Search results: Search results

53 results

Products

Willaert: Musica Nova - The Motets / Singer Pur

Oehms Classics

$47.99 Mar 26, 2013

WILLAERT Huc me sidereo. Dilexi quoniam exaudiet. Audite insulae. Haec est domus Domini. Verbum supernum prodiens. Confitebor tibi Domine. Te Deum Patrem ingenitum. Beati pauperes spiritu. Sustinuimus pacem. Praeter rerum seriem. Alma Redemptoris Mater. Mittit ad Virginem. Benedicta es coelorum Regina. Salve Sancta parens. Inviolata integra et casta. Sub tuum praesidium. O admirabile commercium. Aspice Domine. Peccata mea. Domine quid multiplicati sunt. Pater peccavi. Miserere nostri Deus omnium. Avertatur obsecro. Omnia quae fecisti. Recordare Domine. Victimae paschali laudes. Veni Sancte Spiritus • Singer Pur • OEHMS 835 (3 CDs: 225:35 Text and Translation)

When Adrian Willaert (c.1490-1562) arrived in Venice in 1527, he was the first Flemish musician to be appointed maestro di cappella of St. Mark’s basilica, and the last of a long and distinguished line of Franco-Flemish musicians to dominate the Italian musical scene in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Although his position gave him the opportunity, not to say the duty, of supplying music for Mass and Vespers for his celebrated choir, his output does not appear on records as frequently as the music of his successors, most notably Monteverdi. Only a fraction of his 150 motets are available, and I have only three of his eight Masses in my collection. (His madrigals are better represented.) The Musica Nova , from which these motets come, was published by Gardano in 1559 at the behest of Alfonso d’Este, soon to be duke of Ferrara, who acquired the manuscript from the singer Polissena Pecorina. It contained 25 madrigals and 27 motets, works dating back through his career but kept apart from other music already published earlier. With the madrigals issued earlier ( Fanfare 33:4), Singer Pur has now recorded the entire publication. In the previous review, I indicated that I had not found any of the madrigals on records (no reader has written to offer any information on this).

Most of these motets have two parts; some have three, and O admirabile commercium has seven parts. The motets are set out here in order of themes, not the order of the published book, where the motets are grouped in ascending order of settings for four, five, six, and seven voices. The first disc is generally in praise of the Blessed Trinity, the second is entirely Marian in devotion, and the third is penitential, concluding with the sequences of Easter and Pentecost. Except for the last two pieces, it is remarkable that three very full discs can be equally divided along three distinct themes. The texts are from the Psalms and other scriptural and liturgical sources. Considering that the composition of these motets may have extended over a period of some years, the polyphonic style is notably uniform.

One motet that is special for its breadth is O admirabile commercium , the seven-part motet that takes its text from the seven antiphons for Lauds and Vespers of January 1. (While this is the feast of the Circumcision, it is structured as a Marian feast, and since 1970 has been known as the feast of Mary, the Mother of God.) This motet for five voices runs almost half an hour. The liturgical texts draw on biblical allusions, as in Rubum quem viderat , the third section, which takes the account of the burning bush unburnt from Exodus as a parallel to Mary’s giving birth while her virginity remained intact. Singer Pur’s execution is uniformly exquisite, with four male singers added to the six members of the ensemble (five former choirboys at Regensburg cathedral plus a soprano). Along with the Cinquecento disc (34: 2), these two sets of Musica Nova may be regarded as the preeminent observance of the composer’s 450th anniversary. With this recorded evidence, Willaert demonstrably occupies a place leading up to the glories of the High Renaissance that the next generation of composers achieved. Be sure to hear this impressive set.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

View Full Page

Willaert: Musica Nova - The Motets / Singer Pur
Oehms Classics Mar 2013
CD
$47.99

Lanza: Le Songe de Medee; Zahmal: MC 14/22 / Court-Circuit Ensemble

Opus Arte

DVD

$34.99 Sep 25, 2007

Choreography by Angelin Preljocaj

This double bill from one of the world’s leading choreographers offers two of his major works, danced by the Ballet de l’opéra de Paris. The dreamlike Songe de Médée, with music by Mauro Lanza and freely based on the Greek myth of Medea, explores a woman’s soul, portraying her, paradoxically, as a tender loving mother and a tormented victim who sacrifices everything, including her children, for love. MC14/22 (Ceci est mon corps) is a meeting of the spiritual and the carnal, drawing on St Mark’s version of The Last Supper in the Bible: ‘Take, eat: this is my body’. Created for twelve male dancers, Preljocaj’s ‘Apostles of Movement’, and with soundscapes by Tedd Zahmal, this powerfully sensual and passionate work is a hymn to the male body, stripped down to its deepest reality, juxtaposing the glorification of strength and the condemnation of force.

LE SONGE DE MEDEE
Médée: Marie-Agnès Gillot
Créüse, fille de Créon: Eleonora Abbagnato
Jason: Wilfried Romoli
Les Enfants: Constance Nicolas & Carl Van Gotdsenhoven
Ensemble Court-Circuit
Musical Director: Pierre-André Valade
Music by: Mauro Lanza

MC 14/22 « CECI EST MON CORPS »
Soundscapes by: Tedd Zahmal
Guest dancer/singer: Sylvain Groud
Opéra national de Paris Ballet

Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj
Stage Director: Denis Caïozzi

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound formats: Dolby Digital Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.0
Region code: 0 (All Regions)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 155 mins

Special Features:
Interviews with Angelin Preljocaj, Mauro Lanza and Brigitte Lefèvre, director of Ballet de L’Opéra

R E V I E W S

"With Angelin Preljocaj’s work, precision is such that the outline of the bodies, inscribed on our retina, marks both the memory of and trajectory made by each gesture. A palpable memory, a memory of a gesture divided into an almost visible infinity of micro-intervals. There is no doubt that Angelin Preljocaj is one of those people who dictate an essential part of our choreographic heritage. He is unquestionably one of those artists who, mirroring the intentions of Arthur, asks the questions that need asking, and most notably the ones linked to the urgencies of life." -- montpellierdance.com

View Full Page

Lanza: Le Songe de Medee; Zahmal: MC 14/22 / Court-Circuit Ensemble
Opus Arte Sep 2007
DVD
$34.99

Tchaikovsky Ballet Masterpieces / Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes

ICA Classics

DVD

$26.99 Nov 15, 2011

MARGOT FONTEYN AND MICHAEL SOMES
Tchaikovsky Ballet Masterpieces

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky:
Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)
Swan Lake (excerpts)
The Nutcracker: Act II

Margot Fonteyn, dancer
Michael Somes, dancer

Sleeping Beauty
choreography after Marius Petipa
Royal Opera House Orchestra
John Lanchbery, conductor
Broadcast: 20 December 1959

Swan Lake
choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Robert Irving, conductor
Broadcast: 9 June 1954

The Nutcracker
choreography by Peter Wright after Lev Ivanov
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Hugo Rignold, conductor
Broadcast: 21 December 1958

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: LPCM Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 72 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

View Full Page

Tchaikovsky Ballet Masterpieces / Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes
ICA Classics Nov 2011
DVD
$26.99

Glass: The Perfect American / Purves, Pittsinger, Davies, Teatro Real [blu-ray]

Opus Arte

Blu-Ray

$45.99 Oct 29, 2013

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

The last days of the American icon Walt Disney form a powerful and poignant subject for Philip Glass's latest opera, which was filmed at its first performances in Madrid in January 2013. Phelim McDermott's spectacular production is worthy of Disney's own visual imagination and its definitive influence on American culture, while in the pit is the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, an experienced and authoritative champion of the composer's hypnotically beautiful music, which gives wings to Rudy Wurlitzer's operatic transformation of Peter Stephan Jungk's novel, using both fact and fiction to peer into Disney's troubled psyche as illness forces him to confront his mortality.

What the press said: ''...one of the crowning events of the past year's globe-trotting celebration of Mr. Glass's 75th birthday.'' The New York Times

Philip Glass
THE PERFECT AMERICAN
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Walt Disney – Christopher Purves
Roy – David Pittsinger
Dantine – Donald Kaasch
Hazel George – Janis Kelly
Lillian Disney – Marie McLaughlin
Sharon – Sarah Tynan
Diane – Nazan Fikret
Lucy / Josh – Rosie Lomas

The Improbable Skills Ensemble
Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Phelim McDermott, stage director

Recorded live from the Teatro Real, Madrid, February 2013

Bonus:
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 120 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

View Full Page

Glass: The Perfect American / Purves, Pittsinger, Davies, Teatro Real [blu-ray]
Opus Arte Oct 2013
Blu-Ray
$45.99

Cilea: L'arlesiana / Cilluffo , Sicilia, Caradja, Vestri, Antonucci [blu-ray]

Dynamic

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Jul 31, 2015

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month!

