WALTON: SYMPHONY NO 1 ANDRÈ P

"Extraordinary strength and depth of feeling, superbly sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale." -- Gramophone

"Robert Shaw’s magnificent Chorale for Toscanini’s still-unmatched Gesang der Parzen from November 1948." -- MusicWeb International

THE BAROQUE ERA - BACH, TELEMA

"The ''refreshing lyrical innocence'' which EG complained was missing at the opening of the Bernstein CBS performance is certainly caught by Slatkin who secures excellent, responsive playing from the St Louis orchestra. The reading is direct, not without its volatile moments, but essentially more conventional, less imaginative than Bernstein's. As EG noted, Bernstein is marvellously persuasive in holding concentration, building tense climaxes. The climax of the slow movement on the RCA disc is aided by the wide dynamic range and sense of spectacle of the splendid recording, but Bernstein creates much greater tension in the playing itself, as is immediately noticeable in the sense of ecstasy in the upper things soon after the movement's opening and in the closing section where the affinity with Romeo and Juliet is strong. similarly in the lyrically flowing string theme of the middle part of the Scherzo the rhythmic feeling is quirkier with Bernstein to match the bluff humuor of his finale.

Comparisons with the Karajan and Previn versions are pointless in the present context as neither is scheduled for Cd issue at present. The plus point for the RCA issue is the unaffected commitment of the over-all conception, with the finale engagingly high spirited to draw a parallel with the Classical Symphony alongside the famous ballet. The RCA recording too is first rate, naturally balanced within a convincing concert hall ambience. I did not find the weighty bass on the CBS compact Disc so oppressive as EG and certainly the Israel quality does not lack body and sharpness of focus, but detail is less natural and there is a touch of microphone-coloured glossiness on the violins..."

-- Ivan March, Gramophone [4/1985]

When planning this record, I wonder what streak of perversity prompted Richard Stoltzman to include only one work originally designed for clarinet? That, of course, is the set of Fanta.sie stücke, Op. 73, launching the series of miniatures Schumann wrote for various instruments in early 1849, while relaxing after the Strain of larger undertakings like his opera, Genoveva, and incidental music for Byron's Manfred. The layout of the clarinet part tells us how clearly his imagination was fired by the instrument's tonal range, and it reveals Stoltzman at his most persuasive. I enormously enjoyed his fluid phrasing, his superfine dynamic nuances and, last but not least, the way he unifies the three pieces as a suite travelling in mood from nostalgia to the hope that springs eternal in the human breast. Nor is it possible to over-praise the intimate interweaving of clarinet and piano. Richard Goode is a partner in a thousand here—as indeed throughout the recital. Though the three Op. 94 Romances (also of 1849) were originally intended for oboe, Schumann himself sanctioned the clarinet or violin as possible alternatives. Perhaps it's because of the piano's essential contribution to the first and last pieces that they lose little of their character in the transfer—especially the last in Marchen style. All three are again most sensitively shaded by both artists even if in observing Schumann's fastish metronome marking For the cradle-song-like second, they sacrifice just a little of the requested lnnigkeit.

The recital is completed by the first two of the 19-year-old Schubert's three Sonatinas in transcriptions (with no transposition and only minimal adjustments elsewhere) by Stoltzman himself. Because of the often high-lying line in the clarinet's thinner upper register, these emerge just a little chillier than from the violin, with its vibrato to give a touch of extra vibrancy in song. The development section of the A minor Sonata's opening Allegro is perhaps the best example. In the D major Sonata's Andante the players very occasionally enrich the line with small embellishments of their own—as they also do at the fermata, before the last return of the leading theme, in the A minor Sonata's concluding Rondo. The overall impression is of hearing both these works as it were in translation. But the playing is again first rate in its suavity and tonal refinement no less than its spirit. The recording itself certainly could not be more clear and true.

-- J.O.C., Gramophone [9/1989]

Includes dance(s) by Manuel de Falla. Soloist: Gerhard Oppitz.
Includes work(s) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Soloist: Gerhard Oppitz.

The Vogler, mellower and more sensuous, allows pace and passion to ebb and flow freely [in the Debussy] without hyping up the tension. Janácek’s ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ Quartet becomes big and intense, with fierce interjections, while for Shostakovich – this is the one in seven miniature movements – bear-like energy outflanks otherworldly withdrawal.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5)

-- Robert Maycock, BBC Music Magazine

BEETHOVEN: PIANO SONATAS NO 15

There is a distinct danger that our ears may be killed with kindness — the temptation to listen to far too much at once is almost impossible to resist.

There is a distinct danger that our ears may well be killed with kindness by this transfer to CD of all the Beethoven sonatas played by Heifetz. Each volume gives over an hour of generous playing time and, unless one is rigorously self-disciplined, the temptation to listen to far too much at once is almost impossible to resist.

The transfers, of recordings made between 1947 and 1960, are of the highest quality, revealing the very essence of Heifetz's art. In the three early Op. 12 Sonatas, we hear that flinty intonation which, fusing with the mere caress of the bow, creates unique finesse for the brio of the opening of No. 1 and the gleeful quick changes of register in the first movement of No. 3. One is reminded, too, that unlike so many of his Juilliard-trained successors to virtuosity, there is never any concession to the primacy of polished sound alone: it is always the nature of the instrument itself, the grain of its wood, the pliability of its strings, the tension of the horsehair, which is brought to bear on the nature of the interpretation itself.

It is the Third, E flat major, Sonata which points, too, the happiness of Heifetz's partnership with his pianist, Emmanuel Bay. Overriding the slight and inevitable dryness of recording, there is a sweetness, a simplicity, a quicksilver response which at times achieves the rare feat of enabling the ear to apprehend both players' contributions simultaneously. In the slow movement Heifetz, as if acknowledging where Beethoven's heart lay in this Sonata, is cool, almost distanced from the piano's dominant role.

Heifetz as miniaturist makes himself known in the Fourth Sonata (Op. 23) and in the very last one (Op. 96). For the C minor Sonata, Beethoven's first in a minor key, he refuses the temptation to don the tragic mask, leaning almost nonchalantly on the accents and upbeats of the first movement, and treating the Andante scherzoso with a piquant near-minimalism.

The two big sonatas, on the other hand, are boldy characterized. The Spring is, typically, one of the fastest in the business: this is a true driving Allegro, with the sap rising fast through Heifetz's intense vibrato and his firm, heavy pressure on the down-bow. He makes it clear that molto espressivo does not mean motto adagio in the slow movement: this, too, is marked by a steady sense of direction, with each carefully shaded sustained note carrying through the momentum of the whole.

Brooks Smith is a generally less characterful, more self-effacing pianist in the Kreutzer Sonata. But Heifetz redoubles the attack, never letting us forget that this is the spirit as well as the letter of a true Presto. Stark, biting passages of bowing suddenly draw back to moments of smoky half-voice before the cool air of the slow movement. The theme is penny-plain in its unfolding, the better to offset the electric signals with which Heifetz responds to the piano in the first variation, the audaciously driven moto perpetuo of the second, and the remarkable trills of the fourth.

-- Gramophone [1/1988]

TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO 6, RO

THE HEIFETZ COLLECTION VOL 32

TOMITA LIVE AT LINZ, 1984 - TH

THE BEST OF ROGER WHITTAKER

STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE GINASTE

Complete Track List:
1. Homecoming, The
2. Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
3. Duelin' Banjos
4. Shenandoah
5. Montana Skies
6. Piper, Piper
7. Wayward Wind, The
8. Winter Sunset
9. Drifter
10. Smoky Pines
11. Shaman (Medicine Man)
12. Dreams