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Waltzes By Johann Strauss Arranged By Schoenberg, Berg & Webern / The Philharmonics [blu-ray]
Accentus Music · Oct 2011Blu-Ray$37.99 -
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Mahler: Symphony No 6 / Chailly, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra [blu-ray]
Accentus Music · Nov 2013Blu-Ray$41.99 -
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From Liszt to Ligeti / Darvarova, Weaver
A spectacular tribute to Hungarian-born composers, from the brilliant, award-winning performers — Grammy-nominated violinist ELMIRA DARVAROVA (first and only woman-concertmaster of The Metropolitan Opera) and pianist THOMAS WEAVER (professor at Curtis Institute of Music), the album “FROM LISZT TO LIGETI” brings an exceptionally vivid narrative linking historic milestones in the legacies of a number of superb Hungarian-born musicians — composers and performers, who have so enormously contributed to enriching the world’s cultural treasure-trove.
Liszt, Joachim, Bartók, Kodály, Hubay, Goldmark, Ligeti — they have all bequeathed us masterpieces to behold and cherish, throughout several centuries of showcasing, shaping, preserving, and amalgamating national traditions and global influences through the prism of their own personal creative gifts.
This album is a charismatically kaleidoscopic retrospective that traces the historic perspective of how uniquely innovative artists such as Bartók and Kodály built the cornerstones of their oeuvre by exploring, embracing, critically analyzing, and then reshaping Liszt’s ideals. It also explores how Ligeti followed on the heels of Bartók and Kodály with his own ethnomusicological research, creating, still in his student days, a little-known Duo that he kept editing and crystallizing throughout his life and various periods of transforming and modernizing, but then later returning to conventionally established expressive means. Additionally, it delves into how Joachim — as a muse to numerous music giants, such as Brahms, Liszt, Dvorák, Bruch, Robert and Clara Schumann — influenced and caused cataclysmic events without which the history of music would not have been the same.
In addition to the best-known Hungarian-born composers Liszt, Bartók, Kodály, and Ligeti, the inclusion of Joachim in this album as a co-author (not just dedicatee) of Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12” (in its version for violin and piano) makes sense historically not only because Joachim in his transcription radically transformed Liszt’s composition but also because Joachim famously contributed to the creation of numerous gems by some of the greatest-ever composers, such as the violin concertos by Dvorák and Bruch (who published these works after Joachim helped in creating them) and Brahms’ First Piano Concerto (bearing Joachim’s handwritten corrections which elicited “thank-you” letters from Brahms, during the 4 years Brahms took to write that concerto).
The inclusion in this album of the Hungarian-born composers Hubay and Goldmark is also well-justified, bringing up yet other interesting dimensions to the album’s narrative. The album’s deeply-considered collection explores the affecting lyrical gift of Goldmark, who, as the largely self-taught son of a synagogue cantor, followed his ingrained melodic instincts from growing up without riches among 20 siblings, to becoming Vienna’s leading composer (after the deaths of Brahms and Bruckner), teaching Sibelius, and writing a mind-blowing violin concerto, a symphony championed by Sir Thomas Beecham and by Leonard Bernstein, and several operas, one of which was produced at The Metropolitan Opera in 1885, and three of which were presented in Vienna during Mahler’s leadership of the Court Theatre.
Hubay’s unparalleled contribution as a historical “cross-roads” figure is also well-defined in this album, not only because of who he was — the son of an elite musician (who conducted the Budapest premiere of Wagner’s “Lohengrin”), a student of Joachim, a department head at Brussels’ Royal Conservatory (succeeding Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski), a chamber music partner of Liszt and of Brahms (performing with Brahms the world-premiere of Brahms’ D Minor Violin Sonata, and the world-premiere of Brahms’ Third Piano Trio), composer of numerous concertos, symphonies, and operas (one of which was embroiled in a scandal reported 100 years ago by The New York Times), and the teacher of many illustrious star-violinists who became muses to Bartók, Kodály, Ravel, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Rebecca Clarke (among these violin prodigies were Bartók’s girlfriend Stefi Geyer, Eugene Ormandy of The Philadelphia Orchestra fame, and Joachim’s great-nieces Jelly d’Arányi and Adila Fachiri, who not only inspired Bartók and many others but also spear-headed the search for Schumann’s long-suppressed violin concerto, “cancelled” and hidden by its dedicatee — their great-uncle Joachim).