Francesco Cilea, a Calabrian, is remembered principally today for his opera Adriana Lecouvreur (1902), He wrote several other operas but these are rarely performed. Quite a discovery, this is the world première on commercial video of Cilea’s three act opera L’Arlesiana (The Girl from Arles). It is directed by Rosetta Cucchia and is a co-production with Wexford Festival Opera. The Italian libretto by Leopoldo Marenco was based on the play L’Arlésienne (1872) by Alphonse Daudet one of the most celebrated of his collection of short stories Letters from my windmill (Lettres de mon moulin). It was Georges Bizet who wrote the incidental music to the play L’Arlésienne, adapted and produced by Léon Carvalho, which flopped although Bizet’s music prospered.

Originally in four acts, Cilea’s verismo score was first performed in 1897 at Teatro Lirico di Milano with a young Enrico Caruso in the role of Federico. Nevertheless in 1898 the score was revised as a three-act opera with a prelude added. Over the next 44 years Cilea made a number of revisions. In 2011 whilst going through the collection of Cilea’s papers in Palmi the Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti unearthed the manuscript of Federico’s aria Una mattina m’apriron nella stanza that had been cut from the four act version. Filianoti had the Una mattina orchestrated by composer Mario Guido Scappucci and it is here included in Act 3.

This psychological drama revolves around Federico, a young shepherd, who becomes increasingly infatuated with a mystery woman from Arles (L’Arlesiana). As his mental state deteriorates Federico’s infatuation becomes a dangerous obsession which the people around him are unable to assuage. The woman from Arles is traditionally never shown but here she is depicted by an actress with long red hair as an apparition that haunts Federico. In the traditional ending Federico jumps to his death out of a hayloft window, whilst in this production by director Rosetta Cucchi, our hero takes his life by slashing his own throat. The elephant in the room, and maybe one of the reasons why this opera is rarely performed today, is that the plot includes an important character which is Federico’s brother, referred to as L’Innocente, who is cognitively impaired and is described in the booklet as “mentally retarded”. Mental health can be a difficult subject to broach as several reviewers of recent productions fail even to mention L’Innocente. Running through the score is the prevailing theme of mental illness and it seems that Cilea during his youth witnessed his own mother’s mental breakdown.

Sarah Bacon’s set and Claudio Pernigotti’s costumes are mainly contemporary with the opera’s composition date except for a few modern touches. Bacon’s set is the courtyard of the whitewashed Provençal farm-house that by Act 3 has become the inside of a ward in a mental home with an elevated caged area for confinement.

Russian tenor Dmitry Golovnin plays the role of Federico. It took me some time to warm to Golovnin’s bright vocal, nevertheless by Federico’s famous Lament the 2 aria È la solita storia del pastore (track 14) a favourite of Gigli, Di Stefano and Pavarotti, Golovnin’s voice has opened splendidly displaying fluidity and focus. It’s a moving account with the anguished Federico lying on the kitchen table and his brother L’Innocente cowering underneath. In act 3 the tenor’s aria Una mattina (track 21) receives a splendidly moving rendition and Golovnin can be justly proud of his portrayal of the tormented shepherd.

Luckless and long suffering Rosa Mamai is given a characterful and suitably anguished portrayal by Annunziata Vestri. With plenty of steel in her expressive voice the Italian mezzo-soprano excels in her Act 1 Romanza Era un giorno di festa (track 6) and the great Monologue from Act 3 Esser madre è un inferno (track 23). Designer Claudio Pernigotti sees fit to dress Rosa mannishly in a grey jacket buttoned up to the neck rather in the manner of James Bond villains Dr. No, Blofeld and Drax.

Cutting a persuasive figure on stage, if dressed rather too stylishly for an old shepherd, was Stefano Antonucci as Baldassarre. Complete with limp and walking stick the compassionate Baldassarre dispenses sage-like advice that no one seems to heed. From Act 1 the old shepherd’s aria Come due tizzi accesi (track 3) and from act 2 Vieni con me sui monti (track 6) are effectively sung, expressive and focused by the Italian baritone who acts sensitively throughout.

The part of the demure and girlish Vivetta is capably sung by the Italian Mariangela Sicilia. Dressed mainly in grey and hiding behind her winter tweed coat and hat it was a surprise when Vivetta undresses down to her underwear in a pitiful attempt to seduce Federico. From Act 1 Vivetta’s Romanza Dalle fresche pendici is sung effectively by Sicilia with a bright, flexible and warm soprano, although, I am not entirely convinced by her diction.

Looking like a fearsome pantomime villain baritone Valeriu Caradja in the small role of swarthy horse-herder Metifio is suitably dark and angry.

It’s a local superstition that a child such as L’Innocente brings good fortune on a household. In this household only Baldassarre pays the boy any attention. Marked by a shock of blonde hair L’Innocente is played by counter-tenor Riccardo Angelo Strano. In what is more of an acting role L’Innocente does slightly contribute vocally but nothing too serious.

Francesco Cilluffo conducts his Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana with verve and assurance. Similarly the well prepared 'Coro Lirico Marchigiano V. Bellini' maintains the high standard.

As I expected from Dynamic, the sound quality is satisfactorily balanced and agreeable, being clear, if a touch lacking in warmth. In High Definition the picture quality is most pleasing with an excellent definition. The accompanying booklet includes translations of a splendid essay by Giancarlo Landini and an informative note by director Rosetta Cucchi. The synopsis provided is a traditional scenario and is not totally in step with what we saw on stage under Rosetta Cucchi’s direction.

Filmed at Teatro Pergolesi, Jesi, Ancona the video direction by Tiziano Mancini is admirable, employing cameras actively. This avoids fatigue or tedium. The audience at Teatro Pergolesi is only seen whilst taking their seats before curtain up. The camera fixes on the stage action and doesn’t break to any orchestral players in the pit for solos.

This is a strong production that generates considerable dramatic tension. For those with a particular interest in verismo this Cilea work is a real find and is easy to recommend.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

View Full Page

Cilea: L'arlesiana / Cilluffo , Sicilia, Caradja, Vestri, Antonucci [blu-ray]
Dynamic Jul 2015
Blu-Ray
$36.99

Wagner: Der Fliegende Hollander / Haenchen, Lloyd, Naglestad, Jentzsch

Opus Arte

DVD

$34.99 May 31, 2011

Also available on Blu-ray

Richard Wagner
DIE FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Dalland – Robert Lloyd
Senta – Catherine Naglestad
Erik – Marco Jentzsch
Mary – Marina Prudenskaja
Der Steuermann Dalands – Oliver Ringelhahn
Der Hollander – Juha Uusitalo

Netherlands Opera Chorus
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Harmut Haenchen, conductor
Martin Kušej, stage director

Recorded live at the De Nederlandse Opera, February 2010.
Bonus:
- Cast gallery
- Insights and interviews

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Running time: 166 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

Director Martin Kusej has been responsible for one of the worst Don Giovannis I've ever seen (Salzburg, 2006--Decca DVD) and the best Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (BBC--Opus Arte), so I wondered what to expect from this Netherlands Opera Dutchman, recorded in February, 2010. As it turns out, it is indeed "controversial"--it takes startling liberties and doesn't always make sense--but it's a very strong performance.

But before I get into its look and dramatic execution I must give utmost praise to conductor Hartmut Haenchen, who offers a whip-smart account of the score in the original one-act version, taking just two hours and 15 minutes. It never feels rushed but it does feel inexorable, with the orchestra playing with amazing transparency: you can hear Wagner's genius creating and growing. I don't want to call it a chamber-like approach because it is anything but delicate and miniaturized, but each instrumental section gets its due and is crystal clear; the balance between stage and pit is invariably right (bravo to the engineers as well), and somehow Haenchen manages Wagner's awkward mood/tempo changes as if they were organic.

The second act, with Erik popping in all hot and bothered, and then later, Daland, after the big duet, is normally clumsily done; here drama remains heightened. The chorus also is remarkably handled, particularly given what they have to do physically.

I can understand people despising Kusej's approach, but the care he gives to the characterizations somehow makes up for the overall approach which, as suggested above, is quirky. We are on a cruise ship, all glass doors and a deck, in modern dress. (The roomy, wall-to-wall set is by Martin Zehetsgruber and costumes are by Heide Kastler). The tourists, in true tourist outfits (floral shirts, shorts, sunglasses) are terrified of what is on the other side of the glass doors: it is the Dutchman's crew, who appear to be zombies. Well, maybe not zombies, but undesirables--like refugees from one of those unhappy countries who are being ferried to more stable places, each person with a look of desperation on his or her face. Perhaps they are asylum seekers, looking for a homeland, with a doomed captain looking for redemption and love.

The Dutchman suddenly appears--perhaps he's been lying down amid the guests--to sing "Die Frist ist um". When Daland arrives, he's a spiffily dressed tycoon and is interested in business--money changes everyone's status and the Dutchman realizes that. The second scene is set in a women's spa, with everyone except Senta in bathing suits or towels; she is in a black dress, actually has an old-fashioned spinning wheel (what is it doing in a spa?) and stares at a smallish painting of the sea and sky. (Sea and sky are projected throughout the overture as well.)

