What are YOU listening to today?

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

From a 5 CD Music & Arts set, licensed from EMI, of the complete Symphonies of Beethoven by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer at the Vienna Festival, May & June, 1960. You may notice that some numbers are missing in my account of the tracks on these CDs. That's because I chose to omit the separately delineated applause tracks.

CD 4

Tr. 1-4......Sym. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (1808) (35'06)--rec. 31 May 1960
Tr. 6-10....Sym 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale" (1808) (42'54)--rec. 2 June 1960
This Fifth is excellent, with an appropriate sense of drama. But then that can be said of really most Beethoven Fifths these days. Pride of place still goes to Fritz Reiner, Carlos Kleiber, and Rene Liebowitz.

I have heard Klemperer's 6th before, but this is the first time I have owned the classic 1960 Vienna cycle. It is much better than I remember it. One critic's summing up sticks in my mind. I forget the exact words, but something to the effect that Klemperer saw the 4th movement storm as just a light drizzle. Although it sounds a little stormier than that to me, I would not deny that it is rather less stormy than many other recordings, but who says it has to be? Why can't the storm be a light drizzle? Most storms that last less than four minutes are light drizzles.

Although Klemperer's is better than I had thought, it is still not a touchstone performance. For those, I go to Szell, Solti, C. Kleiber, Liebowitz, Mravinsky, Monteux, and Gardiner.

CD 5

Tr. 1-4....Sym 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral" (1824) (69'55)--rec. 7 June 1960.
Tr. 6.......Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (1807) (8'19)--rec. 4 June 1960

First of all, lets take the last. This Coriolan Overture is good, but not what I would call outstanding.

This Ninth is another matter entirely. This is one of the great ones, again better than I remember it. The first movement is vigorous and massive; this man knows how to build to a climax and the fact that up until 1933 he was known primarily as a opera and pit orchestra conductor shows in the drama he builds in every movement, especially the two outer movements. Awesomely massive walls of sound, esp. at the beginning of "Seid umschlungen millionen..." It commands truly devotional attention. The one criticism I have is that sometimes the orchestra is so loud that it drowns out the voices of the soloists, but in this case that is truly a minor cavil.

This is right up there with the greatest ever, and I would not argue very strongly with anyone who says it is the greatest ever, period. I do like others, Toscanini and Szell among them, both of which have one thing in common--Robert Shaw was the choral director for both recordings. Another excellent one is the first Solti cycle, although Talvela was even better in the live performance I attended than he is on the recording. Other great ones are two by Furtwangler, one from 22 March 1942 and the other the 1951 Bayreuth recording. Other notable recordings are those by Rene Liebowitz, Fritz Reiner, Bruno Walter, John Eliot Gardiner, and the Klaus Tennstedt, one which the BBC Music Magazine listed as its "One to Avoid" not long ago. They were wrong. Wrong, I tell you, wrong! Another one I like, at least in the third movement, is the one by Benjamin Zander. You have to hear it and read his liner notes (a painful process, because Zander is a worse speller than Dan Quayle) to understand what I mean.

4 CD Brilliant Classics CDs--Boccherini: Complete Clavier Quintets, Op. 56 & 57 (12) on period instruments--Ensemble Claviere (Ilario Gregoletto, 1805 Schantz fortepiano, Rossella Croce, Giulia Panzeri, violins, S. Airoldi, viola, Enrico Contini, cello, rec. Ceneda--Vittorio Veneto, Treviso, Italy, June 2005 (CDs 1 & 2), & August 2005 CDs 3 & 4.

CD 1 (68'52)

Tr. 1-4......Clavier Quintet 1 in E Minor-Major, Op. 56/1, G. 407 (27'44)
Tr. 5-8......Clavier Quintet 2 in F Major, Op. 56/2, G. 408 (17'21)
Tr. 9-11....Clavier Quintet 3 in C Major, Op. 56/3, G. 409 (23'41)

CD 2 (57'12)

Tr, 1-3......Clavier Quintet 4 in E Flat Major, Op. 56/4, G. 410 (16'05)
Tr. 4-8......Clavier Quintet 5 in D Major, Op. 56/5, G. 411 (20'35)
Tr. 9-13....Clavier Quintet 6 in A Minor-Major, Op. 56/6, G. 412 (19'39)

These works, unfortunately, have long been neglected. I think I have an idea why. For one thing, you really do need a fortepiano for these; a pianoforte or a harpsichord would ovrwhelm or underwhelm, as the case may be, the other instruments. So, performance opportunities are limited.

These are uncomplicated works. They are wonderfully inventive with loads and loads of lilting, charming melodies, with some simple, brief contrapuntal episodes interpolated, and just enough unpredictablility to sustain the interest of the listener. And yet, they are also a little too complicated, and have just a bit too wide a dynamic range for them to serve as, say, suitable Sunday brunch music.

CD 3 (63'14)

Tr. 1-4......Clavier Quintet 1 in A Major, Op. 57/1, G. 413 (19'56)
Tr. 5-8......Clavier Quintet 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 57/2, G. 414 (24'32)
Tr. 9-13....Clavier Quintet 3 in E Flat Major, Op. 57/3, G. 415 (18'29)

These works are more of the same as Op. 56, except that many of the movements have cadences with a strong martial feel to them.

CD 4 (57'37)

Tr. 1-3......Clavier Quintet 4 in D Minor, Op. 57/4, G. 416 (20'00)
Tr. 4-6......Clavier Quintet 5 in E Major, Op. 57/5, G. 417 (17'01)
Tr. 7-10....Clavier Quintet 6 in C Major, Op. 57/6, G. 418 (20'18)

These qunitets seem somehow more mature and sophisticated than their predecessors. I could not find any information on when these were composed, or it there was any significant ddelay between the composition of the others and these three. It sure sounds like it. Sharper rhythms that sound vaguely more Beethovenesque, but still no galpumphing off-accents like you find in Beethoven. Very stylish.

Janos Starker: "The Warner Legacy" , a 10 CD compilation of recordings featuring Janos Starker. Warner Classics 0825646341252.

CD 3 (74'17)--Except for Tr. 1-3, all recorded in MONO 4-7 June 1958, Abbey Road Studio 3--Gerald Moore, piano, tr. 4-17.

Tr. 1-3......Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B Flat Major, G 482 (22'20)--Cadenzas: Hutter--Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Philharmonia Orch.--rec 29-30 May 1958, Kingsway Hall, London. STEREO

Tr. 4.........J.S. Bach: Orchestral Suite 3 in D Major. S. 1068: Air (4'21)
Tr. 5.........Kreisler: Allegretto in the style of Boccherini (3'43)
Tr. 6.........Saint-Saens: Allegro appassionato, Op. 43 (4'12)
Tr. 7.........Debussy: Preludes Book 1 # 8 "La fille aux cheveux de lin (arr. Feuillard) (2'25)
Tr. 8.........Chopin: Nocturne 2 in E Flat Major, Op. 9 # 2 (arr. Popper) (4'56)
Tr. 9.........Popper, David (1843-1913): Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68 (8'32)
Tr. 10.......J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concerto 5 in F Minor, S. 1056: Arioso (4'44)
Tr. 11.......Schubert: Allegretto garzioso (arr. Cassado) (3'53)
Tr. 12.......Schubert: Moment musical 3 in F Minor. D. 780 (arr. Becker) (2'05)
Tr. 13.......Mussorgsky: Sorochintsi: Gopak (arr. Stutschewsky) (1'53)
Tr. 14.......Schumann: Kinderszenen. Op. 15: Trauermei (arr. Palaschko) (3'16)
Tr. 15.......Debussy: Petite Suite. L65: Menuet (arr. Gurt) (3'03)
Tr. 16.......Tcherepnin: Ode (1'68)
Tr. 17.......Paganini: Caprice in B Flat Major, Op. 1 # 13 (arr. Kreisler) (2'46)

The only substantial work here is the Boccherini Cello Concerto. All the others are bon-bons, encores, or excerpts from larger works, many of them meant for other instruments and transcribed for the cello, sometimes with piano accompaniement.

It sounds like the Boccherini is based on folk melodies or melodies inspired by simple peasant songs and dances of various nationalities. The movement is an allegro moderato, with the emphasis on the moderato. In other words, its slower than your average allegro. Both of the first two movements are slow, and have a ruminative, contemplative aura about them. The third movement is sprightlier, with catchy, simple themes, and a rather extended cadenza.

Starker was doubtless familiar with the Bach Air. He served under Reiner as the principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony before Frank Miller came on the scene, and it has been the regular practice at the CSO (perhaps other orchestras, too; I'd like to hear from others about the practices of other orchestras) to play the Air at the beginning of every concert in the week after a member or former member of the orchestra dies. It is a rather simple piece as far as the basics are concerned; whether it produces the desired effect or not is always a function of phrasing, and Starker does a fine job of that here.

The Kreisler piece is a sprightly little bon-bon with no particular profundity to it.

The Saint-Saens lives up to its name: fast and passionate. The Debussy is a lovely, impressionist reverie, and the Chopin. like all his nocturnes, is a slow, contemplative piece.

The Popper Rhapsody has, as the title suggests, a distinctly Hungarian folk music quality about it, and represents a nice change of pace after three slow pieces.
The Bach Arioso is a slower piece, almost as beautiful as the Air. The Schubert pieces are a bit faster and more facile. The Mussorgsky is a gallumphing peasant dance.
The Schumann Traumerei is, of course, a familar concert hall piece; Starker makes a good case for the notion that a cello transcription with piano accompaniement offers even more expressive opportunities than a solo piano performance. The other pieces are all good demonstrations of Starker's art, but are of no particular note.

[piston]

The 1959 Khovanshchina film-opera, with English subtitles, directed by Vera Stroyeva (who had previously done a film of Boris in 1954). I was glued to this magnificent production for the whole two hours.

This is the project which initially led Shostakovich to write his own version of that Mussorgsky opera, which version he obviously had to first adapt for the screen. Mark Reizen's performance alone is worth watching the whole film, but Krivchenya is also an excellent singer/actor. And there's plenty of drama, such as the collective suicide of the "Old Believers"!

The film also features Maya Plisetskaya as an exotic/erotic Persian dancer for Prince Khovansky. In her autobiography, she relates how Stroyeva, with her typical innocent smile, asked her to dance topless. There was much commotion about such a request, not the least of which from Rodion Shchedrin! But Maya came down with strep throat and she was in no condition to go naked in a drafty Mosfilm studio.
Mark Reizen - Dositheus Aleksej Krivchenya - Prince Ivan Khovansky Kira Leonova - Martha Vladimir Petrov - Prince Vasiliy Golitsin
Released as a Corinth film:

[alan c. davis]

Started off with Toscannini conducting the NBC in Wagner excerpts. Now have the EMI Der Rosenkavalier from 1956 on the hifi.

[piston]

I have listened to a full production of Roger Sessions' Montezuma, done by the Boston Opera Company under the direction of Sarah Caldwell on March 31, 1976.

A search reveals that some members wondered about the quality of this opera back in 2007 and some background information may prove useful before I comment on the work. The libretto was written in 1941 by an anti-fascist Sicilian author with a wide-ranging corpus of literature but no experience in writing for the opera. And that libretto was very "wordy" to begin with:

The work had an unusually long gestation period, even as contemporary operas go. In 1941, Mr. Sessions was handed a 40,000-word libretto by the anti-Fascist Sicilian writer G.A. Borghese. After the librettist's death in 1952 his widow, a daughter of Thomas Mann, and Mr. Sessions undertook to prune the text to what they felt was practical operatic proportions. Seven years later that part of the project was finished. The composer completed his score in 1964, a few months before the world premiere at the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin.

Perhaps Sessions did manage to have the author's widow agree to a lot of pruning --a pretty sensitive matter-- but the libretto remained heavily worded for a two-hour opera. Sessions, of course, could have addressed this issue by writing music for a longer opera, such as Messiaen's St. Francis of Assissi; but he did not...

The outcome is a fast-moving narrative wherein there's hardly any room for musical interventions other than accompanying that narrative: no economy of words underscoring the power of each word, such as in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle; no surging orchestral interludes such as in Britten's Peter Grimes; no orchestral thematic emphases to set the stage for drama or to highlight it such as in Poulenc's Dialogues. One gets a glimpse of what might have been, if Sessions had given the musicians (soloists, groups, orchestra) a chance to assert their presence in the first thirteen to fourteen minutes of Act II, which is fabulously orchestrated. But, for the most part, it isn't that Sessions wrote "so inconsiderately for the voice that hardly one word in a hundred could be understood," as a New York critic stated after the opera was staged in NYC in 1982, it's a case of a over-narrated libretto that should have served for a much longer opera or a film.

I have listened to radio-recorded tapes of the American premiere in Boston and, as one should expect from nearly forty years ago, there's some sound distortion caused on the radio waves, but it's better than nothing! If you haven't got the time for the whole thing, I do recommend listening to the first fifteen minutes of Act II:

Act I: http://www.jamesricci.com/audio/Roger%2 ... ct%201.mp3
Act II: http://www.jamesricci.com/audio/Roger%2 ... ct%202.mp3
Act III: http://www.jamesricci.com/audio/Roger%2 ... ct%203.mp3

[Wallingford]

Webern's Symphony, Op. 21
Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments
....conducted by Nagano


Gould's Lincoln Legends
Liszt's From the Cradle to the Grave
Harris' Third
Creston's Frontiers and Choric Dance #2
....conducted by Toscanini

[scififan]

I enjoyed a re-exploration of The Barber of Seville with Maria Callas, Luigi Alva and Tito Gobbi from 1957. While not really complete it is still very enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fDRqMeJJsA

[piston]

Listened to as much as I could find from Harold Shapero's orchestral and chamber music works. The Lydian String Quartet/Quintet has recorded his early String Trio and String Quartet (during his college years), along with his Serenade in D for String Quintet (his 1998 arrangement of the Serenade in D for String Orchestra). His Credo for Orchestra, a brief but very spiritual work he composed for The Louisville Orchestra, by said orchestra under Whitney. And his extremely creative, if not particularly innovative, Symphony for Classical Orchestra + the Nine-Minute Overture, with Previn and the LAPO.

Shapero was the first to admit that his most productive years were when he was a college student and when he struggled to support himself as a young composer. Once he was hired by Brandeis U., a position he held for 31 years, his administrative and teaching duties led to a major drop in his creative work.

Photo from Bruce Duffie's Shapero interview:
http://www.bruceduffie.com/shapero.html

[Wallingford]

Sessions' Symphony #2 (Blomstedt)
Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges (Ansermet)

[piston]

Some Rautavaara works completed since 2000. He has been down the memory lane in several of these works, remains contemplative in others, and has also been eager to compose or revise spiritual/religious music. He also recently wrote a lot of concertos, for the harp, the cello, and percussion. And he completed his opera Rasputin, but youtube only offers excerpts. No ninth symphony during the last fifteen years! Will that number also affect the Finnish composer?

Manhattan Trilogy for orchestra (2004)
Pietari Inkinen, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
1. Daydreams
2. Nightmares
3. Dawn

Harp Concerto (2000) Leif Segerstam, Helsinki Phil. Orch., Marielle Nordmann, harp.

Before the Icons, for orchestra (1955/2005) Leif Segerstam, Helsinki P.O. I Death of the Mother of God; II Prayer; III Two Village Saints; IV Black Madonna of Blakernaya; V Prayer; VI The Baptism of Christ; VII The Holy Women at the Sepulchre; VIII Prayer; IX Archangel Michael Fighting the Antichrist; X Amen

A Tapestry of Live, for Strings (2007) Leif Segerstam, Helsinki P.O. I Stars Swarming; II Halcyon Days; III Sighs and Tears; IV The Last Polonaise.

Lost Landscapes, violin and piano (2004), commissioned by Midori. Midori and Robert Macdonald. 1. Tanglewood; 2. Ascona; 3. Reinergasse 11; 4. West 23rd Street.

