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Schubert: Piano Trios 1 & 2 / Beths, Bylsma, Immerseel

Sony Masterworks

$17.99 Jun 03, 2011

Immerseel, Beths and Bylsma offer period-instrument versions of Schubert’s B flat and E flat Piano Trios. However, theirs is not the delicate, fine-grained sound of, say, the Castle Trio (Virgin). Immerseel plays a 19th-century fortepiano by Tröndlin of Leipzig, whose full, rounded tone inspires all three musicians to project these works with striking vigour and energy. I was disturbed by a lumpy pulse in the first movement of the B flat Trio, but otherwise the fresh vitality of the music-making on this disc gives an effective portrayal of Schubert’s expressive extremes. Bylsma phrases the yearning melodies in the slow movements of both trios affectionately, while the ensemble fragrantly evokes dance in the Scherzos and stirs intense passions in the music’s more violent outbursts.

-- BBC Music Magazine

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Schubert: Piano Trios 1 & 2 / Beths, Bylsma, Immerseel
Sony Masterworks Jun 2011
CD
$17.99

Dvorák: Symphony No. 8 - The Golden Spinning Wheel - Scherzo
BIS Jul 2012
SACD
$21.99

CHOPIN ETUDES OP. 25 - 4 SCHERZI

WARNER CLASSICS

Vinyl

$40.99 Oct 15, 2021

Chopin is reserved, visionary and mysterious," says Beatrice Rana. "There are many layers to his music. It's pleasing to the ear and sincere in it's communication, but the deeper you go, the more you find..." For this album, Rana pairs Chopin's 12 op 25 etudes with his four scherzi, focusing on two musical genres that the composer, combining intellect and imagination, transformed into something new. "It was Chopin who invented the 'concert study'," explains Rana. "To me, the etudes seem implicitly connected, joined by a single line of expression, as if they are taking you on a journey. The scherzi are evocative pieces, full of contrasts... They represent three distinct stages of Chopin's life and creativity and it is easy to read stories into them." When Beatrice Rana played the op 25 etudes for her New York recital debut in 2019, the New York Times wrote: "If you can play Chopin's etudes comfortably, you can probably play anything written for the piano... and the best performances convey their musical riches. In that regard, Beatrice Rana set a new standard... She didn't just surmount the technical challenges; she made the pieces sound as poetic and colorful as anything Chopin ever wrote.

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CHOPIN ETUDES OP. 25 - 4 SCHERZI
WARNER CLASSICS Oct 2021
Vinyl
$40.99

Leonard Bernstein - 10 Album Classics

Sony Masterworks

$24.98 ~~$49.98~~ Save 50% Jun 23, 2023

Sony Classical is pleased to present a special edition of Leonard Bernstein’s American Columbia recordings from the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the conductor-composer’s most celebrated interpretations and works are collected here on these carefully chosen 10 original albums on 11 CDs.

There is, of course, the still-astonishing album that launched Leonard Bernstein’s international reputation as the most dynamic and charismatic conductor of his era, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring recorded in January 1958 – two months after his appointment as the youngest music director in the New York Philharmonic’s history. Reviewing a 2013 reissue, ClassicsToday.com declared: “It has an excitement, spontaneity, and primal fury that no other version quite matches.”

The Bernstein recording that launched the “Mahler Renaissance” in the 1960s is also here: his Third Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, which has arguably never been surpassed. And while we’re talking about Third Symphonies, Bernstein’s “Eroica” still sounds “wonderfully vibrant” (Gramophone) a half century after its first release. There is also his reading of Dvořák’s most popular symphony – “There’s no such thing as a ‘definitive’ recording [of the “New World”], but if there were, this one would come close to that imagined ideal” (ClassicsToday) – and two from Haydn’s magnificent “Paris” set: “It’s debatable whether there have been better performances” (ClassicalNet).

Bernstein himself conducts and plays Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (“The one indispensable recording of this familiar work, paired with an equally fine American in Paris” – New York Times). Bernstein the pianist also accompanies Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, at the peak of his matchless career, in an acclaimed album of Mahler lieder. The ballets Rodeo and Billy the Kid by Bernstein’s mentor and friend Aaron Copland are included: “Even the composer couldn't make [them] dance the way Bernstein does” (New York Times).

Bernstein the composer is also generously represented. The original Broadway cast recording of Candide from 1956 is included, as is the definitive version of his most famous work: the original Broadway cast recording of West Side Story from 1957.

The re-masterings in this new collection are the best ever issued of these thrilling recordings by one of the last century’s greatest musicians, selected from the Grammy® award-winning Leonard Bernstein – The Composer and the Leonard Bernstein – Remastered editions. Sony Classical’s new 11-CD Leonard Bernstein box set is the perfect introduction to the work of this American genius.

Past praise of previously released recordings included in this set:

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 / Lipton, Bernstein, NYP

This was the finest performance of Mahler’s Third when it was first issued back in 1962, and in some ways it has never been surpassed. Bernstein catches the riotous vulgarity of the first movement march music like no other conductor–not even his own digital remake reaches the level of sheer abandon he whips up here, and he also has the best of all fifth movements (bright and cheery, with dazzlingly prominent percussion).

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10; David Hurwitz)

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 / Bernstein, NYP

There’s no such thing as a “definitive” recording, but if there were, this one would come close to that imagined ideal. Its special qualities haven’t dimmed a bit in decades since it was recorded, and every interpretive decision comes across with the inevitability of fate itself. First, you get the first-movement exposition repeat (very unusual for its time), then there’s the very slow (but still very flowing) Largo, gorgeously played and far from the trudge-fest that Bernstein would make of for DG. The scherzo goes like the wind, the fastest ever, and the finale offers simply the last word in excitement. If you don’t own this performance in some form, then you don’t know the “New World”.

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10; David Hurwitz)

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Leonard Bernstein - 10 Album Classics
Sony Masterworks Jun 2023
CD
~~$49.98~~ $24.98

Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 10 / Bavouzet

Chandos

$21.99 Mar 04, 2022

"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."

--The New York Times on Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022

His multi-award-winning recordings and dazzling concert performances have long established Jean-Efflam Bavouzet as one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. This latest album – the tenth – in his cycle of the complete Haydn sonatas is built around the Grand Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI: 50, a late work the first movement of which is one of the most highly developed that Haydn ever conceived for the keyboard. Bavouzet has surrounded this with less well-known works: Two very early sonatas (Nos. 3 & 4) provide a stark contrast to the later works (Nos. 28 & 45). The album ends with the Arietta con 12 Variazioni.

Bavouzet notes: ‘The Variations in E flat major and the Sonata in A major, Hob. XVI: 30, were for me the marvelous revelations of this program. In the E flat major Variations (the lovely theme of which Mozart borrowed in his Sonata, KV 282!). The chief question was to know whether to repeat the theme at the end, as certain editions recommend. After several experiments, I finally opted for a solution perhaps a little anachronistic, by construing the entire last variation as a long, gradual crescendo which takes us from the somber and serious atmosphere of the preceding variation towards the brilliant light of the unadorned chords that conclude this magnificent cycle.’

REVIEW:

There’s one masterpiece on this CD: Sonata 60. From Jean-Efflam Bavouzet comes an almost furtively soft beginning to the first theme, a pondering pause, then loud arpeggiated affirmation, jubilation unleashed as ideas crowd in on one another and repeat gleefully. Second prize on this CD goes to Sonata 45, composed 20 years earlier, Haydn’s only piano sonata played without a break. As in previous volumes, Bavouzet mixes sonatas from various periods, backtracking 14 years earlier for Sonatas 3 and 4. So you experience the learning curve through which Haydn achieved his mature works. In Sonata 3, despite its relative simplicity, Bavouzet brings elegance and chipper, assertive bounce to the opening Allegro and you’ll relish his extra ornamentation in the repeat of the Scherzo’s final strain. In Sonata 4 his neatness and propriety in the opening movement is delightfully offset by the impropriety of repeats’ extra ornamentation[.]

