Classical Music

Robert Oboussier was born in Antwerp and spent much of his youth in Germany. As a staunch opponent of National Socialism he emigrated to Zurich in 1939 where he held a number of important musical positions. However, the circumstances of his death in 1957 served to plunge his name into immediate obscurity and only now is his music being revived. This selection of mostly world premiere recordings demonstrates his personal use of twelve-tone rows, abrupt contrasts and a fondness for fantasia patterns. Oboussier's radical piano miniatures, 25 Abreviations, are heard here in their original versions and in excerpts arranged for plucked string ensemble by Christian Wernicke.

Classical Music

Classical Music

A marvelously vivid recording that matches the freshness and immediacy of the music.

The King's strength as a performer is said to have been in Adagios (though there is evidence enough that this did not betoken lack of finger dexterity), and his own piece on this pleasant record is well able to hold its own with many another wind concerto of the day. This may tell us something about what was then a genuine musical vernacular; but such arguments aside, one can take pleasure in observing the contrast, one at the same time separating and unifying, between Frederick and his two companion composers. Quantz's Concerto is a nice, brisk piece with no nonsense about it. Rampal, with his particular gift for eighteenth-century flute music, deals with it admirably, pointing its highlights, touching on its bright rhythms without affectation, gracefully outlining the slow movement's melody without overstating claims. However, Benda's work shows what the differences are between a gifted amateur, a gifted professional and a composer of real individuality all working within the same idiom. The opening Allegro con brio has real brio, with an undercurrent of tensions that are present in another way in the warm, heartfelt Adagio un poco Andante; the finale is a little more conventional, but makes a bright ending to a most attractive work. No wonder poor Fritz preferred this civilized and humane discourse to the military ravings of his tyrannical father.

The recording matches the freshness and immediacy of the music. Rampal is set close, but the sound is marvellously vivid, and the subtle range of his tonguings in particular is caught as an expressive part of the music. The accompaniments are doubtless influenced by Rampal's own long experience in music of this period: they are as crisp and intelligent as his own playing.

-- Gramophone [3/1987]

All recordings [of Harold in Italy] stand to be judged by the famous mono recording by Primrose and Beecham which had a unique incandescent warmth.

-- Gramophone [10/1978]

There is a surprise here. After the folksy charm of Alfvén and Grieg, the familiar strains of Sibelius, the salon sentimentality of Järnefelt, and the muscular drive of Nielsen, we meet a totally fascinating composer from Iceland in the person of Jon Lief s, who had a whole disc devoted to his extraordinary music in the last issue. Geysir, like much of Liefs's mature work, starts in darkness, and works its way up to a vast climax in an idiom consisting almost entirely of primal, organ-like, parallel fifths, before subsiding into darkness. Amidst all of this charm and frivolity, it comes as something of a shock, but it is typical of Salonen, one of our most talented young conductors, to include it. His devotion to contemporary music of all sorts makes this a collection of uncommon interest, and sets it well above the ordinary for this sort of thing. All of the performances are excellent, as is the sound. Recommended, therefore, with enthusiasm despite the inevitable duplications of repertoire.

– David Hurwitz, FANFARE

If you care about Mahler, make a point of hearing this disc, no matter how many Fourths are already on your shelves. And I hope we will soon need more shelf space for additional CDs of Slowik's Mahler, some of it with full-sized orchestras. Mahler's music is no longer rare, but performances of such freshness, commitment and depth are always in short supply.
-- Bernard D. Sherman, Andante.com

Mozart: Divertimento for Violin, Viola & Cello in E-Flat Maj

This recording/performance is also available on MiniDisc.

TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO 5, TH

Classical Music

Twelve years younger than Bach and Handel, Giovanni Benedetto Platti left us a collection of nine Concerti per il cembalo obligato which rank not only among the very early examples of composition for keyboard instrument and strings, but also and above all, the first specimens especially conceived for the fortepiano, the new instrument invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori. Brilliant soloist and regular keyboard player of Zefiro, Luca Guglielmi offers us, for the first time on period instruments three brilliant and foreseeing piano concertos, interspersed with the large-­--scale Piano Sonata in C minor, a very widespread composition at the time, and the baroque Sonata for oboe, with a special appearance by Paolo Grazzi. An astonishing music from a composer who deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest of his time.

