Günter Wand recorded Schubert’s Ninth (officially) three times: in Cologne, with the orchestra of NDR, and finally with the Berlin Philharmonic. All three are excellent: naturally paced, beautifully proportioned between movements in what remains one of the trickiest pieces in the repertoire, and (particularly the latter two performances) splendidly played. The Cologne performance is available as part of Wand’s complete Schubert symphony cycle with that orchestra. The Berlin performance has gotten most of the attention, largely because at the end of his life Wand was given the “privilege” of working with that great orchestra. It also comes in tandem with an equally fine “Unfinished” Symphony at two discs for the price of one. This has left the NDR recording out in the cold, relatively speaking, which is a pity because it’s the best of the three.

You can hear the difference pretty clearly in the two sound clips comparing the end of the first movement in both performances. The Berlin outing is distinctly heavier, more “Brucknerian,” the strings playing with an excess of legato, the brass sonorities blended rather than distinct. The NDR version, by contrast, is a touch livelier, more sharp rhythmically, with trumpets and trombones adding individual tone colors to the general tutti. Ultimately it comes down to questions of taste. In my opinion, the Berlin sonority gives too much prominence to the strings, and despite exquisite solo playing by individual wind players (the oboe in the second movement, for instance), the general impression is more soft-edged and less true to Schubert’s idiosyncratic scoring. The NDR musicians are hardly inferior, and on this occasion they simply turn in a more colorful performance of this particular work. The sonics are excellent in all three of Wand’s performances, but if you can find it the NDR version is the one you should add to your collection.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

MARILYN HORNE - ROSSINI RECITA

Selections recorded April 25-29, 1992 and July 23, 1993.

WALTON: VIOLIN CONCERTO, ORCHE

A woodland stream, a word from Joyce, ships' horns in Beirut harbour, architectural sketches: the composer Oliver Schneller frequently proceeds from extra-musical patterns, models, and objects trouves in his search for ‘the song present in all things’. Yet he is equally far removed from Messiaen's birdsong and Cage's start charts. His music is neither a "personal confession," nor does he want to extirpate the auteur. Instead, as in Aqua Vit, he subjects the babblings of a woodland stream to spectral analysis and transforms it into a fully autonomous score. Schneller, who studied with Tristan Murail among others, strikes a balance with the dynamics inherent in the material itself. His precisely calibrated compositions always sound at once rigorous and open-ended, and they frequently conjure up surprising associations in the listener. A micro-intervallic canon for piano and live electronics can give rise to a sea of pealing bells, a string trio to an apocalyptic scenario, thanks to his consummate command of digital technology. Born in Cologne in 1966, Schneller comes from a generation of composers who take the computer for granted as one resource among many, as is apparent in such sound installations as his polyphonic urban collage “Polis” for Berlin's Martin Gropius Hall. In his most recent works Schneller, who received a composers’ prize from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 2010, has directed his interest toward himself. “Stratigraphie”, for example, is the archaeological model, but not the findings, of a journey of self-discovery. Here, too, his music makes room for the listener's own experiences and emotions in the secret life of sounds, allowing for magical moments of the sort that occur only to those who refuse to force them.

BRAHMS: STRING QUARTET NO 3, C

SCHUMANN: FRAUENLIEBE UND LEBE

There are plenty of recordings of Beethoven's symphonies already! But this new recording occupies a unique place amongst them.

The stereo version of this SACD is the first recording of the symphonies to use TACET's own 'Tube Only' technique. Devotees of this recording technique consider the resulting audio effect to be particularly homogeneous and, despite all its brilliance, not cold.
The surround sound version in this SACD had to be made because there was no existing recording of the symphonies in TACET's Real Surround Sound. And this is music which cries out for the true Surround Sound experience. Beethoven extending horizons again!