--MusicWeb International (Michael Greenhalgh)

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Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 10 / Bavouzet
Chandos Mar 2022
CD
$21.99

CHOPIN ETUDES OP. 25 - 4 SCHERZI

WARNER CLASSICS

Vinyl

$40.99 Oct 15, 2021

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CHOPIN ETUDES OP. 25 - 4 SCHERZI
WARNER CLASSICS Oct 2021
Vinyl
$40.99

Schumann, Vol. 3

Haenssler Classic

$32.99 Apr 17, 2026

Robert Schumann's piano music, which Gerhard Oppitz now presents for the third time in a specific configuration of works, displays a special characteristic in contrast to the piano writing of the major 19th-century Romantic piano composers Alkan, Chopin and Liszt. The attempt to categorize his works either as contributions to the Classical models of sonata and variation, or to the Romantic genres of Etude, Ballade, Scherzo and a wealth of dance and character pieces, proved unsatisfactory; that remains the case even though Schumann himself was a regular contributor to the two forms handed down from the Classical era. Schumann himself, then, was engaged in the creative questioning of hitherto valid compositional and musical ideals.

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Schumann, Vol. 3
Haenssler Classic Apr 2026
CD
$32.99

Symphonie Nr. 6: Tschaikowsky, Shostakowitsch

BR Klassik

$19.99 Apr 29, 2014

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6 1. TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 2 • Mariss Jansons, cond; Bavarian RSO • BR 900123 (75:25) Live: 1 Münich Herkulessaal 3/21/2013; 2 Münich Philharmonie 6/7/2013

Mariss Jansons is not new to either of these scores. Between 1988 and 2005, he recorded all 15 of Shostakovich’s symphonies, most in live performances, with more than half-a-dozen different orchestras in as many different venues. It could hardly be called an integral cycle, though EMI assembled all 10 discs into a boxed set, which it put out in 2006 at a budget price. Truer to the definition of “cycle” was Jansons’s traversal of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies. All six were recorded with the same orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, over a two-year period between 1984 and 1986, and put out as a budget-priced boxed set by Chandos in 2008.

I’m not familiar with Jansons’s Tchaikovsky, but I do have his Shostakovich, so I’m able to compare his 1991 Oslo performance of Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony to this new one with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. As always, timing differences are interesting, though seldom determinative in judging the relative merits of one performance vs. another. In this case, the differences between each of the symphony’s three movements are fairly small, but incrementally, they add up to a total of two minutes, with the biggest difference occurring in the score’s Presto finale.

1991	2013
15:20	15:41
5:47	6:21
6:39	7:42
27:46	29:44

Unusual in structure, Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony, completed in 1939, begins with an expansive Largo , longer than the following two scherzo-like movements combined. Those who expected another large-scale tragic-triumphant work along the lines of the preceding Fifth Symphony must have been nonplussed, but no more so than Shostakovich himself, who had planned on composing a monumental choral symphony on a poem extolling Lenin. Whatever the reason, Shostakovich changed his mind and came up instead with this strange piece that pits a dark, brooding first movement against two careening, cartwheeling, clownish-sounding fast movements that skate on the thin edge between comic and manic.

The concluding Presto should sound like it’s about to come unhinged, and in Jansons’s 1991 performance it does. But in 1991, the Oslo Philharmonic was not quite the world-class orchestra it has become today, while in 2013, when Jansons took up his baton to conduct Shostakovich’s Sixth again, this time with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, he led an ensemble that had already achieved world-class status. Jansons’s new account may be more detailed and distinguished by better playing, especially in the woodwinds, but his slower Presto sounds more cautious and controlled than it did in the earlier performance. As for the recording, the new BR Klassik CD may have a slight edge over the older EMI disc when it comes to resolution and depth of field, but EMI’s sonic image is actually more dynamic and has greater impact.

Jansons’s new Shostakovich Sixth is a very good one, but I wouldn’t rate it better than his Oslo effort. In fact, in my recent review of Vasily Petrenko’s Sixth on Naxos in 37:4, I stated that Gergiev and Jansons were my current favorites, but that was before I received this new release, so I had to be referring to Jansons’s Oslo performance on EMI.

That brings us to Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique,” which may well be the deciding factor for you in whether you wish to add this disc to your collection. As I said at the top, I’ve not heard the conductor’s earlier version with the Oslo Philharmonic on Chandos, but Howard Kornblum reviewed it in 10:6, and gave it very high marks, writing that Jansons “has an uncommonly deep feeling for the composer, shaping each movement with a fresh and unswerving sense of continuity, with great expressiveness and energy.”

Those same qualities are abundant in this new performance as well. Jansons definitely has a way of teasing Tchaikovsky’s melodies into long-spun lines of great beauty. Having only recently completed reviewing the lion’s share of four different Tchaikovsky cycles, among which Pletnev and Kitaenko emerged as my favorites, I can’t honestly say that Jansons whips up the tumultuous first-movement development section to quite as frenzied and frightful a pitch as either of them, and I’ve heard the development launched with a more incisive, impactful wallop than it receives here. But on the other hand, Jansons makes more of the menacing Furies that visit their wrath on the lower strings in swirling counterpoints of dire warning. One doesn’t usually hear these string rejoinders brought to the surface quite as clearly as they are here.

The more I listen to this performance of the “Pathétique,” the more convinced I become that it’s one of the great ones. It’s highly dramatic, without being theatrical, which was something I was slightly critical of Pletnev for, and it’s emotionally quite draining, which is what any really good “Pathétique” should be.

If Jansons’s Shostakovich Sixth is not necessarily a first choice, it’s still very, very good; and coupled as it is with a better than very, very good Tchaikovsky Sixth, I think this release deserves a very, very strong recommendation.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Symphonie Nr. 6: Tschaikowsky, Shostakowitsch
BR Klassik Apr 2014
CD
$19.99

Bacewicz: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 / Oramo, BBC Symphony

Chandos

SACD

$21.99 Nov 17, 2023

The three works on this album were all composed between 1943 and 1953. Despite the extreme experiences and difficulties she faced during this undoubtedly most tragic time in Poland’s history, Grazyna Bacewicz managed to compose outstanding works which constitute splendid testimony to the vibrant creative potency for which she was renowned. Until 1939 her career as a virtuoso violinist and an emerging composer evolved naturally. Trained by the best Polish pedagogues at the Warsaw Conservatory, she went on to acquire an international education thanks to an Ignacy Paderewski Scholarship, which allowed her to pursue her studies in Paris: composition with Nadia Boulanger, violin with André Touret (1932 – 33) and Carl Flesch (1934 – 35). In spite of her soloistic successes she decided to join the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra as its leader, in order that an improved knowledge and understanding of an orchestra should inform her composition. Poland then suffered terribly at the hands of Hitler and Stalin, before coming under the control of the Soviet Union. This album was recorded and released in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a state cultural institution promoting Polish culture around the world and actively participating in international cultural exchange.

REVIEWS:

The Polish-born Bacewicz had trained as a violinist, but also studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger...the elegant neoclassicism that Bacewicz imbibed in her lessons with Boulanger is evident in both these symphonies, though not so obviously in the extrovert Overture from 1943 also included on the disc. It’s possible to construe her style as a bridge in Polish music between Karol Szymanowski, or at least his later neoclassical works, and the Bartók-influenced modernism of Witold Lutosławski...those influences, as well as perhaps a debt to Shostakovich, too, are welded into a distinctive style that never seems derivative. Her handling of the large-scale four-movement forms is wonderfully assured, while the moments of high dissonance suggest that even in the early 1950s she was not prepared to conform to the precepts of Soviet populism as meekly as the authorities might have liked.

Certainly the drive and conviction behind these performances suggest that Oramo believes passionately in the music’s worth, and the BBCSO revels in its expert orchestration. It all promises well for subsequent instalments.

