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SaleHindemith, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky & Villa-Lobos: Transformation / Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
Berlin Classics · Feb 2024CD$21.99$10.99 -
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Orchestral Music, Vol. 3 / Arnicans, Gibbons, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra
Toccata · May 2021CD$20.99 -
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Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 & Other Works / Dillingham, Armore, Brno Philharmonic
Affetto Records · Jul 2018CD$18.99 -
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Dvorák, Caplet: Nadège Rochat / Rochat, Lévy, Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Ars Produktion · Nov 2021SACD$21.99 -
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Shostakovich: Cello Concertos 1 & 2 / Dindo, Noseda, Danish National Symphony
Chandos · Jan 2012SACD$21.99 -
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SaleElgar: Cello Concerto / Arlia, Sollima, Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria
Brilliant Classics · Oct 2021CD$13.99$10.99 -
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Goltermann: Cello Concerto op. 14; Symphony op. 20 / Aliyev, Griffiths, ORF Vienna RSO
Capriccio · Apr 2023CD$21.99 -
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Hindemith, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky & Villa-Lobos: Transformation / Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
"Transformation" is the debut album of Austrian cellist Jeremias Fliedl, laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition who is at the beginning of an international career. On this album, he presents works such as Tchaikovsky's famous Rococo Variations and Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 in a version for 9 cellos, with all parts recorded and produced by him. Jeremias Fliedl plays the famous "ex-Gendron" Stradivarius from 1693.
Orchestral Music, Vol. 3 / Arnicans, Gibbons, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra
The music of William Wordsworth (1908–88) – a great-great-grandson of the poet’s brother Christopher – lies downstream from that of Vaughan Williams and Sibelius; like that of his contemporary Edmund Rubbra, Wordsworth’s music unfolds spontaneously, as a natural process. This third volume of his orchestral works brings two major scores in their first studio recordings. Wordsworth’s Cello Concerto is a work of symphonic proportions, blending angular rough-and-tumble with a sober lyricism in a style that sits somewhere between Shostakovich and Bloch. The Fifth Symphony has an even grander sense of scale, its radiant first movement and the introduction to the confident finale unfolding as calmly and unhurriedly as a change of season; the martial tone of the gruff scherzo, by contrast, is laced through by an impish sense of humour. John Gibbons has conducted most of the major British orchestras. He has been Principal Conductor of Worthing Symphony Orchestra – the professional orchestra of West Sussex – with which he has given many world premieres of neglected works. He studied music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, winning numerous awards as conductor, pianist and accompanist. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, vice chairman of the British Music Society, and choral director at Clifton Cathedral. His own music has been performed in various abbeys and cathedrals as well as on the South Bank, London.
ANTON RUBINSTEIN: VC CONS NOS. 1-2 ALEXANDER
Prokofiev
Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 & Other Works / Dillingham, Armore, Brno Philharmonic
Antonin Dvorak’s concerto for cello and orchestra is arguably one of the greatest works for the solo cello, but more importantly, one of the greatest large-scale works ever composed. Cellist Kate Dillingham, “…an excellent cellist: dignified and compelling…an extraordinary performer,” is the soloist with the Brno Philharmonic, Czech Republic in this exciting new release. In the opening bars, the listener is invited immediately in to the heart of the composer’s creative powers of invention. Recorded in the beautiful Besedni Dum, in Brno, Czech Republic, the phenomenal acoustic and superb artistry of the Czech musicians in their beautiful collaboration with Ms. Dillingham display the full range of color and allow the most profound human emotions found in music to flow forth. The cello concerto differs from Dvorak’s previous piano and violin concertos given the important role of the orchestra, which is an equal partner to the solo instrument throughout the work. In the solo part, Dvorak made remarkable use of the varied and rich sounds the cello can produce, and its unique ability to convey broad, singing melodies. Dillingham’s beautiful tone and fine musicianship bring a fresh interpretation to the grand scale heroism contrasted with the profoundly poetic world expressed in Dvorak’s iconic work. Included on this album are two short pieces Dvorak composed for cello and piano. Due to their immense popularity with listeners, the composer arranged them for cello and orchestra. Tranquility, melancholy and a burnished quality characterize “Silent Woods” op. 68/5, in contrast to the energetic and delightfully playful “Rondo” Op. 94.
