VERDI - KALUDI KALUDOW - TENOR

If you would believe the big words of Maestro Celibidache the Record or CD is the destruction of the music - because she can be not authentic honest acoustic space she could never solve the emotions a live concert offers then there are two answers: He was right and wrong at the same time.

SYMPHONIA IN B, POLONIA

ZYMAN Piano Concerto 1. ROLÓN Piano Concerto, op. 42. 1 El Festin de los Enanos • 1 Claudia Corona (pn); Gregor Bühl, cond; Nuremberg SO • TYXART 13024 (58:33)


It is always gratifying when musicians seek out obscure works to record, thereby broadening our knowledge of the repertoire. Although I have listened to many anthologies of 20th-century Mexican music, José Rolón (1876–1945) has never come to my attention before. He was a pianist, teacher, orchestra founder, and composer who studied in Paris with, among others, Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger. His two works on this disc reveal a French influence in their orchestral finesse and polish, combined with the rhythms and melodic contours of Mexican folk music. Along with this large-scale Concerto he wrote symphonic poems, a Symphony, and a String Quartet, all of which I would very much like to hear. (One movement of the Quartet is accessible on YouTube, but there does not seem to be a complete recording available.)


The Concerto, begun in 1928 but not completed until 1935, is in three movements, played without a break. It has been performed rarely if at all since its 1936 premiere. For this recording pianist Claudia Corona revised and clarified the orchestral parts—a true labor of love. The work abounds in Lisztian figuration and colorful orchestral textures; the Piano Concerto it reminds me of is that by Khachaturian, composed around the same time, except of course that the themes have a Mexican rather than Armenian flavor. Structurally it is somewhat ramshackle, but its high spirits and the profusion of ideas keep it interesting. Rather like certain works of Villa-Lobos, you simply have to relax and go with it. Corona and the Nuremberg forces under Bühl attack the work with all the gusto it requires, especially the frenzied closing section.


The eight-minute symphonic scherzo Feast of the Dwarfs, op. 30, is built on a syncopated rhythmic figure (a triplet followed by a duplet), which the composer dresses up in sophisticated orchestral textures and develops skillfully. Dukas’s influence is obvious here, although the piece is no mere imitation. Again the mood is joyous.


Samuel Zyman (b. 1956) is the more familiar name. Born and educated initially in Mexico, he now resides in the U.S. and has taught at Juilliard since 1987. This Piano Concerto may be an expanded arrangement of an earlier Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra; the latter is the only Piano Concerto mentioned in Zyman’s list of published works. That chamber concerto was recorded in 1989 (by Mirian Conti), whereas this new recording is advertised as the premiere of the “symphonic version.” It was first played by Corona in concert in 2005. Again in three movements, it is similarly a large-scale showpiece but more tightly structured and tougher than the Rolón. The piano’s relentless scale passages in the first movement and the somewhat monolithic lyricism of the second both bring to mind the Concerto by Chávez (which recently received an excellent new recording, coupled with solo works by Zyman and others: see reviews by Peter Burwasser and myself in Fanfare 37:1). Zyman is warmer than Chávez, and this warmth comes to the fore in the vivacious Presto movement that closes the work. That final movement also contains a quiet, introverted passage of lyrical beauty for the piano, before scampering off towards the abrupt final cadence.


I cannot over-emphasize the care and zest with which these musicians approach this enjoyable program, and the recording quality is excellent. Without question, this disc is a delightful discovery.


FANFARE: Phillip Scott

POLONAISES MAZURKAS PRELUDES

Rafael Kubelik's excellence in Mahler can almost be taken for granted. In general, his live performances offer a higher degree of risk-taking than his studio efforts, which show more care for balance and proportion (generally with no loss of excitement, it must be stressed). The pattern holds here in this live Ninth, recorded in Japan in 1975. A horn bobble here and there notwithstanding, the Bavarian orchestra plays with fire and conviction, and somewhere along the line it has acquired a decent sounding tam-tam, which does wonders for the first movement's dramatic final collapse. The performance resembles Kubelik's Deutsche Grammophon recording in most respects. His "live" tempos are a bit more contrasted in the Rondo:Burleske, and he gets punchier accents from the muted brass in the first movement, resulting in creepier quiet interludes. The finale still moves along at a flowing tempo, rising to a positively incandescent principal climax. NHK Radio's sonics make the BRSO strings sound thinner than they do on DG, but surely closer to an actual concert experience since in all other respects the balances faithfully reproduce the dynamic nuances of Mahler's score. Kubelik's way with this composer certainly was special, and no Mahlerian will want to miss this chance to hear him conduct the Ninth live. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Mahler’s "Das Lied von der Erde” (The Song of the Earth) is subtitled “A symphony for tenor, alto (or baritone) voice and orchestra". It examines the border between two different genres: the Lied, in its extended form as a song cycle, and the symphony. And as ever in Mahler’s music, that border is anything but black and white. The work certainly differs radically from a mere song cycle: the Lieder are permeated by symphonic techniques and some symphonic movements are built up from huge stanzas. Interludes expand to become development sections in which important things happen. Indeed, the thematic events take place in the orchestra, and, in a certain sense, the soloists also form a part of the interwoven orchestral texture. The sequence of movements also follows that of a symphony: In the weighty outer movements one clearly notices sonata form shining through the stanza structures, and symphonic processes are obviously taking place. Two inner movements take the place of the slow movement and sarcastic scherzo. The entire work is spanned by a taut arc, culminating – in accordance with the principle of intensification – in a huge final movement lasting as long as all the others together, and entitled Der Abschied (The Farewell). Here, Mahler is continuing the genre of the “Finale Symphony”, and the brightening of C minor to C major is even reminiscent of his usual apotheoses.

