During his lifetime Anton Rubinstein gained a considerable reputation as a piano virtuoso the equal of Liszt, and for a stream of distinctive compositions, among them symphonies and operas. He was also responsible for revolutionising standards in Russian teaching and performance – yet despite his eminence many of his works have been overlooked. Le Bal, Op. 14 presents a characteristic ballroom scene in ten sections full of energy and rich sentiment. This miniature drama charts the anticipation of the dancer, a series of eventful dances and a final reflection on what has been. Warren Lee made his debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of six. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Yale School of Music, he was the First Prize winner of the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition and the Grand Prix Ivo Pogorelich in 1995. He has performed on four continents, often in collaboration with international artists and leading orchestras. His recordings for Universal Music (Hong Kong) and Naxos have garnered favourable reviews worldwide. A Steinway Artist as well as an awardwinning composer, Warren Lee received the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in Hong Kong in 2012 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2015 for his contribution to the music profession. In 2017 he received the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Music.

-----

REVIEW:

The playing is stunning and imaginative. Warren Lee gives a performance which sparkles in the lively numbers and is suitably thoughtful in the quieter and more reflective moments.

– MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Piano four hands ensemble DUO Stephanie and Saar (Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia) continue their series of recordings that challenge listeners to hear iconic works in new guises. Catalyzed by Beethoven's own arrangement of the famous Grosse Fuge op. 133, the duo presents Hugo Ulrich and Robert Wittman's stately transcription of the op. 130 string quartet to which the iconic fugue originally belonged, alongside Schubert's brooding F minor Fantasie, D. 940. Pianists Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia collaborate as DUO Stephanie & Saar in dazzling performances filled with visceral excitement, elegance and artistic vision. The duo are founders and artistic directors of Makrokosmos Project, a critically acclaimed Oregon-based new music festival featuring dynamic American composers of our time. In its sixth year, the festival is entirely driven by community support. Some of the featured composers include Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Lena Frank, Caroline Shaw, Julia Wolfe, John Luther Adams, Karen Tanaka, Michael Johanson and Alexander Schwarzkopf, among many others.

This new release from pianist Barry Douglas is the sixth and final volume in his exploration of Brahms’s output for solo piano. BBC Music writes of this series, “Douglas’s tone is a deep velvet cushion, the legatos full of affection and the rhythms galvanized with great energy.” This unique collection of works shows Brahms not only as a composer, but also an arranger, pedagogue, historian, virtuoso, and pianist. Barry Douglas hails from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has won numerous awards all over the globe, including an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and the gold medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

REVIEW:

Douglas’s hefty, full-bodied sound, built from the bottom up, befits the mellow power of Brahms’s sound world. In the dark E flat minor Op 118 Intermezzo, most pianists focus attention on the right-hand melody and treat the rumbling left-hand lines as muted filigree. Douglas, however, does almost the exact opposite, and the effect is revelatory.

– Gramophone

Although a great specialist of 17th and 18th century repertories, the tenor Thibaut Lenaerts has chosen for his first solo album to plunge into the world of Gabriel Fauré's songs, accompanied by Philippe Riga and the soft, warm tones of a magnificent 1873 Erard piano. An alchemy of colors that promises a superb recital, imbued with a sense of irresistible nostalgia for both performer and listener. Thibaut Lenaerts studied singing at the Royal Conservatory of Liege with Greta de Reyghere, where he won first prize for singing. He subsequently won first prize for chamber music in the class of Guy Van Waas as well as first prize for opera singing with Thierry Migliorini at the Royal Conservatory of Mons. He divides his life between Brussels and Paris, where he appears as a soloist with numerous ensembles.

For her new, and Alpha debut, recording, pianist Olga Pashchenko has chosen the combination of Beethoven’s two Opus 49 sonatas and three sets of his variations, thus tackling what are commonly called ‘smaller forms’ but which remain important works nonetheless, especially the Variations, op. 35. • This young pianist commands admiration for her way of always enlarging her route, already a long one (she gave her first recital when she was 9, in New York), relying on certain great influences (in particular, Alexei Lubimov) and thereby further affirming her personality as an exceptional musician.

In their second album for Resonus, the Gould Piano Trio returns with a recording of Schubert’s Piano Trios. Apart from a very early single movement written when he fifteen years of age, Schubert came to the piano trio late in his short career and left only two full-length works in the form, written in 1827–8. By the time Schubert came to write his piano trios, the form had taken on a new stature thanks to work from composers such as Beethoven. Here, Schubert’s Trios in B-flat major and the ‘Notturno’ in E-flat major are joined by the delightful Valses nobles D969, composed for solo piano and heard here in a world premiere recording in this arrangement for trio by Julius Zellner.

Also available on Blu-ray

After the great success that Il Trovatore received in Paris, Verdi was proposed to compose a French version of the opera to suit the tastes of the local public. The original work, based on the Spanish play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez, had a libretto by Cammarano, which was translated into French by Émilien Pacini . Le Trouvère was first staged in Brussels in 1856 and premiered at the Paris Opera in 1857. In this new version the composer added some music in act 3 for the gypsie ballet scene, extended the finale of act 4 and made several other revisions. The plot is highly dramatic and captivating: Verdi portrays strong characters who deal with war, obsession and revenge. To use director Robert Wilson’s words “this is a family tragedy, and in many ways, it is a very contemporary story.” Wilson’s approach to the opera aims at preserving its emotional strength by using a very essential décor, whose main element is light: “As a director, when I design the stage and lighting, I think about if what I see can help me hear better. Le Trouvère requires a tremendous amount of concentration, so the set I designed is abstract in order to create a space for the music in the Farnese. I have designed an environment in concrete, creating a juxtaposition to the theatre’s ornate interior. […] Light in my work functions as part of the architectural whole. It is an element which helps us hear and see. Without light there is no space. To light a world that Verdi has described as so dark, one needs light to make the space darker.” In the set’s background the director also uses some photos by American photographer Robert Rosenkranz. This production was staged in the splendid Teatro Farnese of Parma, which was built in 1628 and belongs to the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta, one of the oldest museums in Italy. Extra content: Interview with the curator of the Museum subtitled in all languages.

In his Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral”, Ludwig van Beethoven conveys his musical message in such a way that lets the listener literally “see” images of beautiful nature, tempestuous storms, and shepherds singing in the fields, whereas in his Seventh Symphony, Beethoven lets the music speak for itself. The performances of these works by the Gewandhausorchester under its conductor laureate Herbert Blomstedt give the uplifting feeling that the intentions of both composer and performers are united in serving the musical message. In the lively, subtly differentiated interpretation of the works, sincere happiness, deep respect, piety, joyful serenity and an affinity to nature as well as passion, vitality and spirit can all be felt. This is what the "authenticity" of making music is all about. The humanist and musician Herbert Blomstedt embodies this truth in a unique way, creating an atmosphere where the wonders of music all become true.

In November 1900, the music journalist Yevgeny Petro-vsky gave Rimsky-Korsakov his libretto, entitled Prince Ivan, which is loosely based on Russian folk tales about a mean and ugly wizard. Despite being initially interested in the text the composer eventually rejected it, put off by its unfathomable symbolism. However, in the summer of the following year the score of Wagner’s Siegfried pro-vided inspiration for fresh and innovative harmonic ideas, which he decided to include in a work dealing with motifs of black magic. With the help of his daughter Sofia, he wrote his own script based on Petrovsky’s original, and as early as in spring of 1902 he had a one-act opera in three scenes ready – Kashchey the Immortal – which was successfully staged in Moscow before the year had ended. The work is presented in a brilliant new interpretation on this new release.

The title of this double album, Bel Canto Paganini, is the key to Rachel Barton Pine’s unaccompanied violin artistry. Of course one cannot play unaccompanied Paganini without all-encompassing virtuoso equipment, and Pine’s technique is beyond cavil; just sample her deft and supple alternating pizzicato and arco articulation in the “Nel cor più non mi sento” Variations, or her extraordinary textural juggling in Duo merveille (“Duet for One”). However, throughout the Op. 1 Caprices, Pine clearly mines these showpieces for musical values, first and foremost.

