No performance of the Walton concerto could possibly be more authentic than that captured by this 1950 recording. The work was commissioned by Heifetz, and suited his style and musical personality to perfection. His playing is technically superlative, gloriously passionate, virile and exciting. Walton was an admirable conductor of his own work at this period, and he and the vintage Philharmonia are inspired partners for Heifetz. The sound is very good for its period, cleaner and clearer than on the two previous British LP editions, but with a very slight background hum now discernable.

-- Gramophone [3/1989]

"There are few enough American string concertos in the repertoire, the Barber Violin Concerto of 1940 obliterating the two fine ones of Walter Piston (1939, 1960, recently acclaimed on the Naxos recording) or the later Bernstein Symposium taken up by younger violinists. Gruenberg here would seem to have emerged as a kind of Hollywood film-writer who got lucky with Heifetz. Well, no. In fact, consulting my sub-Grove as it were, one finds Gruenberg was part of the Russian-Jewish diaspora and although settling in America at two, he studied in Berlin and Vienna, and with Busoni for piano no less. He wrote only this one concerto and two violin sonatas and only smaller pieces for his own instrument, and in fact his affinity for violinists is evinced in this work.

The directions are English to a fault: 'Moderately' for the opening movement. The rising figure which promises much delivers something. Through the first movement we are subjected to tiny jazz and cowbell inflections, as if Copland and Virgil Thomson's prairies are only a session away. Half-way though the first movement a curious pre-echo of the happy heart theme of Korngold's Violin Concerto finale emerges. Perhaps Gruenberg had been watching Korngold films. One can only recall Korngold's riposte to Max Steiner's quip about Korngold getting worse and Steiner better. 'That's easy, Steiner ... you have been stealing from me and I have been stealing from you.' Gruenberg too, perhaps. Touches of marimba at around 7:40 suggest this. Vienna, either recalled or refracted through Korngold, figures highly in this concerto.

-- The second movement, despite its 'With simplicity and warmth' tag doesn't really relax into lyricism. Despite Gruenberg's attempts at popularity, the dark marimba opens flickering into a film-noire dream world, edged with nightmare and harrowed magic. Again, the themes seem memorable for as long as they last, but they lack the distinct cut of genius. Still, this movement edges pretty near to permanently lodging. But long before the finale the movement hits the high trail again at 4.40. It's quite unbelievable. It's as though Gruenberg couldn't trust to his talent and lets us in for a banal hoe-down, attractive enough in fact but by 6.22 when it calms down one is getting stereo vision from mono. What Tully Potter has termed an attempt at a popular concerto has in fact turned out a damaged confection of true impulse and lobba-de-lot-on, an Americana pizza with candy. The finale 'Lively and with good humour' following attacca isn't quite VE Day won by Ronald Reagan, but with a piano honky-tonking cheek by jowl with Heifetz we seem somewhere off Auden's 52nd Street (and that very different concerto/symphony of Bernstein's after Auden). It's tuneful though, cheeking us with Gershwin near-quotes, as elsewhere. One sequence has the horsy lumbering plains evoked by string players on the bridge (soon overtaken by the piano's new glissandi) - a ghost ride. And yes, there's whips, perhaps used with real point. Good humour? This was 1943. The premature celebrations seem forced. The sound, apparently endemic for all RCA/San Francisco recordings, has a suitable brashness, though its fierceness has been well-tamed and Heifetz caught beautifully."

-- Simon Jenner, MusicWeb International Review of Naxos reissue

Complete Tracklist:
1. All Through The Night
2. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
3. Barceuse De Dolly
4. Suo-Gan
5. Shoheen-Sholyoh
6. Rock-A-Bye Baby
7. Gartan Mother's Lullaby
8. Riddle Song
9. Evening
10. When You Wish Upon A Star
11. Barceuse Russe
12. Sandmannchen
13. Wiegenlied
14. Baby Mine
15. Flying Dreams
16. Barceuse Des Elephants
17. Such A Li'l Darlin'
18. Mighty Lak' A Rose
19. La La Lu
20. Nocturne For Harp

SCHUMANN: LIEDER VOL 1 - DICHT

}Gramophone (1/97, p. 81) "...[Larrocha's] 'Rondo' recalls the air of mystery and delicate intrigue she mustered so often in her early recordings of Spanish repertoire. For her fans, and thorough collectors of Mozartina..."{

Leonard Slatkin recorded only a handful of Shostakovich symphonies for RCA, of which this Fourth is the finest. Indeed, it's one of the best performances of this work on disc. Slatkin's highly idiomatic reading emphasizes musical values--propulsive rhythms, piercing accents, bold colors, fully fleshed-out textures, and perfectly gauged tempos--over exaggerated emotion, and the result is a powerfully affecting performance. The opening movement launches boldly: right away the first climax, with brazen brass, generates terrific energy, and it's all captured by RCA's vivid and detailed recording (which needs to be played at high volume to get its full impact). Even more impressive is the string fugato near the end of the development, which the St. Louis strings negotiate magnificently despite Slatkin's frantic pace.

