiful discographic edition for its vocal and interpretative cast. Raimondi is here, caught in its best period - the voice color and the ability to involve the mezzo-soprano Fedora Barbieri, the only one, before Cossotto to play the role of Leonora, Carlo Tagliabue, the legendary baritone of the thirties and finally the presence of Giuio Neric, a deep bass quite unusual in the panorama of those years. All of these details make this version of Favorita a reference recording with an already small reference discography.

DIE WALKUERE

Includes work(s) by Edvard Grieg. Ensemble: Malmö Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Bjarte Engeset. Soloists: Inger Dam-Jensen, Palle Knudsen.

Recorded in Mosca between 1958 and 1964, these rare interpretations by conductor Kirill Kondrashin include works by Rachmaninov and Khachaturian. With the exception of Khachaturian’s Masquerade, which is performed by the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, all of these works are performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. This two-disc set is presented with outstanding stereophonic quality.

Tchaikovsky: The Great Symphonies

William Primrose Collection, Vol. 4

Sensemayá • La noche de los Mayas • La coronela

Silvestre Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, a small town in the north of Mexico. As a child, he showed great interest in music, his early artistic bent apparent by 1906. When his family moved to Mexico City, he entered the National Conservatory of Music, studying the violin with José Rocabruna and composition with Rafael J. Tello.

In 1917 he moved to the United States to study at St Edward College in San Antonio, Texas, and later in Chicago, remaining there until 1924. After a rather long concert tour in Mexico and in the United States, he returned to his home country, where he remained from 1929 onwards. In 1929 Carlos Chávez offered him the position of assistant conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de México, which he held until 1936. Working together they were able to do much to promote Mexican music, offering a rich repertoire including works by the most outstanding and prominent names of the period. At the same time Revueltas began a very successful career as a prolific composer, activity which brought Cuauhnahuc (Cuernavaca) (1930), Esquinas (Corners) (1931), Ventanas (Windows) and Colorines (Coloured Beads) (1932), Janitzio (1933), Caminos (Roads) (1934), Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Hommage to Federico García Lorca) (1936), Itinerarios (Routes) (1937) and Sensemayá (1938). This series of works constitutes a vivid example of his extraordinary contribution to the form of the national Mexican symphonic poem, with compositions that show his originality and freshness of inspiration, together with his technical mastery.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasias / Norfolk Rhapsody / In the Fen

DANCE MUSIC FROM OLD VIENNA

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) originally composed his Seven Inventions and Four Inventions as a score for the 1932 Italian film Acciaio (Steel). The music's intended function as an accompaniment to visual storytelling perhaps explains its consistent use of a basic melodic idea, which sounds deceptively like a novice at the piano playing up and down the white keys. That Malipiero creates interesting and beautiful musical moments from this raw and unadorned device is most impressive, as is the ever-captivating orchestration, which at times reminds us of the colorful works of Respighi (especially in the dramatic opening and concluding movements).


The Four Inventions, though slightly more tuneful, follow the same melodic principle as the Seven, which can lead to an impression of sameness if played in succession. Malipiero's 1925 opera Il finto Arlecchino evoked the world of 18th-century Venice, and the music ranges from neo-classical to near parody of the period. For some of today's "authenic performance"-trained ears this will seem quite anachronistic, as will Malipiero's Vivaldiana (1952), a loving tribute that is true to the text of Vivaldi's concerto movements while imbuing them with newly vivid and vibrant orchestral colors. Peter Maag's insightful and committed conducting makes the most of these elements, which are wonderfully realized in brilliant performances by the Veneto Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in clear, full sound by Naxos. Do give this a try.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

ELGAR Quadrilles: Die junge Kokette; L’Assomoir; La brunette; Paris; A Singing Quadrille. The Valentine: Five Lancers. Polkas: Maud; Nelly; La Blonde; Helcia; Blumine. Menuetto. Andante and Allegro for Oboe and String Trio. Duett for Trombone and Double Bass. Fugue for Oboe and Violin • Barry Collett, cond; Innovation C Ens; Zoë Beyers (vn); Louise Williams (va); Richard Jenkinson (vc); John Tattersdill (db); Victoria Brawn (ob); Duncan Wilson (trb) • SOMM 252 (76:59)