[piston]

I have been listening to this Milhaud box set for the last few days, to enjoy the music, of course, but also to assess if it's a well conceived project. I started from the back, CD 10, and proceeded to the beginning. CD 10, "Milhaud by himself," takes us to his classic works, La Creation du Monde, Scaramouche, Le Boeuf sur le toit, as he directed them decades ago, and to Marguerite Long, his contemporary pianist, and an intriguing Cinema Fantaisie on Le Boeuf sur le Toit, for violin and piano -- historical recordings. CD 9, on vocal music, is really interesting with a number of not so readily accessible old recordings such as Janine Micheau singing his Cantate nuptial, Chansons de Ronsard, Les Quatres Elements, excerpts from Bolivar, and Fontaines et Sources. It's one of the best CDs in that box. Music for vocal ensembles only take half of CD 8 and one questions such a decision given that it's one of his strenghts. Les Deux Cités (Claudel), Cantate de la Paix, the brief but lively Quatrains valaisans, and the six sonnets written in secret offer yet another pleasant surprise on what Milhaud could write for choirs.

Half of CD 8, and all of CDs 6 and 7 are reserved for representative examples of his chamber music. I liked the larger ensembles (La Cheminée du Roi Renée, Les Reves de Jacob (choreographic suite)), but was disappointed by the smaller ones partly because of the selections. For example, it would have been more revealing of his string quartet output to sample across his career than to show how he wrote s.q. 14, op. 291, no. 1, s.q. 15, op. 291, no. 2, and string octet, op. ... 291, to demonstrate how he combined two quartets into one octet. Also, there's too much emphasis on the flute for the smaller chamber music ensembles in CD 7. But the String Trio is certainly worth the purchase.

The solo piano CD, number 5, has got some real fine performances, such as by Jacques Fevrier, but points to a repetitive pattern in this box, too many Scaramouche (CD 5 and 10) and Saudades do Brazil (CD 1, 5, and 10). Le Bal martiniquais, Paris, two works on Printemps, and one on l'Automne save the day.

CDs 3 and 4 offer a pretty good sampling of the composer's concerti across time: piano concertos, etudes and ballade for piano and orchestra, cello concerto, harp concerto (very good), his American commission for the marimba/vibraphone concerto, and le Carnaval D'Aix. We sometimes forget how Milhaud, like Hindeminth, was so much instrument minded in his work, a composer for interpreters.

CD 2 brings discographic variations to those who have collected his CPO symphonies. Symphony 2 is performed by Tzipine, symphonies 4 and 8 by Milhaud and the O.P.O.R.T.F.

CD 1 takes us to well known recordings by Bernstein (Boeuf, Saudades, Creation) and Pretre (Suite française, Suite provençale).

At the price of about five bucks per CD, it is a fine marketing proposition to merge many familiar recordings into one box and to add numerous historical recordings that are not always available otherwise. But in my estimation, the chamber music is this box's weakest point.

[Wallingford]

These days, I'm duping some live BSO tapes and ripping them to my Windows Media Player:

Franck's Symphony in d (Koussevitzky)
Shostakovich's Fifth (from 8/9/75, preceded by announcement by Ozawa of composer's death to a shocked audience)
Mozart's "Haffner" Sym. (Walter)
Wagner's Siegfried Idyll (Walter)
Debussy' s Nocturnes (Ansermet, w/N.E. Cons. Chor.)
Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol (Koussevitzky)
Lili Boulanger's Psalm 29 (cond. by her sister Nadia, w/N.E. Cons. Chor.)
Schubert's Second (Mitropoulos)
Krenek's Variations on "I Wonder As I Wonder" (Mitropoulos)
Buxtehude's Chaconne in e, orchestrated by Carlos Chavez (who conducts)
Milhaud's Suite Provencale (Golschmann)
Kabalevsky's Cello Concerto (Mayes, cond. by composer)
Kabalevsky's Colas Breugnon Overture (Kostelanetz)
R. Strauss' Salome's Dance (Reiner)

[josé echenique]

After the sensational worldwide success of Leonardo Vinci´s Artaserse with Cencic and Fagioli, it was only to be expected that Parnassus Productions, the company they created, will give a go to another Vinci opera, and sooner than later they chose his amazing Catone in Utica with a Metastasio libreto. This same libreto was used by Vivaldi and countless other composers, but of all I have heard, Vinci´s has the finest music.
As with Artaserse, Catone in Utica was produced in Rome where women were banned from the stage, so castrati sang the female roles. Here Valer Sabadus and Vince Yi do well in those parts, but star countertenors Max Emanuel Cencic and Franco Fagioli have the male bravura roles, especially Fagioli who sings Cesare, a role created for Giovanni Carestini, who later went to London to work with Handel. Fagioli and Cencic once more leave you speechless and in awe with their vocal pyrotechnics. The last aria of CD 2, "Se in campo armato", for Cesare, with rousing trumpets and timpani, is not to be believed, I had to play it 3 times straight.
Also Spanish tenor Juan Sancho should be mentioned in the role of Catone, his music is sheer murder for high coloratura writing, it is certainly not a flawless performance, but one has to acknowledge that he does a lot in a role that 30 years ago might have been thought unsingable.
Il Pomo d´Oro and Riccardo Minasi play the score with super virtuoso efficiency and exquisite taste, they quite match Concerto Köln and Diego Fasolis in the Artaserse.
This is the only DECCA opera recording in more than a year [if I´m not mistaken], and they gave it a lavish production with super high quality audio and a gorgeous libreto the size of a small Bible. DECCA used to be the opera company [they advertised as such], maybe they no longer are THE opera company, but fortunately they still know how to make an opera recording. This is a vocal feast to rank with their vintage Tebaldi, Di Stefano, Bergonzi and Pavarotti recordings.

[josé echenique]

As expected, this is superior to the other 2 recordings of Les Danaïdes. Recorded live at the Metz Arsenal, the sound is sumptuous and well defined. Les Talens Lyriques play superbly, and Judith van Wanroij is a fantastic heroine.

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

From a 6 CD set from Warner Classics, licensed from EMI, of Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra (4 & 7), New Philharmonia Orch. (all save 4 & 7) performing the Bruckner Symphonies 4-9, all recorded in Kingsway Hall, London

CD 6--Tr. 1-3 of 3)...Sym. 9 in D Minor (1884, ed. Nowak) (65'18")--rec. 6-7 & 18-21 February 1970.

This performance is of a piece with most of the others in the set. Klemperer knows his Bruckner. He has no doubt that what he is doing is the right way to do this work. And another thing I noted is that even though it was projected as a 4 movement work and Bruckner did not complete a fourth movement, Klemperer makes it sound like a complete symphony, entire unto itself. One has no sense here, as we do with most other performances, that something is missing.

2 CD Profil PH 07076.--Haydn, FJ: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), Hob.XXI:3, Oratorio in 4 Parts (1800). Librettist: Baron Gottfried van Swieten, based on a poem by John Thomson--The Chamber Orch of Europe, RIAS-Kammerchor, Berlin, Roger Norrington, cond., Christiane Oelze, soprano, Scot Weir, lyric tenor, Peter Lika, bass.--rec. Seotember, 1991 Berlin, Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie.

I loved this performance, esp. the performance of the orchestra. I also have the Bohm recording and the Kuijken recording, and did some comparative listening. I think I praised the Kuijken in the past, but it is not so great when you compare it with the other two. Personally, I prefer Norrington for the orchestra and the conducting, esp in the Winter movement; he really builds up a rousing head of steam at the end. But when it comes to soloists, its just no contest. Bohm's trio consists of Gundula Janowitz, Peter Schreier, and Martti Talvela, and they are all in top form. How can you get better than that? You just can't. So, my verdict is Bohm for the trio of soloists, Norrington for the orchestra.

alto ALC 1113--Novak, Vitezslav (1870-1949)--Solo Piano Music--Radoslav Kvapil, piano--rec. July, 2010, Stockenny, Powys, Wales.