For example, she observes all of the repeats. That might prove deadly in the lengthy No. 4 C minor Maestoso caprice or the No. 6 G minor trill study, yet Pine’s wide expressive and coloristic palette keeps the music alive and meaningful. What is more, she does this without resorting to exaggerated phrasings or dynamic swells.

Her slow and serious No. 13 bypasses the surface humor of the descending “laughing” chromatic thirds while emphasizing the composer’s dolce marking in figurative red ink. The fanfare-like gestures that open the E-flat Caprices Nos. 19 and 23 become provocatively wistful themes, while No. 18’s arpeggiated C major proclamations become softer, more questioning than usual, followed by descending scales that sound more like music than exercises. However, don’t expect scintillation and surface bravura, which James Ehnes serves up in tandem with sound musical values.

Interestingly, Pine lets loose and catches fire in her own Paganini-inspired Variations on “God Defend New Zealand”, proving that she could very well match Perlman, Rabin, Ricci, and Midori at their ebullient peaks. Whether or not Pine’s Paganini will suit all tastes, she unquestionably commands the ways and means to make the best possible case for her conceptions.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

Pine is principally interested in the musical qualities of these extraordinary, endlessly inventive miniatures, and there’s hardly a moment here where you get any sense of technique taking precedence over expression.

She finds a wonderfully rich range of colors. Double-stopped octaves can almost vanish into the melody (as in No 7), give a fanfare figure a heroic echo (Nos 19 and 23) or throw an eerie shadow like some operatic mad scene (No 15)—as the music demands. Her characterisation is beguiling: Pine lets minor-key melodies droop to a finish, plays teasingly with the rhythmic sideslips of No 13 and makes the famous left-hand pizzicato in No 24 burst like popping candy.

– Gramophone

This fourth installment of the Geza Anda edition in the SWR music / haenssler CLASSIC historical series presents the first and the last of Beethoven's piano concertos. As in other recordings before, Anda performs in the First Concerto as both soloist and conductor. These recordings of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 5 are areal enrichment of the Anda discography - no other recording of this concert has ever been released.

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.


If you want Grieg's complete Peer Gynt with dialogue, this is the set to own. It really does represent a new standard, musically, dramatically, and technically. Let me say up front that ordinarily I'm not a fan of music with dialogue, but these actors are so involved, and their participation is so skillfully integrated into the acoustic framework and the musical flow, that the sound of idiomatically spoken Norwegian becomes a sort of quasi-musical counterpoint all on its own. Of course, it helps that the actual music, as realized by Ruud and his Bergen forces, also is outstandingly played and sung. His interpretation has all of the necessary freshness and energy that Grieg's score requires. It's theatrical and exciting but also sensitive; rustic without being crude.


High points are almost too numerous to list: there's Ruud's ebullient overture and his perfectly judged accelerando at In the Hall of the Mountain King; the rush of excitement when Peer Gynt is being hunted by the trolls; the characterfully grotesque Dance of the Mountain King's Daughter; the effortless flow of Morning Mood; Anitra's sexy little belly dance; a wonderfully urgent Peer Gynt's Homecoming; a terrifying shipwreck that happily avoids tacky sound effects; and it's all capped by the beautiful vocal contributions of Marita Solberg, who sings a particularly earthy, warm-toned Solveig. As with all the participants in this performance, she seems not just concerned with getting the notes right, but she's also fully involved with the text and in communicating what the music means, almost as if it were new. The chorus also characterizes its part with enthusiasm, avoiding that "churchy" feel that sometimes dogs performances with voices (except, of course, in the Whitsun Hymn, where it's called for).


It's also worth pointing out the extreme care that BIS has taken over production values. In SACD multichannel format, not only do you get enhanced three-dimensionality with respect to the basic soundstage, but sensitive use of the rear speakers creates atmosphere--for example, at such moments as the scene with the Boyg, or at various places requiring offstage voices--without ever drawing gratuitous attention to the technical side of things. The bottom line is that this production offers an unparalleled experience of Grieg's music in which the technology is placed entirely in the service of musical and theatrical values. The packaging and presentation are also exceptional: you get two booklets, one with notes and texts (Norwegian and English), the other with production stills from the actual play. Clearly everyone concerned with this release has pulled out all of the stops, and it has paid off handsomely. An exceptional achievement. [6/28/2005]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 4 1 and 7 2 • Nicholas McGegan, cond; Philharmonia Baroque O (period instruments) • PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE PRODUCTIONS 06 (75:10) Live: Berkeley 1 11/10-11/2012, 2 9/12-13/2009