-- The Guardian

[The] third symphony’s anxiety-ridden introduction (marked Drammatico) surely reflects the mood of its times, as does the relentless drive and restlessness of the Molto allegro energico that follows, in clear sonata form. The stalking bass line that begins the following Andante brings in an incessant coloristic development where melodic figures struggle to have a fully lyrical moment, only to be interrupted by a thwacking bass drum. The basis of both scherzos is mercurial shifts of mood and color, ceaselessly restless, though sometimes playful. And how acutely the BBC players inhabit those many moods – one senses the orchestra’s conviction and enthusiasm for this music in playing that is energetic, fulsome, and highly refined.

-- The Classic Review

As recordings of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music have surfaced over the past 10 years or so, it has become obvious how unfairly neglected she was previously...Through first the suffering of the war years in Poland, then the cultural diktats of life under a Soviet Union-aligned government, Bacewicz managed to continue composing and retain her own voice. The two symphonies share a powerful, headlong drive. Given its premiere in 1952, the Symphony No 3 is the more tightly argued of the two, compressing its ideas with an internal logic that generates a fierce electric charge, with pounding energy rarely far away. The Symphony No 4, following a year later, takes up where its predecessor left off, though the scope of its musical ideas ranges somewhat more widely and the tension is less insistent. The breezy Overture, written in occupied Warsaw in 1943, is not obviously wartime music, unless its joyous energy hides some coded meaning, as in Shostakovich’s symphonies. This is music very much of its time, rolling together the intense concentration of Shostakovich with a dash of Bartók’s exploratory sound-worlds and William Walton’s show-off orchestration into a very cogent whole. The performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo, do not stint the vigorous spark of Bacewicz’s imagination.

-- The Financial Times

Oramo and the BBCSO offer an exhilarating account of this extrovert music[, the Overture].

The music [of the Symphony no. 3] is taut and full of interest; Oramo leads a powerful, athletic performance. The slow movement, an Andante, is most attractive and expressive; it features a good deal of very appealing writing for the woodwinds. The vivacious Scherzo requires – and receives – very precise articulation from the orchestra. The music is fast, lively, and often witty. In this movement, Bacewicz displays a jazzy brilliance in her writing; so much so that I was put a little in mind of Walton. The finale opens with a quiet, ominous introduction in which the low brass and tam-tam make important contributions. The main body of the movement (Allegro con passione) is often dramatic and, as I hear it, has an element of darkness. The movement is eventful and often powerful. Graźyna Bacewicz’s Third Symphony is a most interesting composition, which I’m keen to explore further. Oramo and the BBCSO do it very convincingly.

...Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra have presented the works with such skill and commitment. I hope they’ll record more of this composer’s orchestral music for Chandos. When my colleagues and I sampled this SACD...we were impressed by the big, immediate sound. Further listening on my own equipment has reinforced that view. The sound has a good dynamic range and plenty of presence. Chandos has presented both the music and the performances in an ideally vivid fashion. The booklet includes an extended essay by Katarzyna Naliwajek.

-- MusicWeb International

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Bacewicz: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 / Oramo, BBC Symphony
Chandos Nov 2023
SACD
$21.99

Legendary Treasures - Piano Trios / Gilels, Kogan, Et Al

Doremi

$101.99 Aug 07, 2007

BEETHOVEN Piano Trios: in B?, “Archduke”; 1 in E?, WoO 38. 1 MOZART Piano Trios: in B?, K 254; 1 in G, K 564. 1 HAYDN Piano Trios: 1 in D, Hob XV:16; in g, Hob XV:19. TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Trio in a, op. 50. 1 SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio in e, op. 67. 1 SAINT-SAËNS Piano Trio in F, op. 18. 1 SCHUMANN Piano Trio in d, op. 63. 1 BORODIN Piano Trio, in D. 2 FAURÉ Piano Quartet, op. 15. 3 BRAHMS Trio for Piano, Violin, and Horn, op. 40 4 • Emil Gilels (pn); 1,2,3,4 Leonid Kogan (vn); 1,3,4 Mstislav Rostropovich (vc); 1,3 Dmitry Tziganov (vn); 2 Sergei Shirinsky (vc); 2 Rudolf Barshai (va); 3 Yakov Shapiro (hn) 4 • DOREMI 7921 (5 CDs: 344:47)

This impressive five-CD set from DOREMI presents a fascinating portrait of a splendid Soviet-era ensemble, whose members—pianist Emil Gilels, violinist Leonid Kogan, and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich—collaborated for more than a decade beginning in 1949. They are joined by violist Rudolf Barshai (with whom Kogan and Rostropovich formed a String Trio during the 1950s) in the first Fauré Quartet, and the horn-player Yakov Shapiro joins Gilels and Kogan in the Brahms Trio. The Borodin Trio that rounds out the set features Gilels with two of his earlier chamber music partners, violinist Dmitry Tziganov and cellist Sergei Shirinsky, both members of the Beethoven Quartet.

The least of these performances are very good and the best of them nothing short of brilliant. The “Archduke” Trio must be one of the finest on record. In the first movement development, the juxtaposition of string pizzicatos with the piano’s trills creates an uncanny, otherworldly atmosphere. When the recapitulation finally arrives, it seems not just a satisfying homecoming, but a deliverance from the outer realms of abstraction. The ensemble finesse in the Scherzo is breathtaking, while the spiritual depths of the unique Andante cantabile are plumbed with grace and reverence. The same sort of Apollonian approach that makes this reading of the “Archduke” so successful is applied to the Tchaikovsky trio, with stunning results. Even some of the most celebrated performances of this difficult work (the Rubinstein/Heifetz/Piatigorsky, RCA 63025 among them) narrowly skirt the maudlin. Here, however, the three Russians bring a sincerity and simplicity to Tchaikovsky’s every gesture, allowing his elegy for Nicolas Rubinstein to speak with eloquence, at once dignified, restrained, and heartfelt.

In the Schumann Trio, Gilels, Kogan, and Rostropovich achieve a prodigy of imaginative interpretation, all within the context of the most sophisticated and refined ensemble-playing. It is hard to imagine a more compelling conception of this impassioned score. They also approach Shostakovich’s eerily atmospheric Second Trio with the utmost conviction. The hectic second movement is a kinesthetic tour de force , while the finale’s unconventional oriental textures are deftly maneuvered to great effect.

Predictably, the Haydn and Mozart readings are less satisfactory. Generalizations are always dangerous, but perhaps it is not inaccurate to say that, prior to the inevitable cross-pollination with the West occurring during later decades through travel and recordings, Soviet musicians approached Haydn and Mozart with a prettified delicacy. The results can often sound mannered, if not downright bloodless, and light years away from what we consider appropriate late-18th century style today. One case in point is the weepy vibrato Kogan employs in the sustained passages of the plaintive Andante opening of the Haydn G-Minor Trio; another is the flaccid Allegretto of the Mozart G-Major Trio, where phrase shapes are obliterated by an anachronistic effort to achieve the late-19th century ideal of the “long line.” Despite these reservations, even the 18th-century repertoire is of historical interest: this is the way this music was played behind the Iron Curtain in the years following WW II.

The sound of these recordings is consistent with the technological resources of Melodiya (the original issuing label) during the 1950s. Most were studio recordings, but some were live performances. One can discern the improvement of equipment and recording techniques between the earliest of the performances (the Tchaikovsky Trio, 1950) and the latest (the Shostakovich, 1959). Though the sound is flattened-out relative to modern standards, balances are superb, and no detail seems lost. The accompanying leaflet contains thumbnail bios of the principal artists as well as the works and timings, but no information on the matrices (beyond photographic reproductions of the record labels) or the transfer process. All in all, fascinating performances of representative repertoire by master musicians. Highly recommended.

FANFARE: Patrick Rucker

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Legendary Treasures - Piano Trios / Gilels, Kogan, Et Al
Doremi Aug 2007
CD
$101.99

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Cangiasi: Scherzi forastieri
Brilliant Classics Jul 2025
CD
~~$12.99~~ $9.99

Schulhoff: Piano Works, Vol. 3 / Weichert

Grand Piano

$19.99 Apr 08, 2016

The program included in this album spans almost twenty years of composer Erwin Schulhoff’s career. Tracks included are Suite dansante en Jazz (1931), 9 Kleine Reigen (1913), Ostinato (1925), 5 Etudes de Jazz (1926), and Zez Confrey's Kitten on the Keys (1921). The influence of jazz, ragtime, Expressionism, and Dada are clearly heard in these works, some of which are rarely recorded. Caroline Weichert breathes new life into this music. Booklet notes are available in English and German.

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Schulhoff: Piano Works, Vol. 3 / Weichert
Grand Piano Apr 2016
CD
$19.99

CHOPIN: SCHERZI & BALLADES
WARNER CLASSICS Oct 2018
CD
$12.09

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SCHEDRIN: Piano Terzetto / 3 Funny Pieces / Cello Sonata
SWR Apr 2007
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Life With Czech Music - Dvorak, Smetana / Charles Mackerras

Supraphon

$88.99 Oct 15, 2010

Also available: Life with Czech Music - Janácek, Martinu / Sir Charles Mackerras

-----

Reviews:

Symphonic Variations, Legends, Scherzo capriccioso

Charles Mackerras recorded all of this music in London for EMI's "Eminence" series, but those discs may be very difficult to find, and in any case they fail to stand up to these marvelous remakes. What makes so many Mackerras performances special is the conductor's buoyant sense of rhythm, and when he's working the Czech Philharmonic in top form that result can be (and in this case is) exquisite. There's no need to go on at length about the virtues of these performances. A few examples suffice to illustrate the point: there's the wonderful lightness of touch Mackerras brings to the waltz episode in the Symphonic Variations and its dazzling final fugue; the care with which he balances the percussion in the Scherzo capriccioso so that its rhythmic contributions tell without ever becoming overbearing; and in the Legends, the snap he brings to the quicker pieces (such as No. 3) and the wonderfully subtle way he sets up the appearance (in No. 6) of that gorgeous tune from the Third Symphony's slow movement. Sonically this disc is equally fine. Note the perfect balances between winds and strings throughout and the gorgeous contribution of the harp in the Legends that call for it. Totally great!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Symphony no 6, Golden Spinning Wheel

In his equally laudatory review of this fantastic new release, my colleague Christophe Huss salutes Supraphon for managing to remain true to its dedication to Czech music while at the same time upholding the highest standards of performance quality. To this observation I can only add "Amen!" The label already has a couple of noteworthy versions of Dvorák's luminous Sixth Symphony with the incomparable (in this music anyway) Czech Philharmonic--a very good one by Neumann and a classic account by Ancerl. In fact, this symphony has been very well-served on disc, with excellent recordings by Kubelik, Rowicki, and Suitner, to name three of the best that come immediately to mind. Nevertheless, this newcomer bids fair to move right to the top of the available discography.

Recorded live, the rapport in evidence between Charles Mackerras and the orchestra really is the stuff of legends. There are so many outstanding moments that it's hard to settle on just a few, but consider the fortissimo counterstatement of the opening tune, just a touch "pesante" for added emphasis, or the gorgeously natural rubato between phrases of the same movement's second subject, and the way the coda really takes off and builds in energy straight through to the final climax. Then there's the usual gorgeous wind playing from the orchestra, so evident in the Adagio. Mackerras drives the scherzo with exhilarating abandon, and although he never bears down on the rhythm too heavily (always maintaining the lilt of the dance), the clarity of texture allows such characterful touches as the offbeat timpani in the reprise to register with full impact. I also love the extra punch he brings to the principal section's return after the trio.

Best of all, Mackerras treats us to what must be the most thrilling account of the finale yet captured on disc. It takes off like the wind and never looks back, simply accumulating energy as it goes. The great string fugato that initiates the coda flies by as if on mighty wings, and the grandiosity of the closing pages never loses that vital rhythmic impulse that gives the music its inner life. I wish that Supraphon had not included the applause at the end, but when you consider that all of this, and so much else besides, is happening in real time you will understand that anyone who believes that the era of "great" conductors is past simply hasn't been listening. If this sort of artistic communion between conductor and orchestra in the service of a brilliant interpretation isn't greatness, then we need to ask whether the term has any meaning at all.

The Golden Spinning Wheel (a studio recording this time) also receives what is arguably its finest performance on disc, even considering Harnoncourt's outstanding recent version. The opening, usually a blur of muddy rhythms in the lower strings and indifferently played percussion, here sounds as crisp and clean as a spring morning. I have never understood why some performances cut the central episode wherein the holy hermit gets back the heroine's various body parts (so he can patch her together again) in exchange for the components of the golden spinning wheel. The threefold musical repetition is not literal, and the orchestration is enchanting. The section is, in effect, the slow movement following the scherzo in which poor Dornicka gets hacked to bits in the first place, and it's a necessary four minutes of contrast. Finally, this is the moment where we encounter most of the "spinning wheel" music of the title. Mackerras rightly doesn't delete it, and hearing those deliciously chubby brass chorales and lovely wind solos alongside such characterful phrasing, you can't imagine why anyone would. The last few minutes offer as pure an expression of joy as you'll ever hear.

Supraphon's engineering is outstanding in both works, a touch warmer in the symphony (perhaps as a result of the presence of an audience), but in all respects as fine as any from this source. That audience, by the way, is absolutely silent, and with music-making of such spellbinding quality going on it's no wonder. Coming hard on the heels of his sensational Janácek double CD a few months ago, it's clear that Mackerras' Supraphon recordings will comprise a small but outstanding legacy worthy to stand beside the great recordings of such legends as Talich or Ancerl, and that the great Czech tradition is very much alive both in Prague and at Supraphon. Buy a few of these: they make terrific gifts for special occasions, and you can be sure to get a hearty "Thank you!" from the lucky objects of your affection. But first, treat yourself.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Symphonies 8 & 9

At 80 years young, Charles Mackerras remains one of the great conductors of our era, not to mention one of the most unheralded. His unfailing musicality, intelligence, and sheer joy in performing communicates vividly in these two glorious performances, beautifully recorded live in September, 2005. They are the kind of interpretations that make you listen as if for the first time to music you probably know well. This isn't just because Mackerras opts for the Urtext editions of both scores, most noticeable in the finale of the Eighth Symphony, where after the central climax he has the cellos play the variant of the main theme contained in Dvorák's autograph (Harnoncourt and a few others do similarly). What really distinguishes these performances is their sheer excitement and vital sense of flow, a function of rhythmically characterful phrasing allied to ideally transparent textures.

This is as true of the bucolic first two movements of the Eighth Symphony, where the woodwinds are especially delightful, as it is in the tremendously physical and passionate initial allegro of the Ninth. Has this movement's coda ever sounded more stormily agitated? And notice how marvellously Mackerras judges the tempo of the ensuing Largo, perfectly poised between rapt contemplation and easeful forward motion. Rhythmic acuity is the hallmark of both scherzos: a deliciously pointed waltz in the Eighth, and a swiftly vivacious Slavonic dance in the Ninth.

In the two finales, so often turned into stop-and-start affairs by less adept conductors, Mackerras creates an irresistible feeling of culmination, choosing rousing initial tempos and then for the most part sticking to them. The Eighth's concluding variations seldom have come across more cogently, particularly the lazy last three, which never bog down in excessive Romantic reverie. The Prague Symphony Orchestra responds to Mackerras' direction with amazing gusto, as if it doesn't already know the music backwards and forwards, and the audience is admirably silent. There are other wonderful performances of this music out there, but this truly is as good as it gets.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Slavonic Dances

It's been along time since Supraphon made a great new recording of Dvorák's delicious Slavonic Dances, but it's been worth the wait. Charles Mackerras is one of the two or three finest conductors alive at present, and he knows this music, loves it, and makes the orchestra play it as if it were as fresh as the day it was written. This is no mean feat, since the Czech Philharmonic knows these pieces blindfolded; or at least they think that they do. It's amazing how many seemingly new details Mackerras reveals (particularly in his characterful treatment of the percussion parts, and the careful dynamic balances involving the brass section) that on closer examination turn out to have been exactly what the composer wrote all along. He's particularly crisp and attentive to rhythm in the waltz-like dances (Op. 46 No. 6 and Op. 72 No. 8), where he catches the music's lilt to perfection. But then, he doesn't really put a foot wrong anywhere. The great recordings of these pieces are by Kubelik (DG), Dorati (Mercury), Szell (Sony), Talich (Supraphon), and Sejna (Supraphon). This newcomer, warmly recorded with fine inner detail, belongs in their august company.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Symphonic Poems

"You won't find better conducting in this music anywhere. Charles Mackerras finds so many wonderful details in these pieces that it's impossible to list them all, and he does it at all tempos and dynamic levels. Listen to his subtle underlining of rhythm in The Wood Dove's opening funeral march, and compare it to the unrivaled glitter of its central party music. Bask in the woodwind timbres at the opening of The Noonday Witch, and marvel at just how much music Mackerras finds even in the stormy climax of The Water Goblin. It's an unalloyed delight from the first note to the last.

Of course, the Czech Philharmonic plays these pieces magnificently. The sonics, however, are not as brilliant as the performances, and that's not unusual from this venue, with its somewhat cavernous acoustic. Slightly recessed brass and percussion lessen the impact of the climaxes somewhat, but it's awfully hard to quibble when the interpretations are this strong. Self-recommending."

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Ma Vlast
Taken down live at the 1999 Prague Spring Festival, Charles Mackerras' performance offers a typically fresh, vital look at Smetana's masterpiece. With the Czech Philharmonic in fine form, the result is completely recommendable, even if it doesn't have quite the personality of Kubelik's emotional return performance of 1990, or that special orchestral sonority that Talich or Ancerl enjoyed. Mackerras' interpretive insights are subtle, but fans of this music will find plenty to enjoy, such as the correctly played (for once!) trumpet rhythms at the climax of "Vltava", the carefully balanced brass and string sonorities at the opening of "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields", and the propulsive thrust that cleverly disguises the monothematic repetitiousness of "Tábor" and "Blaník". The up-close, live recording manages to minimize most audience noises but necessarily spotlights certain instruments (harps right at the beginning) in a way that precludes a truly expansive soundstage. On the other hand, the notorious reverberation of the Rudolfinum has been successfully tamed, thanks in part to the presence of the public. We're not exactly dying for another recording of this work, but it's impossible not to welcome music making of this enthusiasm and idiomatic security with anything less than open arms.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Life With Czech Music - Dvorak, Smetana / Charles Mackerras
Supraphon Oct 2010
CD
$88.99

Brahms, Schumann: Piano Quintets / Joyce, Alexander String Quartet

Foghorn Classics

$16.99 Jan 01, 2014

SCHUMANN Piano Quintet. BRAHMS Piano Quintet • Alexander Str Qrt; Joyce Yang (pn) • FOGHORN 2014 (70:24)

One would think that the Schumann and Brahms piano quintets would make natural partners on disc; yet, they’ve been paired together fewer times than I’d have thought. I found no more than half a dozen such couplings, and interestingly, of those, only one (not counting the present Alexander Quartet’s version) is anywhere near recent, and that is a 2007 recording with the Artemis Quartet and Leif Ove Andsnes on Virgin, which received a less than favorable review from me in 31:4. Three others fall into the historical category: a recording issued by Pearl with the Busch Quartet and Rudolf Serkin (Brahms, 1938; Schumann, 1942); a recording issued in a three-disc set by Testament with the Hollywood Quartet and Victor Aller (Brahms, 1954; Schumann, 1955); and a recording by Doremi with the Tel Aviv Quartet and Pnina Salzman (Brahms, 1974; Schumann, 1983). There’s also a pairing of the two works on a 2000 Globe CD, featuring the Rubio Quartet and Paul Komen.

This led me to wonder why these two piano quintets by two men who held each other in high esteem, and whose lives intersected in very personal ways, would not be joined together on disc more often. Then, listening to them, one after the other, as they’re programmed on the Alexander’s CD—the Schumann first, the Brahms second—some possible reasons presented themselves.

To begin with, the Brahms Piano Quintet dwarfs the Schumann, and not just in its duration, which is some 12 minutes longer, but in the thickness of its textures, the weightiness of its material, and especially the ponderousness of its piano part. Schumann, the keyboard virtuoso who wrote such magnificent music for his own instrument, also seemed to understand intuitively how to combine piano and strings in a way that was balanced and transparent and that allowed for the strings to be heard on an equal footing. He leveled the playing field. Steven Ritter, in a 34:1 review of the Quintet performed by the Leipzig Quartet and Christian Zacharias on MDG, wrote, “Schumann in this piece knew what he was writing for, and the balance among the strings with the piano is well-nigh perfect.” Exactly right.

Brahms, too, was reputedly a formidable pianist, but his writing for the instrument, at least in his earlier works, was of a different nature. It was muscular, bulky, and dense. For the string players in his Quintet, it’s a constant struggle to be heard.

Then there’s the music itself. Much of Schumann’s Quintet gives off a feeling of spontaneous inspiration. For the most part, it’s a buoyant, ebullient work. Brahms’s Quintet is not spontaneous sounding at all. Much of it, with its convoluted rhythmic contortions, sounds laboriously worked out. Add to that a score containing some of Brahms’s most violent music, and in the very dark key of F Minor—which, according to Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (Ideas for an Aesthetic of Sound Art) (1806), expresses “deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery, and longing for the grave”—and you have a work that’s grim, desperate, and brutal in three of its four movements. Can there be any more sudden or crueler ending to a piece than the fateful three-note thud that decapitates the Finale dead in its tracks?

The piano quintets by Schumann and Brahms are indeed very different works, which, on emotional and psychological levels, probably wouldn’t make compatible marriage partners.

There’s also the age difference to take into account. Schumann composed his Quintet in 1842, more than 10 years before he and Clara met Brahms for the first time in Düsseldorf in 1853. By the time Brahms completed his Piano Quintet in 1864, Schumann had been dead for eight years.

But Brahms’s Quintet was one of those works that had a lengthy gestation and a difficult birth, struggling to find its final form. Originally, it took shape as a two-cello String Quintet. Had Brahms not destroyed that first version, it would have been his only string quintet scored for two cellos, following the example of Schubert’s great C-Major Quintet. As it turned out, Brahms’s only two extant string quintets, opp. 88 and 111, are scored for two violas, following the examples of Mozart.

Unhappy with the piece as a String Quintet, Brahms next revised it as a Sonata for Two Pianos. He was well enough satisfied with that version not to have destroyed it, but Clara Schumann and Hermann Levi, who performed the two-piano version together in concert, both felt that the piece needed a bigger, perhaps orchestral, treatment. Brahms wasn’t ready yet to write a symphony, but he took his friends’ advice to heart, and rearranged the score one last time as the Piano Quintet we know today. The two-piano version, however, was preserved and published as op. 34b. But filed under the category of “can’t leave well-enough alone,” the destroyed two-cello Quintet version was exhumed in a speculative reconstruction by Anssi Karttunen and recorded at least once that I know of, on a Toccata Classics CD (TOCC0066).

The Alexander’s Schumann is indeed breathtaking, as much for its sweeping lyricism and emotional responsiveness to the music’s impassioned Romantic gestures, as for its technical precision, ensemble balance, and tonal bloom. It stands head and shoulders, by far, above any of the recent recordings of the work to come my way. I already mentioned the disappointing Artemis effort; and even more recently, I found the Fine Arts Quartet’s entry with pianist Xiayin Wang on Naxos “workmanlike and professional, but not emotionally moving or inspiring.” Yet another letdown was a live recording from the Heimbach Festival with Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, and friends, a performance I found wanting for a bit more rehearsal time.

Quite honestly, until the arrival of this new version of the Schumann from the Alexander Quartet and Joyce Yang, my favorites have been a performance by the Schubert Ensemble on ASV, reviewed in 30:3, and the classic 1966 recording by the Guarneri Quartet with Arthur Rubinstein, a review of which (assuming it was reviewed) most likely predates the Fanfare Archive. The Alexander’s Schumann is simply wonderful, taking pride of place among all others with which I’m familiar.

The Brahms Quintet, too, is special. The hair-on-fire Scherzo, in particular, is a guided tour through Brahms’s rhythmic arsenal. If the players thoroughly appreciate the pulse-quickening, heart-pounding effect this movement is intended to have, and they deliver it accordingly, it should make you want to jump out of your skin. No one, of course, has literally ever done such a thing; it’s just an expression, like being beside oneself, which, according to quantum theory, at least, is a possibility. But I have to say that the Alexander’s performance is super-charged and electrifyingly exciting. Needless to say, the ensemble’s terrific reading of Brahms’s Piano Quintet is not limited to just the Scherzo. This new recording of the Schumann and Brahms piano quintets will be a serious contender for my year-end Want List.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Brahms, Schumann: Piano Quintets / Joyce, Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics Jan 2014
CD
$16.99

Tcherepnin: Piano Music (1913-61) / Shilyaev

Toccata

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Oct 30, 2012

This unusual album begins with archival recordings, in excellent sound, of the Russian-born composer-pianist Tcherepnin (1899–1977) playing some of his most memorable piano music. The 2nd part of the CD, performed by the Russian pianist Shilyaev, presents a selection of attractive, rarely heard works from various periods in Tcherepnin's career.

REVIEW:

As the only composer to have done significant work in all 5 UN Security Council nations—Russia, Britain, France, China, and the USA—it is unsurprising that Willi Reich, in his biography called Alexander Tcherepnin a ‘musical citizen of the world’.

Piano Sonata No.1 began life as No. 14 but Tcherepnin destroyed vast amounts of his juvenilia; not that you’d ever guess that this sonata was written by someone so young it is so incredibly self assured, an assurance which will have come from all the works he had previously composed. It is a fabulously rich piece of writing with a theme that emerges in the first movement that would have been worthy of Liszt. This sonata and the Op. 85 piece are played by the composer himself showing his complete mastery of the instrument both technically and compositionally.

Incredible as it may seem for such a prolific composer his second sonata had to wait 42 years to be written. The first movement is fascinating, alternating between lento and animato while the second, marked andantino is wistfully beautiful. The final animato has the sonata finally disappear mid-phrase.

His Quatre Préludes Nostalgiques from 1922 come next, the first of which creates an air of mystery. The second is a quiet interlude before the third’s tempestuoso lives up to its name. The last one is a mixture of sadness and grandeur.

The final work on the disc played by the composer himself is a little 1½ minute cracker with almost all the notes coming from the piano’s lowest register. At this point pianist Mikhail Shilyaev takes over showing how gently he can caress the keys which is what is required with the first of his contributions Moment Musical from 1913, when the composer was only 14, and is its first recording.

From 1918 to 1919 we have another first recording, Tcherepnin’s Petite Suite. This is full of delights. Rondo à la Russe from 1946 is “Russian” as it is supposed to be but interestingly Tcherepnin otherwise rarely shows his origins in his music though sometimes he does remind one of Rachmaninoff or Prokofiev. Entretiens composed over a ten year period from 1920 to 1930 is in ten parts, all of them showing the composer’s inventive flair. One of the recurring ideas in his music is the evocation of bells as with the final piece from the set.

Tcherepnin enjoyed fun as much as being serious and this is amply demonstrated in the little Polka from 1944. Scherzo from 1917 has elements of both Prokofiev, Tcherepnin’s idol at the time, and Rachmaninoff, though much harsher in sound to his lushness, though it begins that way. The set of 10 little pieces that together form Expressions, dating from 1951, are the only ones played by Shilyaev that are not first recordings and each bears a title rather than a tempo marking. At the Fair brings some Russian elements into play and I was reminded of Stravinsky. Barcarolle is a beautiful and delightful sounding piece and one of the longest on the disc at 3 minutes long; Tcherepnin had an amazing ability to exploit ideas within a tiny time-frame. La Quatrième from 1948-9, the last offering, is another first recording. It’s full of grandeur and the title is a reference to the Fourth Republic in France which heralded its post-war era following liberation. It received its première only in 1959 since it was part of a project by the publisher to have several compositions from immigrant composers of the École de Paris group in a collection that never materialized.

The overall impression one is left with after hearing this disc and others of Tcherepnin’s music is the breadth of his inventiveness; there is never a dull moment and discovering his music has been one of the musical highlights for me this year. As one would expect the tracks recorded this year sound fresher and crisper than those recorded by the composer in March 1965, though to have his own interpretations of those works is so valuable. Tcherepnin showed what a considerable pianist he was while Shilyaev amply shows his interpretive skills with that full range of moods and touches. This is vital for music that can range from a mere whisper to almost cataclysmic thunder.

The booklet notes by Benjamin Folkman are extremely well written, highly informative and contribute towards making the whole experience both enjoyable and memorable. If you have discovered the wonderful world of Tcherepnin’s piano music then this disc is a must for you and, if not, it is a perfect place to start to get to know this fascinating composer.

-- MusicWeb International

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Tcherepnin: Piano Music (1913-61) / Shilyaev
Toccata Oct 2012
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Scherzinger: African Math

New Focus Recordings

$20.99 Mar 10, 2015

Martin Scherzinger is a South Africanborn composer and media theorist, who works on and engages with the music of Africa. African Math is an album of piano trio music that "Africanizes" these western instruments (flipping the typical appropriation of indigenous instruments on it's head). Piano, violin, and cello are used as conduits for material originally intended for mbira, or kalahari, or Ugandan xylophone. Underlying the layer of transcription, Scherzinger highlights and delights in the rich musical mathematics which exist at the core of so many musical traditions in Africa.

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Scherzinger: African Math
New Focus Recordings Mar 2015
CD
$20.99