Back in the 19th century, music therapy was important in a number of what were then called “lunatic asylums.” Gottschalk used to play, with great enthusiasm, at an institution in Utica, New York. And in 1879, the young Elgar was given a position as “Bandmaster” at the Powick Asylum, a couple of miles outside Worcester. His job was to compose dance music for the inmates—and this recording apparently gathers up all the quadrilles, lancers, and polkas that still survive, in editions by Andrew Lyle (who, along with Barry Collett, is also responsible for filling out the sketch score of A Singing Quadrille ).


Given Elgar’s relative inexperience (he was no prodigy), given the utilitarian function of the music, given the seedy, hodge-podge orchestration (limited to friends and colleagues, his ensemble—according to Lyle’s scrupulous notes—consisted of a few violins sometimes supplemented by a viola, a cello, a bass, a piccolo, a flute, a clarinet, two cornets, a euphonium, a bombardon, and a piano) … given the circumstances, you wouldn’t expect to this to be first-rate music. And it isn’t. Nor, despite a measure or two here and there that look ahead, does it give us much sense of the composer to come. If, hearing it without identification, you were asked to guess the origins of the first dance in Die junge Kokette , you’d be apt to guess it a minor chip off Sullivan’s workbench before you’d assign it to Elgar; much of the rest is more anonymous still. Even so, the music—more vital, rhythmically, than much of Elgar’s early output—is dotted with attractive tunes and artful harmonic turns. There are also a fair share of whimsical musical references: The last dance in the set of lancers seems to hint at Gaudeamus Igitur , just as L’Assomoir (Elgar’s misspelling) sounds momentarily as if it were a cousin to Gounod’s Funeral March for a Marionette —and A Singing Quadrille is overtly, and very shrewdly, based on pre-existing material, including nursery rhymes. The disc is filled out with a few chamber works that were not written for Powick—the most interesting is the wacky 1887 “duett” (Elgar’s spelling again) for trombone and double bass, a cheeky minute or so during which the composer delights (as Stravinsky was to do much later in Pulcinella ) in the sheer absurdity of the combination.


Nothing here is especially deep: If the title of L’Assomoir refers to Zola, the music assuredly doesn’t. As a result, you might not want to listen carefully to this whole disc straight through. Still, in small doses, or as background music, it’s got plenty of charm—and this is obviously the place to turn if you’re interested in getting to know it. Yes, Collett recorded most of this music with the Rutland Sinfonia a quarter-century ago. But that disc, which I’ve not heard, is long out of print; and the remakes, based on the new Elgar edition and featuring a snappy group drawn from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, are as idiomatic as you could want. Add to this the fine engineering and the presence of three first recordings (the Menuetto , the Andante and Allegro , and A Singing Quadrille ), and you have a disc that should attract the more avid of Fanfare ’s Elgarians.


FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz

Originally issued on Marco Polo, these performances make a welcome reappearance on the Naxos label. Villa-Lobos used the "Chôro", a popular type of urban street music found in Rio de Janeiro, as the basis for a new and vibrant type of orchestral composition. Chôros No. 8 evokes a primeval Amazonian jungle with its wonderfully vivid sound-imagery. By making extensive use of Brazilian rhythms and percussion, particularly the caracaxa, which sounds like a huge set of maracas, Villa-Lobos gives the music an impetuous, even sinister feel. This powerful rhythmic thrust pervades throughout, taking a strangely Coplandesque turn for a brief mid-point sequence that brings to mind El salon Mexico.