Unlike a number of other conductors in the early music movement, Nicholas McGegan has waited a long time to commit any of the Beethoven symphonies to disc. The wait has been well worthwhile. These are now my favorite period performance versions of the Fourth and Seventh symphonies on CD. I previously had preferred the Fourth of John Eliot Gardiner. It is faster than McGegan’s in every movement, sometimes significantly so. I feel that McGegan’s tempos allow the music to breathe more and to build up more natural climaxes. Gardiner uses a larger string section, which produces a wider dynamic range than McGegan’s. But McGegan’s orchestra sounds better balanced to me, with the strings allowing for richer textures from the inner voices. Interestingly, both conductors employ the same principal flute, the excellent Janet See, whose album of Vivaldi concertos with McGegan and the PBO is well worth seeking out. In the opening movement of the Fourth, McGegan’s Adagio is like a journey through the Greek underworld, leading to an Allegro vivace that feels like the whole world springing to life. Its development section sounds very Viennese in its congeniality. The second movement resembles chamber music, similar to a Buddhist scroll painting in its play of light and shade. It is significant that McGegan’s violin section includes such period chamber music luminaries as Katherine Kyme, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Jolianne von Einem. The third movement displays Olympian humor, while the last is very danceable, sort of Beethoven’s version of a hoedown. In both symphonies, McGegan is very generous with repeats.


One of the principal attractions of McGegan’s Seventh is timpanist Kent Reed. Over 20 years ago, I heard a splendid Seventh by the New Jersey Symphony conducted by my friend Jens Nygaard, in which the timpanist, Randall Hicks, really whaled away. The critic assigned to the concert complained that it sounded like a timpani concerto. By now, we are so accustomed to the thwack of period timpani that Reed’s performance doesn’t seem unusual. Before hearing McGegan, my favorite period Seventh was Roger Norrington’s Stuttgart account. He is more fastidious in the middle movements about Beethoven’s metronome markings, though McGegan’s tempos there feel less rushed. Norrington’s strings, modern instruments played without vibrato, make a thicker, less appealing sound than McGegan’s more gossamer section. What’s more, McGegan conducts the entire symphony with a Beechamesque twinkle in his eye that Norrington lacks. The introduction to McGegan’s first movement is fleet-footed, with beautiful wind playing. The main section features wonderful waves of sound that ebb and flow, while the coda offers splendidly braying horns. McGegan’s slow movement is measured, with a careful delineation of dynamics. Its sensation is that of a haunted, misty reverie. The third movement feels as if the different sections of the orchestra are engaged in a conversation. Its trio sounds like an ecstatic shepherd’s song. The concluding movement is a jolly, mercurial romp. McGegan’s Seventh, congenial as it is, is one you can live with very easily.


The sound engineering in both symphonies is excellent. If you are looking for these works on modern instruments, I would recommend George Szell in Cleveland for the Fourth and Karl Böhm with the Vienna Philharmonic for the Seventh, although his Berlin account is nearly as good. McGegan’s album is a marvelous blend of the wisdom of the old master conductors with the finesse of period instruments. His Beethoven is an extremely likable fellow of vast ingenuity, an artist with whose work you never are sated. There is not one unconsidered bar of music in the whole album.


FANFARE: Dave Saemann

This album is already the artist's second encounter with Niccolò Paganini. After the 2014 album "Hommage á Paganini", this is now the complete Opus 1 of the great Italian. The versatile Russian searches for starting points for creativity in dealing with the highly virtuoso music. Thus the 24 Capricci once again become a continuous story. The fast tempi, the lightness in seemingly unplayable passages is only the surface. Rather, Malov searches for the depth, the wit, the variety of colors in this ingenious music. In addition to the improvisations and ornamentations, effects (forest echo, birdsong) can sometimes be heard. Before the last, 24th Caprice, there is a subjective summary of what has been heard so far. In October 2021, the artist will be awarded with the German “Opus Klassik” in the category "Solo Recording Instrument of the Year" for his most recently released album "Bach - 6 Suites for Cello Solo played on a Violoncello da Spalla".