R.KORSAKOV: SCHEHERAZADE
IMPORTS Mar 2014
CD
$16.49

Mahler & Zemlinsky: Symphony No. 6

Sono Luminus

$16.99 Oct 30, 2026

By the mid-19th century, the burgeoning piano industry was in full flower, incorporating many developments and improvements in design. This led to increased consumer demand and mass production. Consequently the piano evolved from being a luxury item to home entertainment center. Until the advent of radio and recordings, this was how you experienced music at home. Apart from traveling to concerts, the only way to get to know, say, a new Brahms Symphony or the latest Wagner or Verdi opera was to play them at the piano, more often than not in arrangements for one piano four hands. Glancing through myriad music catalogs (not to mention IMSLP), it seems that nearly every symphony, string quartet, choral work and opera had once been available in duet arrangements. Most publishers employed staff arrangers for this task; indeed, one could find certain works in more than one or two editions, such as the Beethoven Symphonies. Composers like Liszt, Brahms, Smetana and Dvorak either made their own four hand arrangements or else supervised others to do so. In essence, the piano duet medium represented the most viable way to dissemenate new orchestral works, particularly those for which concert performances were few and far between. One case in point concerns Bruckner's 1877 reworking of his Symphony No. 3. Although it had little success, that didn't stop the 18-year-old Gustav Mahler from transcribing it for piano duet for what is considered to be Mahler's first publication. In turn, Mahler's disciple Bruno Walter arranged Mahler's First and Second Symphonies for four hands. And Alexander von Zemlinsky, another close member of Mahler's inner circle, unveiled his four-hand version of the Sixth in 1906. Born in Vienna on October 14th 1871, Zemlinsky played both piano and organ from a young age, and was admitted to the Vienna Conservatory in 1884 where he studied piano and composition. Brahms apparently was impressed by Zemlinsky's Clarinet Trio (1896), while Mahler himself conducted the premier of Zemlinsky's opera Es war einmal at the Vienna Hofoper in 1900. That same year he made the acquaintance of the 21-year-old aspiring composer Alma Schindler. Their initial teacher/student relationship soon evolved into a turbulent love affair that lasted until the following year when Alma met Mahler, whom she eventually married. Mahler composed his Sixth Symphony between 1903 and 1905, but continued to make adjustments until his death in 1911. He conducted it's world premiere at Essen on May 27th 1906. Out of all of his purely instrumental symphonies, the Sixth is scored for the largest and most varied assortment of instruments. Although Mahler did call this symphony 'Tragic,' he did not designate an official title. Yet the music indisputably embodies the classic Greek idea of tragedy in the futility of one's heroic striving against an inevitable fate. As such, it's the only one of Mahler's symphonies that concludes neither happily nor peacefully. The opening bars introduce the driving march rhythm that loom large throughout the symphony. A chorale-like theme leads into the passionate F Major second theme that Alma claimed to describe her. Not all conductors (nor Faliks and Schlosberg) observe Mahler's indicated exposition repeat, a convention that had long been considered as optional. The development section subjects the themes to elaborate and compact contrapuntal interplay. While one misses the spatial impact of cowbells against soft celesta chords accompanied by high triple-piano violin tremelos, Zemlinsky compensates with equally compelling keyboard textures and pedal effects. Mahler never made up his mind about the order of the two middle movements. His manuscript and first published score places the Scherzo before the Andante, although his performances opted for Andante-Scherzo, which is reflected in the 2003 critical edition. In any event, listeners can program this release to suit their own preferences. In addition to reiterating the motto march motive, the Scherzo stands out for it's quirky and highly original dance sequences. The Trio, marked 'Altvaterisch' ('in an old-fashioned style'), features irregular rhythms and off-beat accents that, according to Alma's memoirs, represent 'the arhythmic games of (our) two little children, tottering in zigzags over the sand. ' Somehow the third section dance's woodwind squeals and col legno string effects prove just as grotesque and menacing via Zemlinsky's piano scoring. By contrast, the Andante provides the Symphony's only sustained point of respite, alternating between two of Mahler's longest and most heartfelt melodies. As writer David Hurwitz astutely explains in his Mahler Symphonies 'Owner's Manual,' the Finale's ambitious dramatic trajectory takes place in four distinct musical zones, each with it's own specific atmosphere: 1) the familiar march elements, 2) the surging lyrical tunes, 3) the introspective pastoral passages and 4) a 'twilight zone' full of terror and mystery. With Mahler's encouragement, both Zemlinsky and Schoenberg founded the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkünstler (Alliance of Creative Musicians) in Vienna in 1904 to promote and disseminate new works. One outcome of the organization was Zemlinsky's four-hand arrangement of the Sixth, which he and Mahler played in Schoenberg's presence. The performance may well have planted the seeds for Schoenberg founding his Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen (Society for Private Musical Performance) in 1918. Under Schoenberg's supervision, Zemlinsky's arrangement was performed twice at the Society by pianists Eduard Steuermann and Ernst Barich. In his biography of Mahler, Erwin Ratz wrote that 'The performance. Was a highlight in the concerts of the Society. In about thirty rehearsals Schoenberg had prepared the performance with loving care. In retrospect it may be said that the four-handed rendition bears equal comparison with the performance of the original version. ' Naturally 88 piano keys cannot replicate the visceral impact of Mahler's unprecedented orchestration and his genius for instrumental color. However, since Mahler's orchestral original is ubiquitous in concert and via recordings, one should welcome this opportunity to experience Mahler's Sixth in a relatively unfamiliar yet fresh and authentic light. As Inna Faliks and Daniel Schlosberg cogently reveal in this remarkable recording, the music works well on the piano. In purely keyboard terms, Mahler's contrapuntal acumen and rich harmonic language make a pointed, intimate and idiomatic impact, losing little in translation. Moreover, two pianists sharing one bench can respond with unusual flexibility and immediacy to the music's harrowingly wide emotional gamut, channeling the spirit of Zemlinsky and Mahler hovering over the keyboard when the ink had barely dried on the page. - Jed Distler

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Mahler & Zemlinsky: Symphony No. 6
Sono Luminus Oct 2026
CD
$16.99

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Accentus Music

$22.99 Jan 06, 2017

One of the greatest musical creations of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is undoubtedly his Scheherazade symphonic suite. The work, which is based on the famous tales of Princess Scheherazade of the Arabian Nights, has now been interpreted by the Philharmonia Zurich with its general music director Fabio Luisi at the rostrum. And one of its Zurich Opera House performances –with the ensemble “in top form”, to quote the Neue Zürcher Zeitung – has now been committed to recording. “Concertmaster Bartlomiej Niziol, who, with his solo violin, embodies the figure of Scheherazade as she tells her life story, plays his prominent part with impeccable intonation and great creative freedom; and Fabio Luisi conducts with a keenly emotional air and, with deftly-varied drive and restraint, brings the whole tale to outstanding dramatic life.”

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Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Accentus Music Jan 2017
CD
$22.99

Chopin: Scherzi, Etudes, Mazurkas
Supraphon Jun 2011
CD
$28.99

Lorin Hollander: Complete RCA Album Collection

Sony Masterworks

$23.48 ~~$46.98~~ Save 50% Jun 24, 2022

The American pianist Lorin Hollander was only 14 years old in 1958 when he recorded his first album for RCA, a personal selection of “22 Favorites” entitled Discovering the Piano. Its success led to a sequel the following year. Over the next eight years he produced an acclaimed series of releases for the Red Label, establishing an international career which would eventually encompass more than 2,500 appearances as a pianist, conductor and passionate advocate for arts education. Hollander has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and collaborated with conductors such as Bernstein, Szell, Ormandy, Leinsdorf, Previn, Haitink, Ozawa and Mehta. Sony Classical is now pleased to present a new 8-disc box set offering Lorin Hollander’s complete RCA discography for the first time on CD.

A child prodigy, he was born in New York City into a musical family – his father was associate concertmaster of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Toscanini. Lorin began playing the piano at the age of three and within two years had memorized the complete first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. At eleven, he made his Carnegie Hall début playing Mozart’s C major Concerto K 467. His list of distinguished teachers and mentors includes Eduard Steuermann, Olga Stroumillo, Leon Fleisher, Max Rudolf and Rudolf Serkin.

Sony’s Lorin Hollander box begins with those two early albums of “favorites” by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Falla, Granados, Rachmaninoff and Paderewski. In 1963, with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony, he premièred and recorded the Fantasy and Variations for Piano and Orchestra by Norman Dello Joio. RCA Victor’s release, a coupling with the Ravel G major Concerto, became Hollander’s international record début and found critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. High Fidelity in the US wrote that “the eighteen-year-old pianist’s amazing digital skill and bravura are just what are demanded for the Fantasy and Variations”, while Gramophone in the UK, was grateful for “our first taste on records of the music of Norman Dello Joio, the 50-year-old New York composer who was at one time a pupil of Hindemith. The piano part is immensely athletic: Hollander scuttles up and down the keyboard with great efficiency, and the orchestra is equally on its toes.”

Hollander recorded further virtuoso concertos in 1964 and 1965. The Prokofiev Fifth, also with Leinsdorf and the BSO, was hailed as “a super-brilliant performance” by High Fidelity. Of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto coupled with Bloch’s Scherzo fantasque – made in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under André Previn – High Fidelity wrote enthusiastically: “The Scherzo fantasque has many of the jagged dissonances and virile qualities of Bloch’s writing in the early Twenties. It is fiercely virtuosic and thus ideally suited to the percussive, tigerish Mr. Hollander. In the Khachaturian … Hollander’s work is also first-rate technically … I find the performance excellent.”

Two solo albums from 1965 and 1966 rounded out Hollander’s RCA discography, Mussorsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, coupled with works by Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, and a coupling of Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata, the Schumann Arabeske, a Brahms Intermezzo and Myra Hess’s beloved Bach transcription “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. The set concludes with a curiosity, recorded for Columbia’s “Modern American Music Series” in 1973: the concert work for soprano and chamber ensemble fashioned by American composer Leon Kirchner from his opera Lily. Kirchner plays the piano part and conducts an ensemble featuring Lorin Hollander on celesta, clarinettist Richard Stoltzman, violinist James Buswell and violist Nobuko Imai. The soprano soloist is Diana Hoagland.

SET CONTENTS

DISC 1:
• Rimsky-Korsakoff (arr. Rachmaninoff): Flight of the Bumblebee
• Granados: Spanish Dance in E Minor, Op. 5, No. 5 "Playera - Andaluzia"
• Schubert: Momento Musical In F Minor, Op. 94, No. 3
• Mendelssohn: Venetian Boat Song, No. 6
• Chopin: Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 "Revolutionary"
• Paderewski: Menuet célèbre in G Major
• Falla: Ritual Fire Dance
• Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3
• Chopin: Für Elise (Albumblatt)
• Chopin: Prelude in C Minor, Op. 28/20
• Brahms: Waltz in A-Flat Major, Op. 39/15
• Debussy: Claire de lune
• Chopin: Waltz in C Sharp Minor, Op. 64/2
• Beethoven: Minuet No. 2 in G Major
• Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K. 545: I. Allegro "Sonata Facile"
• Mozart (arr. Hollander): Minuet (From "Don Giovanni")
• Bach: Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 784
• Schumann: Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: X. Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend.
• Schumann: Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: II. Soldatenmarsch. Munter und straff
• Schumann: Träumerei
• Grieg: Anitra's Dance
• Chopin: Etude in G-Flat, Op. 25, No. 9 "Butterfly"

DISC 2:

• Chopin: Polonaise in A-Flat Major, Op. 53
• Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 31
• Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 in D-Flat Major, S.244/6
• Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 3, S.216
• Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117/2
• Brahms: Rhapsody in G Minor, Op. 79/2
• Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3/2

DISC 3:

• Dello Joio: Fantasy and Variations for Piano and Orchestra
• Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major
Lorin Hollander, piano / Boston Symphony Orchestra / Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

DISC 4:

• Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19 [Erick Friedman, violin]
• Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 5 in G Major, Op. 55
Lorin Hollander, piano / Boston Symphony Orchestra / Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

DISC 5:

• Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in D-Flat Major, Op. 38
• Bloch: Scherzo fantasque, B. 78
Lorin Hollander, piano / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Andre Previn, conductor

DISC 6:

• Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
• Rachmaninoff: Prelude In C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3/2
• Prokofiev: Toccata, Op. 11

DISC 7:

• Beethoven: Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31/2 "The Tempest
• Bach, J. S. (arr. Hess): Choral: "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"
• Brahms: Intermezzo in B-Flat Minor, Op. 117/2
• Schumann: Arabeske, Op. 18

DISC 8:

• Kirchner: Lily (1973)
Diana Hoagland, soprano / Columbia Chamber Soloists / Leon Kirchner, pianist/conductor
• Kirchner: String Quartet No. 2 (1958)
Lenox String Quartet

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Lorin Hollander: Complete RCA Album Collection
Sony Masterworks Jun 2022
CD
~~$46.98~~ $23.48

Schubert: Piano Trio Op 100, Etc / Kungsbacka Piano Trio

Naxos

$19.99 Aug 29, 2006

There are some splendid piano trios now playing and recording, as recent releases by the likes of the Florestan Trio (Hyperion), the Abegg Trio (Tacet), and the Smetana Trio (Supraphon) attest. On evidence here, the Kungsbacka Trio has nothing to fear from the competition, even in this oft-recorded music. Schubert's Second trio is not the easiest piece to bring off. Despite its typically generous fund of melody and its unusually varied colors and textures, this is a very long piece of music. When played, as here, with the original version of its finale (including repeats), it lasts more than 50 minutes, an extraordinary length even for a mature work that suffers from no significant formal weaknesses.

A successful performance, then, is all about timing and flow, aside from the general requirement of beautiful ensemble playing at all times. Here the Kungsbacka Trio really excels, finding in all four movements ideal tempos that allow for maximum textural clarity without any sacrifice of brilliance. You can hear this most obviously in the second movement, like that of the Ninth Symphony one of Schubert's unforgettable, bittersweet marches, and most particularly in the finale. It's obvious that these players have got it right when the music of the second movement returns amid the development section: it makes you stop and say "Wait a moment--haven't I heard this before?" The scherzo also manages to be unusually lively and characterful, but still "Allegro moderato", and moreover a different Allegro moderato than that of the finale.

In short, this performance offers both technical excellence and interpretive intelligence in equal measure. Pianist Simon Crawford Phillips in particular knows exactly when to accompany and when to be brilliant. His partners play with a warm, rich tone, terrific intonation, and clearly relish Schubert's use of coloristic devices (such as pizzicato) to provide timbral contrast. There are many fine recordings of this trio, including one on Naxos by the excellent Stuttgart Piano Trio, but this one belongs with the best of them. By the way, it also sounds terrific on an iPod and makes a fantastic after-dinner walk or aerobic workout, especially since the coupled early Trio ("Sonatensatz") in B-flat D. 28 brings the disc timing to just a smidge over a full hour. But whether you're relaxing at home or moving about in some fashion, you'll enjoy this very much.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Schubert: Piano Trio Op 100, Etc / Kungsbacka Piano Trio
Naxos Aug 2006
CD
$19.99

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Oundjian, Toronto Symphony

Chandos

$13.99 Aug 26, 2014

Recording with Chandos for the first time, this album marks the beginning of a new partnership with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A regular presence in concert halls throughout the US and Canada, this recording also comes as the TSO embarks, in August, on its first European tour since 2000 under the baton of Peter Oundjian, who this year celebrates his tenth anniversary as Music Director. He also conducts in this performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ever-popular symphonic suite Sheherazade.

Many composers have drawn inspiration from the collection of folklore known as the Arabian Nights but none has captured the imagination so vividly as Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov in Sheherazade, composed in 1888. In the story, Sheherazade escapes the murderous intent of her husband, the Sultan Schariar, by entertaining him with fascinating tales every evening for 1001 nights. Rimsky-Korsakov’s four movements allude to individual episodes and images from the stories in dazzling orchestral colour.

The suite opens with a stern and strident brass theme representing the bloodthirsty Sultan. A winding melody for solo violin that returns throughout the work represents the answering voice of Sheherazade. The kaleidoscopic second movement has the character of a scherzo while the third is tender and lyrical. The finale is a boisterous and exuberant carnival, calmed by the return of Sheherazade’s theme which brings the work to a serene conclusion. - Chandos

Review Quote

"Both conductor and orchestra make a very positive impression in Sheherazade. Oundjian shapes the music with passion and affection and pulls off some powerful climaxes. He is not afraid to go all out when the music requires it. But Oundjian is also a man who attends to details. The precision of the playing is first-class.

Rimsky’s score abounds in virtuoso opportunities for principle players in the orchestra and it is a joy to hear the TSO musicians show off. It is the concertmaster who gets the most opportunities and Jonathan Crow clearly demonstrates why he is such an asset to the orchestra..." - Paul E. Robinson, Musical Toronto

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Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Oundjian, Toronto Symphony
Chandos Aug 2014
CD
$13.99