This pioneering recording procedure was developed in 1999 by TACET and has undergone subsequent improvement. The guiding principle is always the score itself. 30 of these issues are now available, and they all confirm how excitingly new and moving we can find familiar works. The listener's reaction to this type of recording is precisely not 'I know this already'.

The uniqueness of these Beethoven recordings is thus partly a result of the different conceptions and aspects of the recording technique, but also derives from the intelligent and highly musical interpretation of this grandiose music. Both versions - stereo and surround - 'overflow with music'. Wojciech Rajski and the Polish Chamber Philharmonia demonstrate that their performances together are always 'in the forefront'.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Performers:
Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra
Wojciech Rajski, Conductor


Track Listing:
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major op. 55
1. Allegro con brio
2. Marcia funebre. Adagio assai
3. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
4. Finale. Allegro molto - Poco andante - Presto
Symphony No. 4 in B flat major op. 60
5. Adagio - Allegro vivace
6. Adagio
7. Allegro molto e vivace - un poco meno allegro
8. Allegro ma non troppo


Total playing time: 79:05

A kind of "organized confusion" characterizes the music of Sebastian Claren (b. 1965). "The music should, so to speak, exist without preconditions and should initially refer only to itself. In my estimation, culture and good-breeding are completely out of place in a work of art," says Claren. In his music, this view assumes audible form in a constant alternation between continuity and discontinuity, whether consecutive or simultaneous. It is a game of sophisticated montage techniques involving myriad contrasting splices and a multitude of camera positions translated into music. Yet his stupendously energetic and sometimes highly volatile compositions are not montages in the strict sense; they are not concerned with reproducing things already said elsewhere. Claren is more interested in the dense synchronicity of (inner) events viewed from the vantage point of the self, the composer, who, of course, works with and within past and present-day music. Hence Claren's keen interest in certain styles of pop music, which are no less essential to his aesthetic than the roughly one-hundred years of modern music and it's forerunners.

Achim Bornh�ft studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and Dirk Reith at the Folkwang University in Essen from 1988 to 1994. The works he has chosen for this portrait CD are not merely acoustical simulacra captured on a sound recording. What he has committed to disc here, resounding from the loudspeakers, has been adapted to suit the possibilities and limitations of a stereo CD. Bornh�ft has anticipated the virtual auditorium during the production phases and modified the sound mixtures and the spatiotemporal proportions of the original scores accordingly. He has embraced the 'compact disc' situation.

These performances are distinguished by their clean textures, rhythmic precision, and some spectacular high horn-playing. It would be hard to imagine performances of more freshness and conviction.

The most remarkable of [these works] are the two minor-key symphonies that reflect the influence of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") movement in German literature of the time: the impassioned No. 39 in G minor with its four horns, which inspired similar works in the same key by J. C. Bach, Vanhal and Mozart, and the sombre No, 49 in F minor, known as La passione and the last and greatest of Haydn's symphonies in the form of the sonata do chiesa (with the slow movement placed first). Of the other four works, No. 38 in C - in Haydn's festive manner - with trumpets and drums and C alto horns, is particularly striking not least because of its stunning, concertonle oboe solo in the finale, probably written, as H. C. Robbins Landon suggests in the accompanying booklet, to show oft the Esterházy orchestra's new oboist Vittorino Colombazzo. No. 59 in A, known as the Fire for reasons that remain obscure, is full of excitement and dramatic surprises, such as the totally unexpected entry of the oboes and horns two-thirds of the way through the slow movement, and the extraordinary fortissimo horn call that interrupts the return of the main theme a few bars later. No. 35 in B flat is on the whole a sunny, exuberant work, though with an unexpected outburst of passionate counterpoint in the first movement's development section; and No. 58 in F has an almost chamber-musical intimacy and boasts an amusing menuet alla zoppa ("Limping Minuet") that frames a dark-hued Trio that sounds, in Landon's words,, "rather as if a group of slightly sinister Gypsies had suddently entered the feast".