The choice of Hubay’s well-known czardas “Hejre Kati” for inclusion in this album reflects the evolution and role of that genre in the history of Hungarian musical traditions — from the early roots of czardas stemming from verbunkos (used even by Haydn), to its controversial misappropriation by dilettante performers whose inflectional performing style was confused and misinterpreted by Liszt as original Hungarian folk melodies, to more tasteful artistically expressed concert-stage compositions (like Hubay’s “Hejre Kati”), to the eventual dethroning and demythologizing of the czardas by Bartók and Kodály, who discovered, revealed, and incorporated the true authenticity of their home country’s original folk music.
The album selections follow Bartók’s evolving from the student-composer of a traditionally-profiled, Romantically-influenced Andante and the mature creator of “15 Hungarian Peasant Songs” and “Rhapsody for Violin and Piano No.1” (embodying his scientific and artistic mission to reveal the exquisitely-uncontroverted authentic beauty of ancient folk melodies) to the transfigured innovator who elevated and transformed old rustic traditions, fusing them into new and progressive forms and rhythms, reaching out to impressionism and jazz (as depicted in Bartók’s “Dance in Bulgarian Rhythm No. 6”), and paving the way for Ligeti’s experimentalism, which, through multiple “back and forth” constructing and de-constructing, reflected Ligeti’s never-ending search for artistic inspiration (this album presents the, recorded here only for the second time, recently-discovered Duo for Violin and Piano, which Ligeti never submitted for publication but continued returning to, and working on).
The unusually meticulous album notes cover the multi-dimensional, serendipitous, and cross-pollinating nature of essential events and legacies, which endure and continue to fascinate us.
Made in Germany
Richard Strauss: A Hero's Life
Idil Biret Beethoven Edition: 32 Piano Sonatas
A Musical Journey: Italy & Austria - Brixen, Innsbruck
The Places
The tour starts at the great Augustinian foundation, Kloster Neustift (Novacella), at Brixen (Bressanone) in Southern Tyrol, with its rococo church interior and collection of late medieval paintings. This is followed by a visit to Innsbruck, the capital of the Tyrol, with its famous Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof) and rococo Wilten Basilica and Collegiate Church.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Brixen and Innsbruck is by Mozart and includes two symphonies, with other works. Symphony No. 40 is the second of the group of three final symphonies, written in Vienna in 1787, and Symphony No. 28 was written in Salzburg in 1773 or 1774. Other works included are overtures to the early opera Il rè pastore, to The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart’s first operatic success in Vienna, and the overture to La clemenza di Tito, written in 1791, a few months before his death.
Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 58 mins
No. of DVDs: 1
R E V I E W:
I guess these Musical Journeys serve several purposes. A far as Naxos is concerned they recycle sound recordings for those who prefer a visual image to make a change from the wallpaper. The images are often quite stunning, whilst the music, never less than appealing, can be appropriate to the image or otherwise; a fact I touch on in this review. Other functions can be to remind the inveterate tourist of places visited, or of places to go as part of a future itinerary.
A word first about the Tyrol. In the days of Mozart, whose music is the backing to these scenes, it was part of the Hapsburg Empire of which the composer was a citizen. Italy was not even a nation, rather a collection of states, some with rulers with a connection with the Hapsburgs whilst others were influenced by, or later under, French control. In that generic sense Italy was a country Mozart visited in his childhood as his father hawked his genius round Europe. I detail this in my survey of The Complete Operas of Mozart. It can be considered, therefore, wholly appropriate that his music is the backing to this collection of views of the Tyrol the southern part of which became ceded to Italy in the treaties of 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War, Italy having joined in on the allies side, albeit a little late in the day.
Brixen lies in that ceded part of the Tyrol and contains the magnificent Neustift Monastery - the focus of the first part of this collection (Chs. 1-4). The external beauty includes the ornamental ceilings of the Cloisters, the Romanesque Bell Tower dating from the twelfth century whilst other parts are Gothic (Ch.1). The Molto allegro movement of Mozart’s 40 th symphony, one of a group of three composed in Vienna as he sought work, is an appropriate accompaniment. However, it is the magnificent interior of the Neustift Monastery that is the highlight of this Musical Journey where an equally appropriate accompaniment is the Molto allegro of the same symphony. The camera wanders around the magnificently painted and ornamented ceilings. These scenes are quite fantastic and overwhelmingly lovely. If one has never visited them I suspect this will stimulate thoughts of rectifying that state of affairs. Meanwhile the camera and Mozart’s music allow the observer to luxuriate in such beauty (Ch.2). The camera moves on (Ch.3 ) to show a different perspective with late medieval paintings of the life and death of St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Barbara. These include a vivid representation of the Passion of Christ. Thus vivid scenes contrast with the interior as does the Minuetto of the symphony. The final part of the visit takes in the library and its Rococo ornamentation. The fastish Allegro is less appropriate as the camera has to eke out time for the music to finish with some repetitive scenes as the camera runs somewhat out of content.
The second part of this Musical Journey focuses on the Austrian town of Innsbruck, capital of the Tyrol. The views of the town and its hilly setting is impressive with the river Inn running through it. It was the Hapsburg seat and was rebuilt by the formidable Empress Maria Theresa in the eighteenth century. She had a less than benign view of Mozart; even so the allegro spiritoso of Wolfgang’s earlier 28 th symphony provides an apt background (Ch.5). In the town of Innsbruck the photographs of Helbling House, dated 1560, which is dominated by elaborate and extensive Rococo ornaments added around 1730 were rather too fancy for my taste (Ch.6). The visit to the rooftops of Innsbruck with the copper roof of the church, turned green, is less than interesting whilst the façade of the Golden Dachl originally built by Duke Friedrich in about 1420 as his own residence is more impressive (Ch.7).
The remaining views of Innsbruck are less than captivating and stretch time with a visit to the Innsbruck Alpine Zoo (Ch.9) with the music now finding vitality in Mozart’s overture to his early opera seria Il re pastore composed for a visit to Salzburg by the Archduke Maximilian, youngest son of the Empress Maria Theresa. The story of love and duty, with overtones of avuncular behaviour by royalty being considered entirely appropriate for the occasion albeit the family never did Mozart any favours. However the music finds an appropriate venue among some captivating water animals.
The concluding visits are to Wilten Collegiate Church (Ch.10) and Wilten Basilica (Ch.11); both stretched by the timings of the overtures to the singspiel The Abduction from the Seraglio and Mozart’s final opera La Clemenza di Tito respectively. By this time I was tiring of churches and their exterior decorations and would have much preferred a closer look at the impressive mountains that surround Innsbruck.
The included leaflet is adequately informative whilst Mozart’s music and the playing of the Capella Istropolitana under Barry Wordsworth was a consistent delight.
