RCA
Britten: Young Person's Guide... / L. Slatkin
$17.99
Only 2 left
Details
- Composer
- BRITTEN, BENJAMIN
- Artist
- Leonard, Slatkin
- Format
- CD
- Label
- RCA
- Released
- Jan 29, 2009
- Catalog #
- RCA61226
- UPC
- 090266122622
About
A strikingly alert, fresh-faced reading of the Young Person's Guide, but the major attraction is the Sinfonia da Requiem, which immediately impresses with the focus and sheen of the orchestral playing.
I haven't enjoyed Britten's endlessly resourceful Young Person's Guide so much in ages... [A] strikingly alert, fresh-faced reading... When it comes to the Grimes Interludes, [Slatkin] concentrates on meticulous refinement, with radiantly airy textures throughout: the results are more coolly detached than we are used to hearing and often strikingly beautiful... [W]hat's more, [he] offers a notable bonus in the shape of a lucid and (once again) strikingly refined account of the ''Passacaglia'' from the same opera.
So what is left on the RCA collection? Well, there's a most eloquent, beautifully poised rendering of the Purcell Chaconne—Britten's loving realization can rarely have sounded more beguiling. But the major attraction here is the Sinfonia da Requiem. This could hardly start more promisingly, with fearsome ff timpani blows and balefully growling tuba. Again, what immediately impresses is the focus and sheen of the orchestral playing, but there's a price to pay, perhaps, in the shape of some lack of emotional thrust. It's the Dies irae centrepiece which bears this observation out most clearly: the demons certainly don't scamper quite as malevolently as they do on the composer's own 1964 Decca recording (which still, by the way, sounds absolutely stunning three decades on!)... Of course, this movement's shattering disintegration is as hair-raising as ever, and in the concluding ''Requiem aeternam'' Slatkin transmits a soothing, consolatory glow that many will find deeply moving.
In sum, [a] superior, finely engineered [addition] to the Britten discography; indeed, I can't imagine the majority of collectors will find much to disappoint them here.
-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone [3/1994]
I haven't enjoyed Britten's endlessly resourceful Young Person's Guide so much in ages... [A] strikingly alert, fresh-faced reading... When it comes to the Grimes Interludes, [Slatkin] concentrates on meticulous refinement, with radiantly airy textures throughout: the results are more coolly detached than we are used to hearing and often strikingly beautiful... [W]hat's more, [he] offers a notable bonus in the shape of a lucid and (once again) strikingly refined account of the ''Passacaglia'' from the same opera.
So what is left on the RCA collection? Well, there's a most eloquent, beautifully poised rendering of the Purcell Chaconne—Britten's loving realization can rarely have sounded more beguiling. But the major attraction here is the Sinfonia da Requiem. This could hardly start more promisingly, with fearsome ff timpani blows and balefully growling tuba. Again, what immediately impresses is the focus and sheen of the orchestral playing, but there's a price to pay, perhaps, in the shape of some lack of emotional thrust. It's the Dies irae centrepiece which bears this observation out most clearly: the demons certainly don't scamper quite as malevolently as they do on the composer's own 1964 Decca recording (which still, by the way, sounds absolutely stunning three decades on!)... Of course, this movement's shattering disintegration is as hair-raising as ever, and in the concluding ''Requiem aeternam'' Slatkin transmits a soothing, consolatory glow that many will find deeply moving.
In sum, [a] superior, finely engineered [addition] to the Britten discography; indeed, I can't imagine the majority of collectors will find much to disappoint them here.
-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone [3/1994]
Tracklist 10 tracks
-
1 I. Lacrymosa 07:58
- Track
- 1
- Title
- I. Lacrymosa
- Duration
- 07:58
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
2 II. Dies Irae 05:06
- Track
- 2
- Title
- II. Dies Irae
- Duration
- 05:06
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
3 III. Requiem aeternam 06:51
- Track
- 3
- Title
- III. Requiem aeternam
- Duration
- 06:51
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
4 No. 1. Dawn 04:04
- Track
- 4
- Title
- No. 1. Dawn
- Duration
- 04:04
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
5 No. 2. Sunday Morning 03:27
- Track
- 5
- Title
- No. 2. Sunday Morning
- Duration
- 03:27
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
6 No. 3. Moonlight 04:46
- Track
- 6
- Title
- No. 3. Moonlight
- Duration
- 04:46
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
7 No. 4. Storm 04:21
- Track
- 7
- Title
- No. 4. Storm
- Duration
- 04:21
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
8 Peter Grimes: Passacaglia, Op. 33b 07:21
- Track
- 8
- Title
- Peter Grimes: Passacaglia, Op. 33b
- Duration
- 07:21
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
9 Chacony in G Minor, Z. 730 (arr. B. Britten) 06:49
- Track
- 9
- Title
- Chacony in G Minor, Z. 730 (arr. B. Britten)
- Duration
- 06:49
- Composer
- Henry Purcell
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin
-
10 The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34 16:32
- Track
- 10
- Title
- The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34
- Duration
- 16:32
- Composer
- Benjamin Britten
- Ensemble
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor
- Leonard Slatkin