MacDowell: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
Dvorák, Caplet: Nadège Rochat / Rochat, Lévy, Royal Scottish National Orchestra
| On this new release, Nadège Rochat performs Antonín Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104, and André Caplet's mystically spiritualized Épiphanie, op. 22, together with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Benjamin Levy. Nadège Rochat is a distinguished expressive voice among young cellists. Besides her wide-ranging musical interests in baroque, classical and romantic repertoire, she likes to explore forgotten composers, world music and contemporary pieces. She started to play the cello at the age of four and first studied in Geneva, then in Cologne with Maria Kliegel. She attended master classes with Heinrich Schiff and Anner Bijlsma among others, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music under Robert Cohen where she now has a teaching assignment. She won several first prizes in Swiss, German and British competitions and won twice the Swiss SUISA prize for the interpretation of contemporary music. |
Viktor Kalabis - Composer & Conductor PURGATORY
The centenary of the birth of Viktor Kalabis (1923–2006), a major 20th-century Czech composer, is worthy of attention. The previous Supraphon album, Symphonies & Concertos (SU 4109-2), mapping his mature and late works, met with critical acclaim (Gramophone Choice / Reissue of the Month, Choc de Classica). Much of Kalabis’s early output, however, is yet to be discovered. The present recording, containing three pieces dating from between 1948 and 1951, attests to the young composer’s remarkable maturity. In the Concerto for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 3 (1948), Kalabis paid tribute to Igor Stravinsky, a great idol of his, with the concerto grosso form and instrumentation referring to Dumbarton Oaks. The impressive brief overture Youth, Op. 7 (1950), demonstrates the composer’s brilliant mastery of large symphony orchestra. The surprising dark colours in the work may reflect the difficult period of the Communist dictatorship’s ascent. The neo-folk Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 8 (1951), reveals Kalabis’s Dvorák, Bartók, Hindemith and late symphonic Martinu inspirations. Youthful dynamic energy and intimations of future weighty profundity characterise Kalabis’s early music. Three decades later, the composer recorded his early pieces, conducting the Janácek Philharmonic Ostrava. The present album thus affords the opportunity to listen to their authentic performance.
Sollima: Orchestral Works (1945-1997)
Shostakovich: Cello Concertos 1 & 2 / Dindo, Noseda, Danish National Symphony
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concertos: No. 1; No. 2 • Enrico Dindo (vc); Gianandrea Noseda, cond; Danish Natl SO • CHANDOS 5093 (SACD: 60:13)
So many cello concerti, so little time. With dozens of competing versions of these two interpretively rich, emotionally ripe scores—the majority of them first-class accounts that come critically recommended, if with some reservations—it’s cost- and time-prohibitive to be familiar with them all. Mørk? Maslennikov? Müller-Schott? What’s a conscientious reviewer to do? Well, yours truly is tempted to fall back on the tried-and-true, which, after all, is tried and true for good reason. That means Mstislav Rostropovich. Of his several recordings, I opt for the mid-’60s performances powerfully conducted by David Oistrakh, not easy to find but most recently sighted on the Yedang Classics label. The sound is a little rough, but no one matches Rostropovich’s passion and profundity in this music.
Nevertheless, that said, there’s always room for a convincing alternative approach, and Enrico Dindo’s is some distance from that of Rostropovich. Though he’s apparently recorded programs of Beethoven and Bach, only a 1998 release of the Brahms cello sonatas is currently listed in the Fanfare Archive. Michael Jameson called it “satisfying” ( Fanfare 21: 6), and tellingly described Dindo’s point of view as one of “letting the music (rather than any gesture intended to propel a subjective vision of the text) speak for itself.” I find that to be an accurate characterization of his approach to Shostakovich as well. Dindo’s tone is silky and sinewy, and he definitely has the chops to respond to everything Shostakovich asks for—from the buoyant rhythms of the First Concerto to the sustained introspection of the Second. He favors fast, clean lines in the First Concerto, which emphasize its satiric edge in ways reminiscent of the composer’s earlier, youthful impulsiveness (despite the fact that it was written in his 53rd year), though neither slighting, nor exaggerating, the second movement’s elegiac lyricism. In the darker Second Concerto, he adopts an appropriately serious demeanor, providing a consistent, fluid line that lacks Rostropovich’s bite, but allows the music to sing its own eloquent, if dolorous, song. In this his resembles Heinrich Schiff’s attentive, persuasive 1984 performance (Philips), although Schiff benefited from Maxim Shostakovich’s strong, emphatically pointed accompaniment, whereby Gianandrea Noseda, following Dindo’s lead, particularly in the Second Concerto provides ever-so-slightly less dramatic, albeit scrupulously detailed, support.
