For the complete Mandarin, Boulez is still the safest bet.

-- Gramophone [10/1993]

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It is nothing less than intriguing to find Pierre Boulez's whole interpretative personality significantly modified—at least on the evidence of this disc—by contact with the orchestra which for so many years Leonard Bernstein directed. Granted that two of Bartok's more abrasive works can never sound exactly gentle, these are interpretations that so far from following the pattern of diamond precision and emotional austerity we associate with Boulez in Britain, lean towards romantic expressiveness.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [1/1973, reviewing Miraculous Mandarin on LP, CBS 73031]

There is terrific atmosphere to this marvelous seasonal celebration of Praetorius works.

The Sony Vivarte box is a marvellous seasonal celebration heard through the works of the too-neglected German composer Michael Praetorius.

His polychoral ‘In dulci jubilo’ is magnificent here, and his astonishing variety takes us from the showy, echoing duets of ‘Ach mein Herre’ to the tender reverence of ‘Verleih uns Frieden’. Just occasionally the singers are overwhelmed by the busy instruments and by the acoustic (as in ‘Gelobt seist du’), but there is a terrific atmosphere to these performances.

-- Anthony Pryer, BBC Music Magazine

By far the finest reading of this little-heard masterpiece, which combines Bruckner-like counterpoint with a vivid sense of drama. Anton Dermota gives a deeply impressive performance.

I have been seeking out broadcasts and recordings of this oratorio ever since, 20 or so years ago, I first began to suspect that it was a masterpiece. Many of those performances were so dreadful that I began to wonder whether I'd been quite wrong about the work but this, by a long way the finest reading of Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln ("The Book with seven seals") that I have ever heard, triumphantly vindicates it.

Franz Schmidt's oratorio combines learned, Bruckner-like contrapuntal artifice (which in a bad performance can sound crabbed and boring) with a vivid sense of drama that at times recalls the naive peasant baroque of some Austrian and South German carved altarpieces (and can in a bad performance sound merely naive), at others the horrific realism of Matthias Grünewald. As a composer himself and a man of deep religious conviction Mitropoulos responded to both these aspects, and such haunting passages as the duet for two survivors of the pestilence and death spread by the horsemen of the Apocalypse, or the tremendous earthquake chorus that follows the breaking of the seventh seal have a powerful sense of drama which is emphasized by Mitropoulos's precise care for contrapuntal and instrumental detail. Yes, in this live performance there are a few untidinesses (the rushing violin passages in the gipsy "Hallelujah", not altogether unexpectedly - they are hideously difficult) but the impact and the devout urgency of the reading are not in the least diminished by them.

In the hugely taxing central role of St John, Dermota is deeply impressive. Although the part is often given to a dramatic tenor it responds to a lyric voice that is capable at times of ringing fullness. Dermota matches Mitropoulos's urgency, and clearly means every word of the role. At one point, where a descending vocal line illustrates the text's reference to the four beasts and the elders falling down before the Lamb, it is obvious that the bottom note of the phrase is not within his range. Instead, quietly and reverently, he speaks it, and the expressive effect of this is characteristic of his whole performance. The other soloists, Gueden and Berry especially, are distinguished, and both chorus and orchestra audibly respond to Mitropoulos's conviction.

The mono recording is a little constricted at times, with patches of acid string tone, but it improves and gains impact as it proceeds. Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln still has the reputation of a piece that the Austrians regard as a classic but which doesn't travel. This recording refutes that view with inspiriting eloquence.

-- Gramophone [3/1996]

Verdi: La traviata (The Fallen Woman)

BACH: ITALIAN CONCERTO, PARTIT

SCHUBERT: AUF DEM STROM, DER H

WAGNER: PIANO TRANSCRIPTIONS F

BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS ANT

REVIEWS:
BBC Music (3/98, p.74) - "Du Pré's...1977 Elgar Cello Concerto recording....is compelling and richly Romantic....Ormandy and the Philadelphia's 'Enigma' is warmhearted and virtuosic....Davis's 'Pomp and Circumstance' Marches are bold and beefy."

This 1949 recording (originally on 78s) of North Country Sketches already has appeared on CD in Sony's British Pageant series. The very start of the fourth movement, "The March of Spring", sounded fractionally clipped there, and regrettably it still does in this version, which ultimately offers no perceptible sonic improvements over the earlier release. Nevertheless, Delians will be more than happy to tolerate a minor flaw or two to get their hands on this matchlessly idiomatic performance. This is Beecham at his best; he gets the first section ("Autumn, the wind soughs in the trees") off to a delightfully misty beginning, even though the double bass and bassoon pedal notes don't really come across. Still, you'd be hard put to imagine the desolation and solitude of the Yorkshire moors much better characterized, even though the transfer retains its former ill-defined lower registers, and even flutes and clarinets can have a nasal, hollow quality above mezzo-forte.


However, any sonic shortcomings are amply compensated, and although there's some questionable wind tuning toward the close of "Winter Landscape", Beecham's careful dynamic gradations register well and the lonely feel of the piece is highly palpable. And save for that clipped start, there's also much to enjoy in the closing section where the awkwardly placed cello and violin solos are skillfully managed.


This CD also includes a complete 1952 recording of Appalachia. Beecham probably knew it better than anyone, and after a rather plain, possibly too-relaxed introduction, he portrays all 14 variations with great sensitivity. Delius' vividly impressionistic North Country Sketches is the more attractive work, though, and its relatively poor representation on CD gives this release additional value. If you find that the limited dynamic range and astringency of Sony's reissue leaves too much detailing hidden, consider Chandos' 1995 recording from Richard Hickox and the Bournemouth Symphony. It's an assured and likeable performance, splendidly engineered and adroitly played, but in terms of atmosphere, Beecham is still in a league of his own.
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

...Ferro conducts with a mixture of ease and ebullience... [T]he Ferro set is well cast, with Enzo Dara as an amusing Magnifico, the young Francisco Araiza ardent and freshvoiced as the Prince, and Lucia Valentini Terrani—the leading Cenerentola of her time—giving a reading that is ripe, meaningful and suitably virtuosic in its lustrous, dark-grained way.

-- Gramophone [6/1991]
reviewing the complete Cenerentola

DVORÁK: STRING QUARTET AMERICA

Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Op. 97, "Archdu

CHOPIN: PIANO CONCERTOS NAKAM

Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 41: All Brahms: 3 Violin & Piano