The performances are distinguished by their clean textures, rhythmic precision and nice feeling for tempo; there is a tasteful, and never obtrusive, harpsichord continuo and some spectacular high horn-playing. Perhaps the two minor-key symphonies could do with rather more weight and intensity, but on the whole it would be hard to imagine performances of more freshness and conviction. Even the tendency towards short-breathed phrases in the slow movements and to vibrato-less bulges in the string playing seem less noticeable than before. The recording is every bit as vivid as were the earlier ones [released on Saga Records, now unavailable]—and that is high praise.

-- Gramophone [7/1982]

For those who specifically want a CD of trio sonatas by J. S. Bach & Sons and who prefer stylish playing on modern instruments to the extremes of unabashed Romanticizing or outand-out authenticity, this may be an attractive prospect. As MM observed, the Sonata by Carl Philipp Emanuel is particularly fine, and the unfinished Larghetto of Wilhelm Friedemann's is distinctly haunting.

Jean-Pierre Rampal's flute sound falls gratefully on the ear, more so than the harpsichord continuo or than Isaac Stern's violin. The latter has a slightly fierce, synthetic quality which negates the many sensitive touches in the playing. On CD at least balance is less sympathetic to the flute in the J. S. and C. P. E. works than in Johann Christoph Friedrich's Sonata, whose galante charms are helped along by an attractive fortepiano continuo.

-- Gramophone [11/1985]

Bylsma draws a ravishing sound from his instrument often with profoundly affecting results. He is a veritable poet and van Asperen provides a sensitive, tasteful partnership

For many years Bach's three sonatas for viola da gamba and concertante harpsichord have been regarded by cellists as fair game. Now, the Dutch virtuoso cellist Anner Bylsma takes up the challenge not with a baroque or modern instrument but with a violoncello piccolo, an instrument for which Bach showed some fondness in his Leipzig cantatas. There was probably no standard violoncello piccolo in Bach's day but we might say that in general it was smaller than a cello with a fifth string which widened upwards its tessitura. Bylsma's instrument dates from c. 1700. Banished, too, in these interesting experiments is the harpsichord for which a pleasingly bright chamber organ has been substituted.

So far, so good, perhaps, but I am much less happy with some of the arguments put forward by Bylsma to justify his approach. One such is simply that Bach "ceased writing works explicitly for the gamba in the second half of his life, specifying other instruments instead"—a poor argument at the best of times but in this case without substance since it is very likely that at least one of the gamba sonatas does belong to the second part of Bach's life. Furthermore, the categorical assertion given here that the three works were written in COthen in 1720 has long been invalid. Bylsma's belief that Bach's versions for gamba and harpsichord— admittedly only one of them has survived in autograph—work less well than the solution offered here is, at least questionable. In addition, he adds, "compared to the gamba, the cello piccolo is better suited to play sonatas, as it is a member of the violin family". At that point I decided to close the booklet and just listen to the performances. They are, as we might expect from such an accomplished artist, very good indeed. Bylsma draws a ravishing sound from his instrument often with profoundly affecting results. They are, however, quite at variance with those which Bach intended, for not only is the instrumentation different but so, too, is the pitch. Little of the eloquence in Bach's writing in point of fact is lost but the colours are brighter and our senses respond accordingly. Not everything comes over with equal conviction and I found, for example, the beautiful opening Adagio of the too often underrated D major Sonata disappointing in its jerky, almost perfunctory progress.

Having so far done little but protest I am inclined to end on a positive note. These experiments, and that is what they are, have considerable charm in the hands of such gifted players as these; and, in addition a recording of one of J.C.F. Bach's two cello sonatas is welcome. It is lightweight but effectively written and delightfully performed music. Bylsma is a veritable poet and I know I shall want to hear the sound of his playing on this disc from time to time. Bob van Asperen provides a sensitive, tasteful partnership and the recorded sound is excellent. An unusual issue.

-- Gramophone [3/1991]

With Carlo Rizzi, Gordan Nikolic and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam, one of the most sought-after conductors, one of the best violinists and an absolutely top-notch orchestra got together for a TACET production. What an honour to be able to work with such artists! We have tried to apply the precision and painstaking detail from chamber music to this project as well. Carlo Rizzi brings out typically Ravellian details that frequently have the effect of being levelled out, e.g. the composed overtones. There will be some surprises in store for one listener or another. In all honesty: do you know what the saxophones in Bolero play a few bars before the end? Or when the first harp plays and when the second harp plays in La Valse? Not least, this production should offer something to the many old-fashioned crazy audiophiles, our beloved public, who still prefer a carefully produced sound carrier to a blurred or squeaky You Tube download. Whether the result is really worth more than merely another line in the table "Recordings of the Great Orchestral Works of Ravel" - that is up to the critics to decide. It's your turn! (Of course the recording is also being issued as an LP and in TACET Real Surround Sound.). Andreas Spreer

BUSONI: Works for Piano and Orchestra

Classical Music

Recorded in the bright acoustics of the Teatro Bibiena in Mantua ("the most beautiful theatre in the world", according to Leopold Mozart), Zefiro's second release on the Arcana label is devoted to the colourful world of Telemann's Overtures (i.e. Suites). The three masterworks presented here highlight the unique quality of this versatile ensemble - formed by the oboists Alfredo Bernardini and Paolo Grazzi, and the bassoonist Alberto Grazzi - specialising in eighteenth-century works that give particular prominence to wind instruments.

Classical Music

We come now to more modern fare, and firstly to a very colourful, immediately enjoyable work in Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Second Violin Concerto, written for Heifetz in 1933. This work is sub-titled I profeti (''The Prophets'') and the names of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah head its three movements. Heifetz clearly relishes the score's attractive lyricism, and Wallenstein's conducting is full of personality too. The 1954 stereo recording is more than adequate. Howard Ferguson wrote his First Violin Sonata in 1931, when he was 23. This is a gently flowing, somewhat reflective piece, apart from a brief central Allegro furioso movement, to which Heifetz responds with alacrity. Elsewhere his rather sharp-toned, virtuoso approach tends to be somewhat at odds with the work's nature, and a rather close 1966 recording does not help. He is more suited to the early Sonata of Karen Khachaturian, who is Aram Khachaturian's nephew. On the evidence of this work, like his uncle, Karen writes in an outgoing, vigorous, uncomplicated style, which Heifetz plays in a cheerful, extrovert fashion. The recording was made at the same sessions as the Ferguson sonata. Francaix's String Trio is a typically brief, slight, but cleverly written piece, and here Heifetz and his two colleagues relax to give a delightfully spry, pithy performance, which is matched with a good 1964 recording. . . .

Heifetz was without doubt a uniquely gifted artist. It has been a very rich experience for me to explore these five discs, and I can do no more than give them the highest possible recommendation.

-- Gramophone [from a review of five titles featuring Jascha Heifetz]

"[This disc] offers a slightly odd but still very enjoyable selection of Boccherini—timed, no doubt, for the 250th anniversary this year. The two symphonies are late works, the D major a single-movement piece of the Italian overture type, with a slow movement embedded, the C minor his most 'symphonic' work in the Viennese-classical sense of the term. Jeanne Lamon directs lively performances with this excellent Canadian group. The D major she takes rather quickly, producing that sense of tension that arises when music is pushed a little beyond its natural pace; but the effect is energetic and inspiriting (and it is marked con molto spirito). The Andantino is more relaxed, its colours happily realized. In the C minor work she presses the minuet too much, I think (true, it's marked Allegro), for it to make its points properly, but the fine first movement is direct and unaffected, and its close symphonic argument comes across well, while the finale is splendidly fiery.