Tr. 1-2.....Sonata Eroica, Op. 24 (1900) (26'04)
Tr. 3-6.....Songs of Winter Nights, Op. 30 (1903) (17'20)
Tr. 7-11...Slovak Suite, Op. 32 (1903) (29'14)
Tr. 12.......Valachian Cance, Op. 34 #2 "Dymak" (1904) (6'14)

Novak was one of a number of Czech nationalist composers who came to some prominence in the early 20th century, esp. after the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia after the Versailles Treaty. Like Cesar Cui of the Russian Mighty Five, he is the one among the Czech composers of his generation (Leos Janacek [1854-1928], Josef Suk [1874-1935], Bela Bartok [1881-1945], and Zoltan Kodaly [1882-1967]) whose works have fallen by the wayside, who has not been treated kindly from the beginning of the second half of the 20th century until now. The Suk revivial continues apace, and now, it is beginning to appear, Novak's time may have begun anew.
The unattributed biography of Novak @ ArchivMusic.com says, in part,

"An eminent Czech composer, Vitezslav Novák is known for his evocative music in which innovative harmonies and memorable tone colors are used to express a wide range of emotions, including inner turmoil, diffuse melancholy, and nostalgia, as well as a mystical recognition of the awesome power of nature. Like many of his compatriots, Novák incorporated elements of Czech folk music into his work; however, the folk motifs are highly stylized, constituting a significant but not dominant strand in the rich texture of his music."

These piano works are all informed by the same aesthetic, and sound, stylistically, a lot like one another. Not very surprising, I submit, for a series of works all of which were completed in a four year period. But judging Novak by these works alone is a little like judging Stravinsky by his Op. 1, the Symphony in E Flat. Since they all sound a bit alike, I thought I would just quote from the liner notes; it will not only give you an idea of the origins of the music, but an idea of his social relationships as a young man (quite gregarious), which were to deteriorate into considerable bitterness toward the end of his life.

"Novak spent August 1987 in Hukvaldy, Janacek's birth place,...[at Janacek's invitation.] Here, the two composers performed Novak's new Three Czech Dances as a piano duet, and enjoyed the charm of the local folk music together.... "Janacek organized a performance of folk musicians in a local pub for us,' Novak wrote in his memoirs. 'Hukvaldy's youth demonstrated some typical dances from their region for us, which had been orchestrated by Janacek. Later, I scored two of them, Trojak, and Dymak (recorded here) for the piano, and then, later, for orchestra. Dymak is a very fierce dance. the boy throws the girl high up in the air, and then takes her in his arms and starts twirling her around, faster and faster. The composition is thus full of ever accellerating movement."

[Wallingford]

Liszt's two Piano Concertos (Sauer/Weingartner)
Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony (Toscanini)
Borodin's Second (Toscanini)
Brahms' Second (Ormandy 1)

[Wallingford]

Schumann's Carnaval and Fantasy (Casadesus)

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

Vol. 1-5 of the RCA Complete Toscanini set, NBC Sym Orch, devoted to music of Beethoven, recorded in Carnegie Hall, except for the Leonore Overture 3 on Disc 4 recorded in Studio 8H.

Vol. 1--

Tr. 1-4......Sym 3 in E Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica" (45'44)--rec. 28 Nov & 5 Dec 1949.
Tr. 5-8......Sym 1 in C Major, Op. 21 (23'49)--rec. 21 Dec 1951.


Vol. 2--

Tr. 1-4......Sym 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (32'49)--rec. 9 November 1951 (rehearsal) & 10 Nov 1951 (broadcast)..
Tr. 5-8......Sym 2 in D Major, Op. 36 (28'49)--rec. 7 Nov 1949 & 5 Oct 1951.
Tr. 9..........Egmont Overture, Op. 84: (7'45)--rec. 14 Jan 1952.

Vol. 3--

Tr. 1-5......Sym 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral" (40'44)--rec. 14 Jan 1952.
Tr. 5-9......Sym 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60 (30'41)--rec. 3 Feb 1951.

Vol. 4--

Tr. 1-4..........Sym. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (29'23)--rec. 22 Mar 1952.
Tr. 5-8..........Sym. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (25'20)--rec. 10 Nov 1952.
Tr. 9..............Leonore Overture 3, Op. 72a (13'12)--rec. 4 Nov 1939.

Vol. 5--

Tr. 1-4......Sym 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (64'46)--rec. 31 March & 1 April 1952. Robert Shaw Chorale, Robert Shaw, Cho. Dir., Eileen Farrell, soprano, Nan Merriman, mezzo-soprano, Jan Peerce, tenor, & Norman Scott, bass.

Beethoven: 9 Symphonies and 5 Overtures--Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig, Franz Konwitschny, cond., and, in the 9th, The Rundfunkchor Leipzig--Dietrich Knothe, Chorus Master. Soloists: Ingeborg Wenglor, soprano, Ursula Zollenkopf, contralto, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, tenor, Theo Adam, bass.--6 CD set, edel classics.

CD1--
Tr. 1-4.....Sym 1 in C Major. Op. 21 (26'26)
Tr. 5-8.....Sym. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 (33'55)
Tr. 9.........The Creatures of Prometheus (ballet), Op. 43: Overture in G Major (4'46)

CD 2--
Tr. 1-4.....Sym. 3 in E Flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica" (52'55)
Tr. 5.........Leonore, Op. 138: Overture 1 in C Major (10'13)
Tr. 6.........Leonore, Op. 138: Overture 2 in C Major (14'17)

CD 3--
Tr. 1-4.....Sym. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60 (34'53)
Tr. 5-8.....Sym. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (36'30)

CD 4--
Tr. 1-5.....Sym. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale" (45'01)
Tr. 6.........Leonore, Op. 138 : Overture 3 in G Major (14'23)
Tr. 7.........Fidelio, Op. 72: Overture in E Major (6'25)
Tr. 8.........Coriolan Overture in C Minor, Op. 62 (8'23)

CD 5--
Tr. 1-4.....Sym. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (41'31)
Tr. 5-8.....Sym. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (26'23)

CD 6--
Tr. 1-4.....Sym. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral" (70'46)

I have decided to do comparative reviews work by work. First, the overtures. Only one overture--Leonore 3--is performed by both Toscanini and Konwitschny. Toscanini's Egmont overture comes from 1952, iand is in as good sound as Toscanini ever got. It is vigorous and tuneful, with rock solid rhythms and sharp, well defined accents that, nevertheless give a true account of its lyricism as well.

Konwitxchny is generally slower than Toscanini in the slow passages of these works, but he is capable of switching to fleet, energetic playing when the scores call for it. Leonore 2, especially, seems rather turgid in the first few minutes.

Toscanini's Leonore 3 is a 1939 performance, and the early part of the overture really shows it age; distant ann dulled sound mar the performance. Later on, it seems to have more presence, but perhaps that is just a sign that I got used to it. In any event, because of the sound, it really is not competitive with the Konwitschny, which has much more presence and is a fine performance, to boot. It seems slower than Toscanini for about the first four minutes, but after that things liven up.

The Fidelio and Coriolan Overtures in the Knowitschny set are of a piece with his other overture performances. Over-long pregnant pauses in slow passages, vigor, energy and sharp accents in the fast ones.

Sym. 1--Toscanini's performance is fleet, strong, sharply accented, vigorous and thoroughly Beethovenian. This is not Beethoven, student of Haydn. Konwitschny is more relaxed, melodic, and classical. Of the two, Toscanini definitely gets my nod. Only a few other conductors like Liebowitz, Schurict, and Solti compare favorably with him in this work.

Sym. 2--Toscanini's performance here is exactly 5'06 faster than Knowitschny's.It is incisive, energetic, and rhythmic, while Konwitschny's is a bit more laid back and lyrical. Both conductors, however, seem to see this symphony as fully mature Beethoven. Toscanini gets the edge here, but not by as great a margin as in the First Symphony.

