Set on the eve of World War I, A Dangerous Method is a true story based on the intense and turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein, the troubled but beautiful young woman who comes between them. Directed by David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises), the film stars Academy Award® nominees Viggo Mortensen as Freud and Keira Knightley as Sabina with Michael Fassbender as Jung. This film was presented during the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The movie opens in the United States on December 11, 2011.

Howard Shore has composed music for more that 80 films, working with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme, with whom he collaborated on Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. His outstanding success was with the Lord of the Rings trilogy for which he received three Academy Awards®, two Golden Globes® and four Grammy® Awards,including the Grammy® for Best Song from a Motion Picture,“Into the West,” from The Return of the King.

Called “The hottest artist on the classical musical planet” by the New York Times, Lang Lang is one of the most popular classical pianists playing today. He was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the world and was one of the headliners at the iTunes Festival in July 2011. His dazzling technique is matched by serious thought about the pieces he plays, and his performance of “Siegfried Idyll,” by Richard Wagner on this soundtrack, is nothing short of brilliant.the West,” from The Return of the King.

A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL is based upon a cherished movie classic that's enchanted millions. The musical features a score by the young Richard Rodgers Award winning newcomers, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, whose off-Broadway musical, DOGFIGHT, recently opened to positive reviews. The book is penned by Joseph Robinette, and is based on the writings of radio humorist Jean Shepherd and the 1983 holiday film favorite. Tony Award.-winner John Rando (URINETOWN) directs the production with choreography by Warren Carlyle (CHAPLIN, FOLLIES, AN EVENING WITH HUGH JACKMAN).

ORFF Carmina Burana • Kristjan Järvi, cond; Kiera Duffy (sop); Marco Panuccio (ten); Daniel Schmutzhard (bar); MDR SO & Ch & Kinderchor • SONY 88725 44621 2 (60:24 Text and Translation)


Kristjan Järvi, the brother of Paavo and the son of Neeme, has been around for a while. His name was in the last Schwann Artists issue, and you know how long ago that was. Among the dozen or so recordings that have been reviewed here are Bernstein’s Mass and Schmidt’s Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln , works that I would have enjoyed reviewing. The rest of his recorded repertoire, except for Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony, is refreshingly offbeat, so he is entitled to try his hand at a work that has now had 70 recordings, at least half of them still on the market. His tempos are as brisk as the best competing versions (anything much over an hour is suspect), and he has some interesting interpretive innovations. One of these is “Tempus est jocundum,” which is pointed more emphatically than anything I have ever heard, and it works well. I worried at the outset when “O Fortuna” began slowly and then sped up, but vagaries of tempo do not occur thereafter. The “Round Dance,” so often slowed down as if the instrumental soloists could not handle it, is a romp.


The soprano is as good as any. This part is so grateful to the singer and done so well almost every time that it is beside the point to single out any soprano for excellence. The men, full-throated, are to be congratulated for avoiding falsetto entirely, a bane of many performances. The boys’ choir is very good, sounding like a small group with individual voices that can be heard (not a bad thing for once). Järvi is the new music director of an orchestra that used to be listed on radio tapes issued by independent labels in the early days of LP. The Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk, based in Leipzig, is the nominal equivalent of such (former) West German radio networks as North, West, and South German (and earlier the Northwest and Southwest German). On more recent records since those early days, its orchestra has been known simply as the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. The adult choir and the boys’ choir also belong to the radio studio and are equally familiar on records, as in Herbert Kegel’s second War Requiem of Britten. But the name used here hardly occurs on currently available records. This disc can take its place among the more successful recent recordings of the work.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Almost one thousand miles east of Moscow, in the Russian city of Perm, the charismatic and provocative conductor Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna, the orchestra and choir he created, are recording Mozart’s Da Ponte operas. The first release of these three opera record- ings is Le Nozze di Figaro. These no-compromise studio recordings are the fruit of a unique way of living and work- ing which Currentzis has established in this remote, formerly closed city, which was dedicated to arms manufacturing in Soviet times.

The recording of Le Nozze di Figaro represents an unprecedented commitment by Currentzis and MusicAeterna in terms of preparation, session and postproduction time, to create the best possible sound. The recording embodies a radical new approach to orchestral virtuosity, score fidelity, vocal style and performance practice. Figaro was recorded over eleven straight days and nights for up to fourteen hours a day. Currentzis has tried to create an environment for those who search for what he calls “a real life in music.” His approach to the Mozart score is based on the conviction that it is virtually impossible today to hear it performed precisely and in full. His stated intention is to undo what he considers the effects of the 20th-century operatic tradition that is focused on simplification and vocal volume. For Currentzis, this recording represents the culmination of a decade-long research project dedicated to the discrepancies between the composer’s will and what our ears have become used to. Says Currentzis, “There are so many recordings which convey the general spirit of Mozart’s music. The only point in making a new one is to give the audience a chance to hear and learn about all the magic which this score holds.”

