*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

RESPIGHI: FONTANE DI ROMA, PIN

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4, Op. 36, 1812 Overture, Op. 49 &

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Eugene Ormandy's peerless Ives First Symphony, a singular classic in which the conductor employs all the resources of his fabulous orchestra, comes newly packaged in Sony's latest re-launch of its highly successful budget-priced Essential Classics series. The famous Philadelphia strings make a wonderfully sumptuous sound (particularly as they flesh out the Adagio molto's beauteous melodies), the winds' pointed and colorful playing enlivens the scherzo, while the brass section's signature timbre rings regally at the close of the first and last movements. Ormandy brings to this music the same level of concentration and care he would a Tchaikovsky symphony, conducting with an authority unmatched on other, later recordings.


Zubin Mehta conducts with similar enthusiasm, but his Los Angeles recording is spoiled by disfiguring cuts in the finale, and despite heftily sonorous playing from the Chicago Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas' earnest reading sounds surprisingly stiff after Ormandy's free-flowing, almost impetuous rendition. Ormandy further earns his Ives stripes (and proves the lie to the claim that he was a bland interpreter) with his intense and atmospheric reading of Three Places in New England. Rounding out the program is a bracing performance of the Robert Browning Overture by a very animated Leopold Stokowski, stunningly played by the American Symphony. The remastered sound for the Philadelphia sessions is pleasingly warm and full for its period (late 1950s), while the Stokowski recording is less open and a bit hard-edged. [3/6/2002]
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

At the beginning of the Fifties Philippe Entremont appeared on the international musical stage with the enthusiasm of critics and audience. He was born in Reims - France - im 1934 from a family of musicians, in 1952 he won the the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition Award; and this fact opened him a real international career,and, after having listened him the famous conductor Eugene Ormandy cast him for performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra one of most famous Orchestra in the world. Entremont began recording his first album when he was just twenty and were unforgettable performance specially his 1955 and 1959 Chopin recordings; performance that IDIS re-present in this CD after fifty years of inexplicable silence. It is enough consider the Ballades at the beginning of the CD or the Nocturne op 15 no 1 to realize what a wonderful performer he had been when he was just twenty. He had a wonderful and perfect virtuosity combined with a gift to tell through the music still unmached.

Classical Music

Crowning their series of recordings together for Ondine, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach are featured here with Peter Tchaikovsky's most popular orchestral pieces, Romeo and Juliet, String Serenade, and Francesca da Rimini. As an added bonus, the Orchestra's brass principals perform two brass quintets by Victor Ewald.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and the music of Peter Tchaikovsky form a relationship on which a legend was built. Enthusiastic press and success followed on the release of the previous recordings of the three final symphonies Nos. 4-6. Romeo and Juliet is Tchaikovsky's first acknowledged masterpiece and today one of the most popular orchestral compositions ever written. The swirling orchestral mastery of Francesca da Rimini makes this a true showpiece for the Orchestra with its legendary "Philadelphia Sound". The Mozart-like String Serenade remains one of the most beloved of all works for string orchestra. Both Tchaikovsky and Ewald were active composers in St. Petersburg's musical life during the same time and familiar with each other's work. Esteemed by all lovers of brass music, Ewald's Quintets are imbued with romantic Russian national feeling.

This is the ninth CD under the "formidable Ondine-Eschenbach-Philadelphia partnership" (Gramophone), which since 2005 has produced discs that have been honored with accolades including BBC Music Magazine's Disc of the Month, Gramophone's "Editor's Choice," The New York Times' "Top Ten Recordings of the Year," and the German Record Critics' Award, among others.

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

"The Concerto for Orchestra was an Ormandy specialty. He was Hungarian-born, of course, and had long been an advocate for Bartók’s music, for example, conducting the world premiere of the Third Piano Concerto with soloist György Sándor, and its first recording, both in 1946. This is his third and last recording of the Concerto for Orchestra, in fine early digital (1979) sound. It was also the final work on the last concert he ever conducted, in January 1984. While overall it is a notch less energetic than the 1963 version on Sony, it is expansive, assured, and effortless-sounding. The solo winds are superb, and the brass chorale in the “Game of Pairs” second movement is gorgeous."

-- Richard A. Kaplan, Fanfare [5/2010]

"...[W]ith his fingers of steel Alexis Weissenberg gives a powerful performance... this disc can certainly be recommended." -- Gramophone [2/1971, reviewing the original LP release of the 2nd Concerto]

"No doubts here about the quality of the orchestral playing which is of a high order... [A] well-prepared and finely disciplined account." -- Gramophone [7/1980, reviewing the original LP release of the Concerto for Orchestra]

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Over the last three or four years, Yo-Yo Ma has been exploring the peaks of the cello repertory in a quickly growing series of LPs. Those disks, in turn, have helped establish him not only as one of the finest cellists of his generation... The Kabalevsky...boasts a melancholy central Largo with the kind of long, arching cello line that allows Mr. Ma to display his rich sound.

-- Allian Kozinn, The New York Times [1/1/1984]

The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop present a live recording with highlights of Gershwin’s self-proclaimed American “Folk Opera” Porgy and Bess, together with a stellar cast and the Morgan State University Choir.

Since its premiere in 1935, Porgy and Bess has been one of the most significant early attempts to create American classical music inspired by African American styles such as jazz, Spirituals, and the blues. The hard-knock life at a Charleston waterfront tenement is presented here by an outstanding cast including Lester Lynch (Porgy), Angel Blue (Bess, Clara, and Serena), Chauncey Packer (Sportin’ Life) and Kevin Short (Crown and Jake).

Marin Alsop is one of today’s most acclaimed conductors, and the first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria and Britain. The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the world’s preeminent orchestras. Multi-award-winning soprano Angel Blue is one of the most promising voices of her generation, while Chauncey Packer is arguably one of the greatest and sought-after Sportin’ Life interpreters today. Lester Lynch and Kevin Short each enjoy a flourishing stage career, as well as a vast PENTATONE discography.

REVIEW:

Soprano Angel Blue has already shown she can meet—and exceed—the vocal and dramatic demands of playing Bess in the recent Metropolitan Opera production, and so it's not surprising that her lovely voice is the highlight of this disc of excerpts from George Gershwin's emotionally powerful opera. Not only does Blue own Bess' classic songs but she also sings Clara's "Summertime" and Serena's "My Man's Gone Now" with equal parts power and finesse and an ability to grab the listener from the get-go. Lester Lynch's Porgy and Chauncey Packer's Sportin' Life provide superb vocal support and Marin Alsop conducts an expertly-chosen group of excerpts, strongly performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Morgan State University Choir.

-- The Flip Side

The 4-album Richard Strauss set gathers together all of their early 1960s recordings of the famous tone poems along with Salome’s Dance, the Rosenkavalier and Bürger als Edelmann suites, the Burleske with soloist Rudolf Serkin and the First Horn Concerto, featuring Philadelphia principal Mason Jones. An early review in High Fidelity best summed up their powerful appeal in Strauss’s music: “There is no doubt that, for sheer gorgeousness, the Philadelphians have no peers.” More recent assessments in the Penguin Guide reaffirm that verdict: “Virtuoso orchestral playing … and many felicities of characterization” [Also sprach Zarathustra]; “Marvelous orchestral playing and the two soloists play splendidly with plenty of character” [Don Quixote]; “An extraordinarily voluptuous Philadelphia performance … Ormandy directs with licentious abandon, and the orchestra responds with tremendous virtuosity and ardor” [Salome’s Dance]; “Ormandy’s Ein Heldenleben is an engulfing performance, and the composite richness of tone and the fervor of the playing … bring the highest possible level of orchestral tension.”

A towering figure in French music of the later 19th century, Cesar Franck created a distinctive fusion of German Romanticism and French Classicism, enriching the symphonic, chamber, instrumental, vocal and sacred repertoires. As a teacher and mentor he gained admiration for his modesty and generosity while exercising a powerful influence on younger disciples such as Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc and Ernest Chausson. The Cesar Franck Edition gathers together all his masterworks - among them the Symphony in D, Violin Sonata, Prelude, Fugue et Variation and, of course, 'Panis Angelicus' - in enthralling performances by musicians of the first rank. Running to 16 CDs, the collection includes a CD of transcriptions and arrangements, proving their fascination for a still greater diversity of interpreters than Franck might have imagined. The five CDs of historical recordings - dating back as far as 1907 - testify to the continuing growth of his reputation after his death in 1890, and to the vibrant performing tradition engendered by his genius.

For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvorak - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto & Serenade melancolique (2015) Itzhak Perlman, Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy In Perlman's words, Tchaikovsky "wears his heart on his sleeve" and his violin concerto is a work of "unabashed Romanticism". While bringing sensitivity and substance to his interpretation, Perlman never slips into sentimentality and he leads an exhilarating dance in the finale.