Sym. 3--Toscanini's account is fleet and powerful. But the marcia funebre, the core of the work, does not move me at all. It seems clouded and obscured. Konwitschny, by contrast, is longer--Toscanini is 45'44 and Knowitschny is 52'55. The extra length is mostly in the first movement; Toscanini's first movement is 13'47, Konwitschny's is 19'40. Konwitschny's is a ruminative and thoughtful performance. The marcia funebre is moving, but although in the middle it is a grand lament, both the beginning and the end seem very private and personal. Konwitschny's performance is lush and tuneful. I prefer it to the Toscanini by a long shot. And what of other performances?
My two favorite Eroicas are both by Furtwangler and the Vienna Phil. In the one from 1944, the marcia funebre is an angry Jeremiad; the Novemeber, 1952 performance is a requiem, as I have said before in other fora, for the dead not only of war and Holocaust, but for the honor of two generations of Germans and Austrians.

Sym. 4--The Toscanini recording sounds almost perfect. Just the right amount of misterioso feeling in the beginning of the first movement, with tension building gradually up to its explosion into the allegro. The rest of the work is fast, incisive, and still lyrical. Konwitschny takes it a little slower, but not by that much. It was recorded later, of course, and has a more full bodied sound as a result. I'd have to give the slightest of edges to Toscanini, though, mostly because of the first movement lead in to the allegro. It is more explosively visceral than Konwitschny, but the latter has much to recommend it as well. Other recordings of note are Klemperer and Monteux in addition to Liebowitz, who is excellent in all the symphonies, and Schurict, whose performances of the first 8 are magnificent.

Sym. 5--The Toscanini is a very fleet and otherwise MOR performance. It is visceral and exciting; Konwitschny is more ruminative and contemplative. Both have their charms, but Toscanini's brashness wins in the end. After all, this is a young man's symphony. Others to consider are Liebowitz, Schuricht, Reiner, and Carlos Kleiber.
Sym. 6--Konwitschny's account is 4'17 longer than Toscanini's, but his first movement is actually a tad fleeter--11'36 vs Toscanini's 11'53. Toscanini's is more lyrical than many others, but compared to Konwitschny, he is dramatic, incisive, and sharply accented. Again, Konwitschny is more contemplative and ruminative, but the program lends itself to that approach more than most of Beethoven's other symphonies. Of the two, I prefer Toscanini, but is is a close call. But neither is a real favorite of mine--those are Szell and Solti. Other versions to consider are Reiner, Liebowitz, Schuricht, and Monteux.

Sym. 7--The timings here say a lot--Toscanini 32'49, Konwitschny 41'31. Toscanini's is fleet and classically proportioned; Konwitschny is more romantic and expansive. I prefer Konwitschny's approach here, though I would not fault anyone who preferred Toscanini. Others to consider are Schuricht, Liebowitz, Szell (in all but the second movement, which is the worst performance of a single movement in Szell's set of the Beethoven symphonies), Solti, Mravinsky, and Carlos Kleiber.

Sym. 8--Not as big a difference between Toscanini and Konwitschny as far as speed is concerned as in the 7th. Konwitschny's account is only 1'03 longer than Toscanini's. They both seem to follow Klemperer in a sense, seeing this as a great symphony in its own right, not as a self parody. Toscanini's is, as usual, the more sharply accented performance. But my favorites in this work are Schuricht, Liebowitz, Szell, Solti, and Klemperer.

Sym. 9--Konwitschny's account is exactly 6 minutes longer than Toscanini's, and most of the difference is in the firs movement. Toscanini, as always, is fleet and incisively accented, and his is the better account of the first two, maybe three movements, though accenting is not a prominent feature of the third movement. It is in the last movement that Konwitschny outshines Toscanini by a country mile and it is due primarily to the fact that all his soloists spoke German as a first language, and none of Toscanini's did. Theo Adam is a much more secure bass voice that Norman Scott, and the differences in intonation are palpable and obvious.

Other great 9ths--Szell/Cleveland, 2 Furtwanglers--the March 22, 1942 Berlin recording and the 1951 Bayreuth performance, Reiner, Tennstedt, and others are well worth a listen.

[piston]

Even though Bartok counted Laszlo Lajtha as one of only three Hungarian composers worth mentioning during the inter-war years, Lajtha seldom saw his music published in Budapest or Vienna and no less than twenty-six works in his relatively small opus (he composed at a pace of one to two works per year) were still unpublished in 2013, at the time his niece, responsible for the Lajtha estate, passed on.

Typically, Budapest publishers were primarily interested in publishing piano scores that would find a large amateur market, but, in contrast to Bartok, Lajtha did not compose much at all for piano solo or for vocal soloist and instrument(s). He primarily was, almost from the beginning, a composer of chamber music, composing 27 works in that genre: 14 were published in Paris, 5 elsewhere, and 8 (trios, quartets, quintets) remain unpublished.

Without French publishers (mainly Paris but also Toulouse) who immediately or later published 44 of his works, including nearly all his orchestral works, and without the absolute dedication of Dr. Idalko Lajtha, the economist who cared for the estate with incessant energy, the composer Bartok respected so much (along with several French composers such as Barraud and Schmitt) would not have been recorded as much on Hungaroton and Marco Polo. Also revealing is that six of his opus numbers are "lost," not just an early work from 1914, but also the violin concerto op. 15, sonata for violin and piano op. 28 (1938), two divertissements op. 30, the symphonic poem Evasion, fuite, liberte op. 37 (1942), a serenade for three wind instruments op. 40 (1944), and a film score from 1949.

My point in conveying all this information is that, long before he was blacklisted in Hungary, at the height of the new Cold War, in 1948 (largely because his two sons never came back from his family's extended stay in London, thus being early examples of defectors), Lajtha's music was not appreciated by his pre-communist compatriots or by the Austrians; his works were often premiered in Paris.

I have been listening to works from the first half of his composing life, before he became known as a great symphonist, when he was busy writing for the flute, the harp, string trios and string quartets, some ballet music, incidental music for two films (he did not write "film scores" per se), and his first two symphonies:




The music he wrote for the flute, harp and cello (two trios) is often very much Gallic to my ears, probably the most obvious evidence of a French influence from his days in Paris under the guidance of Vincent d'Indy. The Sonate en concert for flute and piano and the two pieces for flute solo, however, seem more suited to display great virtuosity at conservatoire exams or public concert halls. I'll need to listen to more string quartets before I can characterize his important cultural output for that medium, but it's not really "French," in his early quartets, nor is it some "lite" Bartok. There are obviously signs, here and there, that he was also engaged in folkloric field work, like Kodaly and Bartok, but Lajtha did not let folk music take command of his expressive range for these four string instruments. Two orchestral works included above --Symphony no. 2 and In Memoriam (performed in London in 1942)-- speak to Lajtha's criticism of war which, as a veteran of World War I, several times wounded, he could never portray in any patriotic or glorious light (such as Shosta's seventh); he strikes me, in his emphasis on gloom and doom, as an unconditional pacifist. The Suite for orchestra is derived from his first ballet, Lysistrata, which, interestingly, also places at the center of the stage women's opposition to an ongoing war between the Spartans and the Greeks. The huge "Variations" for orchestra, the full title being Eleven variations for orchestra on a simple theme, "Temptations," is much, but not all, of the music he wrote for the film "Murder in the Cathedral," on the murder of St. Thomas à Becket, the very same film project that led his family to spend much time in London in 1947-48. Lajtha did not compose film scores in the sense that he composed music independently of film action; it was up to the film producer to couple excerpts from that music as he saw fit. In short, he composed incidental music for a film which, he believed, stood on its own as a separate or independent work. So, it would not be accurate to state that these Variations for orchestra were drawn from the film music. It was just the opposite.

[Wallingford]

Mendelssohn's "Scottish" (Munch)

[josé echenique]

13 CDs plus a DVD with a Mahler 4th.

So far I have heard the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Tod ind Verklärung and Rachmaninov´s Second.
Glorious playing as expected.
Got an excellent price in Amazon.fr: 82 euros with the detaxe.

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

Haydn, F.J. (1732-1809): Die Schopfung (The Creation)--an oratorio in 3 parts with a text by Lidley (first name unknown) based on John Milton's Paradise Lost. (1795-98)--Sir Roger Norrington, cond. Chamber Orch. of Europe, RIAS Kammerchor, Marcus Creed, Cho. Dir., Christiane Oelze, soprano, Scot Weir, tenor, Peter Lika, bass. 2 CD Profil PH07074, rec. live March, 1990, Berlin, Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie. (97'19)

On its own terms, this is a very impressive recording. Soloists' voices are clear, unaffected and unmannered, and their voices ring out with near perfect intonation. It is a live recording, but that is not evident until the applause at the end. We find no evidence of the coughers choruses that plague the Carnegie Hall recordings of Vladimir Horowitz, for example.

But when I listen to the other two recordings of this work I own--the Kuijken/La Petite Band account and that of Bernstein/NYPO, I realize that although Norrington's honorable account is well worth hearing, it is, alas, the least of the three. Personally, I give a slight edge to Kuijken over Bernstein, but I would not argue too strongly with anyone who preferred the Bernstein. Lenny was especially good in large, monumental choral works like this, the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, and Mahler 2, 3, and 8. Too bad he never recorded the Mendelssohn Lobgesang. He did well with the last three Mendelssohn symphonies; it would have been nice to hear him in the other two as well.


Berlioz (1803-69): Sir Charles Mackerras, cond., Royal Philharmonic Orch., rec. dates and venues unknown. P 2007, C 2008. RPM 28310.

Tr. 1........Le carnaval romain (1844) (8'24)
Tr. 2-6....Symphonie fantastique (1830) (53'56)

This is a fine recording, though it is recorded at a very low level. Had to crank up the volume quite a bit to hear it. It is a more lyrical, less rhythmic interpretation than most. It is not, however, a favorite of mine. I vastly prefer several other performances, in order--Beecham, Jansons, Monteux?San Francisco SO. I also have recordings by Temirkanov/RPO and, Nanut/'Ljublana.

Janos Starker: "The Warner Legacy" , a 10 CD compilation of recordings featuring Janos Starker. Warner Classics 0825646341252.

CD 3 (74'17)--Except for Tr. 1-3, all recorded in MONO 4-7 June 1958, Abbey Road Studio 3--Gerald Moore, piano, tr. 4-17.

Tr. 1-3......Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B Flat Major, G 482 (22'20)--Cadenzas: Hutter--Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Philharmonia Orch.--rec 29-30 May 1958, Kingsway Hall, London. STEREO
Tr. 4.........J.S. Bach: Orchestral Suite 3 in D Major. S. 1068: Air (4'21)
Tr. 5.........Kreisler: Allegretto in the style of Boccherini (3'43)
Tr. 6.........Saint-Saens: Allegro appassionato, Op. 43 (4'12)
Tr. 7.........Debussy: Preludes Book 1 # 8 "La fille aux cheveux de lin (arr. Feuillard) (2'25)
Tr. 8.........Chopin: Nocturne 2 in E Flat Major, Op. 9 # 2 (arr. Popper) (4'56)
Tr. 9.........Popper, David (1843-1913): Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68 (8'32)
Tr. 10.......J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concerto 5 in F Minor, S. 1056: Arioso (4'44)
Tr. 11.......Schubert: Allegretto garzioso (arr. Cassado) (3'53)
Tr. 12.......Schubert: Moment musical 3 in F Minor. D. 780 (arr. Becker) (2'05)
Tr. 13.......Mussorgsky: Sorochintsi: Gopak (arr. Stutschewsky) (1'53)
Tr. 14.......Schumann: Kinderszenen. Op. 15: Trauermei (arr. Palaschko) (3'16)
Tr. 15.......Debussy: Petite Suite. L65: Menuet (arr. Gurt) (3'03)
Tr. 16.......Tcherepnin: Ode (1'68)
Tr. 17.......Paganini: Caprice in B Flat Major, Op. 1 # 13 (arr. Kreisler) (2'46)

The Boccherini Concerto is a pleasant enough work of no particular moment; all the others are short excerpts, bon-bons, and encore pieces, except. perhaps, for the Bach Air. Starker was, at one point in his life, principal cellist in the Chcicago Symphony, which has a long standing practice of playing this Bach Air in the week after the death of any member or former member of the orchestra, so it is a piece he could play in his sleep.

CD 4 (71'33)--Carlo Maria Giulini, cond., Philharmonia Orch., rec. in STEREO Kingsway Hall, London.

Tr. 1-3......F.J. Haydn: Cello Concerto 2 in D Major, Hob. VIIb/2 (27'07)--Cadenzas: Starker--rec. 29-30 May 1958.
Tr. 4-6.....Schumann: Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129 (23'58)--rec. 17 September 1957.
Tr. 7-9.....Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto 1 in A Minor, Op. 33 (20'03)--rec. 16 September 1957

These three concerti are works with which I am not thoroughly familiar. The Haydn is a pleasant work, but this concerto is not one of Haydn's greater works; it is pleasant, nothing much more, one of his lesser efforts. The Schumann is probably the most interesting work here; I have a couple other recordings of it, but it is not a work on which I have formed passionate feelings. Same with the Saint-Saens. Giulini is, of course, a much more than merely satisfactory accompanist.

[piston]

Good old-fashioned patriotic music from World War I.

In England, where concert life was not really affected by the conflict, Edward Elgar, very much in demand for fund-raising patriotic works, often deployed large orchestral forces, first to draw attention to the victims of Belgium and of Poland, and then to boost the morale of his own compatriots. Needless to say that this portion of the composer's opus is some of the most "functional" music (serving an immediate purpose) he ever composed. I have listened to:
- Carillon, op. 75, recitation and orchestra (1914)(for Belgium);
- Polonia, op. 76, symphonic prelude for orchestra (1915)(for Poland);
- Une voix dans le désert, recitation, soprano, and orchestra (1915)(Belgium);
- Le drapeau belge, recitation and orchestra (1917)(Belgium);
- The Spirit of England, vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra (1917)(England);
- The Fringes of the Fleet, songs for four baritones and orchestra (1917)(British empire).

In France, with large concert performances often ruled out due to a lack of musicians or bombings, composers typically opted for patriotic military band music. I have accessed the following pieces on youtube, but there's more out there including Alfred Bruneau's Le Tambour (the drum), le Chant du drapeau (Song of the Flag), and Le navire (the ship):
- A. Caplet: Douaumont-Marche heroique de la 5eme, band;
- R. Hahn: Les jeunes lauriers, military march for band (1915);
- F. Schmitt: Marche du 163eme regiment d'infanterie, band;
- Saint-Saens: Vers la victoire, band music;
- Guillaume Balay: Hymne de la delivrance, band (1918);
- Louis Ganne: La marche des etoiles, band;
- Claude Debussy, Berceuse héroique, piano (later orchestrated).

In Austria and Germany, few well-known orchestral composers such as the aging Max Bruch, the famous Richard Strauss, the anti-modernist Hans Pfitzner, and the very modernist Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, composed anything so explicitly patriotic as their British and French counterparts. Other than Max Reger, Austrian, German, and Slovenian patriotic composers were often operetta (Lehar, Robert Stolz, Ralph Benatzky) or waltz/polka (Emil Hochreiter, Carl Michael Ziehrer) composers and their patriotic output largely consists of war songs seldom uploaded on youtube. I have listened to:
- Max Reger: Eine vaterlandische Overture, op. 140 (Patriotic Overture);
- Carl Michael Ziehrer, Kaiser Karl Marsch, op. 558, orchestra.

[jserraglio]

BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 TMCO/Koussevitzky (7/19/1940)

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade, Op. 35 TMCO/Bernstein (7/26/1940) LB's earliest recording age 22.