I suspect these are performances that will retain their interest over time. Add Enrico Dindo’s name to the list of recommended cellists in this significant repertoire.
FANFARE: Art Lange
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These two concertos form a pairing which is logical and convenient but by no means ubiquitous. The Cello Concerto No. 1 is the more widely recorded of the two, with impressive accounts from the likes of Han-Na Chang, and the more enduring dedicatee’s version, Mstislav Rostropovich with Eugene Ormandy in 1959 and now available on Sony Classical. One of the best discs of these two works is with Rafa? Kwiatkowski on the Dux label. Aside from Peter Wispelwey’s recording of the Cello Concerto No. 2 along with Britten’s Third Suite on Challenge Classics, there doesn’t seem to be much choice in this repertoire when it comes to SACD recordings, so this Chandos release enters the market with a useful USP.
Enrico Dindo won the Rostropovich Cello Competition in 1997 and has been performing widely since, also making recordings which have included Bach’s Suites and Vivaldi Concertos on Italian Decca. His playing here is remarkably rich, obtaining deep and richly expressive tones from a Rogeri instrument from 1717. The cello sound is forward, bordering on the surrealist as with so many concerto recordings these days, but not intolerably massive in relation to the orchestra. In fact this is one of the genuine strengths of this recording, with masses of colour and detail from a very powerful sounding Danish National Symphony Orchestra. The opening of the Cello Concerto No. 1 throws down the gauntlet in this regard, the double-bassoon sounding like you’ve never heard it in any other recording; dug into with such gusto that you’d expect the floor to shake and the keys to be shaken off by the vibrations. The excitement in the playing is in its shaping and development, building stirring structures rather than hitting us constantly with masses of relentless intensity. The horn-calls are also marvellous in this first Allegretto, woodwinds competing with the soloist through grating dissonance and dramatic release. Perhaps the strings could have had more presence to make the whole thing a tad more credible. They should come into their own in that most gorgeous and moving of Shostakovich statements, the central Moderato. Even here though, the first horn entry far outweighs the texture of the entire body of strings. Behind the soloist they do seem to be rather at a disadvantage in the balance. Just taking one comparison, that with Thorleif Thedéen and James DePreist on the BIS label, the balance brings the strings that much more into the picture. This allows a more equal interaction which can carry greater emotional heft. Thedéen is a little more heart-on-sleeve than Dindo, with a tighter vibrato and a more vocal way of expressing the melodic lines. I wouldn’t swap this BIS disc for the Chandos one now, but still find it has a good deal to offer.
Whether or not you find the recorded balance a problem, Enrico Dindo’s solo lines carry so much emotional strength that you will find yourself gripped from beginning to end. One of my old favourites for these pieces is from Truls Mørk with the London Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons on the Virgin Classics label. Certain aspects of Noseda’s approach do remind me of the Jansons recording, but I have to admit that Dindo gets as much and more out of the music than almost any rival I can name. Like the texture in the inky lines of a Ralph Steadman drawing, Dindo delights in thickening and thinning sustained notes so that we are constantly in a state of awe and expectation, even when Shostakovich is in passages of transition. Listen in the Moderato to the general sonic picture at about 7:00 and on though: the intensity of the upper strings in the orchestra is almost entirely absent, which undermines at least some of that good work. Dindo’s expressive playing gives the impression of space, but Noseda’s tempi are generally a tad more brisk and compact than many. Jansons takes 12:32 with this Moderato for instance, compared to Noseda’s 10:50.
The rough peasant feel in the final movement of this first concerto is something to relish; the aural glue not quite holding together as the winds advance in the balance and give us a kick from time to time. It has an undeniable grip and snatch flowing from Noseda’s treatment, an uncompromising approach which drags us along mercilessly and never lets go.
Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 is dark from the outset, the mood superbly set through the solo cello and lower strings in the opening bars. The imagination is teased by fragmentary moments of brooding beauty, such as the repeated double-stop gesture at around 4 minutes in. This is a bleak landscape and the kind of inner journey which can lead you to places both moving and disturbing. Dindo speaks emotively, the sighing downward gestures weighed with tears, the parlando moments confiding and gruff by turns. Shostakovich’s score in the first movement is as hard as nails, and the players nail it firmly. The bass drum thwacks from around 9:20 are an audiophile treat as well.
The acoustic space is emphasised in the open textures of the opening to the central Allegretto, and the sense of volume in the 5.0 SACD surround mix is very tactile indeed. Listen to the laughing winds from about 2:30: the playing is not only needle sharp, but is also filled with personality and character throughout. The theatricality of the opening to the final Allegretto has rarely been so sharply observed, and you expect an announcement from a melodramatic actor as much as you do the entry of the cello. Those ‘nice’ tunes as they arrive are all the more earth-shatteringly emotive for these extremes of contrast. Little operatic touches and that late-Shostakovich sense of a fatefully ticking time-bomb make the whole thing as touching and filled with narrative import as I can ever remember hearing.
Chandos easily replaces its earlier release of this repertoire with Frans Helmerson and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra on CHAN 10040. This has some lovely playing and a decent concert hall balance, but with somewhat rough-and-ready qualities from the orchestra in some of the more technically demanding passages. Fans of these two concertos simply must have this recording from Dindo/Noseda. The cover photo of Red Square is strikingly atmospheric, and there are good booklet notes and pictures inside as well. Despite my reservations about the string balance which admittedly affects the scoring of the first concerto more than the second, this is a must-have and a life-changer for Shostakovich fans.
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International
Poulenc - Janacek - Rachmaninoff
For every cellist; Poulenc's Cello Sonata is demanding in terms of playing technique. Since he had a great affinity for woodwind instruments; his notation is not really written to suit the conditions of a string instrument. He himself was aware of this fact; so he sought expert advice for the composition from the famous cellist Pierre Fournier; who was also the dedicatee and soloist at the premiere in 1948. "Everything we see; hear and feel is connected with feeling." This is how Leoš Janácek defined his artistic attitude; from which grew an idiosyncratic tonal language hardly comparable with other models or traditions of his time. Pohádka means - translated from Czech - "fairy tale". It is based on a fairy tale by the Russian romanticist Wassilij Shukowskj (1783-1852) about the love of a prince for a princess. Janácek's enthusiasm for Russian culture is evident in this choice of theme. Sergei Rachmaninoff was in the limelight as a generous piano virtuoso; but as a composer he was more of a pensive self-doubter. His first symphony had failed with the public. This experience of failure led him into a depression and creative crisis lasting several years. Three years later; he was released from it through a new type of hypnotherapy; which was tantamount to an artistic rebirth. His second piano concerto arose like a phoenix from the ashes and was enthusiastically celebrated. Shortly thereafter; he created his Sonata for Piano and Violoncello opus 19; which is now considered one of his most brilliant compositions. Thematically and motivically; the four movements lead from darkness into light. It was dedicated to the cellist Anatoly Bradukov.
Penderecki: Music for Violin, Cello & Orchestra
Elgar: Cello Concerto / Arlia, Sollima, Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria
From Arturo Toscanini and Sir John Barbirolli to Riccardo Muti and Antonio Pappano in our own time, Italian-heritage performers have often brought special qualities of sympathy and understanding to Edward Elgar’s (1857-1934) music. Now comes a new recording made in the ‘boot’ of southern Italy, lending Mediterranean warmth and passion to a trio of Elgarian masterpieces. The Sicilian-born cellist Giovanni Sollima has made well-received albums for Brilliant Classics of music by Offenbach (94475) and by his father Eliodoro Sollima (96287). His latest recording, made at the Teatro Politeama in the one-time ‘lace capital’ of Europe, Catanzaro, illuminates one of the core works of the cello literature with an affecting sense of line and sensitivity to the melancholy introversion which colors every bar of the Concerto composed by Elgar in the wake of the First World War. Twenty years earlier, Elgar’s reputation was secured with audiences across Europe and America through the whirlwind success of his “Enigma” Variations. The stoic beauty of ‘Nimrod’, the gentle wit of ‘Dorabella’ and the nervous excitement and pride of the autobiographical finale spoke directly to listeners who would never know the composer or his ‘friends pictured within’. The agitated, impassioned voice of Elgar in the Variations belonged to its end-of-Empire time and place, orchestrated with a mastery which would soon draw the admiration of Richard Strauss and many more musicians on the other side of the English Channel. Even that quintessential expression of Englishness, the first of five marches which Elgar collected under the Shakesperean banner of “Pomp and Circumstance” and later repurposed to set ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ for the finale of his Coronation Ode, won the composer standing ovations when he conducted it in concerts across mainland Europe. Under the affectionate baton of their music director Filippo Arlia, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria interpret Elgar’s music with a sensitivity and extroversion worthy of the composer.