Chôros No. 9 opens in a brightly festive atmosphere, punctuated by kinetic bass drum thuds. In its colorful character, varied moods, and scenes that segue one into another, the piece is reminiscent of Respighi's Feste Romane (though there's nothing Italianate about Villa-Lobos' language). This is fun stuff--mysterious, exciting, and sensuous--and it's all done with astonishingly authentic flair by the Hong Kong Philharmonic (they really whack the percussion!) under conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn. The 1985 recordings retain their clarity, but also their tendency to brightness. At the Naxos price, this is an irresistible invitation to sample the music of this Brazilian master.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

The tour of Paris starts with the Eiffel Tower and includes the famous landmarks of the French capital, the Churches of Notre-Dame and the Sacre Coeur, the Opera Garnier and the great river, the Seine, that runs through the city. The tour ends with a nocturnal view of Paris and an excursion to Chartres, with it's magnificent cathedral. Music for the tour is by Beethoven, who at one time seemed to hope for employment in Paris. His 'Eroica Symphony' was at first intended as a celebration of his one-time hero, Napoleon, but reflected, in the end, his disillusion when Napoleon had himself crowned as Emperor. The music used also includes Beethoven's 'Coriolanus Overture', written, not for Shakespeare's play, but for a contemporary drama by Heinrich von Collin.

John Williams for Band is performed and recorded by the Bands of the United States Armed Forces. Selections include “Sounds the Bells,” “The Cowboys Overture,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Music from The Patriot,” “Yoda’s Theme & Main Theme” from the Star Wars Trilogy, “Adventures on Earth,” from E.T. and many more rousing works.

The two duos are, of course, the real thing. These readings are the first on original instruments to have come my way; and very persuasive they are too. So often in recordings of these works the violinist, usually an international virtuoso, is much the more assertive player, hardly encouraging his partner to shake off the violist's natural reticence. Here, though, Vera Beths and Jurgen Kussmaul are beautifully matched, enabling one to savour fully Mozart's wonderful ingenuity in overcoming the medium's potential monotony of texture. Listen, for instance, to the duo's raillery in the variation finale of K424, or in the first movement development of K423, with its sequences of arpeggios tossed gleefully between the voices (from 3'41"). These are essentially gentle, intimate readings, with generally leisurely tempos that allow room for much delicately expressive detail; and I enjoyed the touches of rhythmic flexibility in movements like the opening of K423 and the Andante of K424. Occasionally, as in the finale of K424, flexibility can verge on waywardness; and to my ears the coda theme of K423's Adagio (from 2'41") sounds halting and selfconscious rather than expressively intense, as the players presumably intended. But these are rare misjudgements. Beths and Kussmaul form a true, selfless partnership and are recorded in an intimate, natural acoustic.

– Gramophone [4/1992]

Classical Music

With this release, SOMM continues its series with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the remarkable pianist Valerie Tryon. It brings together three French works for piano and orchestra. Valerie Tryon's career as a concert pianist began while she was still a child. Before she was twelve she had broadcast for the BBD and she was one of the youngest students ever to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Music. Tryon's career has extended from England where she has played with many of the leading orchestras and condutors.

Classical Music

Arthur Fagen was responsible for Naxos' excellent cycle of Martinu symphonies, so it's no surprise that he leads Liszt's own orchestra (more or less) in lively and enjoyable performances of the six Hungarian Rhapsodies that were arranged for orchestra by Franz Doppler working under the composer's supervision. Indeed, given the way that subsequent generations of arrangers have monkeyed with this music, it's very nice to have the orchestrations that Liszt himself approved. Fagen treats the music seriously. The funeral march that opens No. 1, and the darker episodes in No. 4, have real gravitas, while he lets his hair down quite effectively in the ebullient Nos. 2 and 6. With fine orchestral playing and bright, slightly bass-shy sonics, this release earns a solid recommendation in a series of works that appear less frequently together on a single disc than their erstwhile popularity might suggest.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Formosa Seasons is based on a series of Haiku-like poems, and is dedicated to the celebrated Taiwanese-American violinistCho-Liang Lin.