Anner Bylsma plays the two concertos, neither of them among the better known of Boccherini's, in characteristic fashion, dashing into the music with his usual sense of fresh discovery and uninhibited enthusiasm. Some might prefer more measured performances, but the intensity of his involvement does draw the listener in, and his bouncing rhythms show an infectious pleasure in the music. The odd rough moment is a modest price to pay. He takes both the slow movements very slowly, surprisingly so, for this runs against the grain of fashion, not to say informed opinion, in the early music world. That of the D major is however rapt in expression, with Bylsma's eloquent line (the phrases in rapid notes are thrown off like little sprigs of decoration) and Tafelmusik's soft and sensitive accompaniment. The C major is a less impressive piece and there must be some doubt about its complete authenticity, at least in this form (who ever heard of a concerto in C with a slow movement in D?); Bylsma contributes some curious, almost trumpet-like tone in the first movement, and plays an extremely odd cadenza.

In fact, the work I enjoyed most of all, and for which I shall treasure this CD in particular, is the Octet, one of a group of late chamber works for mixed combinations which haven't been, but should be, available on records. It is a charming and leisurely piece, exquisitely scored, with one of those seductive minuets bearing Boccherini's most personal stamp—exquisitely scored, gently witty, with a hint of nostalgia and pain lurking somewhere behind the notes. That, at any rate, is how I hear it, and I find it wholly beguiling."

-- Stanley Sadie, Gramophone [7/1993]

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN CONCERTO, VI

Classical Music

Time flies in the supposedly timeless world of classical music. It's easy to forget superb performances of even the greatest masterpieces when confronted with dozens, indeed hundreds, of recordings that differ from one another audibly, but often not all that significantly. So it is with this Mahler First, certainly one of the freshest and most vibrant performances, but one that also tends to get lost in the shuffle. The playing of the LSO is terrific: the scherzo bids fair to be the best on disc, but then Levine seems unusually energized and spontaneous throughout. Only the opening of the finale fails to erupt with the kind of violence that others (Bernstein especially) bring to it. Levine seems a mite hasty here, not giving the brass enough time to really bite as they should. But this also is the result of sonics that are dry in the bass and not all that wide-ranging compared with today's digital norm. Still, despite this minor caveat, this is an outstanding performance in all other respects, and moreover one that will sound well on iPods, in cars, and in all of those places where soft passages tend to vanish annoyingly in a welter of ambient noise. It certainly deserves to remain available, and thanks to Arkivmusic.com "on demand", it will be.

--David Hurwitz,ClassicsToday.com

Founded in 1999 by cellist and gamba player Sabrina Lehrmann, Neue Freisinger Hofmusik (New Freising Court Music) view themselves as present-day successors of the prince-bishop court musicians of Freising. The ensemble performs on authentic and reconstructed historical musical instruments in differing combinations. Their focus is music originating from Freising and Southern Germany, and other places central to European culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. This album gives insight into the compositional master of Freising court musician, Placidus von Camerloher. Almost all of these compositions have never before been recorded.

Bernstein's charisma is effectively demonstrated in a collection of Russian music... [P]redictably energetic...are Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture and Glière's Russian Sailors' Dance from The Red Poppy... But the highlights are lyrical, with Bernstein suitably atmospheric in a fine account of Borodin's In the steppes of Central Asia and giving a coolly poised reading of the beautiful Prelude to Khovantschina of Mussorgsky (with glowing orchestration from Rimsky-Korsakov).

-- Gramophone [7/1985]

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...Prokofiev's Scythian Suite, which [Bernstein] does well; I have not heard all the other available recordings but I should imagine that none surpasses this one in brilliance of colour, excitement and virtuosity.


-- Gramophone [10/1969, reviewing the original LP release of the Scythian Suite]

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These very popular examples of colourful Russian music are very well played and recorded in a style to emphasise brightness, thus enabling us to hear clearly some of the inner parts that are sometimes obscured.


-- Gramophone [12/1967, reviewing the original LP release of the Glinka, Mussorgsky, and Ippolitov-Ivanov works]