Mozartiana - Mozart, Hummel, Liebmann, Wolfl/ Comberti, Cole
Goltermann: Cello Concerto op. 14; Symphony op. 20 / Aliyev, Griffiths, ORF Vienna RSO
If you know the cellist-professor-composer Georg Goltermann (1824-1898) and his eight (!) cello concertos, you’re either a cellist or married to one. In his lifetime and for a while thereafter, the instrumental virtuoso-cum-composer was popular and well-liked enough to have the Cantilena of his Cello Concerto recorded by Pablo Casals – but not much since. That’s a shame because that lyrical-melancholic, never gratuitously virtuosic op.10 is a picture-perfect, delightful romantic cello concert. The symphony, then well received and Goltermann’s pride, too, goes down nicely in a post-Brahms vain rather à la Bruch or Gernsheim, especially the exquisite, lively hunting Scherzo with its sweeping Trio.
REVIEW:
The Symphony, the third of the works in the key of A minor, is receiving its first recording here. It was premiered in Leipzig, and I think that is quite significant, because it owes much to the memory of the recently deceased Felix Mendelssohn, in particular his Scottish Symphony. It was very well-received by public and reviewers. I was amused by a quote in the notes from a newspaper report of the premiere, which stated that even in 1851, critics were bemoaning that the quality of melody was no longer being adequately appreciated by composers (but Goltermann was excused from this criticism).
I’d not heard of Turkish cellist Jamal Aliyev before, but he has performed at the Proms and won a number of prizes at international competitions. It is not hard to see why; he is very good, giving these little-known works his fullest efforts. Under the assured direction of Howard Griffiths, such a champion of the unsung composer, the ORF Vienna orchestra sound superb. My only quibble with the sound quality was the occasional sharp intake of breath from Aliyev (but hey, he’s got to breathe).
This is one of those unsung composer discs that really does “sing”. Goltermann might not have had the most original of compositional voices, but he knew how to write concentrated, melodic pieces, and now we know that even in the mid-19th century, melody was in short supply (what would those critics have thought of the 20th century, I wonder?).
-- MusicWeb International
FUNF ORCHESTERSTUCKE MODERNER
Hidden Legacies
BRAHMS: DOUBLE CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN & CELLO
Saint-Saëns: Cello Sonatas / Favalessa, Semeraro
Prior to the turn of the 20th century, Camille Saint-Saëns enriched the cello repertoire with two important compositions: his Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor (Op.33 ) and his Cello Sonata No.1 in C minor (Op.32). The first Cello Sonata was composed in the autumn of 1872, and its first public performance – with J. Reuschel on cello and the composer at the piano – was given on 26 March 1873 at the Salle Érard in Paris. The work is divided into three movements: the first and third have a tragic character, while the second offers an oasis of quiet serenity. The work opens with a dramatic Allegro in sonata form. The second movement stems from an organ improvisation performed by Saint-Saëns at Saint-Augustin. The final movement takes up the tumultuous and agitated character of the first and ends in an unrelenting race. Some 30 years separate the Cello Sonata No.2 in F (Op.123) from its predecessor. The fruit of laborious work, it was completed in early 1905. The Sonata is structured in four movements, the first in sonata form with contrasting heroic and lyrical characters throughout. The second movement is a Scherzo with eight variations, each with its own identity while maintaining a link to the theme, one of them in the form of a fugue. The third movement is, in Saint-Saëns’ words, ‘a romance that will delight cellists’, and he wrote of its concluding section, ‘the Adagio will bring tears to sensitive souls’. The sonata ends with a playful, light Rondo in which both piano and cello engage in technical virtuosity and imitative games.
Elgar Reimagined / Wallfisch, Woods, English String Orchestra
Itzhak Perlman: Complete RCA & Columbia Album Collection
In celebration of the great Israeli-American violinist’s 75th birthday, Sony Classical is proud to present the first-ever collection of Itzhak Perlman’s complete recordings for RCA and CBS/Sony in a single box set: 18 CDs spanning the years 1965 to 2012.
Itzhak Perlman has dominated the world of violin virtuosos for half a century. His TV appearances had already made him a household name in the US by the time he was 13. A few years later came his Carnegie Hall debut, then the prestigious Leventritt Award, followed by triumphant tours of Israel, North America and Europe between 1965 and 1968. By then he was an international celebrity and recognized “not just as the finest violinist of his generation but as one of the greatest musical talents to emerge since World War II” (leading string authority Tully Potter writing in the NEW GROVE).
And it was then that Perlman began his illustrious, virtually unparalleled career as a recording artist. His first sessions for RCA, accompanied by pianist David Garvey – with works ranging from sonatas by Handel, Leclair and Hindemith to showpieces by Paganini, Bazzini, Sarasate and Falla – took place in New York in 1965 but were not issued for nearly 40 years because the label felt concertos would make a more suitable commercial debut for the rising star. When an album of these pieces was finally released – as “Perlman Rediscovered”, in 2004 – it was hailed “an outstanding tribute to one of the great names among violinists of any age, as well as a remarkably varied and interesting recital in its own right” (ClassicsToday). These tracks are, of course, included in the new collection.
Perlman’s first concerto efforts for RCA – the Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Prokofiev Second, with Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony – were set down in 1966/1967 and released the following years as his recording debut. ClassicsToday acclaimed them in a recent reissue as “offering playing that is gutsy and shamelessly virtuosic, and with a sharper rhythmic focus than Perlman often achieved subsequently. The finale of the Sibelius remains a potent example of the playing’s youthful fire.” In 1969, Perlman recorded what was arguably one of the finest albums of his career, the two Prokofiev Sonatas (which he never remade), partnered by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy at the beginning of their long and distinguished collaboration: “Delicate where needs be … and yet with a Heifetzian resilience that both sonatas willingly respond to … Perlman and Ashkenazy play with astonishing virtuosity” (Gramophone).
Itzhak Perlman’s work for American Columbia began in the mid-1970s and – apart from Bach and Vivaldi multi-violin concertos with Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman and the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta – cover a wide swath of chamber music with special partners: pianists Daniel Barenboim and Emanuel Ax, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell and guitarist John Williams. The Mendelssohn Piano Trios with Ax and Ma, first released in 2010, appear here for the first time in a Perlman collection (“…ensemble balance, clarity of inner part-writing, drama, lyricism, and phrase shaping of the highest order … I find these performances not just outstanding; I find them astounding” (Fanfare).
That other John Williams, the legendary composer for the silver screen, was Perlman’s collaborator in another medium, the movies: his two best-selling “Cinema Serenade” albums arranged and conducted by Williams, with Perlman featured in selections from such classic films as Modern Times, Gone with the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Out of Africa, Cinema Paradiso, The Color Purple and, of course, the theme that Perlman memorably performed on the soundtrack of Williams’s Oscar-winning score for the Spielberg masterpiece Schindler’s List.
New to Perlman CD editions are two complete soundtrack albums: John Williams’s “elegant and thoughtful score” for Memoirs of a Geisha in which the violinist is joined by Yo-Yo Ma and to which Perlman “brings a magical and peculiarly oriental sound to his violin-playing” (Gramophone), and the music for Yimou Zhang’s Hero by Tan Dun: “Few composers today write more effective melodies for bowed strings” (Gramophone). And to round off this uniquely wide-ranging survey of the violinist’s musical passions and triumphs, in its first appearance in a Perlman collection, the artist is joined by golden-voiced cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in Eternal Echoes, a highly praised album of liturgical and traditional selections which the violinist has affectionately described as “Jewish comfort music – everything that I recognize from my childhood is in this program.”