The Aldeburgh Recital

Bach: 14 Canons & Orchestral Suites Nos. 2 & 3

SCH?NBERG, SIBELIUS, FAURÈ: PE

Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 4 & 6

Fortepiano (Viennese action) was restored by J. van den Hamel, Antwerp 1996 and tuned by Claire Chevallier.

Glenn Gould & Chamber Music

Iberia

Over 500 of Schubert’s songs, recorded between 1966 and 1972 by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore, are reissued here on CD. It is a well-packaged, value-for-money set (the three volumes are also available individually), with each volume in a sturdy box and the individual CDs in slip-covers, to minimise bulk. There are no details of contents on these plain, numbered slip-covers but the booklets are well laid out with translations of all the songs. An alphabetical listing of this massive collection would have been very useful. Vol. 1 begins with some of the earliest songs and has over 100 settings from Schubert’s most prolific year, 1815. Fischer-Dieskau’s technical mastery of effortless long phrases and his expressive delivery of dynamic details ensure that many of the most basic strophic songs yield delightful moments. ‘Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren’ is taken at pitch in A flat, which lies quite high for Fischer-Dieskau; some other songs are transposed, but never more than a third. Just when one feels nearly overwhelmed by the rather morbid Matthisson and Mayrhofer settings, along come some gems like Schlegel’s ‘Der Schmetterling’ or Hölty’s ‘Seligkeit’ – ‘Bliss’ in translation and in execution. Although the order of the songs in Vol. 2 is basically chronological, there are small deviations which provide coherence and contrast and give many of these nine CDs the feel of a recital programme. The vocal risks taken by Fischer-Dieskau to achieve intensity and depth of characterisation afford immense insights, thus minimising any reservations. The contrast and drama of ‘Prometheus’, the insistent ardour of ‘An Sylvia’, then his disarmingly simple delivery of the Seidl ‘Wiegenlied’ – this is a feast of versatility and artistry. The partnership of these two great Lieder exponents – Gerald Moore’s contribution as a musically onomatopoeic piano partner (one brief example, the chiming of the bell in ‘Das Zügenglöcklein’) cannot be considered mere accompaniment – continues through to profoundly moving performances of the song-cycles in Vol. 3. These recordings are refreshingly unreverberant, and both performers are in good perspective. Each of the Vol. 3 song-cycles is already available separately and now there is even a new Fischer-Dieskau Winterreise available on Sony Classical. This is his seventh commercial recording of the work, made in 1990 accompanied by Murray Perahia. At 65, Fischer-Dieskau’s voice no longer maintains its unique seamless sheen but, though he cannot consistently guarantee the quality of his baritone sound, through his extraordinary mental and physical techniques he gives a gripping performance of mature reflection, aided by Perahia’s positive, interactive playing. This is surely Fischer-Dieskau’s last word on the cycle.

-- Elisse McDougall, BBC Music Magazine

Schnittke: Cello Concerto No. 2 & In memoriam

The Rodrigo concerto (double woodwind, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and strings) needs real virtuoso playing—it is one of those works which are harder than they sound—but is most skilfully written. The cheerful first movement, starting up with typical Iberian belatedness from apparently idle introductory strumming, may make the most immediate effect, but undoubtedly the finest part of the work is the introspective Adagio, which shows that in the right hands even such seemingly cliché-bound elements as melancholy cor anglais solos and quasi-flamenco fiorilure can still be moving. Williams's reading differs somewhat from Bream's (which I still think superb): he takes the first movement a thought slower and just misses Bream's élan, but gives the finale actually more bite: he plays the slow movement sensitively, less dramatically and more dreamily than Bream (and incidentally changes the notes of the final arpeggio). It is a throughly musical performance, a worthy rival to that by his distinguished fellow-countryman.

-- Gramophone [7/1966, reviewing Concierto de Aranjuez on LP]

Bach: Goldberg Variations

Classical Music