The last scene, after the weird back-and-forth of the sailors (in black, monkish, hooded clothing) and ladies, is stunning in its severity--just Senta, the Dutchman, and Erik against a background of roiling sea and sky. Senta has become part of her idealized picture. Will she remain true to the Dutchman until death? Apparently, since the shotgun-bearing Erik shoots them both dead at the curtain. Applicable or not--and each may decide for him/herself--this is a very good-looking, action-packed, thought-provoking show.

All of this would be for close to naught if the singing and dramatic commitment were any less fine than they are. Juha Uusitalo has found his ideal role in the Dutchman. His voice is big, with a distinct grain. It is not particularly beautiful but it is highly expressive, and if you think you've seen brooding, wait until you see him. His duet with Senta in Act 2 is so fraught with tension, attraction, disbelief, shock, relief, and sheer craziness that it could leave you trembling. He may be the finest Dutchman I've ever encountered.

Catherine Naglestad's Senta, almost perfectly sung, matches Uusitalo. She's clearly playing with less than a full deck from the start, but she gets stronger as the opera progresses and her vision becomes clearer and more real. I believe she sings Senta's ballad a half-tone higher than usual, which was Wagner's original conception, and the voice gleams. It is an ideally built sound, from the solid middle both up and down, and it's filled with warmth.

Tenor Marco Jentzsch, obviously a plot linchpin in Kusej's worldview of this opera, is active, involved, and sings with ringing if not always appealing tone, particularly above the staff. But he comes across as he should here, as a major player rather than an also-ran in Senta's life. Robert Lloyd proves that he still has the resources for Daland, and his mercenary outlook is in keeping with the text. There have been many better Steersmen than Olivier Ringelhahn, but Marina Prudenskaja's Mary is more appealing than most. Does she run the spa?

Picture, sound, and all production values are stunning, although there is no track-listing in the accompanying booklet (this seems to be a trend that is to be discouraged). There are three other performances of this opera on DVD; none is nearly as good as this one but Kultur's, from the Savonlinna Opera Festival (with Behrens and Grundheber) is extremely well sung. Subtitles are in English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. This may be odd, but it is not to be dismissed under any circumstances. It packs quite a wallop.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

View Full Page

Wagner: Der Fliegende Hollander / Haenchen, Lloyd, Naglestad, Jentzsch
Opus Arte May 2011
DVD
$34.99

Bortniansky: I Cried Out To The Lord / Ensemble Cherubim

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 25, 2013

BORTNIANSKY Cherubic Hymn No. 7. Choral Concertos: Nos. 1, 6, 9, 15, 18, 21, 27, 32. How Glorious is our Lord in Zion • Marika Kuzma, cond; Ens Cherubim • NAXOS 8.573109 (63:04 Text and Translation)

We all know that Russian music began with Glinka, right? Well no, actually it didn’t, especially if one considers the rich tradition of a cappella liturgical music in the Russian Orthodox Church. From the late 17th century onward, these compositions are often credited to individual composers, such as Nikolai Diletsky (1630–1690), Vasily Titov (1650–1715), Maksim Berezovsky (1745–1777), Stepan Degtiarev (1766–1813), and Artemy Vedel (1767–1806). Dmitry Bortniansky (1751–1825) was one of the consummate practitioners of this art, but in addition to church music he wrote operas and instrumental works. All of the composers mentioned were strongly influenced by European musical styles, and none more so than Bortniansky. Of Ukrainian birth, he was recruited into the Imperial Court Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg at the age of seven. Because of his outstanding abilities, he was eventually sent to Italy to study, spent 10 years there, and had several of his operas produced in Italian theaters. Upon his return to Russia in 1779 he achieved great success as a composer and choral director and in 1796 was appointed director of the Imperial Court Chapel.

There have been a good many recordings of Bortniansky’s music, but this one is claimed to be “the first to restore authentic early 19th-century Church Slavonic pronunciation and reintroduce fine details found in archival sources.” Not having been present in Russia during the early 19th century, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the pronunciation, and I would be curious to know on what basis it was established. The notes by conductor and Bortniansky scholar Marika Kuzma shed little light on this issue, except to remark that the orthography in the printed Cyrillic texts “intentionally includes archaic letters to signal an earlier, St. Petersburg pronunciation of Church Slavonic that differs from current Russian or Ukrainian practice.” The “archaic” letters mentioned were eliminated from Russian in the post-revolutionary orthographic reform, which as far as I know did not affect pronunciation. The eliminated letters were simply considered redundant. The claim to historical authenticity is somewhat undermined by the presence in the choir of women’s voices, which traditionally were not used in Orthodox Church music. I must acknowledge, however, that many other recordings of such material also employ a mixed chorus. In any case, Kuzma’s credentials as a choral director, musicologist, and Bortniansky expert are strong, and one can have some confidence in the quality of her research on issues relating to this composer. Above all, it is the quality of the music and the performances that is important, and here Kuzma’s recording is on very firm ground.

A notable feature of these performances is their transparency, contrasting with the massive, blended choral sound favored by other recordings of similar material. This transparency is very beneficial to Bortniansky’s contrapuntal textures and antiphonal effects, and achieving it is clearly one of Kuzma’s major objectives. In the notes, she announces her intention to avoid the “rich, legato choral style of traditional Russian choirs,” which creates “a wash of sound that blurs the fine detail indicated in Bortniansky’s scores.” In Cherubic Hymn No. 7, which opens the program and is probably the composer’s best-known work, the excellent intonation of the Ensemble Cherubim is also immediately apparent. Kuzma’s delivery is a bit quicker but also more relaxed and serene than the performance by the Lege Artis Chamber Choir of St. Petersburg (Sony). Another hymn, Kol’ slaven nash Gospod v Sione (How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion), brings the disc to a tranquil conclusion. Its text, drawn from a poem by Mikhail Kheraskov (1733–1807), is in Russian rather than Church Slavonic, unlike the rest of the works on the disc.

Between the two hymns, the bulk of the disc is devoted to eight of Bortniansky’s 35 sacred concertos for single chorus (he also wrote some for double chorus). The concertos are in three or four short movements and set a variety of religious texts, drawn mostly from the Psalms. Slow movements tend to alternate with faster ones, the latter being highly contrapuntal in character. The emotions expressed in these works run the gamut from deepest despair and mourning to joyous celebration. In addition to the qualities of transparency, textural detail, and precise intonation previously mentioned, Kuzma’s performances are characterized by intensity, elasticity, and variety in tempo and dynamics. If you think an hour of unaccompanied choral music can become monotonous, think again. That is not the case here.

Although a substantial number of discs that include some music by Bortniansky are available, recordings devoted exclusively to his choral music are few, and the selection of concertos assembled by Kuzma cannot currently be replicated on CD. The main competition for this release comes from the efforts of Valery Polyansky, who recorded all 35 concertos with the Russian State Symphonic Capella for Chandos on five discs. The first volume of his series, which contains the first nine concertos and three of those included by Kuzma, is currently available only as an MP3 download. Each of the remaining Chandos discs includes no more than one or two of the works recorded by Kuzma. Polyansky also recorded some of the concertos earlier for Melodiya, first with the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir and later with the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir. These earlier recordings appear to be unavailable at present. The contrast between Polyansky’s approach and that of Kuzma is consistent with her own description of the differences between the “traditional Russian choral sound” and what she seeks to achieve. It would be difficult to question Polyansky’s commitment and authority in this repertoire, or the sonorous majesty of his Chandos recordings, but where I’ve been able to make direct comparisons (in Nos. 1, 6, 9, 18, and 21), I find myself often preferring Kuzma, because of clearer textures, livelier tempos (especially in the slow movements), and more pointed rhythm. It is also noteworthy that where Polyansky relies constantly on a massed chorus, Kuzma frequently assigns lines to individual singers or a small contingent, which makes for a greater variety of texture. The differences in interpretation are perhaps most obvious in the opening movement of Concerto No. 21 (“He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High”), where Polyansky’s marmoreal pace nearly doubles Kuzma’s timing (4:31 vs. 2:22), and Kuzma’s chamber-like texture contrasts strikingly with the dark mass of Polyansky’s chorus. Here one must acknowledge the greater sense of other-worldly mystery achieved by Polyansky, as well as the more powerful presence of bass voices in his rendition. Both these varieties of interpretation have their place.

The sound of this recording is very clean, clear, and well focused, free of the wooliness that sometimes afflicts choral recordings. Polyansky’s Chandos discs, by contrast, are recorded in a much more reverberant environment. The Church Slavonic and Russian texts are offered in Cyrillic, along with English translations, but no transliteration is provided, which is great for those with knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet, but those without it are at a disadvantage.

The fine performances on this disc offer a good introduction to and sampling of Bortniansky’s choral music. I strongly recommend this excellent disc to anyone interested specifically in this composer or in Russian music before Glinka.