In this symphony, as in his others, Mahler wanted to "create a world using all existing technical means.” The formal design of the work is unique, and the demands it places on its performers are extreme. It requires two highly experienced Lied singers, who in combination with the huge orchestral apparatus have to be able to perform as soloists while blending into the symphonic structure as concert voices. An excellent and well-coordinated body of sound is needed here, and of course a highly competent conductor to ensure cohesion and to give spirit and soulfulness to such a large-scale work.

REVIEW

What is perhaps most immediately striking is the detail and brilliance of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s playing. Skelton makes a fine, handsome sound and offers something special in his moving reactions to the poetry. Kožená in her songs offers singing of supreme beauty. In fact, she sings almost too beautifully at times. Not a conventional Lied, perhaps, but a fascinating and beguiling one: highly recommended.

–Gramophone

This recording features works by some of the most well-known composers from the era of the musical Baroque. Born roughly within two decades of each other in Italy and Germany, the influence of the older generation on the younger was significant. The common thread of the selections on this recording is the subject of Christmas, explicitly so in the case of Corelli and Torelli, implied by the time of year in the case of Vivaldi, and by the choice of festive trumpets, the pastoral flute and the oboe d'amore as solo instruments in the works of Bach, Handel and Telemann.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

It is the successful combination of the low, chest baritone and high, head soprano registers that has come to characteristically define the rare and unique contralto singing voice at it's finest. This register combination results in a natural, three octave scale. Another specific contralto feature is a natural agility that, with professional training, becomes an overwhelming coloratura. Ewa Podles, considered the most authentic contralto of her generation, features her distinctive, dramatic and agile voice on this new Dux release of well-known 18th-20th c. operatic excerpts.

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This is the 21st CD of the complete recordings of the Haydn symphonies by Thomas Fey and the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra. Pizzicato praised Fey's interpretations of Haydn as 'mature and coherent.' It's a balanced performance of using historical performance practice, and modern strings and historic brass instruments.

Wojciech Kilar created a sensation some years ago with his exciting dance-like orchestral piece "Krzesany" and other works including the film score for Francis Ford Coppola’s "Bram Stoker’s Dracula". His scores often express through rhythmic repetition, a minimalism that differs from the American minimalists possibly because of the reminiscences of European music of the past. The piano concerto contains strong hints of the romantics, particularly Beethoven and Brahms viewed through a prism of cubist sectional abstractions. The mood ranges from bold to serene much like a romantic piano concerto but without the direct stylistic trappings. Melodic turns of phrase and gestures of Polish folk music also play role in his works and Kilar sometimes psychologically shocks his audience not only with a dramatic use of dissonance but also by suddenly embracing major/minor tonality and triadic harmonies. - Greg La Traille, ArkivMusic.com

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"Anne Schwanewilms is one of the leading Strauss sopranos of our times. Here she offers some plums from the composer’s huge output for the soprano voice.

The trio from the last act of Der Rosenkavalier is one of the most sumptuous passages in all Strauss. It’s very well sung here - and, not for the first time on the disc, the Gürzenich-Orchester is inspired by Markus Stenz to some gorgeous playing. My only complaint is that the extract is tantalisingly short. Given the short playing time of the disc could not the remainder of the closing scene have been included, even if Miss Schwanewilms would not have been involved?

There’s ample compensation, however, in the form of the closing scene from Capriccio. There’s some wonderful singing here, especially during the rapturous music to which Strauss sets Olivier’s sonnet when the Countess reads it. Miss Schwanewilms is particularly passionate in tone at ‘Du wirst geliebt und kannst dich nicht’. Then, as the scene draws to a close she’s rapt at ‘Du Spiegelbild der verliebten Madeleine’, spinning a delectable vocal line. From this point until the end of the track the orchestral playing is notably distinguished.

