Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Martinon has shown his affection for Prokofiev's music in various earlier recordings, and affection comes across clearly in this set, as well as the energy without which any Prokofiev performance is a nonstarter.

-- Gramophone [6/1974]
reviewing the symphonies on LP, Turnabout 37050

Selections recorded in 1972, 1973 and 1977.

...Ricci's performance of the Adagio [from the Spohr Concertante] could not be bettered and he has a worthy partner in Susanna Mildonian... Louis de Froment is an admirable accompanist and the recording...is admirably clear and well balanced.

-- Gramophone [6/1979, reviewing an LP release of the Spohr]

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The chromatic harp is an idiosyncratic and, outside certain simple formulae, difficult instrument to write for; it has also been hard for it to escape from its 'romantic' image. Think of the harp, think of arpeggios (isn't that what the word signifies?), and those traversed with a sweep of the hand are inevitably colourful because you can't do it with a simple triad. Harp concertos have never been numerous and, other than Mozart and Handel, have come and gone like recorded ships in the night. Glière's has survived but Zabaleta's account of Reinecke's has long gone (DG 138 853, 11/63). Hard to realize the Glihre was written as late as 1939 —broad but fairly commonplace tunes, ultraconservative structure and language, arpeggios galore are its lot, music to relax and dream to. Michel is a fine harpist and her Glibre fully matches Ellis's older and less crisply recorded version on Decca, but neither can transmute the music's pewter to gold. The Reinecke is a more demonstrative and developed work, not written 'Out of its time', exploiting the resources of the harp in both solo and subsidiary roles, the flanking movements with cyclic connections.

The slow movement is exceptionally beautiful, the opening theme given by harp and trombone in hushed unison, and later, in ethereal harmonies on the harp with quiet responses from the strings. Michel presses a little ahead of her colleagues at times (notably the unisoni trombone) but generally benefits from skilful orchestration, sensitive support and well balanced recording. Written for a 'commoner' instrument the Reinecke might have become an oft-heard standard in the repertoire- it may still find favour with anyone following my advice to buy this recording.

-- Gramophone [4/1980, reviewing the LP release of the Gliere and Reinecke concertos]

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The novelty for me—and I daresay it may be for others too—was Roussel's Serenade of 1925, refreshing music that while keeping well clear of profundities, is yet most elegantly fashioned, urbane and full of wry charm. Here you will find the Melos Ensemble more smiling and certainly more kaleidescopic in colour. The Turnabout team are a bit more serious about the musical argument, a bit less bemused by effects of tone colouring. The flautist, Wilhelm Schwegler, also unfortunately has to breathe, whereas Richard Adeney's instrument (I presume it is Adeney) miraculously seems to play itself without audible intakes of air. It is Adeney's tonal bloom, his wider range of dynamics and colour and more malleable phrasing that in the first place succeeds in making Debussy's sonata sound more beguiling than the cheaper version, and especially in the opening Pastorale—considered by many critics no less seductive than the famous L'apres-midi. In this movement the Turnabout team do not react subtly and sensitively enough to detail, whereas the Melos are constantly reading between the lines and yielding rhythmically to this and that. But perhaps you could argue that the graver pulse chosen by the Germans for the Minuetto emphasizes its archaic, hieratic quality. I also thought they manage to define individual notes a bit more precisely in the finale than the Melos, who are sometimes a bit too impressionistic in their fluidity for this movement, where Debussy, "Musicien Francais", is very definitely looking back to seventeenth-and eighteenthcentury French classicism.

The performance I enjoyed most was the old, familiar Ravel from the Endres Quartet with Helga Storck, Konrad Hampe and Gerd Starke. The music, of course, is much less equivocal than the Debussy, and these players respond to its sensuous languor and tingling darts with more immediacy than I detected anywhere else on this record.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [2/1969, reviewing the LP release of the Debussy, Ravel, and Roussel works]

Another profound performance by pianist Walter Klien. Includes K. 331; K. 332; K. 333; K. 570; K. 457; K. 533; K. 576; K. 545; Rondo, K. 494; Fantasy, K. 475. "Gives enormous pleasure." - Penguin Guide.

Includes concerto(s) for viola by Darius Milhaud. Ensemble: Luxembourg Radio/Television Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Darius Milhaud. Soloist: Ulrich Koch (Viola).

This album from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sergiu Comissiona presents two works by Mendelssohn: the Symphony No. 4 “Italian,” and the Symphony No. 5 “Reformation.” The title Italian designates the symphony Mendelssohn began writing during a visit to Italy in 1930-31 and completed in Berlin on March 13, 1833, a few weeks after his 24th birthday. When he conducted the first performance two months later, at a Philharmonic concert in London, the work was very well received. Mendelssohn withheld the score from publication for several years in order to make revisions. The final version was not performed until the second anniversary of his death. The Reformation Symphony was begun in Wales in 1829, a few weeks after Mendelssohn made his first sketches for the Scotch Symphony during his very productive first visit to Britain. While the Scotch was set aside for more than 12 years, the Reformation was completed in 1830, for Mendelssohn intended it for presentation in the celebration of the tercentenary of the Augsburg Confession in June of that year. The event did not take place, however, and the Symphony was not performed until 1832 when it was introduced in Berlin. The score, however, remained unpublished until after his death.

It's good to have Rena Kyriakou's lovingly cultivated Mendelssohn Songs Without Words available again through Arkivmusic.com's on-demand reprint program, despite Vox's dry 1962 sonics and occasional fuzzy residue on high notes that I remember from my old LP pressings--is that a master tape defect? Kyriakou favors leisurely tempos and spins legato lines with subtle and attractive shadings that make even old standbys like the Spring Song and the Hunting Song emerge freshly minted to jaded ears. In numbers such as Hope, the Fleecy Cloud, Spinning Song, and the Evening Star, hear the striking timbral differentiation between the main melodies and the perfectly controlled, softly whirling accompaniments, or notice the sustained breadth she brings to the Duetto and the Elegy.

A thoughtfully integrated yet scintillating-when-appropriate (the final variations) rendition of the Variations sérieuses proves more than mere filler, although more dynamically characterized and colorful interpretations can be had, past (Horowitz, Cortot) and present (Perahia, Thibaudet). I hope the balance of Kyriakou's Vox Mendelssohn cycle will appear in due course.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A Minor "Tragic"

Includes work(s) by Franz Liszt. Ensemble: Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Michael Gielen. Soloist: Alfred Brendel.

The idiosyncratic French composer's complete songs, his one chamber work, his complete 4-hand music, the ballet music and Socrate (in it's only available recording for multiple voices and orchestra). Frank Glazer and Richard Deas, piano; Froment/Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral"

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica"