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- Balakirev: Piano Sonata in B flat minor
- Balakirev: Piano Sonata No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 5
- Balakirev: Piano Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 3 'Grand Sonata'
- Balakirev: Waltz No. 1 in G - Valse di Bravura
- Balakirev: Nocturne No. 1 in B flat minor
- Balakirev: Waltz No. 2 in F minor
- Balakirev: Waltz No. 3 in D - Valse Impromptu
- Balakirev: Nocturne No. 2 in B minor
- Balakirev: Waltz No.4 in B flat
- Balakirev: Nocturne No. 3 in D minor
- Balakirev: Waltz No. 5 in D flat major
- Balakirev: Nocturne in G sharp minor (early version of Nocturne No. 1)
- Balakirev: Fantasiestuck
- Balakirev: Chant du pêcheur
- Balakirev: Waltz No. 7 in G sharp minor
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 1 in A Flat
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 2 in C sharp minor
- Balakirev: Sonatina (Esquisses) in G
- Balakirev: Berceuse
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 3 in B minor
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 4 in G flat minor
- Balakirev: Dumka
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 5 in D
- Balakirev: Rêverie in F major
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 6 in A Flat
- Balakirev: Piece in F sharp minor
- Balakirev: Mazurka No. 7 in E flat minor
- Balakirev: Capriccio
- Balakirev: Scherzo No. 1 in B minor
- Balakirev: Novelette
- Balakirev: Pustinya
- Balakirev: Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor
- Balakirev: Fandango-Etude
- Balakirev: Spanish Serenade
- Balakirev: Caprice Brilliant Sur La Jota Aragonesa
- Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ, Op. 25: La fuite en Egypte - Overture
- Balakirev: Scherzo No. 3 for Piano in F sharp major
- Balakirev: Spanish Melody
- Taneyev, S: Valse-Caprice No. 1 in A flat
- Taneyev, S: Valse-Caprice No. 2 in D flat major
- Glinka: Ivan Susanin (A Life for the Tsar): Overture
- Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila: Chernamor's March
- Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Romanza (transc Balakirev)
- Balakirev: Impromptu on the themes of two Preludes by Chopin
- Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31
- Liszt: Mazurka brillante, S221
- Beethoven: String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2: Allegretto
- Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130: Cavatina
- Balakirev: Gondellied
- Balakirev: Tarantelle in B
- Balakirev: Polonaise Brillante
- Balakirev: La fileuse
- Balakirev: Au Jardin
- Glinka: Kamarinskaya
- Balakirev: Symphonic Poem 'Tamara'
- Balakirev: Polka in F sharp minor
- Balakirev: Elegy on the Death of a Mosquito
- Balakirev: La Danse De Sorcières (Witches Dance)
- Glinka: Ne Govori: Lyubov' Proydyot (Do Not Say: Love Passes Away)
- Balakirev: Tyrolienne
- Zapol'sky: Reverie
- Balakirev: Toccata
- Balakirev: The Lark
- Balakirev: Islamey - Oriental Fantasy
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![Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2335612.jpg?v=1786837226&width=800)
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![Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/81Fg_32VE9L.jpg?v=1786837226&width=800)
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![Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2335612.jpg?v=1786837226&width=400)
SaleSchubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]
Accentus Music · Oct 2013Blu-Ray$41.99$31.99 -
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Clara Haskil - The Salzburg Recital - 8 August 1957
Music and Arts Programs of America · Jan 2010CD$19.99 -
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Prokofiev: Ballet Suites / Katz, Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra
Brilliant Classics · Apr 2012CD$13.99 -
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Walton: Belshazzar's Feast, Partita, Etc / Slatkin, Lpo
-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [9/1992]
Liszt: Complete Piano Music Vol 24 / Giuseppe Andaloro
Elgar: Symphony No 2, Enigma Variations / Solti, LPO
Edward Elgar:
Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 63
Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, "Enigma"
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Georg Solti, conductor
Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, 13 February 1975
(Symphony No. 2), and 25 September 1979 (Enigma)
Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: LPCM Mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Running time: 84 mins
No. of DVDs: 1
Géza Anda plays Solo Recitals, 1950-1955
REVIEW:
Hungarian virtuoso Géza Anda (1921-1976) opens a recital derived from radio broadcasts from SWR Stuttgart with Haydn’s perky F Major Sonata (17 April 1950), given a sparkling bravura rendition. Anda’s pearly play and deft touch make themselves felt in every concerted bar, and the runaway Presto finale might be a minor meteor. Schumann ever maintained Anda’s devotion, and he often programmed Symphonic Etudes, including the free interpolation of the five posthumous variations. The rendition included here (2 October 1951) includes two of the posthumous etudes, nos. 4 and 5, inserted after the sixth and eighth of the traditional studies. The first exploits sweeping arpeggios and glissandi techniques; the latter opens a jeweled music-box filled with nectar crystals. The serenity yields to the following Etude, a staccato study in syncopations that becomes quite frantic. Etude X, for want of a better term, has always struck me as “Brahmsian” for its double octaves. The agitato mysteries of Etude XI have rarely been so rarified in their mist contours, except perhaps from Cherkassky. The Etude XII finale, besides its obvious, heroic bravura, exudes the Innigkeit requisite...
The Ravel waltzes, in their sturdy percussion, date from 19 May 1951. Anda does not spare the fortissimos nor the pedal, moving to extremes in the first two waltzes, from aggression to erotic insinuation. The dance marked “Presque lent--dans un sentiment intime” has its perfect executor in Anda, which rivals the classically-chiseled entry by Robert Casadesus. Lithe and sensuously nimble, the last two waltzes--Moins vif et Epilogue--combine Vienna glitter and Schubert’s intimate suggestiveness in Ravel’s idiosyncratic kaleidoscopic panoply. Rolf Liebermann’s 1951 Sonata (2 October 1951) marks one of the few pieces Anda programmed that post-date World War II. His “modern” repertory ceased, for the most part, with the 1945 Third Concerto of Bartok. Liebermann (1910-1999) begins his nine-minute work with a toccata-style Vivace with periodic moments of pointillist staccati. The heart of the piece is the Andante espessivo, rather angular and reminiscent of Ravel, Gershwin, and modal Poulenc.
The second disc is devoted to the 1955 (May 21) recital at Ludwigsburg, a venue frequented by Anda’s esteemed colleague, Clara Haskil. Anda opens with the First Ballade of Chopin, a reading of balanced intensities, gothic and introspective at once. The music’s fierce Neapolitan harmonies and inner tumult manage to find a noble repose in the course of its poetic declamation mid-way, only to yield to the Dionysiac dramaturgy of its late pages with a passionate abandon that belies Anda’s repute for “objectivity.”
Anda recorded the Op. 25 set of Chopin Etudes for EMI, and he often featured the complete ensemble as a concert staple. He plays the A-flat Major for its serene beauty, and thus sets the tone for the remainder, to be played in the classic style of Backhaus, for poetry and strength of form.
The Brahms E-flat Major intermezzo, a simple, nostalgic folk song evocation, makes the perfect commentary to all of the “learned” counterpoint of this evening’s colossal recital at Ludwigsburg, where the spirit of colleague Clara Haskil must have lingered nigh.
-- Audiophile Edition
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 9 in E-flat Major, KV 271 "Jena
Dancing in Vienna
Balakirev: Complete Works for Solo Piano / Walker
These recordings of Balakirev’s complete solo piano works by the much-lauded pianist Nicholas Walker have been hailed as ‘the reference set’ by the American Record Guide. Originally released between 2013 and 2020, these critically acclaimed performances are now collected together for the first time in a 6 album box set. Includes world premiere recordings. Hailed by the London Evening Standard as a 'prodigy, of awesome technical fluency backed by exceptional artistry', Nicholas Walker possesses a rare combination of talents combining sensitivity with 'the flair of a full scale virtuoso and a sparkling intelligence' (BBC Music Magazine). Nicholas Walker teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he devised the celebrated keyboard skills course, the advanced level of which not only helps students to be proficient in all aspects of practical musicianship, but offers them the chance to learn how to improvise in various forms, such as minuets, variations, sonatinas and Mozart-type cadenzas, in addition to devising and performing a virtuoso transcription of their own.
CONTENTS:
Past praise of previously released volumes included in this set:
Balakirev: Complete Piano Works Vol 1
Walker presents the works in reverse chronological order, thereby giving us the best and best-known work first. It is a masterly performance, fully on a par with or exceeding ones I have reviewed in recent years: Hinrose (Mirare 181, Nov/Dec 2012), Driver (Hyperion 67806, July/Aug 2011), and Hellaby (Cameo 2081, Sept/Oct 2009). Besides Kentner’s great recording (Naxos 111223, not available in US), I also enjoy Earl Wild’s (Ivory 73005, May/June 2004). Walker finds inner voices and emphasizes some different aspects of the harmony and form, making for a new and well thought out interpretation. He has the full technical capability to handle all of the demands of this score
– American Record Guide
Balakirev: Complete Piano Works Vol 3
This third volume of Balakirev’s complete piano works is built around his seven Mazurkas, joyous and colourful pieces with an unmistakable Slavic tone. This series continues to establish Walker as the new reference for Balakirev’s music.
– Musiq3
Balakirev: Complete Piano Works Vol 5
This one is particularly fascinating for transcription junkies, beginning with the spectacular (and spectacularly difficult) Reminiscences on Glinka’s A Life for the Czar, famous from Earl Wild’s 1969 recording. Walker is quite his equal—and that is saying something—and is also beautifully recorded in a realistic, sympathetic acoustic. Indeed, Walker’s playing throughout this absorbing disc is a pleasure to hear, with a sophisticated tonal palette and eschewing any superficial virtuosity: ‘bravura with integrity’ is how I would describe it. Why don’t we hear more of him?
–Gramophone
Mozart & Beethoven: Quintets for Winds & Piano
Bebop Riddle V for soprano sax in B flat & alto sax in E fla
Dvorak: Piano Quartets / Sucharova-Weiser, Vlach Quartet
DVO?ÁK Piano Quartets: in D, op. 23; in E?, op. 87 • Members of the Vlach Quartet; Helena Suchárová-Weiser (pn) • NAXOS 8572159 (71: 11)
In the history of chamber-music-ensemble configurations, the piano quartet is a relative newcomer to the scene. The first such works are believed to have been written by Mozart in response to a commission from composer-publisher Anton Hoffmeister. His first, in G Minor, appeared in 1785, and a second, in E? Major, followed in 1786, but not before Hoffmeister, who was expecting string quartets, had expressed his displeasure and released Mozart from further obligation. Around this same time, however, a teenaged Beethoven, still living under his parents’ roof in Bonn, also penned three piano quartets (see Fanfare 33:2 for further details). Whether he came upon the same idea as Mozart simultaneously but independently, or the light bulb went on when he heard Mozart’s quartets during a visit to Vienna in 1787, remains unknown. What is known, or strongly believed, is that before Mozart and Beethoven, the piano quartet did not exist. For all of his string quartets and piano trios, Haydn never made the leap, nor, as far we know, did anyone else.
It seemed like a really good idea—better than a string quartet in not being so treble oriented with two violins, and better than a piano trio in not sacrificing the alto viola string voice. Yet, for some reason, the piano quartet never caught on like its older siblings, and even among those composers who did make the effort—Weber (1), Mendelssohn (3), Marschner (2), Schumann (1), Theodor Kirchner (1), Dvo?ák (2), Brahms (3), Fauré (2), Enescu (2), Martin? (1), Walton (1), Bridge (2), Copland (1), Turina (1), and one or two others—the results are not generally cited at the top of their best works lists (except perhaps in the cases of Brahms and Fauré). Moreover, the number of piano quartets written following Mozart and Beethoven pales in comparison to the number of string quartets and piano trios.
Dvo?ák tried his hand at the medium twice, once in 1875, and again in 1889. Dvo?ák is a composer I periodically fall in and out of love with; currently, I think I’m in one of my not so loving phases. As I’ve had occasion to say before, his predisposition to prolixity seems to present itself in inverse proportion to the interest and sustainability of his musical material. In simple terms, the less he had to say, the longer he went on about it—not unlike some of my reviews. The D-Major Quartet is an excellent example. At 34-and-a-half minutes, it’s only two minutes shorter than its E?-Major companion, but one must take into account that the earlier work is in only three movements, compared to the more standard four-movement layout of its sibling. To be sure, the piece has some charming Czech-inflected melodies and lovely moments, but in between is much that would have ended up on the cutting room floor if Brahms had been the editor. The most memorable movement is the Andantino con variazioni, in which Dvo?ák spins a number of very imaginative variations over a plaintive, dumka-like theme.
The E?-Major Quartet is a much more tightly constructed work, and its movements are more proportionally balanced. Dvo?ák’s writing is also bolder, more assured, and more technically demanding, especially of the pianist. By this time, the composer had learned there was more to the art of thematic development than simply padding a piece with filler. The Lento, in the hideous key for the strings of G? Major (six flats), is clearly indebted to Brahms for its melodic outlines, harmonic vocabulary, and keyboard figuration. This is not your Dvo?ák of the dumka-colored slow movement. The Allegro moderato, grazioso is also not Dvo?ák’s typical high-spirited scherzo. It’s more of a waltz, and anyone really familiar with the composer’s work will instantly recognize the opening strain (after the introductory chords) as being almost identical to the fourth item in the set of Romantic Pieces, op. 75. Only with the last movement do we finally get the ruddy-cheeked Czech peasant dance that is so characteristic of Dvo?ák’s music.
These are excellent performances from members of the Vlach Quartet joined by pianist Helena Suchárová-Weiser, thoroughly idiomatic, as one might expect from this venerable Czech ensemble, and an excellent recording made at the Lobkowitz Palace, Prague, in 2008. Surprisingly, there isn’t as much competition as one might expect, at least not that couples both piano quartets on the same disc. Two that have long occupied favored status in my collection—one with the disbanded Domus on Hyperion, and the other with the Ames Piano Quartet on Dorian—are both still listed. But they are also both full-priced albums, and I wouldn’t argue that either holds a significant edge over this budget-priced Naxos disc. If you don’t already have one or more versions of Dvo?ák’s two piano quartets on your shelf, this is a sure bet for when you’re in one of your own Dvo?ák-loving phases.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
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These captivating performances are a salutary reminder that, while Dvo?ák's chamber music is readily accessible to musicians and listeners alike, it uniquely blossoms when performed by native Czech performers - and, as we shall see, by their well-trained fellow-travelers - who bring it an intuitive sense of expressive phrasing and an understanding of its various components.
The D major quartet's opening theme, the first thing we hear, underscores the point. It includes a hiccough of a syncopation: hit it too hard, and it impedes the motion; underplay it, and it's just a distraction. These players articulate it within the overall arch of the phrase, so the rhythmic gesture intensifies the forward impulse as it should.
Such felicities abound in these performances. The players launch all the cantabile phrases with a sure sense of their broad, arching shape. The waltzlike passages - the 6/8 variations of the D major's central movement, the Allegretto scherzando of its Finale, and the third movement of the E-flat - go with a lovely lilt and swing, and carry an authentic, open-hearted lyricism.
The D major quartet is formally rather interesting. It begins with a fully-fledged Allegro moderato sonata movement, fifteen minutes long. There follows a lovely eleven-minute Andantino with five variations. The seven-minute Finale begins with the brief Allegretto scherzando cited before heading into an Allegro agitato, thus encompassing elements of both a scherzo and a conventional finale. The structure looks as off-balance in the track-listing as it undoubtedly sounds in this description, but in fact the two latter movements constitute a plausible counterweight to the first. The four-movement E-flat quartet shows Beethoven's influence. The themes are no less fetching than in the earlier work, but they lend themselves more readily to "symphonic" working-out and development, and the whole leaves an impression of greater weight and importance.
Of the players, I was particularly taken by cellist Mikael Ericcson - who, I imagine, is probably not a native Czech - whose dusky, deep tone provides special pleasure on the numerous melodic phrases the composer supplies. At the piano, Helena Suchárová-Weiser spins out pearly, articulate passagework with full tonal weight and "support", and her well-balanced chords ring out. Violinist Jana Vlachová never quite soars as one wants; her tone is thinner and her articulation less meticulous than ideal. But she's a stylish and effective player, and violist, Karel Stadtherr, produces a tone sufficiently darker than hers to render their sounds easily distinguishable.
The engineers capture just enough hall resonance to enhance the beautiful playing, but not so much as to obscure it. One would have expected to find this sort of release on an expensive, imported Supraphon disc, where it still would have been a must-buy; at Naxos prices, it's absolutely a steal.
-- Stephen Francis Vasta, MusicWeb International
Hummel: Sonata In E Flat Major, Sonata In F Major / Alexander-Max
HUMMEL Piano Sonatas: No. 2 in E?; No. 3 in f. Bagatelle in A?, “La contemplazione” • Susan Alexander-Max (fp) (period instrument) • CHANDOS 765 (67:11)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) is an important transitional composer, especially from a pianistic viewpoint, between the late-18th and early-19th centuries; he is, unfortunately, also a composer who is underrepresented in the recording catalog. Among currently available recordings, Stephen Hough seems to be the only figure of international standing performing today to have devoted any effort to him. Two recordings that I think have stood out in the last 20 years have been the aforementioned one by Stephen Hough of three sonatas for Hyperion (67390), recorded back in 2003, and Dana Protopopescu’s album for Koch Discover (920237) of three sonatas, recorded in 1995. They both bring a virtuoso technique and a good musical sensibility.
Though I am no fan of the fortepiano, Alexander-Max is a good advocate for both the instrument and the repertoire. Her playing has sensitivity and a good attention to articulation and detail. Sometimes though, it is her attention to these small elements that hampers the overall flow of the music. Her tempos in the fast movements tend to be on the slow side: this provides her ample opportunity to bring out many details, but also tends to make the rapid scale and arpeggio patterns sound a bit sluggish. In comparing just the timings of the final movement of the F-Minor Sonata’s finale, marked Presto , Alexander-Max clocks in at 5:22 to Hough’s 3:59! There is no repeat in this movement, so the temporal difference is not reflected in the omission of any material. Even Protopopescu, who does not play this movement nearly as fast as Hough, clocks in around 5: 01—still over 20 seconds faster than Alexander-Max.
Tempo is not the only factor that makes the fast movements seem sluggish though; it is also the lack of intensity brought to many of the figurational patterns that lead to important beats. The focus for example in the E? Sonata’s finale, this time marked Allegro con spirito , seems to be more on the clarity of notes than on the constant surging motion. In the passage from 00:20 to 00:24, Hummel marks a crescendo moving from piano to forte in the span of two measures. In this performance, though a small crescendo does exist, the kind that Hummel requires does not. The tension and release inherent in the sudden dynamic buildup and rest, held with a fermata that follows this passage, is lost. Though the passagework is clean and articulate, the musical excitement is absent. There is a lack of drama.
There are many good aspects to this album as well. My favorite piece that the pianist plays here is the Bagatelle in A?. Marked Larghetto , it is a fantasy in which much of the beginning material comes back with added figuration. Here, Alexander-Max chooses not only a good tempo, one that flows and allows the movement to progress naturally, but also brings all of her interpretative skills to the fore. She maintains an acute sense of articulation and voicing, and a quality of freedom, almost improvisatory at times—all essential for a fantasy. Her ending pianissimo is as delicate and beautiful as any I’ve heard.
This is a fine addition to the recorded discography of Hummel’s music. I would especially recommend it for period-instrument enthusiasts, though the two previously mentioned recordings, by Hough and Protopopescu—both on modern grand pianos—provide good, in some cases excellent, readings of this much-neglected repertoire.
FANFARE: Scott Noriega
Schubert: Piano Trios / Trio Vitruvi
Schubert's great E flat major trio had its first performance on December 26, 1827 at a concert in the Musikverein with the legendary violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who had given first performances of Beethoven’s five last string quartets earlier in the decade. Trio Vitruvi returns to Schubert's gem, giving us the original (longer) version of the score in an impassioned reading. Niklas Walentin, Alexander McKenzie, and Jacob la Cour have performed critically acclaimed concerts in Denmark, China, Russia, France, Ausria, Portugal, Belarus, and Germany in the most beautiful and famous concert halls. They won both first prize and audience prize at the Danish National Radio’s Chamber Music Competition of 2014, and first prize at the Jurmala International Music Competition that same year. “The young Vitruvi Trio showed highest technical and musical qualities… I can recommend them everywhere.” (Adam Fischer)
![Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2335612.jpg?v=1786837226&width=800)
![Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/81Fg_32VE9L.jpg?v=1786837226&width=800)
Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]
Also available on standard DVD
A “touching and magnificent reunion” (Der Standard). The public and press enthusiastically celebrated the long-awaited return of Claudio Abbado to the Salzburg Festival in 2012. The conductor brought with him Mozart’s youthful Mass K. 139, the so-called Waisenhausmesse, and Schubert’s late Mass in E flat major. In a fascinating way, Abbado succeeded in merging the singers and instrumentalists into a total collaborative effort: “Seldom has one heard such a perfect balance between choir, orchestra, and vocal soloists; one has also seldom heard such a beautifully coordinated and perfectly balanced vocal ensemble” (Salzburger Nachrichten).
ABBADO CONDUCTS MASSES BY MOZART AND SCHUBERT
(Blu-ray Disc Version)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa solemnis in C Minor, K. 139, “Waisenhausmesse”
Franz Schubert: Mass No. 6 in E-Flat Major, D. 950
Rachel Harnisch, soprano
Roberta Invernizzi, soprano
Sara Mingardo, alto
Javier Camarena, tenor
Paolo Fanale, tenor
Alex Esposito, bass
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Orchestra Mozart
Claudio Abbado, conductor
Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2012
Picture format: 1080i Full HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Latin, English, German, French, Korean
Running time: 104 mins
No. of Discs: 1
![Schubert: Mass In C Minor; Mozart; Mass In E Flat Major / Abbado, Orchestra Mozart [blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2335612.jpg?v=1786837226&width=400)
Bebop Riddle V for oboe & alto sax in E flat
Mozart: Piano Concertos (Live)
Glinka: Grand Sextet E-Flat Major; Dvorak: Piano Quintet A M
Ballads & Quintets / Fazil Say, Casal Quartet
Clara Haskil - The Salzburg Recital - 8 August 1957
Prokofiev: Ballet Suites / Katz, Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra
The earliest of the ballets featured here is Romeo and Juliet, commissioned in the mid-1930s, soon after Prokofiev returned to the USSR from self-imposed exile. Drawn from the main events of the ballet, the music of Suite No.2 ranges from the grand, formal music of the ball and sounds of a popular holiday to the tragedy and despair of the story’s end, illuminating Prokofiev’s commitment to communicating the depths and intricacies of Shakespeare’s play.
Cinderella followed Romeo and Juliet in the 1940s, with a score of rich and sophisticated music that rewards audiences of adults and children alike.The Suite No.1 features some of the ballet’s best-loved music, including ‘Cinderella’s Waltz’ and the brilliant Mazurka.The Stone Flower was the last of Prokofiev’s Soviet ballets, dating from 1948, and is based on a folk tale from the Urals. Although it will perhaps be the least familiar of the works on this disc, its score contains music of great beauty, with soaring tunes that are as memorable as anything in the two ballet scores that preceded it.
OTHER INFORMATION:
• Recording made in 1997.
• Includes booklet notes.
Schubert: Variations
Holst: Cotswolds Symphony, Japanese Suite / Falletta, Ulster Orchestra
Gustav Holst’s youthful enthusiasm for Wagner is reflected in his ebullient Walt Whitman overture written in 1899. Shortly afterwards he composed the Cotswolds Symphony which embraces hints of contemporary British folk music but is dominated by the slow movement, a profound elegy for the utopian socialist William Morris. Though completed at college, A Winter Idyll shows real orchestral assurance. Indra is an accomplished tone poem revealing Holst’s interest in the legends of India, whilst the glittering and evocative Japanese Suite was written in response to a request from a Japanese dancer appearing in London. The Ulster Orchestra is one of Northern Ireland’s cultural cornerstones and since its foundation in 1966 has become one of the major symphony orchestras in the United Kingdom and Ireland. JoAnn Falletta was appointed Principal Conductor in May 2011, the orchestra’s twelfth but first female and first American to be appointed to the post.
REVIEW:
All of this music is early with the exception of the Japanese Suite, and all of it has appeared on CD before, most notably (with the exception of the symphony) on the superb series of Holst discs issued over the years by Lyrita with such luminaries as Adrian Boult, David Atherton, and Nicholas Braithwaite at the helm. I would never want to part with those three Lyrita discs, but I find this new Naxos disc just as satisfying, and Falletta’s generally more inward, reflective style offers new insights. That it contains a performance of Holst’s only completed orchestral symphony, which gives the work new stature, only adds to its value as an addition to a discography understandably, but regrettably, dominated by one magnificent work. While only one of these works qualifies as a mature composition in a distinctive voice, even the student-written A Winter Idyll shows its composer in a good light, and proves that while fame may have eluded him until midlife, it was not for lack of talent or skill.
A Winter Idyll, the Walt Whitman Overture, and the “Cotswolds” Symphony, all effectively apprentice works written between 1897 and 1900, owe much to the example of the great German Romantics. The influence of Mendelssohn and Schumann in particular should not be surprising given Holst’s then-recent tutelage by Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music. And even a casual listener to the symphony will be able to guess that Holst was then much taken with Wagner. What is notable, however, is just how effectively he has already incorporated these voices into one of his own, albeit one less individual than that of the composer of The Planets, or Egdon Heath, or even Beni Mori of but a few years hence.
The symphony has had one previous recording on Classico with Douglas Bostock conducting. It is still available on other reissue labels, but Falletta’s performance improves on the earlier effort in every way. Tighter and weightier than Bostock in the main—though the scherzo is engagingly quicksilver—she convinces one that the symphony is much more than just a frame for the moving elegy for socialist visionary William Morris that comprises the second movement. Falletta similarly finds new depth in the transitional symphonic poem Indra (1903), emphasizing atmosphere and warmth where the alternative reading by Atherton inclines more toward brilliance and contrast.
The Japanese Suite is the one work here that is representative of the mature Holst, to the extent that any work can be said to represent a composer who notoriously hated to repeat himself. It reflects his developing interests in things Asian, and in folk music, and it shows him free of the old-school German romantic model. It was written in 1915 in response to a commission from Japanese dancer Michio Ito for a London recital, and so is exactly contemporaneous with The Planets. In fact, Holst stopped work on the larger suite to write the smaller one, and many ideas found in the former are adapted to the scale and delicacy of this attractive work that has been unfairly overshadowed by its bigger and more flamboyant sibling.
Its neglect may to some degree reflect the challenge it offers the conductor. Neither Falletta nor Andrew Davis in the other currently available recording on Chandos can match the character of Boult’s recording on Lyrita. More than either, Boult and the late-’60s London Symphony Orchestra bring out, through canny pacing, phrasing, and articulation of these haunting ancient tunes, the Japanese flavor Ito sought in this work. Falletta’s performance is still wonderfully sensitive and perfectly scaled, but here I must register my one clear preference for an alternative.
That said, clearly there is some good chemistry going in Ulster between its fine orchestra and the new American principal conductor. One can only hope that there will be many more releases like this in the future, and in the superb sound provided by the Grammy-winning producer and engineer, Tim Handley and Phil Rowlands. Definitely a winner.
FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames
