POULENC: COMPLETE CHAMBER MUSI

Personnel: Lionel Hampton (vibraphone, piano); Clifford Scott, Alix Combelle (tenor saxophone); Walter Williams (trumpet); James Cleveland, Al Hayse (trombone); Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow (clarinet); Claude Bolling (piano); Billy Mackel (guitar); William Monk Montgomery (electric bass); Curley Hamner (drums).

Recorded live at Ecole Normale De Musique, Salle Pleyel, Paris, France on September 28, 1953. Includes liner notes by Claude Carriere.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

This is part of RCA/Victor's Original Vogue Masters series.

Personnel: Lionel Hampton (piano, vibraphone); Billy Mackel (guitar); Alix Combelle (tenor saxophone); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Claude Bolling (piano).

Recording information: Ecole Normale De Musique, Paris, France (09/28/1953).

DEBUSSY: PRELUDES BOOKS 1 & 2

Caballé is in remarkable voice. Wait until you hear the floated lines and richly colored vocal textures in her Viennese operetta excerpts.

This is an unusual concept, and for the most part its charm manages to carry the day. What we have is a recording of one of the most famous of Spanish sopranos, Montserrat Caballé, and her twenty-five-year-old daughter at the beginning of her career. It must give a mother a remarkable feeling to make a recording such as this. If it seems to smack of being a gimmick, not only has Caballé earned the right to a gimmick or two, but she and her daughter manage to pull it off on musical grounds.

Caballé is in remarkable voice; this recording was made in March 1995, when she was about sixty-two, and we are required to make no allowances for age in order to enjoy her singing. Her tone is steady, her fabled pianissimo is still at her disposal, and if just a bit of juice is gone from the voice it remains a warm and glowing instrument capable of giving more sensual pleasure than just about any voice before the public today. In her Bellini solo she recalls her prime years, and I don't think I've heard a more seductive, richly colored recording of Gounod's lovely Sappho aria. Caballé sets quite a slow tempo in the Gounod, and then manages to sustain her tone and vocal energy in such a way as to make it convincing.

If one were to be purely objective, one would admit that it is too early for Marti to be making records; she was not quite twenty-five when this disc was made, and she has not fully developed her own vocal personality yet. Having said that, though, one would also note that she sings very well, and at times she will turn a phrase or emit a vocal color that vividly recalls her mother. In the numbers they do together (particularly the lovely zarzuela duets) their voices and their musical approaches blend perfectly. In her solos, Marti displays a lovely lyric soprano, with a secure technique. “Caro nome“ is a stretch, though, and at this time strains her resources. She needs to learn to sing with the distinctive individuality that her mother brings to everything—the Giuditta aria has been sung a lot more seductively than it is here—but she certainly gives pleasure. And as for the venerable Caballé, wait until you hear the floated lines and richly colored vocal textures in her Viennese operetta excerpts! They alone are worth the price of the disc.

The sound is okay, though a bit hard on Caballé's voice at full tilt, the orchestral playing more than adequate, and the conducting quite sympathetic. What is frustrating is the absence of translations (we are given the original texts for the Spanish numbers only—translations for nothing), and the gushy and dumb notes {Gianni Schicchi is not a “very rarely performed opera“). Caballé fans will not be disappointed with this disc, and other lovers of good singing should probably seek it out as well.

-- Henry Fogel, FANFARE [9/1996]

EDUARDO MATA EDITION VOL 1 - M

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

WAGNER: SIEGFRIED JANOWSKI

HAYDN: THE SEASONS KEGEL, ADA

This recording also includes Christmas Greetings spoken by Montserrat Caballé and Montserrat Martí in German, Spanish, French and English.
Includes christmas medley by various composers. Ensembles: Brandenburg Philharmonic, Orlando Vocal Ensemble, Schöneberg Boys Choir. Conductor: José Collado. Soloists: Montserrat Caballé, Montserrat Martí.

Rarely indeed, in music of this sort, does one hear interpretations so thoroughly rethought, and revealing so much more in the music than one ever realized was there.

These are most distinctive and distinguished performances of the most popular six Suppé overtures. Rarely indeed, in music of this sort, does one hear interpretations so thoroughly rethought, and revealing so much more in the music than one ever realized was there. The ebullience that one so readily associates with Suppé is here in good measure; but what so distinguishes these interpretations is the treatment of the slower passages. Slowness of tempos is indeed the overwhelming initial impression. Kuhn takes around a minute longer than other conductors over Dichter und Bauer, and in Ein Morgen, ein Mittag, em Abend the contrast is even more pronounced. By the end of the cello solo he is already as much as a minute behind Mehta in the latter's collection (CBS (lf CD44932, 3/90). Perhaps, indeed, the opening of the latter overture is too long drawn out. Yet, how exquisitely the cello solo is played and phrased! And it is just the same elsewhere. How beautiful is the clarinet solo in Leichte Kavallerie, and how splendid the way the Hungarian passion is wrung out in the following andante con mow! Best of all, I think, is Pique Dame, in the way the incessant opening rhythm is paced out before the hair is let down in the allegro con fuoco section, after which the passage for two flutes is quite irresistibly teased out.

The recorded sound makes its own contribution to a remarkable issue by bringing out details of the scoring that are too often obscured. It is a pity, then, that Eurodisc have found room for only six overtures, because this puts them at an immediate disadvantage to the splendid Dutoit collection (Decca (1) 414 408-213H, 2/86) and the bargainprice Sándor (LaserLight/Target (D 15 611—not submitted for review). I suppose that either of those must be the safer recommendation for anyone wanting a basic Suppé collection; but this new one really should be heard by all who believe they already know this music and who would, I believe, be astonished at the freshness that Kuhn and the RPO bring in such abundance to these oft-played pieces.