She’s also excellent as Arabella. At the start of the solo her singing is touching and with a hint of vulnerability to it. Later, from ‘Dann aber, wie ich Sie gespürt’, she becomes more impassioned, as the music and the sentiments of the text demand."

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

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Recorded in: Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory September 1996 Producer(s) Valeri Polyansky Sound Engineer(s) Igor Veprintsev

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony remains to this day the only work that does not belong to the Bayreuth canon – “Wagner’s Ten”, so to speak – and yet has nevertheless been performed on the Green Hill along with them. Both within and without the Bayreuth walls, the performance history of this symphony is associated with no conductor more than with Wilhelm Furtwängler. The opening performance of the first post-War Bayreuth Festival in 1951 was of Beethoven’s Ninth under Furtwängler, and there already exists an Orfeo release based on the original radio broadcast. Several technical hurdles had to be overcome before the performance of 1954 could also be released on CD, however, for none of the accessible sources could be prepared satisfactorily without employing the most modern mastering possibilities. The result is undoubtedly a vital document: both for those interested in the history of the Bayreuth Festival and for those who are enthused by the concurrent continuity and constant change that is a hallmark of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s style of interpretation. This Ninth would be his farewell to Bayreuth and was in fact one of his very last concerts anywhere, for it took place just three months before his death. Its interpretation is more direct and less ceremonial than in earlier recordings under this great conductor. In the last bars of this symphony’s famous choral finale he achieves a climax not just through his scorching pace, but also through a well-nigh breathless intensification of the musical content. The Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra and the solo quartet (led by the Dutch soprano Gré Brouwenstijn, here in magnificent voice) follow the maestro’s beat even here with an unmistakeable sense of tension and the utmost, unrelenting attention. It is surely herein that lies the secret of the fascination that Furtwängler exudes to this day. As perhaps no other conductor he always understood how to avoid the routine in the works that he conducted so many times. Instead he was time and again able to summon up and maintain an awareness of them as something extraordinary and unique: for himself, his fellow musicians and his listeners.

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The Violin Concerto in D Major op. 77 by Johannes Brahms is for performers and audience alike one of the loveliest, most challenging examples of the genre. It was with this work that Arabella Steinbacher gave her debut in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein in December 2007, the same hall where the composer himself had conducted on occasion. Arabella Steinbacher's debut was accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Fabio Luisi, who are also to be heard on this live recording in Schumann's Fourth Symphony. Both this symphony and the Brahms concerto were dedicated to the leading violin virtuoso of the second half of the 19th century, namely Joseph Joachim. He did not just inspire Brahms to write this work, but also helped him in word and deed during the act of composition (if impatiently, when it came to keeping the deadline for the world première). The work soon began a triumphal procession through the concert halls. Thanks to Joachim's numerous famed successors, it would be impossible to imagine the concert repertoire today without it. Arabella Steinbacher won the Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover several years ago, which was a starting point of her current international career. She is furthermore a worthy representative of the violin style that is celebrated in Brahms's concerto, a style that is virtuosic without virtuosity becoming an end in itself. Thanks to her much-praised brilliant, precise tone, the listener remains aware throughout that the solo part never recedes completely into the background, even where the orchestra unfolds its most expansive symphonic arguments - such as in the presentation of the work's themes and in the sensitive orchestration of the first and second movements. Arabella Steinbacher fully savours the works' variety of colour and climax. In the brilliant cadenza of the first movement and in the highly spirited third, she draws on an embarrassment of virtuosic riches almost as a matter of course. It is masterly.

With this recording Bernius concludes a series featuring Burgmuller's instrumental music. For the astonishingly mature Piano Concerto he was able to engage as a soloist Tobias Koch, the renowned pianoforte specialist. In addition, with the four Entr'actes op. 17 and the Overture op. 5, the recording contains two of Burgmuller's works which are definitely worth discovering. The complete orchestral music of this extraordinary talent is now available on CD, performed on historical instruments.

With this release, the Hindemith Quintett searches for a different kind of modernism- one that will be accessible to those outside of self-styled avant-garde circles. In addition to works by Hindemith, the Quintett plays pieces by Blacher, Genzmer, and Eisler. All composers who retained certain structures in their writing, but with their own unique and modernistic styles. The Hindemith Quintett is made up of five professional musicians, each of whom has performed with celebrated ensembles the world over. As a group, they tour frequently in Germany and play a wide variety of repertoire, from Baroque music to twentieth century.

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