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1:
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47
DISC 2:
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, TH 59
Dvořák: Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, B. 39
DISC 3:
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata in D Major No. 2, Op. 94bis
DISC 4:
Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21
Ravel: Tzigane, M. 76 (Version for Violin & Orchestra)
DISC 5:
Paganini: Centone di sonate, Op. 64, MS 112 (Sonata No. 1 in A Minor)
Paganini: Sonata for Violin and Guitar in E Minor, Op. 3, No. 6, MS 27
Paganini: Sonata concertata in A Major, Op. 61, MS 2
Giuliani: Duo concertante in E Minor, Op. 25 "Grand Sonata"
Giuliani: Cantabile in D Major, Op. 17, MS 109
DISC 6:
Dohnányi: Serenade in C Major, Op. 10
Beethoven: Serenade in D Major, Op. 8
DISC 7:
Bach, J.S.: Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043
Vivaldi: Concerto for 3 Violins in F Major, RV 551
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major, K. 364
DISC 8:
Chausson: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet in D Major, Op. 21
DISC 9:
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
DISC 10:
Mozart: Duo for Violin & Viola in G Major, K. 423
Mozart: Duo for Violin and Viola, K. 424
Leclair: 6 Sonatas for 2 Violins, Op. 3, No. 4
DISC 11:
Lubbock/Rosenbaum/Jones/Temperton: The Color Purple: Main Title
Gardel: Scent of a Woman: Tango (Por Una Cabeza)
Legrand: Yentl: Papa, Can You Hear Me?
Bacalov: Il Postino: Theme
Bernstein: The Age of Innocence: Theme
Williams: Theme (From "Far and Away")
Legrand: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: I Will Wait for You
Previn: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Theme
Williams: Sabrina: Theme
Barry: Out of Africa: Main Title
Bonfa: Black Orpheus: Manha de Carnaval
Williams: Main Theme (From "Schindler's List")
Morricone: Love Theme (From "Cinema Paradiso")
DISC 12:
Raksin: Theme from "Laura" (1944)
Steiner: Theme from Now, Voyager (1942)
Chaplin: Smile from "Modern Times" (1936)
Rózsa: Love Theme from Lost Weekend (1945)
Young: St. Patrick's Day from The Quiet Man (1952) (Traditional)
Korngold: Marian & Robin Love Theme from "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938)
Hupfeld: As Time Goes By from "Casablanca" (1942)
Walton: Touch Her Soft Lips and Part (From "Henry V")
Young: Stella by Starlight from The Uninvited (1944)
Young: Theme from My Foolish Heart (1949)
Steiner: Tara's Theme (From "Gone with the Wind" 1939)
Newman: Cathy's Theme from "Wuthering Heights" (1939)
DISC 13:
Tan Dun: Works
DISC 14:
Paganini: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, MS 25
Ben-Haim: Berceuse Sfaradite
Sarasate: Navarra, Op. 33
Handel: Violin Sonata in E Major, Op. 1 No. 15, HWV 373
Hindemith: Violin Sonata, Op. 11 No. 1 in E-Flat
Leclair: Violin Sonata, Op. 9 No. 3 in D
Bloch: Baal Shem: II. Nigun (Version for Violin & Piano)
Falla: Spanish Dance No. 1 (from La vida breve)
Bazzini: La ronde des lutins, Op. 25
DISC 15: John Williams: Works
DISC 16:
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor Op. 66
Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Op. 19, No. 1 Sweet Remembrance" - Andante con moto"
Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Op. 38, No. 2 - Allegro non troppo
DISC 17:
Berditchever: A Dudele
Shenker: Mizmor L'Dovid
Goldfaden: Shoyfer Shel Moshiakh
Schwartz: Romanian Doyne
Rosenblatt: T'filas Tal
Traditional: Yism'chu
Schloßberg: R'tzay
Traditional: Dem Trisker Rebns Khosid
Schorr: Sheyibone Bays Hamikdosh
Traditional: Kol Nidrei
DISC 18:
Tchaikovsky: Sérénade mélancolique, Op. 26, TH 56
Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34, TH 58
Dvořák: Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, B. 39
Dvořák: 8 Humoresques, Op. 101, B. 187: No. 7, Poco lento e grazioso (Transcribed by Oscar Morawetz for Violin, Cello & Orchestra)
Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, B. 166: "Dumky", V. Allegro
Dvořák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 72, B. 147: No. 2, Dumka. Allegretto grazioso
Halvorsen: Passacaglia and Sarabande for Violin and Viola (With Variations on a Theme by Handel)
Walton: Canzonetta from Henry V
Williams: Air and Simple Gifts