-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International
Ponchielli & Ghislanzoni: I Lituani
Kirill Petrenko conducts Josef Suk (3CD+1BD)
Widor: Le doux Appel
Waltzes By Johann Strauss Arranged By Schoenberg, Berg & Webern / The Philharmonics [blu-ray]
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Also available on standard DVD
The Philharmonics:
Tibor Ková? first violin, Shkëlzen Doli second violin, Thilo Fechner viola, Stephan Koncz cello, Ödön Rácz double bass, Daniel Ottensamer clarinet, František Jánoška piano
Guests: Walter Auer flute, Christoph Traxler harmonium
The Philharmonics, the ensemble founded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, fill the Café Sperl with some of the most authentically Viennese sounds imaginable – the Strauss waltzes that Schoenberg, Berg and Webern arranged and performed in May 1921 to raise funds for their pioneering “Society for Private Musical Performances”. This is music the players have in their blood, and they maintain the echt atmosphere with Godowsky’s tribute to the city, “Alt-Wien” and a clutch of Kreisler gems, rounding the programme off with a new piece by the ensemble’s leader Tibor Ková?, based on traditional Jewish melodies and Mahler themes, “Yiddische Mame”.
Recorded live at Café Sperl in Vienna, 9 March 2011
BONUS: How Schoenberg came to arrange waltzes by Strauss
Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (Bonus): English, French
Running time: 64 mins (concert) + 10 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)
R E V I E W:
J. STRAUSS II Emperor Waltz. Roses from the South. A Night in Venice: Lagunenwalzer. Wine, Women, and Song. The Gypsy Baron: Treasure Waltz. KREISLER Marche miniature viennoise. Schön Rosmarin. Caprice viennois. KOVÁC Yiddische Mame. GODOWSKY Alt-Wien • The Philharmonics • ACCENTUS ACC 10228 (Blu-ray: 64:20) Live: Vienna 3/9/2011
In 1921, as a fund-raiser for the Society for Private Musical Performances, Schoenberg and his two most famous disciples arranged four Strauss waltzes for piano, harmonium, and string quartet. Four years later, Schoenberg returned to the source, adapting the Emperor Waltz for a similar ensemble, with the harmonium replaced by flute and clarinet. (Richard Burke, in Fanfare 22:4, suggests that it was “supposedly for use as an encore” after Pierrot Lunaire .) I’d love to have been at the first performance of the original four, featuring Berg on harmonium, Schoenberg on second violin, and Webern on cello (not to mention Eduard Steuermann on piano and Rodolf Kolisch on first violin), but removed from that star-studded context, the arrangements don’t hold up especially well. In his review of a recording featuring the Berlin String Quartet and friends (one that, like many forays into this repertoire, left out the low-inspiration Lagunenwalzer ), James H. North insisted that the “awkward arrangements” were “of little interest.” And while Richard Burke found more to admire, I can’t agree with him that the distinctive personalities of the three arrangers can be heard in these workaday adaptations. Certainly, there’s nothing here to match the quirkiness of Webern’s take on the six-voice Ricerar from The Musical Offering —nor the full-throated romanticism surging through Schoenberg’s arrangements of Bach’s organ music or Brahms First Piano Quartet. Nor, despite the Second Vienna School’s supposed affection for the Waltz King, is there anything here as delectable as the fantasies and transcriptions penned by such turn-of-the-century piano virtuosos as Godowsky, Rosenthal, and Rachmaninoff.
Still, as background music, this repertoire has its virtues—and this Blu-ray, featuring The Philharmonics (an ensemble made up of members of the Vienna Philharmonic), treats it precisely in that manner, offering up whipped-cream live performances from Vienna’s Café Sperl, with an audience numbering a dozen or so people, most of whom are more involved in their books, magazines, gossip, and flirtations than in the music. Certainly, this low-key approach makes more sense than the cleaner, more modernist (but also stiffer) manner favored by the members of the Boston Symphony on what is probably the most familiar recording of this material (see 26:2).
The Philharmonics interleave the Strauss waltzes with other popular Viennese confections—as well as first violinist Tibor Ková?’s medley that mixes Mahler with familiar Jewish songs. They’re all played with the same congenial spirit. As for the production: The notes are confusing—especially with respect to responsibility for the Kreisler and Godowsky arrangements; the bonus track, a discussion by Dr. Christian Meyer, director of the Schoenberg Center, is illuminating, but completely disorganized; sound and video are clean, although you’re apt to wonder why you’d want to watch an event that even the original audience wasn’t paying much visual attention to. Still, if you’ve got a Blu-ray player in the right part of your house, this is a fine accompaniment to your Sunday brunch.
FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz
Debussy, Ravel & Falla (Live)
Mahler: Symphony No. 6
TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONIES 5 & 6
Mahler Symphony No 6 / Salonen, Philharmonia Orchestra
Sometimes known as 'The Tragic' - a title suggested but then withdrawn by the composer - Mahler's Sixth Symphony embodies much of the inner turmoil and superstition of its composer. Conceived at perhaps one of the happiest periods of Mahler's life, it seems to foreshadow the personal tragedies that would later befall him - with his wife Alma writing that "The music and what it foretold touched us deeply." Esa-Pekka Salonen's work with the Philharmonia for the City of Dreams: Vienna 1900-1935 concert series has produced a number of powerful, live concert recordings for the Philharmonia series, including Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique and Mahler's Symphony No.9 - all of which have been praised by criticsfollowing their release on Signum. ' ... the orchestral playing was of a very high order ... his command of the intensely difficult finale was wholly admirable, moving towards that astounding, deeply moving, coda with fine artistry.' Robert Matthew-Walker, Classical Source.com (Review of the concert of this recording)
Mahler: Symphony No 6 / Haitink, Chicago So
The sixth was the last of Mahler's symphonies to reach the United States, in December 1947, more than forty-one years after the composer conducted its premiere. Even considering the typical fate of Mahler's symphonies - launched under the composer's baton, misunderstood and often rejected by audiences and conductors during the decades that followed - the neglect of the Sixth Symphony is exceptional.
Mahler: Symphony No 6 / Chailly, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra [blu-ray]
Also available on standard DVD
Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 6, 7 and 9 September 2012
Bonus:
- My Sixth will propound riddles – A panel discussion with Riccardo Chailly and Reinhold Kubik
Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (bonus): German, English, French
Running time: 86 mins (concert) + 18 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)
Shostakovich: Symphonies No 6 & 12 / Petrenko, Royal Liverpool PO

The Twelfth is not Shostakovich's best symphony, but it's not as bad as its detractors would have us believe. The first two movements in particular are effectively structured and, respectively, cinematically exciting and quite atmospheric. The finale, especially its coda, is so telling an example of Socialist Realist triumph that it can only be accepted as a parody; and played without apology, as here, it works very well. Indeed, Vasily Petrenko leads a first movement that beats just about everyone in terms of sheer excitement, and the same holds true of the transitional third movement, "Aurora". As for that problematic finale, it has an appealing lightness (before the coda) that avoids any impression of facile note-spinning. If you don't like this symphony, give this performance a shot. It may change your mind.
The Sixth is far less troublesome, but Petrenko's vision is no less probing. At nearly 20 minutes the first movement is very slow, but wholly gripping. Petrenko takes the scherzo dazzlingly fast, but paces the finale moderately to give it the necessary weight (without sacrificing the music's irony and wit). Through it all the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic plays splendidly, and is excellently recorded. This Shostakovich series is shaping up as one of the best, make no mistake.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Symphonies 5 & 6
Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 3, 6 & 7 / Vanska, Minnesota Orchestra

REVIEW:
Vanska's Sibelius is all about clarity - of rhythm, of texture, of intention. It is zealously unfussy and entirely without exaggeration. But it can stop you in your tracks. One just knows that the ear-pricking clarity throughout these performances is of Vanska's and not the balance engineer's making.
The suddenness of the hush Vanska manages as we enter the "no-man's-land a few pages into the Third changes the way the air moves in the Minnesota Hall. There really isn't much to say about this performance (of the Sixth), it just feels perfectly balanced - in music as in nature. And the work's evaporating final chord is startling. As for the eleventh-hour resolution into C Major in the Seventh, it is as emphatic as it is precipitous.
– Gramophone