Songs without words

Eldar, the young jazz piano phenomenon Billboard calls astonishing and the Washington Post hails as a prodigious talent, breaks new creative ground on re-imagination, his forward-looking third album for SONY BMG Masterworks, available on June 5. on re-imagination Eldar fully explores his talent as a composer. His rapidly evolving personal style defines every aspect of the project, from the bold originality of his new songs to a fascinating, sophisticated take on a couple of classic jazz standards, collaborating with a few new friends who give the project a fresh and surprising sound.

You know how animal conservationists say that it's essential to cull the over-populated deer herds every so often so as to make life better and less competitive for the remaining animals? Well, this is similar to what I do every two or three years to my persistently-proliferating stock of Vivaldi Four Seasons recordings. The active catalog now lists more than 200 versions; about a dozen is the limit of both my shelf-space and sensibility. So this new one arrives and, well, it's Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, so it's likely to be worth a listen, and perhaps a place on that already over-populated shelf.

Of course, Sony already has a perfectly wonderful period-instrument Four Seasons with Giuliano Carmignola, and then there's the very fine modern-instrument Anne-Sophie Mutter rendition on DG, with an identical coupling no less, which like this one weirdly neglects to mention the Tartini sonata on the disc front cover or spine(!)--and we've yet to touch on other respectable versions by Fabio Biondi (Virgin) or Gil Shaham (also DG)--and no doubt you've already got your own favorite(s).

Ultimately none of this matters. If you're a Joshua Bell and/or Vivaldi fan, or if you've just arrived on planet Earth and therefore haven't yet acquired your first Four Seasons recording, you only have to consider whether these performances are distinctive and authoritative and exciting enough to move them from the store shelves to yours. The answer is unequivocally "yes".

Bell is one of the more consistently tasteful, sensitive, anti-self-indulgent violin virtuosos on the scene today, and as such he delivers these inherently flashy concertos with a refreshingly straightforward approach that scorches and sizzles without ever falling prey to pyrotechnic vulgarity. Bell and his first-rate partners--bravo to harpsichordist John Constable!--just make beautiful music out of Vivaldi's conceptions, and their efforts are as gripping as we expect from musicians of this caliber. The final, hair-raising Allegro of "Spring"--brought to vivid, room-filling life by the superb engineering--is just one example. Aficionados of the Tartini sonata will be interested to hear Bell's own little cadenza along with his occasional personal ornamentations, which confirm this performance's distinctive character as well as Bell's technical and interpretive artistry.

This music is so familiar and its technical demands so mainstream these days that any of today's better-trained violinists could deliver a respectable rendition--of any Vivaldi concerto for that matter. But Bell's assured performances and exceptionally vibrant sonics move this recording into the top tier--and I'm already eying my shelf to see which current occupant will have to be sacrificed.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The melodrama, a genre in which a spoken text is declaimed over a musical accompaniment, was a popular form in the nineteenth century, but it failed to thrive in the twentieth. While performances of Strauss' 1897 setting of Tennyson's narrative poem "Enoch Arden" remain rare, it has aged well, and performances as fine as this are a testimony to its viability and its continuing ability to move the listener. Tennyson tells an achingly poignant story of three children, the two boys both growing to adulthood in love with the young woman, with delicacy and restraint. Strauss matches the story with a reserved but expressive piano accompaniment that supports and never overwhelms the narrative. Emanuel Ax plays with grace and deep feeling, but the focus falls on Patrick Stewart's brilliant and powerful performance. His subtle and nuanced telling is far more effective than an overtly impassioned one would have been, and the naturalness of his reading is hugely compelling and moving. Ax closes the album with two short piano pieces that Strauss wrote when he was still in his teens; they serve as a moving and cathartic epilogue to the melodrama. This extraordinary performance of Enoch Arden should be of strong interest to anyone intrigued by the mystery of the relationship between music and poetry.

-- Stephen Eddins, AllMusic.com

Based on the book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel, 1978's Working tells the story of average working people through original songs written by Stephen Schwartz (who also directed the show), James Taylor, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, and Susan Birkenhead. Terkel described the production as a celebration of the “ordinary” people whose lives are unsung. Though Working only ran for a total of 24 performances, it was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Steven Boockvor and Rex Everhart). The formidable cast also included Joe Mantegna and Lynne Thigpen as well as Bob Gunton and Patti LuPone, who would be reunited a year later as husband and wife in the original Broadway cast of Evita. Working continues to be revised and performed throughout the world and was adapted for an episode of PBS’s “American Playhouse” in 1982.

Original songs by Craig Carnella, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor.

Principal Cast: David Langston Smyrl, David Patrick Kelly, Matthew McGrath, Bobo Lewis, Matt Landers, Joe Mantegna, Susan Bigelow, Robin Lamont, Lynne Thigpen, Arny Freeman, Lenora Nemetz, Bob Gunton.

Producers include: Elliot Scheiner, Stephen Schwartz.

Reissue producer: Bruce Kimmel.

Recorded at A & R Studios, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Stephen Schwartz and Studs Terkel.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Lyricists: Craig Carnelia, James Taylor, Micki Grant, Matt Landers, Graciela Daniele, and Stephen Schwartz.

Personnel: Matt Landers (vocals, guitar); Stephen Schwartz (vocals, keyboards); David Langston Smyrl, David Patrick Kelly , Micki Grant, Arny Freeman, Steven Boockvor, Brad Sullivan, Lenora Nemetz, Matthew McGrath, Susan Bigelow, Kennard Ramsey, Bob Gunton, Rex Everhart, Robin Lamont, Joe Mantegna, Lynne Thigpen, Patti LuPone, Bob Lewis (vocals); Jerry Wiener, Scott Kuney (guitar); John Kunkel, Jesse Cusimano, Evelyn Glover, Terry Woitach (violin); Carolyn Halik, Clarissa Howell (cello); Richard Centalonza, Joe Palmer (woodwinds); John Bova (trumpet); Donald Corrado (French horn); Eddie Bert, Jack D. Elliot (trombone); Rosalinda DeLeon, Kenneth Bichel (keyboards); Don Simmons (drums); Jim Ogden (percussion).

Recording information: A&R Studios, New York, NY.

Despite an accomplished background as both a writer and an actor, Studs Terkel has never been known as a playwright. It has been left to other writers to put Terkel's works on the stage, and several have given it a shot, including Arthur Miller (The American Clock) and Jamie Pachino (Race). But none of them has had more success than Stephen Schwartz, whose musical adaptation of Terkel's Working has been produced around the world for more than 20 years now. The strength of the musical is the diversity of the songwriting, which is meant to reflect the diversity of the working men and women of America. Mary Rodgers and James Taylor are especially effective at capturing the voices of their characters without falling back too readily on musical theater clichés. On the whole the soundtrack captures the substance of both the musical and Terkel's book.

– Evan Cater, AllMusic.com

With these marvelous performances of the three Brahms violin sonatas, Nikolaj Znaider hits his artistic stride, abetted by Yefim Bronfman's impeccable piano partnership. The G major seemingly begins out of nowhere in darkness, then gradually takes on brighter colors as Znaider opens up his tone. The canonic interaction between violin and piano unfolds with gentle yet enlivening lack of effort, as does all of the composer's cross-rhythmic phrasing. Sample, if you can, Bronfman's solo introduction to the slow movement, and also notice how he admirably avoids other pianists' tendencies to push forward in climaxes by allowing the bass lines time to resonate and breathe in strict tempo. The A major sonata proves equally winning in a tender, lyrically inflected interpretation where even the softest, most delicate moments never go the least bit slack.

The musicians take the D minor's first movement at an animated Allegro that still manages to convey the music's brooding, somewhat mysterious underside. In the eloquent Adagio, Znaider's long-lined command suggests a bow with no end, while Znaider and Bronfman bring astute voice leading and relative sobriety to the third movement--a valid alternative to more impulsive and animated accounts (Mullova/Anderszewski, for example). Control and clarity define the pair's way with the finale, although the rollicking momentum they generate does not quite match the irresistible, kinetic abandon with which Suk/Katchen, Dumay/Pires, and Heifetz/Kapell have spoiled at least one reviewer named Distler! They conclude with an impassioned, intelligently parsed rendition of the "F.A.E Sonata" Scherzo. RCA's detailed, beautifully balanced engineering further enhances my highest recommendation.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

VITUS SOUNDTRACK

Digitally remastered edition of this album from the acclaimed cellist. This release was remastered using DSD technology. Hear Yo-Yo Ma like you've never heard him before.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Placido Domingo.

Rather as I expected, the reissue of Lorin Maazel's three recent recordings of Puccini's one-acters as a co-ordinated box of the Trittico sharply brings out the conductor's distinctive approach. It is an approach which is typified by the very start of Gianni Schicchi, where there is an almost Stravinskian sharpness in the ostinato rhythms. Generally Maazel's concessions to romantic expressiveness are calculated rather than obviously warm. This degree of severity has the merit of underlining the musical cogency of all three pieces, splendid examples of Puccini's mastery at his high maturity, and Suor Angelica—wrongly regarded for far too long as a limp piece of sentimentality —benefits just as much as either of the others with the succeeding climaxes spaced in carefully balanced relationship.

The snag is that particularly with CBS's somewhat close recording balance, the atmospheric qualities of each opera—which some Puccinians would regard as among their highest merits—are underplayed. When I first reviewed Il tabarro, this absence of essential atmosphere made me give a less charitable review than I would now. Hearing it in context with the other performances, it is refreshing and invigorating to have a taut and relatively unyielding view of a fine score, even while one misses the dark evocations of the scene under a bridge of the Seine in Paris, which other versions so vividly capture.

The other gain from hearing the performances together is to have the dominance of Renata Scotto reinforced in both It tabarro and Suor Angelica. In Il tabarro neither Placido Domingo as Luigi (not quite in his warmest voice) nor Ingvar Wixell as the bargemaster Michele (rather too gritty-toned as recorded) is exactly a cipher, but Renata Scotto consistently focuses the centre of involvement with her dramatic and finely detailed singing.

In Gianni Schicchi the central pivot is provided of course by the contribution of the veteran Tito Gobbi, and though there may be some signs of the voice not being as young as it was, it is a deeply satisfying performance, as fine in its way as the classic one he recorded for HMV 20 years earlier. That HMV version is included in the boxed reissue set of Il trittico which appeared two years ago (SLS5066, 10/76), with all three operas given marvellous performances but with very dated recording and only Schicchi in stereo. The Decca set under Gardelli (SET 236-8, 12/62) is more idiomatic in performance than this Maazel CBS issue, and the sixties recording is amazingly bright and full for its age. But the new issue, controversial as it may be in some ways, is certainly refreshing, and should in particular win converts among those who still regard Puccini as merely soft and sentimental.

-- Gramophone [8/1978, reviewing the LP release of Il Trittico]

When I reviewed Robert White's Angel collection of Beethoven and Weber folk-song arrangements {The Gallant Troubadour, Fanfare 9:4), I mentioned this RCA collection as another possible source of pleasure to those who enjoyed the Angel set. Here it is on compact disc sounding at least as good as ever with the tenor in his element supported by virtuoso playing (Beethoven's settings were supposed to be playable by amateurs but they'd better be good amateurs). Full texts are provided, but so clear is White's enunciation that you'll have little need for them; one of the songs, “The Soldier,“ is probably better known nowadays as “The Minstrel Boy.“ Unfortunately, RCA could think of nothing appropriate that would serve to fill the CD out, so it contains only 44:25 of music, including pauses between songs, but what's here is certainly choice.

-- James Miller, FANFARE [9/1987]

EMIL GILELS PLAYS CONCERTOS AN

Russell Watson is the UK's best selling classical star ever and has sold over seven million albums worldwide. He is the first artist to hold the Number One slots simultaneously on the Classical charts in the U.S. and the UK. Watson has performed for some of the most influential l people in the world including the Pope, the President of the United States, the Emperor of Japan and HRH the Queen of England. Watsons latest recording, ANTHEMS, is an inspiring collection of uplifting anthems and powerful ballads sung deep from the heart as only he can.

Original score to the 2012 motion picture composed by Henry Jackman.

SIDE SHOW