This 3-CD Deluxe Edition features a 300-page bound book that includes tracklist, full libretto and liner notes.
It is also available in a Super Deluxe Edition which includes everything from the Deluxe Edition plus a Blu-ray audio disc with the complete opera in high- resolution 5.1 surround audio.

VITTORIO GRIGÒLO: The Romantic Hero • Vittorio Grigòlo (t); Sonya Yoncheva (s); Evelino Pidò, cond; Natl RAI O • SONY 8883-75658-2 (57:29 Text and Translation)

MASSENET Werther: Pourquoi me réveiller. Manon: Instant charmant.…En fermant les yeux; Ah! Fuyez, douce image. Le Cid: Ô Souverain. GOUNOD Roméo et Juliette: Ah! Lève-toi, soleil; Nuit d’hyménée; Salut! Tombeau. Faust: Salut, demeure. MEYERBEER L’Africaine: Ô Paradis. HALÉVY La Juive: Rachel, quand du Seigneur. BIZET Carmen: La fleur que tu m’avais jetée. OFFENBACH Tales of Hoffmann: Et moi?

It is hard to overstate the brilliance and beauty of this recital, one of the finest operatic recital discs I have heard in the past year or two (at least). It would not have been a reasonable assumption that an Italian tenor would so completely master the French vocal style, and turn in one idiomatic performance after another. More than idiomatic, these are impassioned, deeply felt performances sung with the voice perfectly placed for the music, informed by intelligence and imagination, and sounding spontaneous, almost as if there was no thought given to his approach.

The voice itself seems just right for this music: placed somewhat forward, but not so much as to be overly bright or thin-toned. Grigòlo sings with plenty of ring where appropriate, but with astonishing dynamic shading. The recital opens with a poetic reading of Werther’s Pourquoi me réveiller, and immediately we understand the breadth of dynamic shadings and colors that Grigòlo is capable of applying. This is not a tenor with one idea of forte, another of mezzo-piano, and one more of pianissimo. He uses every possible dynamic level between the extremes, and has the musicianship and vocal control to make the changes smoothly even. He indulges in some old-fashioned lingering at key moments (the final phrase of Werther’s aria, for example), but it is never tasteless and always appropriate.

The mezzo-voce at the end of Ah! Lève-toi is beautiful, and the diminuendo on the B? at the climax of the Flower Song from Carmen is a miracle of vocal control and imagination. One could list detail after detail, but it would become redundant. The fact is that scene after scene is presented with a unique combination of vocal beauty, musical imagination, and attention to detail never at the expense of the whole. At phrase after phrase you find yourself catching your breath at the stunning vocalism or the musical-dramatic insight displayed.

Sonya Yoncheva is the soprano who joins Grigòlo in the duet from Roméo and with the appropriate lines in “Instant charmant” from Manon. Evelino Pidò conducts with great sensitivity and impetus, and seems entirely on Grigòlo’s wavelength. In these days we should be grateful to Sony for the complete texts, and for superb notes by Roger Pines. The recorded sound is fine; one doesn’t even think about it after two notes!

If one were to express a regret, it would be that they did not include the entire Tomb Scene from Roméo et Juliette. There is room on the disc for it, and Yoncheva was so good in the earlier duet that one would like to hear that entire finale. Nonetheless, this is recommended to anyone with a love of great singing.

FANFARE: Henry Fogel

With her new CD Waiata Dame Kiri Te Kanawa joins the elite group of international singers whose recording careers span 50 years. Waiata completes a full circle from her first recording (1964) which was also a collection of Maori songs. This was followed three years later by her Kiwi Records long- player, which based on sales, earned the NZ Phonographic Federation’s first Gold Disc awarded to a NZ artist and became her first recording release outside New Zealand. Since then she has recorded seventeen major operas with the world’s principal orchestras and appeared twice on the UK top-10 bestseller list: with the Rugby World Cup theme song “The World in Union” and Canteloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne”.

In 2010 Kiri received the British Classical Recording industry’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

1. HAERE E HINE (Farewell my Lady Fair)
2. TAMA NGAKAU MARIE (Son of a Peaceful Heart)
3. KARU KARU (Expectation)
4. HE PUTI PUTI KOE (To a Lovely Flower)
5. MARINGI NOA (I Weep For Your Return)
6. AWE MARIA (Hail Mary)
7. E TE ARIKI (Our Lord - Watch Over Us)
8. HE WAWATA (The Days of Yearning)
9. TE TANIWHA (The God of the Sea)
10. WHAKAARIA MAI (How Great Thou Art)
11. KOHU - AUAHI (Blue Smoke) composed by Ruru Karaitiana
12. WHAKAARIA MAI (Maori adaption of How Great Thou Art)
13. AUE E TE IWI E (The Pride of our Maori People)
14. KAMATE (Darkness Into Light)
15. TIROHIA MOKOIA (Look to the Island)
16. EHARA TE WAEA (Love Never Breaks)

Soprano Aprile Millo's golden voice is in best form. This is another of those vintage Met ensembles vividly guided by Levine, with Vladimir Chernov especially affecting in the father-daughter duet.

– BBC Music Magazine

Italian opera conductor Tullio Serafin enjoyed a long career and an extensive repertoire. He became particularly known for his revival of 19th century bel canto operas, as well as being an authority on composers such as Bellini, Donizetti, and, as this recording proves, Verdi. This release is a 1960 recording of Serafin conducting Verdis Otello in Rome. Based on Shakespeares play Othello, this work was Verdis penultimate opera. The four act work is set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito. This particular recording by RCA was deemed by BBC Music Magazine as the preferred version and benchmark recording of the work. No conductor is more understanding of Verdian pacing than Serafin. (The Penguin Guide)

IL TROVATORE

Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé stars as a ravishingly rich-voiced Violetta, alongside consummately stylish Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi and ever-thrilling US baritone Sherrill Milnes as Germont fils et père, plus an absolutely complete musical text, in a 1967 set that the Penguin Guide still calls “consistently satisfying”.

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REVIEW:

All three singers are excellent. Caballé is dramatically involved and vocally brilliant. Bergonzi is an ideal Alfredo, and Milnes is excellent. Some critics have not liked Prêtre’s conducting, but he supports the singers well. The minor roles are not particularly well sung, some just barely competent.

– Fanfare

This 1999 recording of Marcello Viotti conducting La Favorite is the most recent of the reissued sets from Sony. This four act grand opera by Donizetti is based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Bacular d’Arnaud. The work which premiered in 1840 at the Academie Royale de Musique in Paris has a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaez. Ramon Vargas is a featured soloist, who has long been praised for his fluent, stylish arias. He meets the high range of these pieces with virtuosity. “(Marcello Viotti) gets the long lines of Donizetti’s melodies just right and holds the big ensembles together well. His Munich forces play and sing handsomely…” (ClassicsToday.com)

Based on George Bernard Shaw's play, the 1967 television special Androcles and the Lion recounts the story of Androcles, the simple-hearted Christian tailor whose friendship with a lion saves himself and his friends from martyrdom in the Roman Colosseum. Set to music by Richard Rodgers, the cast includes British comedian Norman Wisdom as Androcles, Noel Coward as Caesar and features Ed Ames, John Cullum and Geoffrey Holder.

Tracks:
1. Opening 4:45 – Orchestra
2. Velvet Paws 5:45 – Norman Wisdom
Dialogue: Norman Wisdom and Patricia Routledge
3. Follow in Our Footsteps 1:52 – Ed Ames and Chorus
4. Strangers 5:00 – Inga Swenson and John Cullum
Dialogue: Inga Swenson and John Cullum
5. A Fine Young Man 6:45 – Ed Ames
Dialogue: Ed Ames and Brian Bedford
Strength Is My Weakness – Norman Wisdom and Ed Ames
Dialogue: Norman Wisdom, Ed Ames, Inga Swenson and Brian Bedford
6. Gladiators’ Ballet 3:07 – Orchestra
7. The Emperor’s Thumb 2:47 – Noel Coward
Dialogue: Noel Coward, Inga Swenson, Kurt Kasznar and Clifford David
8. No More Waiting 4:50 – Inga Swenson and John Cullum
Dialogue: Norman Wisdom, Inga Swenson and John Cullum
9. The Arena Pantomime 3:55 – Norman Wisdom and Orchestra
10. Don’t Be Afraid Of An Animal 4:51 – Noel Coward and Norman Wisdom
Dialogue: Noel Coward, Norman Wisdom and Bill Hickey
11. Reprise: No More Waiting 4:23 – Inga Swenson and John Cullum
Dialogue: Noel Coward, Norman Wisdom, Ed Ames, Inga Swenson and John Cullum
Velvet Paws – Norman Wisdom

THE VIKINGS II - ORIGINAL MOTI

MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, the hilarious, new, five-star musical that's had critics in raptures, makes it's West End debut in February 2016. Based on the much-loved film that starred Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, the show's run at the Theatre Royal Bath was hailed by the Guardian as "a shot in the arm for the British musical" and led Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail to exclaim, "I have not emerged from the theatre feeling quite so cheerful in a long time". Sony. 2016.

Originally released in 1972, Joe Farrell's Grammy-nominated OUTBACK is re-released here.