"Reiner and his orchestra are in glorious form. The quality of these Strauss family waltzes can survive even the most inept amateur and hand-organ grinder. In the hands of Reiner, however, the waltzes sound marvellous and are a real joy. Reiner was conducting in Vienna as early as 1915 and one can clearly hear that the Viennese stamp of authenticity is attached to these performances. The spirit of Vienna is also perpetuated with the Chicago Symphony having several Vienna-trained members at the time of these recordings.

Reiner is able effortlessly to adapt to the contrasting moods and fast-changing tempos. He manages to deliver real excitement and an anticipation of what is to come next. He knows how to obtain the slight buoyancy on the second beat, an almost inaudible accent after an almost inaudible pause."

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

LEONARD SLATKIN CONDUCTS RUSSI

MOZART: VIOLIN CONCERTOS 1, 2

Personnel includes: Glenn Miller (leader, trombone); Johnny Desmond, Tex Benecke, Marion Hutton, Ray McKinley, The Crew Chiefs, The Modernaires, The Glee Club (vocals).

Includes liner notes by Edward F. Polic.

Released to coincide with the arrival of Memorial Day, Operation: Build Morale is a worthwhile compilation of many of Glenn Miller's most popular and enduring wartime favorites. Among the selections: "In the Mood," "Pennsylvania 6-5000," "American Patrol," "The Squadron Song," "The Army Air Corp/A Fellow on a Furlough" and "(There'll Be a) Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In)."

Van Cliburn in Moscow

It was logical that Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops would someday team up with the beautiful sound of Stan Getz. This CD, is both historic and filled with wonderful music.

"It was logical that Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra with its lush string section would someday team up with the beautiful sound of Stan Getz. And yet, typically for Getz, he performed a challenging set when he met up with Fiedler in 1966. In addition to a creative remake of 'The Girl From Ipanema,' Getz and the Orchestra perform works by Alec Wilder, David Raksin and Eddie Sauter (the lengthy 'Tanglewood Concerto'). This unique collaboration, which was fortunately captured and reissued on this CD, is both historic and filled with wonderful music." — Scott Yanow

Track Listing
1. Girl from Ipanema, The
2. Tanglewood Concerto
3. Love Is for the Very Young - (from "The Bad And The Beautiful")
4. Song After Sundown, A - (from "Too Late Blues")
5. Three Ballads for Stan, Pt. 1
6. Three Ballads for Stan, Pt. 2
7. Three Ballads for Stan, Pt. 3
8. Where Do You Go?

Personnel: Stan Getz (tenor saxophone); Arthur Fiedler (conductor); Gary Burton (vibraphone); Jim Hall (guitar); Steve Swallow (bass); Roy Haynes (drums); The Boston Pops Orchestra.

Producer: Peter Dellheim.

Reissue producer: John Snyder.

Recorded live at Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts on August 2 & 3, 1966. Includes liner notes by Peter Dellheim.

Digitally remastered by Glen Kolotkin (1996, BMG Studios, New York, New York).

Audio Remasterer: Glen Kolotkin.

Liner Note Author: Peter Dellheim.

Recording information: Tanglewood Festival, MA (08/02/1966-08/03/1966); Tanglewood, Lenox, MA (08/02/1966-08/03/1966).

Photographer: Richard Avedon.

Arranger: Manny Albam.

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 6 - B

Warm and characterful playing from the world's foremost exponent of Czech music.

Dvorak was only 30 when writing his first A major Piano Quintet, given its premiere in Prague in 1872. Dissatisfied, even with his attempted revision some 15 years later, he chose not to publish it but to take up the challenge anew in the now universally loved A major Quintet (Op. 81), completed in the early autumn of 1887. How good, all the same, that the earlier work eventually (in 1922) found rescuers, and that both quintets can now be compared and enjoyed on CD.

The latest version comes from Rudolf Firkusny (long recognized as ''the world's foremost exponent of Czech music'') and America's youthful Ridge Quartet, and what warm and characterful playing it is too. Their approach to the opening movement of the earlier work is more affirmative than that of Richter and the Borodins, on Philips, as if to stress the composer's respect for Brahms rather than to pre-echo the Bohemian lyrical charmer to come, as the Russians do. In the Andante sostenuto their timing is much closer to the printed score's suggested 9'50'' than the more leisurely Russians, and this somewhat discursive movement surely benefits from a little extra flow.

In the maturer work the Russians emerge as the more mercurial, and the newcomers as the more stable, of the two teams. The first movement's unpredictable mood changes are conveyed without such sharp fluctuations of tempo, and I certainly prefer the latter's less hurried response to the C sharp minor second subject so as to allow it to sing. The Dumka is most beautifully timed and shaded, again (like the B28 slow movement) benefiting from a slightly faster flow... [T]he finale in its turn is full of local colour, particularly its reel-like second subject. Whereas the Russians were somewhat backwardly recorded at a live concert during the Prague Spring Festival ten years ago, the newcomers emerge more full-bodied and forward.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [7/1992]

I had the pleasure of reviewing the Guildhall String Ensemble's first record of British music last year ( RD87761, 9/88). This second record seems to me every bit as good as the first, and includes one very desirable rarity in the Sellinger's Round Variations. In 1953 Britten devised the idea of asking five colleagues to write a variation on an old English dance tune for that year's Aldeburgh Festival. Though the audience knew the composers' names they were given in alphabetical order only, and listeners were asked to guess the correct running order in a very superior kind of raffle for Festival funds. Decca issued Britten's own live 1953 performance a little later but that LP is now almost impossible to find, and it's good to have such a fine modern version available. I suspect that knowledgeable listeners would guess most of the composers now, though they might hesitate a little over the variations by Searle and Britten's pupil Arthur Oldham.

Britten's Simple Symphony is a good deal more familiar, perhaps too familiar when one considers its juvenile origins and banal invention, but the Guildhall Ensemble play it quite brilliantly. Walton's Sonata for strings, a 1972 re-working of his 1947 String Quartet, receives a thoughtful, very well-judged performance, with particularly well-sustained and concentrated playing in the longish Lento movement. Tippett's Little Music is very well served too by some highly sensitive but dearly drawn playing. There is sometimes a hint of an over-cavernous acoustic in the high-quality recordings, but in every other respect this is another very fine offering from the Guildhall Ensemble.'

-- Gramophone [5/1989]

SCHNITTKE: HISTORIA VON D. JOH

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 51 -

The music on this CD has been reissued several times, including once previously on a Bluebird CD. This was the first full reunion in the studios of the Benny Goodman Quartet (featuring the clarinetist, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, pianist Teddy Wilson, and drummer Gene Krupa), and although they would get together on an infrequent basis over the next decade, this was their last studio recording. In general, the classic swing stars avoided recreating their past triumphs and instead recorded veteran standards that they had missed the first time around. Krupa's bass drum work (which is meant to fill in for a bassist) gets a bit heavy-handed at times, but the good spirits of the reunion uplift the music. Highlights include "Seven Come Eleven," "I've Found a New Baby," "Runnin' Wild," and the blues "Four Once More."

-- Scott Yanow, AllMusic.com


Recorded at RCA and Webster Hall Studios, New York, New York between February 13 and August 27, 1963. Originally released on RCA Victor (2698). Includes liner notes by George Avakian.

Personnel: Benny Goodman (clarinet); Lester Young (tenor saxophone); Teddy Wilson (piano); Lionel Hampton (vibraphone); Gene Krupa (drums).
Liner Note Authors: Ed Michel; George Avakian; Ben Young.
Recording information: RCA Recording Studios, Studio A, New York, NY (02/13/1963/02/14/1963); RCA Studio A, New York, NY (02/13/1963/02/14/1963); RCA Studios, New York, NY (02/13/1963/02/14/1963); RCA Victor's Studio A, New York, NY (02/13/1963/02/14/1963); Webster Hall, New York, NY (02/13/1963/02/14/1963).
Photographer: Chuck Stewart.

Virgil Thomson accurately predicted that as a composer he would best be remembered for his two operatic collaborations with Gertrude Stein. Their 1928 Four Saints in Three Acts premiered in 1934 and ran to some 60 performances that year--an unprecedented figure for new opera in English. Thirteen years later Thomson and most of the original cast gathered to record about half of the opera for RCA Victor. First time listeners may be baffled by the deceptively simple pump-organ harmonies and catchy hymn-like tunes, yet repeated hearings reveal more and more of Thomson's tough exterior, crystal clear orchestration, and impeccable deployment of Stein's madcap language.

Although Nonesuch made a fine digital recording of the entire score in 1981, I much prefer this earlier version's greater diversity of vocal styles, superior diction, more spirited orchestral execution, and grittier ambience. Aside from superfluous added reverb, RCA's clear and airy 1996 transfer sounds nearly as good as the singers (most of them, anyway).

Edward Matthews delivers the famous "Pigeons on the Grass, Alas" sequence with moving fullness and fervency, while Charles Holland's singular tenor timbre graces the role of St. Chavez. Though slightly past her prime, genuine star quality informs everything soprano and St. Teresa I creator Beatrice Robinson-Wayne does.

The first and better of Leopold Stokowski's two recordings of Thomson's suite culled from his film score to The Plow That Broke the Plains fills out the disc. It's easy to hear why Thomson admired this performance. The Pastorale conveys just the right lilt, the blues-tinged Speculation's syncopations are surprisingly idiomatic, and you can take dictation from the delicately balanced wistful opening and closing movements. Arkivmusic.com's "on-demand" reissue of this important release replicates the original booklet notes and libretto.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

OPERA CHORUSES - AIDA, FAUST,

MOZART: STRING QUARTETS K 387