"Webern’s chamber music for strings stretches throughout his career, from the lushly Romantic Slow Movement of 1905, through the vividly expressionist Five Movements completed four years later, to the lucidly canonic String Quartet of 1938. On the way, there are an early single-movement Quartet that shows the influence of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, the aphoristic Bagatelles, Op. 9 (‘Every glance can be stretched out into a poem, every sigh into a novel,’ wrote Schoenberg in his preface to the score, ‘but to express a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a single intake of breath – such concentration is found only where self-pity is lacking to a corresponding degree’)...The Emerson takes a broader view of the 1905 Slow Movement than the Artis Quartet, which sounds a little impatient with the piece. Elsewhere, however, the Artis is more than able to hold its own against the polished playing of its American rival – indeed, the warmth of the performances on this newcomer inclines me to put it forward as a first choice...Urgently recommended."

-- BBC Music Magazine Reviewing Nimbus 5668

These quintets come from a set of six in a Madrid manuscript with an attribution to Boccherini: they are not in Boccherini’s own catalogue of his works, which doesn’t necessarily exclude their authenticity (he noted in it most of his true chamber music, though not the cello sonatas or the keyboard ones); they sound as if they date from the 1780s, and the presence of an obbligato cello part does of course imply at least some link with him. This is claimed as their world premiere recording.

They are very agreeable and on the whole deftly written pieces, but to my mind don’t quite have the ring of his style: their formal regularity, their sometimes motivic writing (the first movement of the G major work, for example), and the frequent spells of rather routine invention argue against his authorship, as does the three-movement form (he preferred, oddly, two-movement opere piccole or four-movement opere grande), the absence of minuets (a movement type he patently relished) and the presence of three very schematic variation finales (a type he avoided). The compiler of the Boccherini thematic catalogue thought that they had “formulas and turns of style which are characteristic of him”, on reading through the parts, but since he evidently didn’t notice that they were for flute, violin, viola and two cellos (as opposed to flute and string quartet) I am inclined to think the reading-through wasn’t too rigorous.

By Boccherini or not, they make pleasant listening. They don’t demand that special affection for detail or feeling for texture that the most characteristic Boccherini needs, and respond well to these direct, modern performances, neatly phrased, the dialogues gracefully executed. The first cellist, who has several flights into the upper reaches of his instrument, is very assured, and there is also the particular pleasure of Jean-Pierre Rampal’s flute playing, as urbane as ever.

-- Stanley Sadie. Gramophone [8/1998]

REVIEWS:
BBC Music (4/98, p.73) - Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5) - "...Haydn's usual playfulness and inventive wit...are expertly realised in the clear sounds and open textures of the players' period instruments on this elegant and enjoyable recording."

Bronfman's Islamey is a reading of sweep and majesty. A soul-satisfying record that you'll return to often.

If you've seen Yefim Bronfman perform, you know that he's an assertive, brilliant pianist who commands attention, even in a large hall. The soloist is remarkably successful in scaling back his playing for the 12 modest pieces Tchaikovsky produced for serial publication in a monthly music magazine. Bronfman resists the temptation, for instance, to dazzle with a faster tempo in "The Harvest" (August), which he certainly could have undertaken with one hand (or at least a couple of fingers) tied behind his back. Nor does he look for profundity that isn't there in these unassuming miniatures, or "Chopinize" the more lyrical movements. The well-known "Barcarolle" (June) is played with a straightforward sort of melancholy that's exactly right—touching without seeming overwrought. Still, the playing is eventful and involving, and carefully articulated: Listen to the crystalline clarity of February's "Carnival." Sony provides superb sound, utilizing 24-bit encoding and their "Super Bit Mapping" methodology. The performances were taped at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, in New York State, a celebrated venue that has been exploited by a number of labels. The sonic presentation is warm yet immediate and clear, capturing fully the refinement of Bronfman's touch. I prefer Bronfman's Seasons to three others on hand: Antonin Kubalek (on Dorian, recorded 12 years earlier in the same Troy concert hall), Naum Starkman (on PopeMusic) and, by a smaller margin, Luba Edlina (on Chandos). As though to underscore that he was holding back in the Tchaikovsky, which is quite accessible to talented amateurs, the soloist proceeds on to an echt virtuoso vehicle. Islamev, of course, is for major-leaguers: Do not try this at home unless you are a trained professional. Bronfman gives us quite a ride. The work's considerable technical demands are fairly tossed aside as the pianist presents a coherent musical structure, not merely a succession of pianistic feats. This is a reading with sweep and even some majesty. In comparison, Alexander Paley, leading off his admirable six-CD set of Balakirev's complete piano music for ESS.A.Y with Islamey, sounds dutiful and a bit tentative.