-- Gramophone [4/1990]
reviewing the original release of disc 1, Eurodisc 69307

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I gave a warm welcome last year to the first CD of Suppe overtures from Kuhn and the RPO (CD RD69307, 4/90). Its particular attraction lay in the freshness they brought to oft-played pieces with beautifully shaped slower sections building up to glorious climaxes. The most obvious attraction of this sequel CD is that the contents are anything but oft-played. Fatinitza is heard from time to time, and three others here (Die Irrfahrt um's Glück, Wiener Jubel and Die Frau Meisterin) were included in EMI's Marriner collection (CD CDC7 54056-2, 10/90). But there are still three that are new to the catalogue—Donna Juanita, Das Modell and Der Gascogner. The second of these works was an operetta completed by others after Suppe's death, but apparently the Overture was among the few numbers that he himself completed. It sounds authentic enough, if not really in the top flight.

Once again the beauties of the playing and the shaping of the themes are readily evident, most obviously in the jaunty build-up and rousing conclusion of the familiar Fatinitza. Wiener Jubel, in its third recording in two years, proves again what a marvellous discovery it has been, but scarcely less good is Donna Juanita. This is a longer and generally more subdued overture, with a beautiful violin solo and delightful intertwining woodwind. Kuhn's command over the music is nowhere shown to better effect than in the major theme towards the end, which he alternately holds back and then moves on, to irresistible effect.

As before, not everything comes off altogether convincingly. The opening of Die Irrfahrt um's Glück (dating from 1853, incidentally—the author of the booklet note confuses it with a completely different work of 35 years later) seems really too slow, as does the major theme (marked allegro moderato, assai dolciato) 2'45" into Die Frau Meisterin. But these are small prices to pay for an altogether stimulating, irresistible collection.

-- Gramophone [11/1991]
reviewing the original release of disc 2, Eurodisc 69226

[This] collection will thrill those who respond to instrumental spotlighting, especially in The Rite of Spring, where the big drums have a joistshaking impact (try the 111" "Dance of the Earth" on disc I, track 23). Temirkanov's readings of Petrushka (credited as the '1919' version), the 1919 Firebird Suite, the Fairy's Kiss "Divertimento" and the Pulcinella Suite have lots of personality, though there are one or two rough edges to the playing.

-- Gramophone [7/1997]

Gustav Kuhn is aware of the eloquence of the scoring throughout the work and responds with great immediacy to nuance, making the listener aware of Schumann's exotic touches of color.

Schumann, at 33, put his whole heart and soul into Das Parodies und die Peri, his first venture—and what a bravely unconventional one—into the world of oratorio... Whereas Gerd Albrecht's overall timing, with a Czech team for Supraphon/Koch International, was 90 minutes and Armin Jordan's for Erato/Warner Classics, with the Swiss was 96, Gustav Kuhn, with his Germans, allows himself 99. There is no resulting loss of excitement in more rousing contexts, like the battle music in the Peri's first Indian search for "the gift most dear to heaven". But always Kuhn tries to squeeze just that much more out of the score's more personal heart-tugs, like the choral lament for the slain hero, "Weh, weh" (No. 8) towards the end of the first part. He is also aware of the eloquence of Schumann's scoring throughout the work, and responds with great immediacy to every dot, slur, dash and dynamic gradation in his phrasing. Listen, for instance, how "Verlassener Jüngling" (No. 15) emerges here not as a mezzo-soprano solo but an uncommonly expressive duet for singer and cello. You are also made very much aware of the more exotic touches of colour, like the piccolo in the battle music and the triangle in the choruses of the Genii of the Nile and the Houris in Parts 2 and 3.

The penalty to be paid is a far too forwardly balanced orchestra, sometimes at the expense of the generally pleasing soloists—not forgetting the American baritone, Alan Titus, so mellifluous in his Part 3 solo, "Jetzt sank" (No. 21) yet completely engulfed in orchestral wind as the repentant sinner (at the end of No. 24) whose tears eventually win the Pen her long-sought return to Paradise. From Sharon Sweet in the title-role there is the occasional operatic squall under pressure (as in No. 11) but infinitely more genuine warmth of tone and feeling when under control. Eberhard Bnchner, as the tenor narrator, just occasionally hits his notes in excitement, but is vibrant and vivid, and I enjoyed his female storytelling counterpart, Marga Schiml as the Angel, so free of traditional alto over-fruitiness and wobble.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [1/1992]
reviewing the original release of this recording, Eurodisc 69105

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO 9 DE WAAR

EDUARDO MATA EDITION VOL 11 -

The main question here is how BMG's new 20-bit remasterings compare to those in their 1990 Toscanini Complete Edition. Both ends of the dynamic spectrum are considerbly opened up, which intensify the Maestro's stinging accents and point up the carefully sculpted cantabile phrasings to an unprecedented degree. I also detect smidgens of artificial reverberation: tastefully applied, but frankly superfluous. The Schubert symphonies boast relentless forward momentum, which pushes the NBC Orchestra to the edge of its collective virtuosity. I prefer Toscanini's weightier 1940 Schubert "Great", featuring the more tonally alluring Philadelphia Orchestra. By contrast, the Mendelssohn works benefit from Toscanini's slightly looser-limbed expansiveness in the slow movements, and the solo work is more relaxed. The performances, incidentally, date from between Toscanini's 83rd and 87th years, and reveal the Maestro's unflagging energy and fervent committment in each and every bar.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com