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.

Classical Music

Stokowski Formed the All-American Youth Orchestra in 1940, It's Players' Ages Ranging from 18 to 25. He Sought to Combat Nazi Propaganda Touting the Wonders of Hitler Youth with An Artistic Statement from Young Emissaries of the Free World. The Aayo Toured South America in 1940 and North America in 1941 and Was Met with Rave Reviews. These Performances Boast a Unique Combination of Past and Future: The Wisdom of Stokowski's Vast Experience Allied with the Pure, Undiminished Idealism of Youth.

Mozart: Sonatas & Variations

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On the occasion of Wilhelm Killmayer's 75th birthday, in August 2002, WERGO publishes a collection of the works for piano solo by the Munich composer. These works, written between 1975 and 1999, were enregistered by Siegfried Mauser in close co-operation with his former teacher, the multiple-prize-winning composer Wilhelm Killmayer.

It was Bernstein who introduced the Ives Second, amazingly, in 1951; the young conductor then premiered Ives's Symphony No. 1 in 1953 and No. 4 in 1965. All were worth the wait. And if the modest Ives revival has yielded other very fine recordings of the symphonies - from Michael Tilson Thomas and the Concertgebouw at their most surprising, from the sterling Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, from the inimitable Bernstein himself late in his own career - the New York Philharmonic captured with Bernstein in these recordings dating from 1958 to 1966 is in a class of its own. What a ball Lenny and his players have with the music! Everyone is at his or her spontaneous best, and while the rough edges show in ways they would not in the late Seventies or Eighties the whole affair still carries the exhilaration of discovery. There is method in all the rambunctiousness, too: Bernstein's sublime control in the Adagio cantabile central movement of the Symphony No. 2 is all the more extraordinary in the naturalness of the results. Only the Holidays symphony, recorded on different occasions before its disparate movements were called a unified work, betrays the absence of the conductor's breathtakingly organic approach. Yet the opening holiday, 'Washington's Birthday', emerges with so much joy that only a prig would complain of the lack of relation to the final 'Thanksgiving Day'. These are key recordings in understanding both Ives and Bernstein. They are also immensely enjoyable.

-- Octavio Roca, BBC Music Magazine

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Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 2, 4 & Overture on Hebrew Th

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LEGENDARY STRAUSS RECORDINGS

This record of works written specially for Heifetz by Hollywood film composers will have one even more open-mouthed than usual at his pure wizardry.

This is a record to have one even more openmouthed than usual at the pure wizardry of Heifetz. All four works were written specially for him by Hollywood film composers, all of them émigrés from Europe. Where Korngold, the boywonder composer who never fulfilled the dazzling promise of his youth, used material for this Violin Concerto which he had already written for films—Another Dawn, Juarez, Anthony Adverse and The Prince and the Pauper—it was the other way about with Rózsa and Waxman. Rôzsa, in response to Heifetz's commission, wrote his concerto at high speed, then worked with l-leifetz on the details for 18 months, then finally used it in a subsequent film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Waxman, after writing his Carmen Fantasy, also used it in the film, Humoresque. The Rózsa Tema con variazioni is the middle-movement of a Sinfonia concertante for violin, cello and orchestra, that he wrote for Piatigorsky—the other soloist here—as well as Heifetz.

None of this is great music, but in the hands of the magician who prompted it, it has many delights. If the Korngold brings the most striking ideas, the Rózsa pieces with their gentle Hungarian flavour (much closer to Kodály than to Bartok) are charming too, while the Waxman is a splendid firework display. That Waxman piece was recorded as early as 1946, long before the rest, with rather scrubby sound and an uneven surface even in the digital transfer. The Korngold followed in 1953, the Rózsa Concerto in 1956 and the Variations in 1963. Though the booklet keeps quiet about it, only the two Rózsa items appear to be in stereo. Few will worry about such points when the playing is so astonishing, and whatever the recording quality the solo instrument stands out vividly. The slight hum detectable in quiet passages is not so distracting as in some other Heifetz vintage transfers. There is a highly informative note by Richard Freed.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [4/1989]

Debussy: Nocturnes, L. 91, La damoiselle élue, L. 62 & Le ma

VIVALDI: VIOLIN CONCERTOS FROM

Includes work(s) by George Crumb. Ensemble: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Thomas Conlin.

Works for voice with ensemble after poems by e.e. cummings and Arthur Rimbaud as well as chamber music works show the numerous facets of Matthias Pintscher's compositional technique. Presented by well-known interpreters, who are specialists in New Music, and under the direction of the composer himself, the CD offers a comprehensive insight into Pintscher's "penetrating the instant of time".

Bach: 6 Trio Sonatas for Organ, BWV 525-530 (Version for Har

...Mahler's Symphony No. 3 is another deeply spiritual score. Again, Salonen does not seem as interested in that element; he finds instead the earthier roots in an interpretation that flows mightily in one great line. Contralto Anna Larsson is superb; so are the choristers. Above all, the L.A. players shine warmly, especially in the rapt finale.

-- Tim Smith, The Sun-Sentinel

German contemporary composer Gerhard St�bler studied with Nicolaus Huber (composition) and Gerd Zacher (organ) at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold and the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen. Winning the 1982 Cornelius Cardew Memorial Prize was the first in a series of accolades he has received as a composer. St�bler's music often transcends the conventional framework. His catalogue of works contains only five pieces for organ, all of which are recorded here by Dominik Susteck.

Classical Music

ZINKA MILANOV - BELLINI, VERDI

In 2011 Thomas Fey was nominated for a Grammy for his world premiere recordings of the music of Antonio Salieri. Every new release of Haydn symphonies from Thomas Fey and his ensemble is greeted with enthusiasm; truly this is how Haydn should sound today. To bring this about, Fey's musicians bridge past and present, performing both on modern string instruments and replicas of authentic period woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.

There is nothing immature about the earliest Haydn symphonies, which in style straddle the older Italian overture and Baroque musical world while simultaneously looking forward to exciting new melodic and rhythmic developments of the Classical era.

Includes song(s) by Stephen Foster (Composer). Ensemble: National Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Gerhardt. Soloist: Robert White (tenor).

Handel's Saul is an operatic oratorio with ever intensifying action and increasingly drastic scenes. Handel seems to have been especially moved by this particular text. He gives each of the five main soloists a distinctive profile. Even the vocal supporting roles are unique and intentionally individual. In none of his other oratorios does Handel call for a more differentiated orchestra. Alongside the strings, he uses oboes, recorders, bassoons, trumpets, timpani and trombones. For me, Saul is one of the great high points of Handel's works. All of the performers on this recording thoroughly enjoyed taking on the challenges brought forth by this music. - Helmuth Rilling