Classical Music

A newly restored collection of previously released (and no longer available) Knappertbusch best sellers from our catalog. Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 first released on Music & Arts CD-257 (1987); Symphony No. 4 on CD-249 (1987); Symphony No. 7 on CD-209 (1986), and Symphonies 4 through 9 in boxed set CD-1028 (1998), which included a different version of Symphony No. 3. Jeffrey Lipscomb wrote of the previous edition, CD-1028, in his amazon.com review: "Kna was one of the great Bruckner interpreters - he was unique in conveying this music's earthy, almost primeval side. Kna was a stubborn advocate of the so-called `revised' editions (Kluge's notes make a compelling argument for them)." And Tony Duggan wrote of the same set in Music-Web International: "This superb collection of Knappertsbusch at his best in Bruckner should not be missed. It offers fascinating insights into how Bruckner used to be perceived and played, and can teach us a lot even today."

Rachmaninoff: Sym 3

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Liszt: Fantasy on Hunga

Haydn: The Last 3 String Quartets

Haydn: Paris Symphonies Nos. 85-87

Barry, G.: Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (The) [Opera]

These performances from the inaugural 1950 Prades Festival are unforgettable. The Sonatas evince a grandeur and humanity that was quintessential Casals.

'The work of all artists stands as a symbol of human freedom; no one has enriched that freedom more signally than Pablo Casals'; President John Kennedy's tribute to the great Catalan cellist on the occasion of his fabled White House appearance in 1961 resounds eloquently across the decades in these reissues. A passionate antagonist of tyranny and injustice, Casals withdrew from public life in 1945, having settled in Prades as a refugee in 1939. His return to the concert stage during festivals at Prades and Perpignan between 1950 and 1966, was catalogued by inspirational performances originally mustered on mediocre-sounding Columbia LPs.

...[T]he Bach performances from the inaugural 1950 Prades event are unforgettable; Casals recorded these sonatas, written for viola da gamba with pianist Paul Baumgartner, and directed the Festival Orchestra in the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto. If the latter recalls inflated pre-war emasculations from the Busch ensemble and others, the Sonatas evince a grandeur and humanity that was quintessential Casals, and in uncommonly decent sound.

-- Michael Jameson, BBC Music Magazine

GALLUS: OPUS MUSICUM, ETC VAN

These performances are also included on Sony's 10-disc set "Bruno Walter
Edition Volume 3" - Sony Classical 66248.

Toccata Classics continues its survey of the music of the Hungarian composer Ferenc Farks with this sparkling album of works for wind ensemble. The chief characteristics of all eight scores recorded here are infectious good humor and a high charge of foot-tapping rhythmic energy. Like his teacher Respighi in Rome, Farkas went back to 16th and 17th century originals and brought them to life in arrangements for modern instruments. Laszlo Marosi enjoys a career leading orchestras and wind bands at concerts and festivals and in recording studios and academies around the world. Although he is very active in his native Hungary, his work is international - he is currently the artistic director of the International Band Festival of Villa Carlos Paz in Argentina. The Budapest Wind Symphony is the elite wind ensemble of Hungary, inviting musicians from the leading orchestras of the country. It draws its members from the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera House, the dohnanyi Symphony Orchestra and the Hungarian Central Army Band.

The Hallé label shows both artistry and acumen in this release. This is something to celebrate among the legion of RVW mavens. It is the first complete recording of Vaughan Williams music for the 1909 Cambridge University production in Greek of the comic satire "the Wasps" by Aristophanes. The wide appetite of the classical music audience for Vaughan Williams is strong and not just in England. Rather like Britten and Tippett his music has travelled and enjoyed performances and nurtured enthusiasm far and wide. Mark Elder, who has done so much for the renaissance of the Hallé, is to be congratulated for his decision to associate himself with the project and for directing with such vitality. In a way the incongruity of the music in relation to the plot and satire hardly matters even where a taste of the drama is given through the David Pountney narration. I detect very little satire in this music. The music now seems inextricably and delightfully bound up in the English countryside, its cheeriness and its verdant beauty.

The narration explodes onto the scene with a strangulated scream of ‘Bastard!’ from the rough trade of Henry Goodman doing his best Ray Winstone act. Some flavour of the narration and the singing is in tr. 5 in CD1 where the tenors sing: ‘Could you not find any clean underwear?’ The whole effect is of one of those de luxe BBC Radio productions with full orchestral apparatus as in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Brecht’s Schweik in World War Two and in Flecker’s Hassan. The music plays over the snores, moans, speaking, salt and spleen of narrator Goodman. The overture starts to mean more when one hears the buzzing main theme sung by the chorus in ‘When we buzz’. The Hallé Chorus are in sterling voice singing like a phalanx of football thugs at one moment and classically lightly English at another (CD1 tr. 11 1:26).

CD2 includes Acts II and III. It launches with a delicate, tip-toe night march purged of all absurd overtones - sheerly delightful writing (Entr’Acte). This continues but with the absurdist gearbox fully engaged in The March Past of the Witnesses. This is RVW the far-seeing anticipating Prokofiev which he does again at 5:10 in tr. 15 where rather than Love for Three Oranges it is the Classical Symphony that is echoed/predicted. The Chorus Parabasis (CD2 tr. 7) recalls the mellifluous lilt of Serenade to Music and the writing of Vaughan Williams’ teacher Ravel. Back to spleen and bawdiness again in Pountney’s words for Melodrama (tr. 15): "Out of my way, you bunch of faggots, you pussy-footing plonkers ..." And there’s more, dear reader. This is not for the genteel auntie. Do bear in mind that here in the sung and spoken text you catch something of the football terraces and of punk. This is RVW red in tooth and claw. Then again other sections such as the flute and harp troubadourisms of Chorus and Dance (tr. 15 at 00:55) recall the writing in Sir John in Love. At the end where Procleon snores the effect predicts the somnolent Sir John Falstaff. It is equally Falstaffian - but in a different way - when he half wakes and mutters with drooling relish: "Show your daddy your dainty tussies and set them all in motion." It is a multi-faceted score - frankly fascinating.

Vaughan Williams re-scored parts of the music for the well known five movement orchestral suite. It is that suite and the overture by which most listeners will know some of this music. There is no competition for this set.

The set includes the full score of 80 minutes and incorporated dialogue of circa 25 minutes. The documentation is non-pareil with Michael Kennedy’s essay, David Pountney’s preface, full texts in English only, artist profiles and a listing of all personnel in the orchestra.

If you are interested, the full study score can be obtained from Faber Music. This is based on the editorial work of Igor Kennaway who back in the early 1990s conducted one of the best ever productions of RVW’s ‘morality’ Pilgrim’s Progress.

Some may find this an unnerving experience but it works superbly well provided you are ready for the salty dialogue. It’s a small price to pay for the fascination and delight of hearing so much familiar and unfamiliar Vaughan Williams.

- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

This selection received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)."
This selection is available in standard CD, Super Audio CD and Mini Disc formats.
Arcadi Volodos' concerto recording debut is an involving and exciting Rachmaninov Third which is quite unlike any of the other classic accounts that come to mind. Not for him the manic intensity of Horowitz or the hell-bent impetuosity of Argerich, this particular virtuoso has his own signature gifts, a golden tone that never tarnishes under duress, a mastery of overall form that might be viewed as restraint, and then of course, the killer technique. In this last regard Volodos truly sets himself apart, for his magic is not all speed and power. One is often held breathless by his control in quiet moments, especially where the combination of dexterity and delicacy is called for, and he revels in passage work, making every note count and shine where other pianist seem to merely be moving on to get to the next big hurdle. Then, when the big hurdles of the "Rach III" arrive, Volodos dispatches them with such level command that one is truly awed. No wonder the live Berlin audience breaks into hysterics at the end. They, like you, are lucky to be alive to hear this.

This selection contains both ADD and DDD recordings.

Stoltzman plays in a uniquely personal style - bent notes and microtonal slides in near vocal effects. Magical!

Richard Stoltzman could be claimed as the James Galway of the clarinet. He has developed the personality of the instrument in new ways, often drawing on jazz effects, in what he regards as an American tradition. And he has a considerable following. He has recorded major pieces like the Corigliano Concerto (RCA, 4/89), but in this collection he's simply relaxing.

He starts with an ingenious arrangement of Gershwin's piano pieces, the Three Preludes, where the few extra effects in both clarinet and piano are completely idiomatic. Then there's Bernstein's early Sonata, another American classic, which Stoltzman has now recorded in Sid Ramin's orchestration (RCA, 12193).

W. T. McKinley makes his debut in the British catalogue with a recent, rather overblown, fourmovement Sonata and so does Clare Fisher with Sonatine. There's nothing very individual in either work, but Stoltzman obviously enjoys playing them. The real gems come when he goes deeper into jazz, especially Jimmy Rowles's The Peacocks, which was used in the soundtrack of Round Midnight. This brings out everything in Stoltzman's unique style - bent notes and microtonal slides in near vocal effects. Magical!