FANFARE: Daniel Morrison

View Full Page

Bortniansky: I Cried Out To The Lord / Ensemble Cherubim
Naxos Jun 2013
CD
$19.99

Juliet & Romeo - Ballet By Mats Ek, Music By Tchaikovsky [blu-ray]

C Major Entertainment

Blu-Ray

$37.99 Apr 29, 2014

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD or HD DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Mats Ek
JULIET AND ROMEO
Ballet in Two Acts
with music by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky

Juliet – Mariko Kida
Romeo – Anthony Lomuljo
Father – Arsen Mehrabyan
Mother – Marie Lindqvist
Duke – Niklas Ek
Nurse – Ana Laguna
Mercutio – Jérôme Marchand

Royal Swedish Ballet
Royal Swedish Orchestra
Alexander Polianichko, conductor

Recorded live at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, 2013

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format:PCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 107 mins
No. of Discs: 1

View Full Page

Juliet & Romeo - Ballet By Mats Ek, Music By Tchaikovsky [blu-ray]
C Major Entertainment Apr 2014
Blu-Ray
$37.99

Reger: Orchestral Works / Segerstam, Norrkoping Symphony

BIS

$39.99 Mar 25, 2014

“Everything that is included is substantial… the hugely impressive Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy is dark, brooding and intricately wrought. It's invaluable to have these works available in such lucid, well-played and committed performances.” – The Guardian (UK)

REGER Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart, op. 132. Symphonic Prolog to a Tragedy, op. 108. Piano Concerto 1. Suite in Olden Style, op. 93. Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven, op. 86. A Ballet Suite, op. 130. Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin, op. 128 • Leif Segerstam, cond; 1 Love Derwinger (pn); Norrköping SO • BIS 9047 (3 CDs: 203:54)

This new compilation of Leif Segerstam’s Reger recordings, originally issued on three separate CDs in the 1990s, makes an outstanding introduction to the work of a composer still largely known by many classical lovers for his organ music and one song, Maria Wiegenlied. When I reviewed the 2-CD Guild set of historic Reger recordings ( Fanfare 37:6), I said how much I liked the works presented there. I can say much the same thing of this set, despite Segerstam’s penchant for slower tempos, simply because as a composer himself he approaches each work from a structural standpoint and brings out many subtleties.

Surprisingly, only two works are duplicated in the two sets, the Mozart Variations and the Ballet Suite . The Guild collection also included the Lustpielouvertüre, Serenade in G, Romantic Suite, and Eine vaterländische Ouverture. Possibly one may also want to hear Reger’s Violin Concerto, Sinfonietta, and the Variations on a Theme of Hiller, but otherwise, between these two sets, you have the bulk of Reger’s orchestral oeuvre . Early on in life, Reger became infatuated with both Bach and Wagner, and from these twin fonts of Teutonic culture he created remarkably interesting structures in music. And, surprisingly, his music is not only interesting but also fun to listen to, a point I made in regards to the Guild set.

Of the music new to me via this release, I was particularly impressed with the Symphonic Prelude to a Tragedy (which one might describe as a more modern, and more tragic, incarnation of Brahms’s Tragic Overture ), the piano concerto, and the Beethoven Variations and Fugue. My sole complaint of the recordings, and this probably has more to do with the engineering than with Segerstam, is that in quiet passages the music sometimes fades out of earshot. Unless you are listening with your ears very close to the speakers or, on headphones, with the volume turned up high, you will miss some of those softer passages. Other than that, however, I was very pleased overall with Segerstam’s readings. As usual with this conductor, transparency of texture is paramount, often revealing details that go unnoticed in others’ readings, and his subtle plasticity of phrasing keeps the music fluid and moving forward. Thus in a work like the Mozart Variations, one may prefer the more straightforward conducting of Eduard van Beinum in the Guild set, but one will find much more to hear in the Segerstam performance.

I was not particularly impressed by the Suite in Olden Style, which just toodled along and sounded nice but not much else. The Variations on a Theme of Beethoven is based on the last of the op. 119 Bagatelles. He originally wrote it for two pianos, but when preparing the orchestral score he eliminated four of the 12 variations and, according to the notes, changed both the playing order and the arrangement of keys. When he finished this score in August 1915, he had less than a year to live. In this case, I felt that Segerstam’s performance was a bit too airy for my taste, making the music sound less energetic that it might have, but the Ballet Suite came off pretty well. Segerstam’s problem, like the famous criticism of Bruno Walter, is that “when he comes to something beautiful, he melts.”

The liner notes suggest that the reason Reger’s Piano Concerto has failed to gain a place in the standard repertoire is that it is technically demanding but does not allow the soloist to “show off.” I would also suggest that the dark, brooding quality of the music is another reason. Most people like their piano concertos to sound cheerful or dramatic or, if somewhat brooding, then brooding in a Romantic Russian (read: Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff) sort of way, neither of which Reger gives us. This is a very complex piece, too, continually evolving yet knitting together its various sections within each movement with consummate mastery. (I would particularly commend this concerto to many modern American composers who write “clever” music that does not develop properly.) Derwinger is a committed interpreter, throwing himself into this complex score with emotional fervor, and Segerstam, too, is particularly dramatic here.

What makes this packaging even more attractive is that BIS is selling the 3-CD box at a special price. I found it listed for $32.75 at Presto Classical and $38.49 at ArkivMusic, an excellent bargain considering BIS’s normal price tag for single discs, which run around $21.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

View Full Page

Reger: Orchestral Works / Segerstam, Norrkoping Symphony
BIS Mar 2014
CD
$39.99

Petitgirard: The Elephant Man / Sykorova, Rivenq, Et Al

Marco Polo

DVD

$16.49 ~~$32.99~~ Save 50% Sep 20, 2005

Laurent PETITGIRARD (b. 1950)

Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man

Elephant Man - Jana Sykorova
Doctor Treves - Nicolas Rivenq
Tom Norman, showman - Robert Breault
Mary, nurse - Valérie Condoluci
Eva Lükes, matron - Elsa Maurus
Carr Gomm, hospital manager - Nicolas Courjal
The Coloratura - Magali Léger
Jimmy, showman's assistant - Mari Laurila-Lili
Nice Opera Chorus · Nice Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Laurent Petitgirard

DVD 9 · NTSC · Regions 1-6
Picture Format: 16:9
Audio Formats: Dolby Digital 2.0 · Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English · French · German
Running time: 166 mins

Written in 1998, Petitgirard's opera differs from David Lynch's cult film in offering an entirely different perspective on the tale of Joseph Merrick, born in 1863 with horrific deformities, exhibited as a freak at the circus, taken in by Dr. Treves at the London Hospital and subsequently afforded celebrity status. Where the film is based largely on Dr. Treves' memoirs, the opera is based on biographies of Joseph Merrick giving his character a more central focus than in the film.

"The opera is many ways the most original treatment of the story... The most revolutionary aspect of the opera is the writing of Merrick's part for a female singer. At first tempted to make Merrick a counter-tenor, Petitgirard finally decided that only the contralto voice could give him the effects he wanted. Certainly, in the theatre, this helps to create the aura of strangeness, of otherness, which Merrick personifies." -- The Independent "Petitgirard's musical vocabulary reflects his French heritage - the influences of Fauré, Ravel, Poulenc and Satie are evident - but his subtlety, melodic gift and sensitivity to the drama make him well-equipped to inherit the mantle and create his own outstandingly original idiom... No doubt [the opera] would prove even more powerful onstage than on disc." -- Opera News

View Full Page

Sale

Petitgirard: The Elephant Man / Sykorova, Rivenq, Et Al
Marco Polo Sep 2005
DVD
~~$32.99~~ $16.49

Mauritius: Tribute to Ti Frere - Sega, Music of Exile

Ocora Radio-France

$20.99 Feb 27, 2026

The voice of Ti Frère rises up, alone in the silence. A voice with an edge and a hiss, grinning and derisive, shouting, rasping and groaning, it threatens and then becomes very sweet and tender, and with it now come all the manifold voices of the Mauritian people: matrons and young girls begin to sway their hips, a magic wave running through their bodies, as their feet beat time and as the fire on the beach is smelt in the warmth of a night thronged with insects and spirits (.). -Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Wherever she came into contact with the outside world, Africa's influence was profound. Slaves left empty-handed with nothing but their memories, voices, bodies, and therefore their songs, rhythms and dances. And these traces grew, despite their new masters' prohibitions, into the unique musical expression of many a people throughout the world. This was how the séga, the music of exile, evolved into the traditional song and dance of the people of Mauritius and Rodrigues, and of other Indian Ocean islands too, like the Seychelles and Réunion.

View Full Page

Mauritius: Tribute to Ti Frere - Sega, Music of Exile
Ocora Radio-France Feb 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Byron: In the Village of Hope

Cold Blue Music

$5.49 ~~$10.99~~ Save 50% Oct 01, 2015

Michael Byron’s music, which has appeared on four previous Cold Blue CDs, tends to be harmonically rich, rhythmically detailed, and virtuosic. It is often praised for its ability to create uniquely dense constructions out of relatively limited means: “Byron creates maximalist effect out of minimalist means.” (ClassicalNet) “One is reminded…of the mobiles of Alexander Calder, which are both fixed and moving. And, like Calder’s work, Byron’s music is immediately comprehensible and beautiful, while it remains experimental.” (San Francisco Bay Guardian) “Byron’s music, like Ligeti’s, is instantly recognizable, perceptually challenging, beautifully proportioned and deeply satisfying.” (Paris Transatlantic) In the Village of Hope is a restless (and in some ways relentless) virtuosic harp solo performed stunningly by Tasha Smith Godínez. This ever-changing, ever-churning, ever-developing music is unlike anything else in the solo harp repertoire. A 23-minute CD EP/single. Musicologist/critic/author Eric Smigel wrote of this CD, “In the Village of Hope simultaneously lulls and rouses the listener with elegantly cascading counterpoint and lush harmonies animated by complex rhythms. Its kaleidoscopic variations evoke ethereal wind chimes, rendering both the calm and the storm in a single gesture.” Sequenza 21 called it “gorgeous music…a single 23-minute track that unfolds with such delicacy and grace that an hour of it would not seem too much.” Fanfare magazine wrote, “Originally categorized as a minimalist, [Byron] has composed music over most of his career that more accurately might be described as maximalist, because it is in a state of constant and often rapid flux…. In the Village of Hope sounds like the kind of music a harp might play on itself, for itself, and by itself…. One associates the harp with angelic matters, and while In the Village of Hope doesn't confound that association, this is a heaven that is far from being regular and predictable, and where one is ruled not by immutable Bible truths but by the constant fluctuations of the natural world. This is very pretty listening, and, as such, recommendable.” And Julien Cowley wrote in The Wire, “Harp notes trickling and tumbling like eddies in a stream…. Byron has compared In The Village of Hope to the play of wind chimes, an image that not only suggests the range of timbres elicited by harpist Tasha Smith Godinez, but also fits the character of a piece that seems to occupy its own space while some animating spirit runs through it.”

View Full Page

Sale

Byron: In the Village of Hope
Cold Blue Music Oct 2015
CD
~~$10.99~~ $5.49

Patrick Melrose / Tv O.s.t.

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Sep 07, 2018

Music by HAUSCHKA“Patrick Melrose Is The Best Show On TV You're Not Watching” ForbesStarring Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Benedict CumberbatchNominated for 5 Emmy Awards, this five-part limited series based on the acclaimed novels by Edward St. Aubyn tracks Patrick from a privileged but deeply traumatic childhood in the South of France through severe substance abuse in his twenties in New York and, ultimately, toward recovery back home in Britain. At once harrowing and hilarious, Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the troubled titular character.ABOUT THE COMPOSERHauschka (Volker Bertelmann) is a composer, songwriter and experimental musician who uses prepared piano as his primary instrument. The prepared piano refers to the technique of resting pieces of paper, marbles, drumsticks and other objects on the strings to produce odd, sometimes randomly generated sounds, that move the instrument in unexpected directions. Hauschka grew up in Germany in the village of Ferndorf, in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, North Rhine-Westphalia. The thousand-year-old village was small, with a population of about 1,000 people. He started taking piano lessons when he was nine and in high school, he played in a cover band that won a local Battle of the Bands contest. Being a musician was not an acceptable career path in his family, so Hauschka studied medicine at University in Cologne, although he was still playing in bands. Just before graduation, he examined his career choices and dropped out to do music full time. His first venture was a hip-hop band called God’s Favorite Dog, with his cousin Oliver Lodge-Philips. They had a couple of minor hits and got picked up and dropped by a major label. After experimenting with some avant garde aspect of techno music in a band called Tonetraeger with Torsten “TG” Mauss Hauschka eventually moved to Düsseldorf where he decided to go solo and began to compose contemporary music for piano by combining elements of both classical and pop music traditions.Substantial, Hauschka’s first solo album, blended classical, avant-garde and pop impulses, with an aura of measured melancholy. Then he discovered prepared piano. His experiments with this new instrument changed his approach to music and composing, setting him on a journey of exploration that continues to this day. His albums of prepared piano music include The Prepared Piano, a solo record of spontaneous improvisations; Ferndorf, featuring arrangements for cello, trombone, violin and piano; Salon des Amateurs, with drummers Samuli Kosminen (múm), and Joey Burns and John Convertino (Calexico); Silfra, an improvised collaboration with classical violinist Hilary Hahn. In 2014 Hauschka released Abandoned City which was followed by A NDO C Y, a collection of solo improvisations from the Abandoned City sessions and two extended remixes from the Abandoned City album - “Agdam” by Devandra Banhart and “Stromness” by Eluvium as well as 2.11.2014, a live album that includes two 20-minute improvisations for prepared piano, based on the music from Abandoned City.Hauschka’s latest release, What if (2017) finds him adding player pianos to his armoury, something that he has also been exploring in his live performances following the album’s release. Furthermore, Hauschka also has for the last few years built a prolific career in writing scores for films. Among Hauschka’s earlier film scores are Praia du Futuro, a Brazilian love story centered on two gay men which became controversial in its home country, Farewell, Herr Schwarz which touches on German/Jewish history and holocaust themes in a mystical way and Craig Macneill’s film The Boy, about a child who grows up to become a mass murderer. Hauschka’s big breakthrough in the field came though with his collaboration with Dustin O’Halloran in scoring Lion (2016), directed by Garth Davis and starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. Their score went on to be nominated for numerous awards, including an Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA.Other recent score jobs include James Franco’s In Dubious Battle (2016), based on the 1936 novel by John Steinbeck which describes the movement to unionize fruit workers in California; Deutschland Dein Selbstporträt (2016), a unique portrait of the country and its people by Sönke Wortmann and another documentary, Exodus (2016) by Hank Levine which explores the current refugee crises with individual stories.TRACKLISTING1 David Melrose Theme 2 Running Through the Grapevine 3 First Taxi Trip 4 Morgue 5 Quaaludes Hit 6 Back at the Drake 7 Martinis and Tartar 8 Second Taxi Trip 9 At Loretta's 10 Hotel Tripping 11 Naked Delivery 12 Running to Frank E. MacDonald's 13 Broadway Helicopter 14 Come Talk to Your Dear Old Dad 15 Rivers of Blood 16 David Melrose - Piano Virtuoso 17 Careful with the China 18 Arthritis Flashback 19 Ferris Wheel 20 Squashing Ants 21 Mirror 22 Falling Down Stairs 23 Patrick in the Tunnel 24 Dinner - Lurking - Stairway 25 End Titles 26 Party Preparations 27 Lizard - Bathroom Flashback 28 Catching Sonny 29 Scorpion 30 Don't Go Picking Out the Wallpaper Just Yet 31 Liquor Store Phone Call 32 If You Can't Change 33 It's Amitriptyline 34 Patrick Returns to Onslow Club

View Full Page

Patrick Melrose / Tv O.s.t.
Sony Masterworks Sep 2018
CD
$11.98

Naxos Musical Journey - Scotland - Edinburgh Highlands

Naxos AudioVisual

DVD

$13.99 Aug 26, 2008

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places
Our tour of Scotland takes us from Edinburgh, with its castle, Scott monument and Palace of Holyrood, to the highland and then to The Hebrides, recalling the journey undertaken by the young Mendelssohn.

The Music
In 1829 Mendelssohn visited England and, after the summer season, travelled north to Scotland, accompanied by his friend Karl Klingemann. In Edinburgh he visited the Palace of Holyrood, recalling the tragic story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the murder there of her secretary David Rizzio. Further north he took the steamer to the island of Staffa, where he saw Fingal's Cave and in spite of sea-sickness immediately sketched the opening theme of his Hebrides Overture. It was not until 1842 that his Scottish Symphony was completed, a work inspired by memories of his visit to Scotland.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 52 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

View Full Page

Naxos Musical Journey - Scotland - Edinburgh Highlands
Naxos AudioVisual Aug 2008
DVD
$13.99

Grieg: Songs / Bodil Arnesen, Erling Ragner Eriksen

Naxos

$19.99 Jan 15, 1997

Though Anne Sofie von Otter’s Gramophone Award-winning disc remains the clear choice for a single record devoted to Grieg’s songs, this new one runs it close. Bodil Arnesen is a young lyric soprano with just the right freshness for these open-air songs (as so many of them are) of spring and hope. She is entirely firm, has a healthy glow on the upper notes, shows a nice feeling for nuance, and knows how to make the voice smile. Some limitation is felt in the few darker songs, such as the second of Op. 48, “Dareinst, Gedanke mein”, which von Otter takes at a slower pace, introducing an unearthly pallor into the tone, and providing a more weighty reminder of the link back to Schubert’s Wanderers Nachtlied and forward to Strauss’s Ruhe, meine Seele. Then in the next song, “Lauf der Welt”, von Otter has a style at once bolder and more confiding: she communicates as though to a larger audience and so on a bigger scale, enlarging what one might call the vocal gestures of intimacy to match. Yet for home-listening, especially if you are playing at a good volume, I’m not sure that such large expressiveness isn’t just a little overwhelming: certainly the return, from that, to the soprano’s relatively miniaturist style is no hardship.

The choice of songs is fine, so too the programming, in which the sequence (not chronological) is sensible and satisfying. For a proper conspectus of Grieg’s songs it is necessary to have the Haugtussa cycle, which von Otter includes and Arnesen does not; there is compensation, however, in the charming Bjornson settings (Op. 21), the two songs of Solveig, and others such as The Princess and “With a primrose” which are among the best of all. Erling Eriksen accompanies sympathetically, the balance of voice and piano is well judged and the booklet provides useful and attractive companionship.

-- Gramophone [5/1997]

View Full Page

Grieg: Songs / Bodil Arnesen, Erling Ragner Eriksen
Naxos Jan 1997
CD
$19.99

Honegger: Jeanne D'arc Au Bucher / Rilling, Stuttgart Radio Symphony

Haenssler Classic

$20.99 Aug 27, 2013

HONEGGER Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher • Helmuth Rilling, cond; Sylvie Rohrer ( Jeanne d’Arc ); Eörs Kisfaludy ( Fr. Dominique ); Karen Wierzba ( La Vierge ); Letizia Scherrer ( Marguerite ); Kismara Pessatti ( Cathérine ); Jean-Noël Briend (ten); François Le Roux (bs); Stuttgart College Boys’ Ch; Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart; Stuttgart RSO des SWR • HÄNSSLER 098.636 (2 CDs: 84:30 & French only) Live: Stuttgart 4/2–3/2011

Here is, truly, an unusual release: the little-known but extremely powerful dramatic cantata by Arthur Honegger, Joan of Arc at the Stake, conducted by one of the world’s leading baroque specialists, Helmuth Rilling. This combination, which seems on the surface a mismatch, in fact results in one of the most emotionally powerful and musically atmospheric realizations on record in my entire memory.

The drawback, of course, is that the libretto is in French only. Certainly one is aware enough of Joan’s story to be able to follow what is going on in generalizations, yet the highly literate subtleties of Paul Claudel’s libretto are lost on the non-French speaker. Thus we must rely on the few words we can pick out of the booklet and rely on the emotional and dramatic power of the speakers, singers, chorus, and orchestra. Even within those parameters, this is pretty powerful music. Behind the spoken dialogue, at one point, the chorus enters singing strophic lines in almost Stravinsky-like neoclassicism, which then leads directly into a baritone solo with choral interjections. Honegger’s orchestra slashes and burns throughout: sometimes as an undercurrent, at other times in the foreground, moving from staccato brass chords to stabbing or swirling figures, underlining the drama of the situation—confined to the time of Joan’s trial and execution—in the most dramatic terms possible.

Conductor Marin Alsop has given us this synopsis of the oratorio at npr.org/2011/11/05/142021891/arthur-honeggers-joan-of-arc-for-the-ages:

“Claudel wanted to look at Joan’s life in a series of flashbacks—starting at the end. The piece opens with darkness setting over all of France. Is this the France of 1400 or the France of 1935? Perhaps that’s the point. Joan meets Frère Dominic in the afterlife and recognizes him, at which point they look back on what led to her trial and death. When Joan asks, ‘How did this happen?,’ Frère Dominic replies, ‘It was a game of cards that decided your fate,’ alluding to the political quagmire in which Joan, an illiterate peasant teenager, found herself immersed. The adjudicator at Joan’s trial was aptly named Cauchon (pig), and Claudel goes wild with the possibilities. The assessors are all depicted as animals, with the ass leading the pack and sheep commenting on the proceedings. And then there’s Honegger’s instrumentation, which creates a vibrant and unique sound world. He includes three saxophones plus an ondes martenot —a spooky-sounding instrument, invented in 1928, that sounds like its cousin the theremin. Honegger and Claudel’s collaboration brings Joan to life in a vivid and emotional drama that concludes with the line, ‘There is no greater love than the person who gives his life for a friend.’”

Alsop, as well as other commentators, allude to the “cinematic” quality of this opera-oratorio, mentioning that Honegger was also a film music composer. But if this is film music, it is extremely dominant in mood and structure, which to my ears is far too aggressive a composition to work well in that mode. Yet there is a certain “cinematic” structure to the work, which in effect makes it a “movie for the ears.” (One constantly hears nowadays that we “listen with our eyes,” so why not at least one piece where we “see with our ears”?) Alsop conducted a live performance of this work at the Barbican in 2011, but according to one online commentator the program notes for that performance were also spotty and indistinct.

I’ve been unable to track down an English translation of the text anywhere online. From what I can judge, between the French-only text and my slight grasp of the language, the actors in this recording are all extremely good, bringing out Joan’s combination of confusion, defiance, and fear perfectly. Much of the credit for this goes to Sylvie Rohrer, whose reading of the text is both dramatic and natural-sounding—a rare combination indeed. The singers are all excellent in both vocal quality and—more importantly—diction, as is the chorus itself. Despite being German, Rilling is to be highly commended for his persistence in bringing out the proper idiomatic Frenchness of the music as well as his insistence on clarity of pronunciation.

Particular credit for the success of this recording goes to engineer Friedemann Trumpp for capturing such incredible 3D sound.

There appear to be three other recordings available on CD: Supraphon 11 0557/58 featuring narrators Nelly Borgeaud and Michel Favory, sopranos Christiane Château and Anne-Marie Rodde, alto Huguette Brachet, and the Kühn Children’s Chorus, Czech Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Serge Baudo; a single-disc version (meaning under 80 minutes) with narrators Anne-Marie Ferrière, René Piloy, and Madeleine Joris, sopranos Marthe Dugard and Ria Lenssens, tenor Frédéric Anspach, and conductor Louis de Vocht (Opera d’Oro 1223); and another one-disc version conducted by Siegfried Heinrich (VMS Musical Treasures 152), none of which I’ve heard. I have, however, heard the recording by Sonia Petrovna, Michaël Lonsdale, Christian Papis, Anne-Marie Blanzat, other soloists, the Choeur de Rouen-Haute-Normande, and Orchestre Symphonique Français conducted by Laurent Petitgirard on Cascavelle OSF 49008/09. This was also a live performance, given on June 26 and 27, 1992 at the Salle Wagram in Paris. I could only find references to this recording on French CD sites like Price Minister and Amazon.fr. The sound quality is also excellent, and this performance, too, is wonderfully atmospheric, but none of the actors are recorded particularly well—they sound like they’re behind the choir. The actress playing Joan (Petrovna) is good, but does not declaim her text with as much feeling (perhaps she was an excellent actress visually, but on CDs you can’t see her). A very good performance, then, but this new Hänssler release is just as fine musically, better in the placement of the actors, and of course much easier to obtain, making it well worth getting. With the odd running time of this work, one could possibly combine it with the equally excellent but seldom-heard L’Amore de tre re of Montemezzi for a superb evening of dramatic works that will challenge and not just entertain you.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

View Full Page

Honegger: Jeanne D'arc Au Bucher / Rilling, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
Haenssler Classic Aug 2013
CD
$20.99

Piano Concertos Warsaw 2010

Accentus Music

Blu-Ray

$41.99 Jan 25, 2011

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

br />
Also available on standard DVD

To mark the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth, two leading Russian pianists tackle the great Romantic composer’s two piano concertos: Evgeny Kissin plays the F minor Concerto op. 21, a key work in Chopin’s output, while Nikolai Demidenko performs the E minor Concerto op. 11, a virtuoso display vehicle of the first rank. They are accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic under the direction of Antoni Wit. Enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience at Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall on 27 February 2010, this memorable concert has been captured in first-class sound and picture quality.

Recorded live at the Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, 26-27 February 2010.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 97 mins
No. of Discs: 1

View Full Page

Piano Concertos Warsaw 2010
Accentus Music Jan 2011
Blu-Ray
$41.99

Thielemann Conducts Faust - Liszt, Wagner

C Major Entertainment

DVD

$13.49 ~~$26.99~~ Save 50% Oct 25, 2011

Also available on Blu-ray

THIELEMANN CONDUCTS FAUST

Richard Wagner: A Faust Overture

Franz Liszt: A Faust Symphony, S108/R425
Endrik Wottrich, tenor
Dresden State Opera Chorus
Dresden Staatskapelle
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live from the Semperoper Dresden, 2011.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Running time: 90 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

3542380.az_LISZT_Faust_Symphony_WAGNER.html

LISZT A Faust Symphony. WAGNER A Faust Overture • Christian Thielemann, cond; Endrik Wottrich (ten); Dresden St Op Ch; Staatskapelle Dresden • C MAJOR 707708 (DVD: 90:00) Live: Semperoper, Dresden 02/21–22/2011

Now here’s a good release, entering an uncluttered field with repertoire that coincides neatly with an anniversary and that fits its performers like a glove. Where I recently argued that Christian Thielemann just about makes a (flawed) case for himself in the congested world of Beethoven symphonies, his credentials for Wagner and Liszt are far less controversial. A retro knight of big-boned, smoothly contoured orchestral playing, he is here heard to great effect in repertoire that is shamefully underrepresented. I also cannot fault the pairing of a young Wagner’s aborted attempt at a symphony with Liszt’s epic achievement on the same subject. Before Cosima, what linked Wagner and Liszt were their respective attempts to set Goethe’s Faust to music. Wagner intended this, written during his Paris years, to be merely the first movement of a Faust symphony, before Der fliegende Holländer and his Saxony post got in the way. So it remained an overture, and it was Liszt who would carry on some of Wagner’s initial intentions, such as a second movement based on the character of Gretchen. Liszt himself conducted Wagner’s piece in 1852, but despite a final revision in 1855 (the version given here) and a sketch for Gretchen’s theme, Wagner’s “symphony” remains a tantalizing what-if, giving clearance for the older composer to work on his vast set of Faustian character portraits. As Tobias Niederschlag’s admirable notes point out, Lizst’s late addition of tenor and chorus (always a bit of an afterthought in my view) to his tonal portraits can be seen as a nod to Beethoven’s Ninth, a sign of the massive ambition on display.

Given its fractious birth, Wagner’s A Faust Overture tends, not surprisingly, to be dismissed as a rather nothingy, juvenile work, but Thielemann and the Dresdeners really do make a fine case for it. Despite the full string textures and grandly played climaxes, Thielemann wisely doesn’t linger or pull things about for effect, as he sometimes does, and the Dresdeners’ dark, burnished sound helps underline the familiar traits of mature Wagner, without preventing it from being an intense, nimble account of a work that deserves to be better known. Yes, there are hangovers of Weber in the tuttis, and obvious foreshadows of the Holländer overture, but also there is a germ of Wagner’s later epic arches of texture and melodic development. The dying chords of Tristan und Isolde , for instance, can surely be heard in the finals bars of this piece.

With those mournful broken woodwind phrases in the “Nostalgia” opening, Wagner must have had Liszt’s symphony at the back of his mind during Tristan’s development. Although grotesque humor doesn’t feature in Wagner’s opera, both pieces share that introverted sense of Weltschmerz that naturally brings out the best from Thielemann. Faust’s feverish obsession is brilliantly conveyed in the frenzied string writing, but Thielemann doesn’t let the symphony as a whole become the empty showpiece that some of Liszt’s vast tapestries can become. The second movement (Gretchen) is, likewise, very well controlled, with the love theme played with sincerity, but no less heartfelt than many more drawn-out versions, and with much exquisite solo playing from the orchestra.

I still have the occasional feeling of extreme control-freakery, as on Thielemann’s recent Beethoven, but here his quirks and homogenized sound fit the repertoire brilliantly, and although as typically plush and molded an experience as I had predicted from this team, this DVD confounds a lot of my prejudices about him. Most surprising is how swift Thielemann is, with the Liszt falling roughly between young (Sony audio) and old (Euroarts DVD) Leonard Bernstein in basic length, and similar in scale to Barenboim’s audio version. Likewise I wouldn’t have predicted how well Thielemann creates a sense of fun on the podium; the ironisch comes out well in the opening of the grotesque Mesphisto episode, spritely in tone, in complete contrast to the opening two sections. I would almost say light and fleet-footed, but after some comparison with 1960s Bernstein, or a terrific YouTube clip of Dmitri Mitropoulos rehearsing the same section, Thielemann cannot yield all of his steeliness. Choral singing is excellent, although I can think of more alluring sounds than the rather pinched, clunky tones of tenor Endrik Wottrich, in rather tense form here. DVD competition is scarce, but Kenneth Riegel on Leonard Bernstein’s 1976 Boston DVD is better. For true vocal allure, if weird German, Plácido Domingo on Barenboim’s Warner CD is the obvious choice.

I do wish concert DVDs would come with the option of having an mp3 of the audio only. I, for one, would love the Wagner overture on my iPod. But C Major’s presentation is still very fine, with good booklet notes and logical DVD menuing. Pity that there are no extras (Thielemann’s Beethoven symphonies on the same label came with a 60-minute discussion of each work), but camerawork is unobtrusive and the sound is very clear and balanced, possibly at times allowing that Dresden acoustic to give quieter moments a rather cold demeanor. Perhaps, because of that last point, I find myself preferring the Bernstein DVD, boisterous and all-embracing despite much slower tempi throughout. But it is not a clear victory, especially considering modern picture, sound, and so fine a Faust Overture performance as a filler. So, yes, unlikely readers who only want one version: Get the Thielemann.

FANFARE: Barnaby Rayfield

View Full Page

Sale

Thielemann Conducts Faust - Liszt, Wagner
C Major Entertainment Oct 2011
DVD
~~$26.99~~ $13.49

Shostakovich: Piano Sonata No 1, 24 Preludes / Scherbakov

Naxos

$19.99 Oct 01, 2003

For a less caustic, more ample-toned, and softer-edged set of Shostakovich Op. 34 Preludes than we usually hear, check out Konstantin Scherbakov. His performances contain many beautiful things. No. 2's whimsical scales and runs magically glide over the bar lines, while No. 9 and No. 12's whirling patterns are impressively controlled and supple--and the pianist articulates the marcato/legato interplay in No. 11 and No. 21 to perfection.

My criticism concerns Scherbakov's arch rubato within certain lyrical pieces. His little holdbacks and gratuitous ritards in No. 8, for example, undermine the effect of the composer's indicated ritards, which the pianist barely observes anyway. And a few exposed wrong notes easily could have been corrected (the E-flat in No. 5, measure 14). Such blemishes, however, do not detract from Scherbakov's compelling pianism.

All the virtues Scherbakov brings to the Preludes equally apply to the composer's gnarly Aphorisms cycle and youthful Three Fantastic Dances. The pianist also sails through the First Sonata's unrelenting polytextural thickets and age-of-steel dissonances with maximum power and minimum struggle. Eleanor Thomason's superb engineering yields one of the finest sounding solo piano discs Naxos has produced.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

View Full Page

Shostakovich: Piano Sonata No 1, 24 Preludes / Scherbakov
Naxos Oct 2003
CD
$19.99

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas No 30, 31, 32 / Mari Kodama

PENTATONE

SACD

$21.99 Mar 27, 2012

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
3621810.az_BEETHOVEN_Piano_Sonatas_Nos.html

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas: Nos. 30–32 • Mari Kodama (pn) • PENTATONE 5186389 (63:21)

I haven’t been following Mari Kodama’s Beethoven piano sonata cycle—in fact, this is the first disc in the series I’ve heard—but for those who have, this is her seventh installment; all previous ones have been peer reviewed in past issues. I note that colleague Lynn René Bayley’s review of this latest addition to Kodama’s now over two-thirds completed cycle is scheduled to appear in Fanfare 35:6, but since that issue hasn’t been published yet as I write this, I can’t know what Bayley had to say. Not that it matters, of course, since we contributors work independently of each other and often reach quite different conclusions.

For those who have taken note of Kodama’s Beethoven sonata survey, FYI, all but nine of the sonatas have been released. Still to appear are Nos. 11–13, 15, 20, 22, and 27–29. Having never heard Kodama in anything before, I approached her Beethoven as a tabula rasa and I must admit to being very favorably impressed. There’s clarity to her voicing and a lyrical spontaneity to her readings, especially in the opening movements of the E-Major and A?-Major sonatas (Nos. 30 and 31) that catch just the right tone of Beethoven’s poeticized utopian vision.

As regular readers will know, the concluding “Gesangvoll” movement of the E-Major Sonata holds special resonance for me, and it’s usually the touchstone by which I embrace or reject a performance. Kodama does not disappoint. Her broad, stately, quiet, and deeply contemplative statement of the opening theme communicates, as it should, a sense of reverential mystery. Some listeners may perceive Kodama’s tempo as being a bit slow, but it’s more of a perception than reality. She takes 13:12 for the movement compared to Craig Sheppard’s 12:50 and Maurizio Pollini’s 12:37, not that big a difference in a movement of this length. If you want to know what slow really is, try Andrew Rangell at 15:22. I think the perception of Kodama’s capaciousness is more the result of her approach to phrasing than it is to underlying tempo. She has a way of ever-so-slightly hesitating on the brink of cadential resolutions that, for me, gives the music its special otherworldly quality.

When it comes to the Sturm und Drang of the C-Minor Sonata’s first movement, Kodama’s fingers prove to be as nimble as anyone else’s, but I’m not sure she invests the music with the same degree of vehemence and venomous bite as do some others, for example Freddy Kempf, who attacks the Allegro at a faster tempo and with tremendous ferocity in his BIS recording. What worked superbly well for Kodama in the “Gesangvoll” movement of the Sonata No. 30 doesn’t necessarily work to her advantage in the Sonata No. 32. Some of her phrasing choices strike me as slightly distorting of Beethoven’s rhythmic patterns and disrupting to the headlong rush. It’s an interpretive issue, not a technical one.

Overall, I’d rate Kodama’s Beethoven very highly, at least as much as I’ve heard of it, which, so far, is just this one disc. As for the recording, PentaTone’s team of Dutch engineers has done a bang-up job of capturing Kodama’s Steinway D-274 in ringing tone and solid sound. All modern piano recordings should sound this good. If you’ve been collecting Kodama’s Beethoven cycle, there’s no reason to stop now. If you haven’t been collecting it, the only reason I can think of to not start with this latest release is that if you’re like me you prefer to begin at the beginning. But then that could be your cue to go out and acquire all seven discs released so far.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

View Full Page

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas No 30, 31, 32 / Mari Kodama
PENTATONE Mar 2012
SACD
$21.99

Friml, Stothart: Rose-Marie / Raines, Catholic University of America A Cappella Choir

Harbinger Records

$19.99 Jan 07, 2022

Harbinger Records is proud to present its second partnership with the Smithsonian: the first release in any format of their 1981 production of the classic operetta Rose-Marie (1924), starring Broadway’s Ron Raines. It is the only complete recording of the score, which includes lyrics by the 29-year-old Oscar Hammerstein, more than 20 years before he began his collaboration with Richard Rodgers. Rose-Marie was the first American musical with a Canadian locale—the Canadian Rockies, to be precise—and includes such evergreens at “Indian Love Call” (“When I’m calling you, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo”), “Pretty Things,” “Only a Kiss” and the stirring title song. Broadway audiences flocked to Rose-Marie for 557 performances, making it the fourth longest-running musical of the 1920s. A must for collectors and all fans of both the American musical and classical music, Rose-Marie has been packaged in a deluxe set with historic production photos and notes by two longtime Harbinger colleagues: co-producer Dwight Blocker Bowers, curator emeritus of the Smithsonian, and Ted Chapin, recently retired president of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Says Bowers: “It’s not an overstatement to claim that Rose-Marie was the first American musical theater work to achieve wide international success. In his review of the original production, Arthur Hornblow in Theatre magazine praised it for being ‘head, shoulders and waist above the customary dribble.’ When the Smithsonian’s recordings program was suspended, the unreleased Rose-Marie was a casualty, and I was given the chance to rescue the master tapes. Hence the collaboration with Harbinger, whose slogan is apt: Albums for the discerning collector.”

View Full Page

Friml, Stothart: Rose-Marie / Raines, Catholic University of America A Cappella Choir
Harbinger Records Jan 2022
CD
$19.99

MAID WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR

TZADIK

$16.99 Jul 27, 2018

Mary Halvorson is one of the most acclaimed guitarists of her generation-a virtuoso improviser, distinctive composer, arranger and a deep student of the jazz guitar. Here she joins forces with living legend Bill Frisell to pay tribute to Johnny Smith, a guitarist who has been a huge influence on them both. Performing 9 ballads associated with Smith and his classic composition Walk Don't Run, this is an essential CD of soulful guitar duets by two of the most beloved and original guitarists in modern jazz. A beautiful cd of ballads like you have never heard them before! Moonlight in Vermont * The Maid with the Flaxen Hair * Scarlet Ribbons for Her Hair * In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning * Shenandoah * The Nearness of You * Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair * Old Folks * Misty * Walk Don't Run

View Full Page

MAID WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR
TZADIK Jul 2018
CD
$16.99

Handel: The Musick For The Royal Fireworks

Arcana

$20.99 Jun 30, 2015

This is a reissue of a performance originally released on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in Europe, one of the label’s final offerings before it was dissolved in 2008, and an import rarity that found little distribution in what was left of record retail in the US at the time. It was a shame because the recording features truly great performances in glorious, audiophile-quality sound of some of Handel’s most important and beloved orchestral works. Thankfully, Arcana has chosen to make it available once again.

For years my two longstanding reference recordings of this–the later, grander 1749 revision of the Royal Fireworks Music–were performances by Jordi Savall directing Le Concert des Nations (Astrée, now AliaVox) and Trevor Pinnock with the English Concert (DG Archiv), and I enjoyed both for different reasons. Much had to do with the tempo choices. Savall’s broader, more gracious approach–a 23-minute performance–provided a nice contrast to Pinnock’s more uptempo, often thrilling 18-minute run. At 21-plus minutes Zefiro’s performance strikes me as a “just right” middle course.

In my reference recordings I also appreciated how the relatively more spacious sound engineering of Savall’s recording complemented his performance, and how in a similar way the thinner, somewhat more detailed acoustic afforded to Pinnock complemented his. The DHM engineers astonishingly provide Zefiro with the best of both approaches in creating the illusion of a rich array of life-like instrumentation set in a convincingly wide, open-air soundstage. Savall enters the work without fanfare while Pinnock begins with a brief, celebratory drum roll. Zefiro ups Pinnock’s ante, opening the festivities with an opulent, elongated percussive roll, joined at the last moment by harpsichord and strings, in effect heightening the grandeur of the following, spectacular overture by the full orchestra. Perfect!

Zefiro’s performances of the three Concerti a due cori compare very favorably with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music’s reference versions (L’Oiseau-Lyre, now Decca). Timings, the way the movements are shaped, and the dynamics are nearly identical, though again, Zefiro benefits from noticeably superior sound. The definition of the strings, and especially the brass, far surpasses what was possible with digital recording more than 30 years ago.

Mary Pardoe’s engaging notes, loaded with fascinating quotes and anecdotes, thankfully have been retained for this reissue. Arcana’s packaging and presentation, as usual, are second to none. Don’t miss this!

-- John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

View Full Page

Handel: The Musick For The Royal Fireworks
Arcana Jun 2015
CD
$20.99

Treasures Of The Russian Ballet

ICA Classics

DVD

$26.99 May 29, 2012

Russia’s two great ballet companies, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet (now the Mariinsky) undertook their first major post-war tours in the early 1960s, exposing the West to the bravura and discipline of the Russian dancers for the first time. This DVD brings together performances by members of both companies, providing rare footage of some of the most brilliant dancers of their time. This is the first DVD released of this material.

Sergey Prokofiev: The Tale of the Stone Flower, Op. 118: Act I
Danila – Yuri Soloviev
Katerina – Alla Sizova
Mistress of Copper Mountain – Alla Osipenko
Severyan – Anatoli Gridin
Kirov Ballet
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Niyazi, conductor
Yuri Grigorovich, choreographer
Recorded from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on July 1960

Pyot’r Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act II: Scene and pas de deux
Odette – Galina Ulanova
Prince Siegfried – Nicolai Fadeyechev
Bolshoi Ballet
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Yuri Faier, conductor
Lev Ivanov and Alexander Gorsky, choreographer
Broadcast from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 21 October 1956

Sergey Prokofiev: Cinderella, Op. 87, Act II: Cinderella and the Prince at the ball
Cinderella – Raisa Struchkova
The Prince – Mikhail Lavrovsky
Bolshoi Ballet
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kopylov, conductor
Algis Zhuraitis, conductor
Rostislav Zakharov, choreographer

Adolphe Adam: Giselle, Act II: Giselle and Albrecht
Giselle – Ekaterina Maximova
Prince Albrecht – Maris Liepa
Bolshoi Ballet
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kopylov, conductor
Algis Zhuraitis, conductor
Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, choreographer

Aram Khatchaturian: Gayaneh, Act IV: Gayaneh and Armen
Gayaneh – Nina Timofeyeva
Armen – Nikolai Fadeyechev
Bolshoi Ballet
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kopylov, conductor
Algis Zhuraitis, conductor
Nina Anisimova, choreographer

Ludwig Minkus: Don Quixote, Act I: Kitri and Basilio
Kitri – Maya Plisetskaya
Basilio – Vladimir Vasiliev
Bolshoi Ballet
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kopylov, conductor
Algis Zhuraitis, conductor
Alexander Gorsky, choreographer
Recorded from 26–30 July 1963

Picture format: NTSC 4:3 B/W
Sound format: Enhanced Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 81 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

View Full Page

Treasures Of The Russian Ballet
ICA Classics May 2012
DVD
$26.99

AT THE FAULT ZONE FESTIVAL

WIDE HIVE RECORDS

$14.31 Jun 09, 2023

Roscoe Mitchell Orchestra performs two masterpieces for the Fault Zone Festival April 21 2022. Distant Radio Transmission Fault Zone and Sustain and Run II features Roscoe on Alto Sax, James Fei on Synth, vocalist Thomas Buckner and a stellar thirty piece orchestra.. Also from the festival is Cards in 3D colors a duet written by Mr Mitchell for Piano and Violin and two Pieces from Space Trio

View Full Page

AT THE FAULT ZONE FESTIVAL
WIDE HIVE RECORDS Jun 2023
CD
$14.31