Includes work(s) by Hector Berlioz.

Includes work(s) by Johann Strauss Jr..

Includes work(s) by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg.

Classical Music

THE PACHELBEL CANON & OTHER BA

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Ruggiero Ricci.

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite - Weber: Invitation to the

The recordings of Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony offer a striking parallel to those of John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra. Both feature first-rate conductors allied to second-rate ensembles, and though the Utah forces routinely outplay their Manchester colleagues (you can, if you wish, compare directly in the last three symphonies), there's no denying the fact that neither offers serious competition to the world's great orchestras. Still, there's much to enjoy here. As a Tchaikovsky interpreter, Abravanel was superb, full of good ideas about pacing and balance (for an excellent case in point, check out the end of the Manfred Symphony's first movement), and the orchestra plays sufficiently well that it seldom if ever becomes a liability in the sense that it prevents the conductor's intentions from communicating to the listener.


The highlights here include sensational performances of the first three symphonies. It's indicative of Abravanel's deep musicality that he scores such impressive successes in difficult moments such as the finales of Symphonies 1 and 2 (the coda of the former, taken at a blistering pace, actually vindicates Tchaikovsky's conception for once), and also turns in a deeply committed, extremely exciting Symphony No. 3. His Manfred Symphony also is one of the best available (beware, though, a bit of the first movement is tracked onto the beginning of the second, though the music itself plays correctly and we are advised this has been corrected in recent pressings). You simply won't hear that problematic finale build to a more logically satisfying conclusion, with the tones of the organ ideally blended with the orchestral winds. In the later symphonies, there's a fresh and direct No. 4 (fine string playing in the pizzicato scherzo, and again a very good finale), an exciting No. 5 where the forward wind balances call to mind Klemperer's superb EMI recording, and a Pathéthique noteworthy both for Abravanel's very deliberate tempo in the first movement's development section, and for the extraordinary clarity of texture (listen to those bass lines!) that vindicates this decision.


The tone poems include a sensational Marche Slave that's not afraid of its own vulgarity, a dynamic 1812 Overture with well-mixed "special effects" (bells and cannon shots), a dull Francesca da Rimini, and impressively cogent, urgent renditions of the two Shakespeare pieces: Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the set, Vox provides vivid sound, light in the bass at times, but offering an unvarnished picture of an orchestra that could use richer strings and a bit more polish from the winds and brass, but that never waivers in its commitment to the cause. As a complete set of symphonies coupled to a mostly fine selection of other popular orchestral works, Abravanel's achievement sports more consistency than most, at a price that's well nigh unbeatable.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Percussion instruments have only recently become the last members of the symphonic family to be used fully and sensitively by composers, long after strings, woodwinds and brasses have been effectively exploited. Creative interest in the symphonic percussion section began in earnest in the late 1940s and has not yet abated, with rather impressive musical results thus far achieved. It is safe to say that the skillful use of a liberated percussion section has changed the very sound of contemporary symphonic music. One of the by-products of this welcome development has been the emergence of the percussion ensemble as an independent performing entity throughout the US and all over the world. These ensembles have programmed new works by some of our most gifted composers and they are responsible for adding a new dimension to America’s listening experience. The four composers whose works have been adapted to create this program are all quite different from one another, yet, they have been approached as a single musical organism, with the hope that, even after transfer to the same sound source, they would coexist with one another without giving up or cancelling outany of their respective original characteristics of style, color, or content.

Includes work(s) by Franz Joseph Haydn.

Includes work(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Classical Music

Frank Glazer's performances of these idiosyncratic works have been winning kudos for decades. Includes 3 Gnossiennes; 3 Gymopeides; 5 Nocturnes; Sports Et Divertissements; Danses Gothiques and much more.

Includes work(s) by Giuseppe Verdi.

Includes work(s) by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.