Dick Hyman is another jazz pianist and composer. He has recorded a complete Joplin and has written rags himself. His Clarinata is a red-hot encore with a soupy middle section. Finally Stoltzman plays his own arrangement of Amazing Grace, starting unaccompanied, and very touching it is too. Altogether an attractive collection, well recorded, with some uniquely personal playing.

-- Gramophone [9/1996]

There's revealing diversity in these pre-'West Side Story' works of Bernstein, as well as harbingers of that landmark musical and film. Among them is the dramatic horn work in the title composition, which also certifies the classical chops and sureness in syncopation of jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The modernist flurries of the saxophone arrangements are evocative of the much later work by the avant-garde ROVA ensemble.
The 'Fancy Free' ballet appears along with the "Three Dance Episodes" from 'On the Town,' a 1944 show envisioned by Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins as an extension of 'Fancy Free.' The ballet (reproduced here from a monaural recording) presents a remarkable array of emotional dramas - some with Coplandesque bravado, some with Latin touches of tango and fandango, some with the sassy strut which is so Manhattan. The dances showcase Bernstein's facility at reusing and combining themes, some taken from 'On the Town's' most famous number, "New York, New York" (not to be confused with the John Kander-Fred Ebb song of the same name sung by Liza Minelli in the 1977 film "New York, New York"). The composer conducts with vigor.
By contrast, the 'Serenade' lacks the expected Bernstein lyricism and clear, tight structure, but is interesting in concept and shows off the dynamic palate and authority of violinist Zino Francescatti.

Track Listing
1. Samba Cantina - Paul Desmond
2. Our Waltz - Gary Burton
3. I'll Take Romance - Dominique Eade
4. Isfahan - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
5. Sweet Lorraine - Coleman Hawkins/Henry "Red" Allen
6. Lazy River - Hoagy Carmichael
7. Petals Danse - Tom Harrell
8. My Ship - Sonny Rollins
9. Blues for Bessie - Bud Powell
10. After the Rain - Don Braden

Personnel: Dominique Eade, Hoagy Carmichael (vocals); Romero Lubambo (guitar, acoustic guitar); Everett Barksdale, Jim Hall, Peter Leitch (guitar); Joe Venuti, Regina Carter (violin); Ron Lawrence (viola); Akua Dixon (cello); Greg Tardy, Jimmy Dorsey, Buster Bailey (clarinet); Johnny Hodges (saxophone, alto saxophone); Don Braden (saxophone, tenor saxophone); Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Benny Golson (tenor saxophone); Tom Harrell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Henry "Red" Allen (trumpet); Tommy Dorsey (trombone); Duke Ellington, George Colligan, Herbie Hancock, Marty Napoleon, Bud Powell (piano); Gary Burton (vibraphone); Dwayne Burno, George Duvivier (acoustic bass); Connie Kay, Cozy Cole, Joe Morello, Matt Wilson , Roy McCurdy, Art Taylor (drums).

Recording information: New York, NY (11/30/1930-??/??/1997).

Arranger: Dominique Eade.

Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 58: Beethoven: Piano Concertos N

I would agree that the Homenaje to the murdered poet Lorca was one of [Revueltas'] most significant achievements—a long trumpet-led lament curiously interspersed with vivid dance-like episodes ''like El Salon Mexico on mescal'', as Page remarks about the last of the enjoyably pungent (but also lyrical) Alcancias (perhaps ''expansive bullets'' though, bewilderingly enough, it can also mean ''piggy-banks'' or ''brothel keepers''!). These latter pieces are brilliantly played by the London Sinfonietta, which then sobers up for the austere Planos, which the composer described as ''functional architecture''. Ocho x rondo is a scherzo (with a gentler central section) for octet, perhaps more immediately striking is a Toccata from the same year (1933), which demands (and gets) virtuoso playing from a chamber group. Revueltas's best-known work, the snake-killing ritual Sensemaya, is taken by Mata at the same deliberate pace he adopted with the Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela (Dorian, 11/93) but sounds more decorous at the hands of the New Philharmonia.

There is, however, nothing sedate, except, very properly, in the evocative and beautiful third movement (''Night in Yucatan''), about the performance by the Jalapa (or Xalapa) Symphony under Fuente (whose Sensemaya for Pickwick was reviewed in 12/93) of the four-movement suite drawn from the music for the film La noche de los Mayas: its finale, with an orgy of manic percussion and brass would almost rouse the dead (which presumably was the scene it accompanied). A fascinating disc.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone [2/1995]

Bronfman's Islamey is a reading of sweep and majesty. A soul-satisfying record that you'll return to often.

If you've seen Yefim Bronfman perform, you know that he's an assertive, brilliant pianist who commands attention, even in a large hall. The soloist is remarkably successful in scaling back his playing for the 12 modest pieces Tchaikovsky produced for serial publication in a monthly music magazine. Bronfman resists the temptation, for instance, to dazzle with a faster tempo in "The Harvest" (August), which he certainly could have undertaken with one hand (or at least a couple of fingers) tied behind his back. Nor does he look for profundity that isn't there in these unassuming miniatures, or "Chopinize" the more lyrical movements. The well-known "Barcarolle" (June) is played with a straightforward sort of melancholy that's exactly right—touching without seeming overwrought. Still, the playing is eventful and involving, and carefully articulated: Listen to the crystalline clarity of February's "Carnival." Sony provides superb sound, utilizing 24-bit encoding and their "Super Bit Mapping" methodology. The performances were taped at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, in New York State, a celebrated venue that has been exploited by a number of labels. The sonic presentation is warm yet immediate and clear, capturing fully the refinement of Bronfman's touch. I prefer Bronfman's Seasons to three others on hand: Antonin Kubalek (on Dorian, recorded 12 years earlier in the same Troy concert hall), Naum Starkman (on PopeMusic) and, by a smaller margin, Luba Edlina (on Chandos). As though to underscore that he was holding back in the Tchaikovsky, which is quite accessible to talented amateurs, the soloist proceeds on to an echt virtuoso vehicle. Islamev, of course, is for major-leaguers: Do not try this at home unless you are a trained professional. Bronfman gives us quite a ride. The work's considerable technical demands are fairly tossed aside as the pianist presents a coherent musical structure, not merely a succession of pianistic feats. This is a reading with sweep and even some majesty. In comparison, Alexander Paley, leading off his admirable six-CD set of Balakirev's complete piano music for ESS.A.Y with Islamey, sounds dutiful and a bit tentative.

One might grouse about the short timing of this disc. Bronfman could have given us more Tchaikovsky, more Balakirev, more something. But what's the better value: a humdrum 75 minutes or a soul-satisfying 50 that you'll return to often? Not a toughie.

-- Andrew Quint, FANFARE [3/1999]

This CD contains both ADD and DDD recordings.
Glenn Gould was probably the most individual pianist of this century. Often criticized throughout his career for his interpretations, his influence cannot be denied. He was a musician of the highest order, and capable of profound playing. Originally released in 1980 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Gould's association with CBS, this set features both standard Gould fare (including a previously unreleased "Italian Concerto" from 1981) and twentieth century works by Strauss and Scriabin alongside Canadian Radio Broadcasting programs made over the course of Gould's career.
Gould played the music of many composers, but had a keen interest in the music of Strauss. His pairing with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the Strauss 'Ophelia Lieder' is certainly the highlight of the first disc. Liszt's transcription of the first movement of the Beethoven "Pastoral" symphony is an interesting novelty. The CBC programs--"A Glenn Gould Fantasy" and "Critics' Call-Out Corner"--on the second disc are truly funny and personal, giving us a glimpse into Gould the man. There is a multitude of information on these discs, but it is well worth the time invested. The comprehensive liner notes serve as an excellent guide to this set, a welcome addition to any collection.

These two piano concertos find Dmitri Shostakovich in a playful mood, but playful in the way that Mahler is playful. It is the latter composer's kaleidoscopic canvases that come to mind when listening to Shostakovich's sonic tableaux. They paint both the vaudevillian, as in the end of the first movement of the Concerto No. 1, and the poignant, as in the second movement of the Concerto No. 2, which also sounds like an homage to the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2.
Possessing all of the requisite musical and temperamental qualities to bring this music to life, Russian-born pianist Yefim Bronfman offers up artistically and technically dazzling performances that sometimes alarm the listener with their heart-pounding immediacy. With unmannered, unassailably confident playing, Bronfman locates the music's humor, tenderness, and occasional mania, resulting in performances that convince without seeming to try.

Mozart: Ave verum corpus, K. 618 & Requiem in D Minor, K. 62

WAGNER: LOHENGRIN NELSSON, HO

Harry PARTCH (1901-1974), one of the greatest and most individualistic composers of all time, who created dozens of incredible instruments for the performance of his music, created one of the most amazing bodies of sensually alluring and emotionally powerful music of the 20th century. Closely connected with his name is NEWBAND, an ensemble founded by Dean Drummond, which received custodianship of the original Harry PARTCH Instrument Collection in 1990 and has since been involved with resurrecting PARTCH's great works.