One might grouse about the short timing of this disc. Bronfman could have given us more Tchaikovsky, more Balakirev, more something. But what's the better value: a humdrum 75 minutes or a soul-satisfying 50 that you'll return to often? Not a toughie.

-- Andrew Quint, FANFARE [3/1999]

Crossley's playing of ''Brouillards'' (the first Prelude of Book 2) successfully evokes the disturbing fog of a winter night in which objects appear suddenly and menacingly. I actually think the marking Modere suggests a quicker tempo—Gieseking takes 2'44'' as against Crossley's 3'33'', but there again, the admirably sensitive Gordon Fergus-Thompson takes a minute longer than Crossley!... This Debussy is beautifully textured, with fine control of fingers and pedals; indeed, it is most sympathetically presented and the recording, made at The Maltings, Snape, is satisfyingly atmospheric, with a glowing sound rather than a brilliant one... This applies equally to the Estampes and Children's Corner. In the former work. ''Pagodes'' is a touch deliberate, but has lovely sounds; indeed, Crossley's tonal beauty is consistent...

-- Christopher Headington, Gramophone [9/1993]

There was a time, perhaps not too long ago, when the holiday season didn't seem quite so loud... Back then, or so we imagine, the holidays were as soothing and calm as a winter landscape after a snowfall... On this recording, harpist Ayako Shinozaki (with occasional help from Kazuko Shinozaki, also on harp) takes us back to the holiday season we wish we could remember, a time of almost contemplative intimacy. The songs and carols presented here, all arranged by Hiroshi Aoshima, run the gamut from the ancient to the modern... elegantly arranged and elegantly performed on the instrument of the angels.
-- Jackson Braider

This is boisterous good fun, Christmas cheer performed with tremendous verve, well calculated to produce the 'medieval sound' that goes with Christmas trees, holly and mistletoe.

...Twenty years earlier [then Sequentia's recordings of this repertoire], Konrad Ruhland's approach is totally different: the melody instruments merely doubling the tune and those accompanying simply reiterating obvious patterns. This, too, would seem perfectly justifiable-especially for a more popular type of repertoire, which is exactly what we have in the Christmas Cantiones from the Moosburg Graduale of 1360.

"Christmas", the Ruhland remastering (though not entirely restricted to that season), was well worth the effort. It is all boisterous good fun. Christmas cheer performed with tremendous verve, well calculated to produce the 'medieval sound' that goes with Christmas trees, holly and mistletoe. It is nearly all in 6/8 and there is a lot of major mode, and it includes such famous items as Resonet in laudibus: you know the sort of popular repertoire. It's just the sort of CD that one needs as background music for the office Christmas drinks party. Sadly, no texts are given, but, luckily for us, the singers do articulate extremely well.

-- Gramophone [12/1997]

THE BEST OF EDGAR MEYER brings together many of his favorite recordings of his own music and collaborations with other artists. Included are Meyer tracks that are featured on the soundtrack of Ken Burns' epic documentary series the War, which has it's US premiere this fall on PBS, after winning international acclaim last spring at the Cannes Film Festival. Edgar Meyer's unparalleled technique and abilities as an instrumentalist combined with his gift for composition make him one of the brightest beacons on the current musical landscape and THE BEST OF EDGAR MEYER is certainly is Edgar at his best.

On September 26, 1957, West Side Story opened at Broadway's Winter Garden Theater a turning point in the history of American Musical theater, but also the launch of one of the most dazzling, hit laden scores ever written for Broadway. Leonard Bernstein's music and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics immediately captured the public's imagination. In the last half century, the greatest singers and instrumentalists in the pop and classical music have been reinventing these unforgettable tunes. This new collection brings together the very best of them, from Johnny Mathis's classic cover of "Maria" to the Dave Brubeck Quartet's martini cool version of "somewhere."

Silvestrov’s Fifth Symphony might well have emerged from Prospero’s island. The music epitomises something rich and strange. Ominous, heavy with threat (trs. 3, 5), dissonant but accessible, dreamy and romantic. Ham-fisted and insensitive but useful parallels include Mahler’s Adagietto, Berg, Griffes’ Pleasure Dome, the film scores of John Barry and the Hollywood 1970s and further enlivened by idyllic evocations of birdsong. A massive orchestra is used and there is an orchestral piano presumably played by Lubimov who is at the centre of things in the similarly ecstatic Postludium. At one point there is a low-key chatter of voices – but very low. This is voluptuously expressive music given spine by the undertow of gloom. I do not know why it has not made more headway. If there were any justice this would have been played at the BBC Proms but the same could be said of a host of other regrettably neglected works including Hovhaness’s Majnun and Etchmiadzin symphonies, of the Benjamin Dale tone poem The Flowing Tide, of Ronald Stevenson’s concertos, the oratorios and symphony of Yuri Shaporin and the piano concertos of Nikolai Kapustin.

This Sony-Arkiv re-animation scores over the competition in various areas. Its sound is rich – bathed in warmth yet not smearing detail. Students of the work will find that the version under review is in nine tracks which certainly aids the process of getting to grips with a single span of three quarters of an hour. Even timid souls – and I count myself in their company – should make a point of hearing the remarkable Fifth Symphony. It is as much an ikon of the second half of the twentieth century as Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 and the various mystic-religious works of Macmillan and Tavener. The difference is that the Silvestrov is sensuous to the point of saturation rather than devout to the point of asceticism.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Track Listing

A CANADIAN BRASS CHRISTMAS:
1. Ding Dong! Merrily On High
2. God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
3. Sussex Carol
4. Here We Come A-Wassailing
5. I Saw Three Ships
6. Good Christian Men Rejoice
7. Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
8. Huron Carol, The
9. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
10. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
11. Little Drummer Boy, The
12. Silver Bells
13. White Christmas
14. Christmas Song, The
15. Winter Wonderland
16. Go Tell It On The Mountain
17. Frosty The Snowman

This collection presents the under-rated tenor Siegfried Jerusalem in a program of favorite arias: Wagner, Weber, Mozart and Weinberger as well as selections by Smetana, Meyerbeer and Tchaikovsky, all sung in German. Jerusalem, the tenor of choice in Wagnerian repertoire in the late 70s and 80s, is always an intense performer on stage, but under-recorded in some of his key roles. There is steel in his voice and, of course, this is necessary in much of Wagner, but there is also a need for lyricism and Jerusalem sings with an almost italianate elegance. The arias from 'Lohengrin' achieve this elegance, while the "Prize Song" from 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg' is suitably ecstatic.
Jerusalem shines in non-Wagnerian works, too. His Tamino from Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' is just right, and "Dies Bildnis is bezaubernd schön" is full of fresh, youthful vigor. His rendition of Lensky's aria from Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' is heartbreaking and well-characterized--a high point of the disc. Duets from Weinberger's 'Schwanda, der Dudelsackpfeifer' with Hermann Prey and the late, magnificent Lucia Popp are a real treat. If you want to discover a great artist in an interesting program, you should grab this one.

I could never understand why this wonderful cycle failed to make an impact when it was first issued. Kubelik's sensitivity to detail, his refusal to bully Schumann's vulnerable structures and his ability to penetrate occasional thickets of orchestration, make these 1978-9 sessions especially memorable. Just listen to the cheeky bassoon backing clarinet, 144' into the Spring Symphony's fourth movement, the limpid phrasing of the Rhenish Symphony's Nicht schnell third movement, or the to-ing and fro-ing between first and second violins (usefully separated, as virtually always with Kubelik) in the last movement of the Second, Only the first movement of the Fourth seems to me a little heavy-handed, but then the poetry of the Romanze and the exuberance of the finale more than make amends.

First movement repeats are observed and the playing throughout is rich in felicitous turns of phrase. The sound, though, is a minor stumbling block: violins are thin (one of the few disadvantages of having them separated is that their massed tone becomes mildly diluted), brass a little fuzzy and the whole production less focused than, say, Sawallisch's EMI mid-price Dresden set. But, for me, Kubelik's insights are too varied and meaningful to miss, and I derive as much pleasure from them now as I did 13-odd years ago, when they were first issued on LP. What with a stirring Manfred Overture added for good measure, they constitute exceptional value for money.

-- Gramophone [7/1993, reviewing Sony 48269 and 48270]