Classical Music

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

So memorably described as ‘a dancer who slashes across space faster than anyone else, who lacerates the air with shapes so clear and sharp they seem to throw off sparks’ (Independent), Carlos Acosta has been at the forefront of contemporary ballet since his arrival at the Royal Ballet in 1998. Here he sparkles in three of his most celebrated roles: the young lover Colas in the joyfully bucolic La Fille mal gardée, which received five stars from the Guardian, Times and Mail on Sunday; the innocent but doomed Romeo in Prokofiev’s sumptuously-scored adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous play; and, acting as producer and choreographer for the first time, as Basilio in Don Quixote, a production that wowed audiences thanks to its ‘intelligent’ choreography and Acosta’s ‘titanic determination, bullet-proof charisma [and] delectably trusting and playful rapport’ with co-star Marianela Núñez (Daily Telegraph). These three compelling ballets showcase Carlos Acosta’s world-class reputation as a dancer and choreographer, bolstered by outstanding co-stars and artists of the Royal Ballet. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.

CARLOS ACOSTA – Dances Royal Ballet Classics
(3 Blu-ray Disc Box Set)

Ferdinand Hérold
LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE

Lise - Marianela Nuñez
Colas - Carlos Acosta
Widow Simone - William Tuckett
Alain - Jonathan Howells

Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Anthony Twiner, conductor

Frederick Ashton, choreographer
Osbert Lancaster, set designer

Sergey Prokofiev
ROMEO AND JULIET

Romeo - Carlos Acosta
Juliet - Tamara Rojo
Mercutio - José Martin
Tybalt - Thiago Soares
Nurse - Sandra Conley
Lord Capulet - Christopher Saunders
Lady Capulet - Elizabeth McGorian
Paris - David Pickering
Benvolio - Yohei Sasaki
Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Boris Gruzin, conductor

Kenneth MacMillan, choreographer
Nicholas Georgiadis, costume designer
John B. Read, lighting designer

Ludwig Minkus
DON QUIXOTE

Kitri - Marianela Nuñez
Basilio - Carlos Acosta
Don Quixote - Christopher Saunders
Sancho Panza - Philip Mosley
Lorenzo - Gary Avis
Gamache - Bennet Gartside
Espada - Ryoichi Hirano
Mercedes - Laura Morera

Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Martin Yates, conductor

Carlos Acosta, choreographer (after M
arius Petipa)
Tim Hatley, set and costume designer Hugh Vanstone, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, 2 February 2005 (La fille mal gardée), 2007 (Romeo and Juliet) and October 2013 (Don Quixote)

Bonus:
- Cast gallery and illustrated synopsis (La fille mal gardée)
- Interviews with cast and crew (Don Quixote)
- Introductions to Acts II and III (Don Quixote)

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 (all) / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote) / Dolby Digital 5.1 (La fille mal gardée)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: French, German, Spanish, Italian (La fille mal gardée)
Running time: 6 hrs 15 mins (ballet) + 12 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 3 (BD 50)

LISZT Piano Sonata. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13. Valse oubliée No. 1. 6 Paganini Etudes. Au lac de Wallenstadt. Il penseroso • André Watts (pn) • HÄNSSLER CD 93.718 (77:08) Live: Schwetzingen 5/25/1986

This is a live concert, but the sound is on par with just about any studio recording, and there is no applause, or any other distraction, from the audience. Liszt has figured prominently in André Watts’s repertory, both on disc and in concert, and there is nothing in this recital that you won’t find on one of the two Liszt CDs that he recorded for EMI not long before. There are the expected benefits and hazards. Watts has an occasional moment of slightly (very slightly!) less than flawless fingerwork—which is not something one would expect on a disc recorded in a studio, of course. On the other hand, Watts is more spontaneous here than on the EMI discs, which present his pianism purring and powerful like the engine of a racing car. There is purring and power here too, but also a touch of the unexpected, and that makes this new release worth exploring, especially if you don’t want to invest in the pair of EMI releases. (They were reissued at a bargain price in the label’s Double Fforte series, but that two-CD set is no longer in print.)

I think it’s been a while since Watts released a new CD, and it is good to be reminded what a terrific pianist he was … and I hope still is. (He is still a few years from his 70th birthday, and holds a faculty position at Indiana University in Bloomington.) His Liszt Totentanz is one of the most electrifying piano recordings ever made, and it reveals him—as does the present release—as having supreme digital dexterity and a flair for old-school virtuosity. At the same time, he never has been an effect-mongering showoff, and the performances on this CD confirm that intelligence and good taste are part of his skill set as well. I’ve heard more cohesive readings of the Sonata in B Minor, it’s true, but the music certainly does not fall apart, and Watts always keeps the big picture in focus. Some might be surprised by his strong flair for the Magyar elements in the Hungarian Rhapsody; they should remember that Watts’s mother was Hungarian.

If you don’t have any of Watts’s Liszt, I’d recommend this highly. If you do, I’d still recommend it, although I don’t think it eclipses the studio recordings.

FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

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Also available on standard DVD

Verdi’s opera of passion, blood, fire and vengeance comes to the stage in an atmospheric production by David Bosch. A quartet of world-class singers bring the principal characters of this searing opera to life. Gregory Kunde stars as the troubadour Manrico, with Lianna Haroutounian as his courageous lover Leonora. Vitaliy Bilyy is the tyrannical Count di Luna, the man who wants Leonora for himself, and Anita Rachvelishvili is Azucena, the mysterious gypsy woman unable to reveal the secret that torments her. Richard Farnes conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Royal Opera Chorus in this exploration of love, cruelty, intense passion and revenge. "The evening’s musical credentials are unequivocally outstanding. The soloists are very strong with two performances standing out in particular. The first comes from Vitaliy Bilyy who is making his Royal Opera debut as the Count di Lunaand who combines a deep, rich and secure baritone with a suitably commanding presence.... The second comes from Anita Rachvelishvili as Azucena who displays a rich and nuanced mezzo-soprano, and whose voice and acting mark out the weight of sorrow and resolve that she constantly carries...." (Opera Online)

Classical Music

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Also available on standard DVD

The Biblical story of Belshazzar's hubristic arrogance set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story with West-Eastern resonances which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of immense experience and sympathy.

What the press said:
''In the title role, the booming contralto Ewa Podles gives the kind of old-style, intensely felt performance that is her trademark. As Amira, the soprano Jessica Pratt established herself in two daunting arias as a brilliant new presence on the bel canto scene.'' New York Times

Gioachino Rossini CIRO IN BABILONIA
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Ciro – Ewa Podles
Amira – Jessica Pratt
Baldassare – Michael Spyres
Zambri – Mirco Palazzi
Argene – Carmen Romeu
Arbace – Robert McPherson
Daniello – Raffaele Costantini
Ned Keene – George von Bergen


Bologna Teatro Comunale Chorus and Orchestra Will Crutchfield, conductor


Davide Livermore, stage director

Recorded live at the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, August 2012

Bonus:
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 165 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

REVIEW:

Jean-Jacques Kantorow has recorded Saint-Saëns’s two other violin concertos on BIS 860, which I reviewed in 21:6 and on BIS 1060, which I also reviewed, in 25:5. In the first case, it seemed to me that Kantorow exaggerated rhythms “until they become irritating,” and, in the second, that he provided an attractive alternative to either Ruggiero Ricci or Philippe Graffin in this least initially ingratiating of Saint-Saëns’s violin concertos. Kantorow is aggressively piquant in the Third Concerto as well, but the competition’s stiffer, with Arthur Grumiaux having made two recordings of it and Nathan Milstein, one—in addition to Zino Francescatti’s legendary account, which the work’s admirers should find in equal parts more noble and less racy. While Kantorow slashes with abandon in the first movement and wheedles intimately in the second, he comes into his own in the third, exhibiting greater accentual restraint yet stunning technical aplomb in passagework that defies the notes’ assessment that those seeking traditional virtuosity in this work will be disappointed. As in the slow movement, he reveals the rich lyricism of the finale’s reflective interludes. Center stage, Graffin creates an impression of cogency in this last movement for which mannerisms in the headlong first movement and the occasionally languorous slow movement hardly prepare. The orchestral support, represented in resonant and wide-ranging recorded sound, buoys the soloist throughout, providing both moments of sensitive repose and sonorous bustle.

I’ve most frequently heard Eugène Ysaÿe’s transcription for violin and orchestra of Saint-Saëns’s solo piano étude in an arrangement for violin and piano. In orchestral garb, the work bears greater affinity to Saint-Saëns’s violin concertos; and although Kantorow’s reading may seem brittle compared with Oistrakh’s breathtaking one with pianist Vladimir Yampolsky, the orchestral accompaniment virtually transforms the piece, with the violin lighting the stratosphere with pyrotechnics against a colorful orchestral backdrop, all in the grand manner of Henri Vieuxtemps (Ysaÿe’s teacher). The Caprice andalous , which Dong Suk Kang included in his collection on Naxos 8.550752, 18:2 (which also included the Third Concerto—Kang’s performance of the Caprice, and of the Concerto, sounds especially refined and elegant after hearing Kantorow’s more urgent and slightly more mannered ones), seems to be Saint-Saëns’s most overtly Spanish number, although he had embodied Pablo Sarasate’s musical personality with greater or lesser success in the Havanaise and Introduction and rondo capriccioso as well as in the Third Concerto. The work’s ethnicity and its brilliant writing for the soloist, especially at the conclusion, may overcome for listeners any resistance to what they deem less immediately appealing thematic material. And certainly Kantorow makes the most of opportunities for display.

Just as BIS’s volume surrounding the First Concerto included the Sarabande for string orchestra, op. 93/1, and the recording of the Second Concerto included Spartacus and La muse et le poète for violin, cello, and orchestra, this third volume in what appears to be a series includes the more austere Prélude to Le déluge (in which Kantorow extracts from the orchestra a nostalgic sentiment that goes beyond the suggestive violin solo) and a rambustious performance by Heini Kärkkäinen of the Valse caprice , op. 76. As in the works for violin, the engineers have placed the soloist center stage, but the depth and definition of the orchestral sound ensures that the accompaniment never degenerates into a drop cloth merely catching splotches of color the soloist insouciantly sprinkles. The program concludes with the bumptious Allegro appassionato , op. 70, with bubbling high spirits at its center.

Although Kantorow’s reading of the first two movements of the Third Violin Concerto may seem just too headlong and too diffuse, respectively, for some listeners, the bracing third nearly redeems them, and the other two bravura works for violin (Ysaÿe’s in its stirring orchestral setting)—to say nothing of the additional pieces in affecting readings led stylishly by Kantorow and, in the last two, played brightly and energetically by Kärkkäinen—tip the balance in the recording’s favor. Recommended.

-- FANFARE (Robert Maxham)

Celebrating their 100th anniversary, the London Chamber Orchestra release a live recording taken from a highly-celebrated performance at Cadogan Hall, London in 2019, featuring three sublime works for string orchestra. When you go to an LCO concert, you do not just go to listen to a concert, you go to experience a performance and this live recording is no exception. Christopher Warren- Green and the orchestra capture the quintessential ‘Englishness’ of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and explore the emotional and musical connection between Suk and Dvorák's Serenade for Strings.

REVIEW:

Sometimes you just need to be reminded how lovely certain music can be. With more that 70 minutes of lovingly performed, warmly recorded music for strings, this is truly a recording to both stir and soothe the soul, delivering whatever your soul might need during these difficult days.

– Classical Candor

No one knows who first gave Beethoven's Trio Op. 11 the nickname Gassenhauer ("street song"). Neither do we know if the name was kindly intended or derogatory, chosen to boost sales or perhaps meant ironically (Heinrich Heine, for instance, would later satirize the omnipresence of a tune, sung everywhere, from Weber's opera chorus "Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz").The catchy tune in Beethoven's final movement with variations was the vocal trio "Pria ch'io l'impegno" ("Before I go to work") from the comic operaL'Amor marinaro (The Sailor's Love), composed in 1797 by Joseph Weigl, who was a godchild of Haydn and had been pupil of Antonio Salieri. The aria enjoyed widespread, long-term popularity: more than 30 years after the opera's première, Paganini still delighted Vienna audiences with variations on the same tune. Beethoven wrote his instrumental trio only half a year after the première, probably fulfilling a commission by clarinetist Joseph Bähr, who is said to have asked for variations on that theme. When clarinetist Kilian Herold asked composer Johannes Schöllhorn to arrange a Beethoven work for trio, Schöllhorn thought of the Bagatelles Op.119. The idea was to add a final level to a three-level concept, Composing Beethoven, consisting in an original work by Beethoven, then one of Beethoven's arrangements of his own works, and, finally, a work by Beethoven arranged by a 21st-century composer. Schöllhorn, already well-experienced in creative approaches to music of the past, deconstructs the original piano texture here in such a way that the resulting sound is not too lean, but opens up new areas of freedom for the pianist's new partners. He has conceived a light, airy trio texture brimming with discreet punch lines, interruptions, disruptions, unexpected connections, and cello sonorities ranging from sul tasto to col legno battuto, resulting in a fond, respectful homage to Beethoven.

This release is the 49th volume in the Naxos series of the complete works of Franz Liszt. Volume 49 features a wide-ranging selection of dance pieces. The Valses oubliées reveal a compound of wistful nostalgia and advanced harmonies while the remarkable Csárdás macabre, a characteristic Hungarian folk-dance, is full of innovative features. The effervescent Mazurka brillante is a very rare example of Liszt making original use of this Polish form, whilst simultaneously transforming it. The Grand Galop cromatique, heard here in two versions, is a bravura encore piece that the young Liszt often played in his virtuoso recitals. The works are presented on this release by Goran Filipec, recent laureate of the Granc Prix du Disque of the Ferenc Liszt Society of Budapest.

• A compilation of Mendelssohn's most important piano pieces

One can easily find a great number of outstanding chamber music works for string instruments; on the other hand, chamber music repertoire for woodwinds on a similar high level of composition is relatively sparse. By the 1800s, string instruments and the piano had achieved a high standard in terms of playing technique and construction; wind instruments, however, lagged somewhat behind. Woodwinds still sounded uneven across their registers and suffered from technical constraints, including limitations in terms of musical keys: all of this must have exerted a counterproductive influence on a generation of Romantic composers who wanted to expand music’s horizons in terms of dynamics and harmony. The Ma’alot Wind Quintet has teamed up on this album with pianist Markus Becker in works by Ludwig van Beethoven for piano and woodwinds, supplemented by several of Beethoven’s charming works for flute-playing clock, arranged by clarinetist Ulf-Guido Schäfer for woodwind quintet. The main raison-d’être for this choice of program lies in the fact that Beethoven himself composed an excellent large-scale original work for four woodwinds (oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) and piano – a work which, in terms of musical proportions and compositional ingenuity, rose far above the standard of what was otherwise being written for winds at the time when it was premiered (1796).That original composition is coupled on this album with another work by Beethoven for which we no longer have the original instrumentation, but which can be reconstructed, thanks to a series of circumstances, to a point of departure from which Ulf-Guido Schäfer has been able to arrange it as a chamber music Concerto for piano and wind quintet.

Dvorak had an ambivalent relationship with Classical and Romantic traditions, something that is clearly exemplified in his piano trios. The Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 is a daring late work that uses popular moods and freer forms consisting of six Dumky – a melancholic and poetic musical form that draws from the composer inexhaustible melodic creativity. The Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65 was influenced by the death of the composer’s mother and also by Dvorak having heard Brahms’ Piano Quintet, Op. 34, a work composed in the same key. Cyclic elements and fiery drama permeate the writing. “Individually excellent, they are even more impressive together”, wrote the Gazzetta di Mantova after a concert by the Italian-Swiss Trio des Alpes, thereby describing one of this Trio’s essential qualities: three independent, all-round successful personalities meeting as a trio. What attracts them is the quintessence of chamber music: dialogue, a shared sound and the blending of three instruments into a single whole.

Classical Music