In the sardonic scherzo Shostakovich's myriad instrumental effects express themselves with uncommon clarity; the woodwinds sound especially perky here, and also in the finale's rollicking dance episodes. Indeed, the entire St. Louis Symphony turns in a virtuoso performance, equaling if not surpassing the Chicago Symphony with Previn. Of course, such perfection and polish are not the only ways to do the Shostakovich Fourth--some listeners may prefer the raw, edgy playing style of Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra, or the near-militaristic virtuosity of the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony for Rozhdestvensky. But for an experience of sheer orchestral opulence Slatkin's version can't be beat. Available through Arkivmusic.com's on-demand service.

--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

BACH: WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND HAR

PUCCINI: MANON LESCAUT PERLEA

MOVIE LOVE SONGS ORMANDY, PHI

With exemplary playing from Gerhard Oppitz, this set will appeal to all lovers of romantic piano music.

This exemplary recording by Gerhard Oppitz of the complete solo piano music of Edvard Grieg was made in 1992. I say "exemplary" because while Herr Oppitz plays it all very well, he does not erase the memory of superb individual recordings (of the Lyric Pieces especially) played by others (Walter Gieseking, Emil Gilels and Daniel Barenboim, to name but three).

...I wish to single out the [1st] disc because it is pivotal, the Nordic Folksongs and Dances, op 17, written just after the beloved piano concerto in a minor, op 16, are required listening for those enamored of its sweeping majesty. The disc concludes with the Ballade in g minor, one of Grieg’s most important works. Nearly nineteen minutes in length, it is the most substantial track in the entire set. Listen as the elegiac central theme in the variations becomes dramatically intensified and dies away to quiet resignation. I have played this piece for friends who attend piano recitals frequently and asked them to name the composer. Liszt, Brahms, and even late Robert Schumann have been just some of the responses from those unfamiliar with the work.

Those with an affinity for Grieg’s songs will find themselves longing for the vocal parts while listening to the last twelve tracks of Disc 5. The most well known are To Spring, I Love Thee and Solveig’s Song from Peer Gynt.

...The nineteen Norwegian Folkdances and seventeen Norwegian Peasant Dances which occupy the 37 tracks of Disc 7 represent the composer’s final journeys through the ethnomusicology of Norway. The journey would never have been undertaken had it not been for his friendship with fellow composer Rikard Nordraak (1842-66) who introduced him to a work called Norwegian Mountain Melodies by Lindeman. Nordraak’s untimely death at age 24 occasioned Grieg to write the Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak. It is in a minor and beautifully pays tribute to the composer’s departed friend and colleague. It is rightly juxtaposed between the two large sets of folk material.

The Folkdances include five "Cradle Songs", but the rest are mostly "dancelike" although the two longest "It Happened in My Youth" and "I Wander Deep in Thought" seem less terpsichorean than the others. The Peasant Dances, on the other hand are mostly Hallings, Gangers and Leaping Dances with a few Bridal Marches thrown in. It is all very festive and concludes the set with appropriate panache. This set is recommended for all lovers of romantic piano music.

-- Gregory W. Stouffer, MusicWeb International
reviewing Gerhard Oppitz's complete box set of Grieg piano music, RCA 82876

SHOSTAKOVICH: FILM MUSIC, VOL

SCHUMANN: KINDERSZENEN BRAHM

This selection was recorded October-November, 1991 in Symphony Hall, Boston and in Carnegie Hall, New York city.

Performance: ****/Sound: **** These fine, not-quite-mature symphonies have more in common with each other than with the better-known Scottish and Italian – the Fifth is actually earlier than either. Here they share just the right approach to show them at their strongest: plenty of affection and intelligence, no inflated pretensions or hyped-up excitement, just good traditional polished German playing. The spacious, resonant sound and warmly shaped phrases that open No. 5 amount to a promise amply fulfilled in an unhurried but still fiery Allegro, and through a slow movement like a song without words that briefly thrusts deeper at the end to push the music over into a vigorous finale, moving urgently forward so that the eventual chorale is a real arrival rather than a formality. No. 1 swings between an evident devotion to Mozart’s great G minor Symphony and touches of high originality: the dramatic false alarms that bring the first movement to an unexpectedly intense climax, the tense hush as Trio reverts to Minuet (or rather not-quite-Scherzo), the plucked chords that stalk around the finale’s solo clarinet tune. Vitality without haste is again the performance’s chief joy.

-- Robert Maycock, BBC Music Magazine

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: SCHEHERAZADE

TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO 6 PAT