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

Dvorak (1841-1904): Piano Works, Vol 2, Radoslav Kvapil on Dvorak's own 1879 Bosendorfer piano. Rec. Oct., 1998 in Hlubos Castle, Czech Republic--alto ALC 1171. TT: 77'41

Tr. 1-8......Valses, Op. 54, B. 105 (1880) (25'56)
Tr. 9-12....Eclogues B. 103 (1880) (16'36)
Tr. 13-16..Pieces for piano, Op. 52, B. 110 (1880) (13'53)
Tr. 17-22..Mazurkas, Op. 56, B. 111 (1880) (20'46)

Radoslav Kvapil is a superb master pianist, and Dvorak is a specialty of his. The Waltzes are the most virtuosic of these pieces--they are fast and there is lots of fingerwork. The Eclogues are slower, somewhat more pastoral and contemplative works. The rest are somewhere between the two extremes. The Mazurkas, particularly, of course, are based on rhythms of traditional folk dances. This music is unfailingly exciting and visceral, except for the Eclogues, which are more serene.



Janos Starker: "The Warner Legacy" smile emoticon , a 10 CD compilation of recordings featuring Janos Starker. Warner Classics 0825646341252.
CD 5 (59'45)--Walter Susskind, cond., Philharmonia Orch., rec. 11-13 July 1956, Kingsway Hall, London. STEREO

Tr. 1-3....Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 (37'15).
Tr. 4.......Ernst von Dohnanyi: Konzertstuck in D Major, Op. 12 (1904) (22'23).

The Dvorak here is very disappointing. The firt movement seems disjointed and confused, as if the soloist and conductor had what divorce lawyers call "irreconcilable differences." Attacks are timid, tentative and halting, and orchestral support seems sloppy. Things pick up a bit in the second movement, with at least a clearer line from Starker, but it is overly slow, as if slowing it down somehow demonstrated profundity. Only in the last movement does the performance do honor to the composer, and even then it is not quite as impressive as many another interpretation.

My favorite of all time is the 1951 Rostropovich/Talich/Czech PO recording, Rostropovich's first and best recording of this work, when he was young, not well know3n, and could not dominate the conductor, who was a long time Dvorakian. Other good performances are Fournier/Szell/Berlin PO, Queyras/Belohlavek/Czech PO, perhaps the most recent addition to the work's discography, and even the Helmerson/Jarvi/Gothenburg recording.

The Dohnanyi work is a work of two worlds. Composed in 1904, it is really in three parts. The first seems to look to the past and is very Dvorakian; the middle third sounds rhapsodically Straussian, with the orchestra often overwhelming the cello. The last third seems to try to meld the two approaches into a cohesive whole, and features a bigger role for the soloists than earlier in the work. Its one of those transitional works that straddles the old and new--one part classical romantic like Brahms and Dvorak, the other modernist like Strauss, Mahler, and even Debussy. I am not sure it holds together all that well, but that's what it seems like Dohnanyi was attempting. Of course, it must be borne in mind that this was early in the composer's career, and his later works were much more sure-footed.


Profil CD PH 07043

Tr. 1-6......Hindemith, Paul (1895-1963): Die junge Magd (The young maid) for contralto, flute, clarinet, and string quartet, Op. 23/2 (1922) (Set to poems by Georg Trakl (1887-1914) (1943) (19'43)--Ruth Lange, contralto, Joseph Keilberth, cond. Staatskapelle of Dresden Chamber Orch.--rec. Sep 1948.

Tr. 7-9......Toch, Ernst (1887-1964): Die chinesische Flote (The Chinese Flute), song cycle for voice and orch., Op 29 (1922) (Set to Chinese poems by Hans Bethge (1876-1964): (23'24)--Elfride Trotschel, soprano, Arno Birr, flute, Hans Lowlein, cond. Staatskapelle of Dresden Chamber Orch.--rec 22 Feb 1949.

Tr. 10........Interview with Ruth Lange (3'24)
Tr, 11........Interview with Elfride Trotschel (7'42)

Both of the vocal works on this record are originally from 1922, but received few performances until the early post WWII era, when these recordings were made. Despite the early date of these recordings, they sound remarkably fresh and in an excellent approximation of up to date sound. Remember that the tape recorder was a German invention, and in this period, all through the 1940's and the early 1950's, they were the best in the world in this technology. And, of course, these works are still not exactly at the top of the classical "hit parade," so to speak, so the original masters have not been repeatedly handled and suffered degradation as a result.

These two works convey pretty much the same kind of mood. They sound like their composers were clinically depressed, and considering the social, economic, and political events of Germany in and around 1922, that is no wonder. The singers are excellent and the instrumental musicianship is as well. The interviews at the end are in German, of course, but verbatim transcripts in English translation are in the rather disorganized, but informative booklet that accompanies this CD. Recommended.

[jserraglio]

Persichetti Te Deum (1965 wp live)

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

2 CD Philips 475 7552--Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin +--Arthur Grumiaux, violin, rec in Berlin.

CD 1 (78'03)

Tr. 1-4......Sonata 1 in C Minor, S. 1001 (13'50)--rec. Nov 1960
Tr. 5-12....Partita 1 in B Minor, S. 1002 (19'46)--rec Feb 1961
Tr. 13-16..Sonata 2 in A Minor, S. 1003 (18'47)--rec Mar 1961
Tr. 17-21..Partita 2 in D Minor, S. 1004 (24'43)--rec Mar 1961

CD 2 (68'02)--Egida Giordani Sartori, harpsichord, Tr. 11-18

Tr. 1-4......Sonata 3 in C Major, S. 1005 (20'32)--rec Feb 1961
Tr. 5-10....Partita 3 in E Major, S. 1006 (19'47)--rec. Nov 1960
Tr. 11-14..Sonata for violin and harpsichord in E Major, S. 1016 (16'51)--rec June 1963
Tr. 15-18..Sonata for violin and harpsichord in C Minor, S. 1017 (15'21)--rec June 1963

Many people think Nathan Milstein is the preeminent interpreter of these works. Others say Arthur Grumiaux, but the general consensus seems to be that these are the two best sets. I agree, but after listening to this set, my preference is very firmly for Grumiaux. His are more passionate than Milstein's, and I like his phrasings better. Milstein's approach seems more metronomic and patrician.

These accompanied sonatas are well-performed here, but I must say Grumiaux's modern violin overwhelms the harpsichord; the appropriate balance between the two instruments is lacking.


Janos Starker: "The Warner Legacy" , a 10 CD compilation of recordings featuring Janos Starker. Warner Classics 0825646341252.

CD 6 (50'25)--Walter Susskind, cond., Philharmonia Orch.--rec. 14-17 July 1956 Kingsway Hall, London. STEREO

Tr. 1.....Faure: Elegie in C Minor, Op. 24 (1880, orch. 1890) (6'39)
Tr. 2-4..Milhaud: Cello Concerto 1, Op. 136 (1934) (13'54)
Tr. 5-7..Prokofiev: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 58 (1938) (29'38)

The Elegie was originally intended to be the middle movement of a cello sonata, but Faure never completed it. He arranged it as a stand alone piece for cello and piano in 1883, and orchestrated it himself in 1890. It is in an ABA form with a slow beginning and end and a fast central section. Starker and Susskind turn in a creditable performance but I wouldn't say its anything to write home about.

Per a review by Joseph Stevenson at AllMusic.com, "It {the Milhaud concerto] is a substantial addition to the cello's concerto repertoire. As the tempo mark suggests, the first movement is not bothered by much in the way of passion; it rather placidly goes on with attractive music from both the cello (which opens the concerto, solo) and the orchestra; even though the tempo does increase, the generally feeling of lazy contentment continues. The second movement, on the other hand, is unusually somber for Milhaud, both in the scoring with an emphasis on muted brass and in the gloomy character of the cello's main melody. Milhaud's most familiar mood, joyous and dancing, asserts itself in the happy finale. Very satisfying listening."

The Wikipedia article on the Prokofiev concerto says it usually lasts about 35 minutes, but this performance is under 30 minutes. The first public performance did not go well, and Prokofiev was blamed, but Sviatoslav Richter, who had worked with the cello soloist in preparing the performance, is known to have felt that both he and the conductor were ill-suited for the work. In the late 40's, Prokofiev heard Rostropovich perform it and was so taken by it that he revised it with Rostropovich's help and advice, and it emerged as the Symphony-Concerto, Op. 125.

I checked on available recordings of this work on ArchivMusic.com, and found that the only two recordings I happen to be the only two that do not come with a Recommended label at that site. The other one is by Lynn Harrell/Vladimir Ashkanazy/Royal Phil. on a Decca Trio box of all the Prokofiev Concerti. I do not detect a lot of worth in the recording under review, but this process has exposed a weakness in my collection which I will take steps to remedy sometime within the next year.


Novak, Vitezslav (1870-1949)--Douglas Bostock, cond, Carlsbad Symphony Orch., Daniela Strakova, soprano (Tr. 6-13). ec. Lazne III, Carlsbad, Czech Republic, Jan, 1998--alto ALC 1199, lic from MAT. (TT: 76'42)

Tr. 1..........In the Tatras, Op. 26 (17'10)
Tr. 2-5.......South Bohemian Suite, Op. 64 (29'47)
Tr. 6-13.....8 Nocturnes for voice & orchestra, Op. 39 (28'57)--from poetry by several poets; the last movement is from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn."

Douglas Bostock is a British conductor born in Cheshire in 1955. He was educated at Sheffield University and was one of the last private pupils of Sir Adrian Boult. He has conducted many orchestras, mostly in central Europe and Japan. Daniela Stakova, a graduate of Brno University, is a superb soprano, and acquits herself well in these songs.

In the Tatras is a tone poem in ABA form. The beginning and the end have a misterioso quality about them, while the central section is a rhapsodic celebration of this central European mountain chain.

The South Bohemian Suite begins with melodies form Moravian folk songs and is somewhat in the nature of Smetana's Ma Vlast. But beginning with the third movement, Novak turns to a much more energetic and military mode, celebrating the life and ideas of John Huss, a revolutionary religious reformer who was burned at the stake in 1415.

[John F]

Getting away from complete sets, I like recordings of individual sonatas and partitas ranging from Adolf Busch in the 1930s to Leonid Kogan in the 1960s. But I have Milstein's first recording of the 6, for Capitol Records, and Henryk Szering's, and like them very much.

[Len_Z]

Getting away from complete sets, I like recordings of individual sonatas and partitas ranging from Adolf Busch in the 1930s to Leonid Kogan in the 1960s. But I have Milstein's first recording of the 6, for Capitol Records, and Henryk Szering's, and like them very much.

Which one of Szeryng's - DG or Sony? I have both and can't make up my mind which one I like better. But one of them is definitely my favorite recording of these works:)

[John F]

The one I have was published by Columbia/CBS's budget label Odyssey, so it must be the Sony. Haven't heard the other one.

[scififan]

I listened to the first act of Lucia di Lammermoor in the 1955 live recording with Callas, di Stefano and Panerai. Karajan is conducting the RIAS Symphony Orchestra. Panerai has been criticized in that opening scene, but I found him appropriately dramatically venomous. I also sensed an atmosphere of fury conveyed in the singing and conducting. This was exciting opera!

Scene 2 was even more powerful. Callas was intensely dramatic in Regnava nel silenzio. The lines are beautifully drawn out and filled with a sense of suffering. There is terror and horror when Lucia describes the apparition in the blood filled fountain.
Then comes the counterweight of Quando, rapito in estasi filled with the joy of her love for Edgardo. The audience clearly appreciated this vocal tour di force judging by the excited applause and cheers (which were cut short in the recording).

The final part of the scene has the duet between Edgardo and Lucia ending with their marriage vows. This, too, is beautifully done. Di Stefano partnered Callas in her first studio recording of the opera and here his dynamic aggressiveness is perfectly balanced with the pleading of Lucia. Listen to her in Ah! Talor del too pensiero and the following magnificent duet: Ah! Veranno a te sull'aure.

This is a wonderful performance. And the audience thought so too!

[piston]

Alfred Schnittke, "Peer Gynt," ballet in three acts based on Henrik Ibsen's drama (1985/1987)

Prologue
1. Into the World - 4 min.

Act I: Norway
2. Peer and his mother Åse - 2 min.
3. Peer´s Imagination - 4 min.
4. Peer at Ingrid´s wedding celebration - 2 min.
5. Appearance of Solveig and her parents - 4 min.
6. Pas de deux: Solveig-Peer - 4 min.
7. The World of the small-minded Locals - 1 min.
8. In the mountains with Ingrid - 5 min.
9. The Troll-world - 5 min.
10. The Böyg - 3 min. 30 sec.
11. Peer´s Solitude - 1 min. 30 sec.
12. Solveig comes to Peer (pas de deux) - 6 min. 30 sec.
13. The Woman in Green - 2 min. 30 sec.
14. Åse´s Death (pas de deux) - 5 min. 30 sec.

Act II: Out in the World - Illusions
15. Overture - 3 min. 30 sec.
16. Auditions - 4 min.
17. Rainbow Sextet - 3 min.
18. Peer as Slavedealer - 1 min.
19. Scene and Opening Night Party - 4 min. 30 sec.
20. Emperor of the World - 2 min. 30 sec.
21. Peer´s dance with the whip - 2 min.
22. Solveig´s dance - 2 min. 30 sec.
23. Peer´s mad dance - 2 min. 30 sec.
24. Peer´s coronation - 1 min.
25. Finale - 2 min.

Act III: Return
26. Mesto - 2 min.
27. Andante - 4 min.
28. Peer´s memories - 2 min.
29. Ingrid´s burial - 3 min.
30. Scene with Solveig - 6 min. 30 sec.
31. Peer surrounded by his aspects - 1 min.
32. Song of the World - 30 sec.
33. The Onion - 3 min.
34. Despair and escape - 40 sec.
35. Deliverance - 2 min.

Epilogue:
36. Out of the world - 24 min.
37. Appendix - 2 min.
CD BIS CD 677/8: Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra, Eri Klas (cond)

Written just before and after his "serious" stroke (which was a near-death experience he later recalled as a period of semi-consciousness during which he contacted his late mother). It is an epic polystylistic work which many, and yours included, consider his master piece.

"When I was writing the ballet Peer Gynt, I wrote an epilogue which sums up all the earlier music, where all the circles of reality are heard again. But they have moved from the realm of reality to become reflections, and these reflections cement everything together into a single coherent viewpoint from which we can see everything." (Alfred Schnittke)

[John F]

I had high expectations of this music but was disappointed. Like much that he composed after the major stroke in 1985, it is rather dry and remote compared with the masterpieces of the 1980s. The epilogue was arranged as a concert piece for cello, piano, and taped wordless chorus; I heard Rostropovich perform it in New York shortly after Schnittke's death.

[piston]

I had high expectations of this music but was disappointed. Like much that he composed after the major stroke in 1985, it is rather dry and remote compared with the masterpieces of the 1980s. The epilogue was arranged as a concert piece for cello, piano, and taped wordless chorus; I heard Rostropovich perform it in New York shortly after Schnittke's death.

Then you mostly like what Schnittke referred to as the "crystalline" realities he endeavored to "ensnare" before that major life-threatening event. I certainly would not call his Peer Gynt "dry," far from it; it is at times lively and passionate, contemplative and spiritual, dramatic and lyrical. What you call "remote" he might have termed existential illusions and constantly moving realities.

I certainly would love to see a staged performance of that ballet.

For those interested, the BBC produced a short documentary in three parts called "The Unreal World of Alfred Schnittke," around 1990, that is after his stroke but before his premature death. The third part of this program explains, in the composer's own words, how his perception of reality changed, radically, after his recovery:

[John F]

Dry, lacking in "juice," in comparison with the viola concerto, the string trio, and the choir concerto among others. As for "crystalline realities," I've no idea what Schnittke can have been talking about. To the contrary, these and others of his works I admire are gutsy, giving me the impression of being from the heart.

[Guitarist]

This is a most wonderful recording. I far prefer this music on a modern piano. Steinway knows how to build as well as record them!

[piston]

Interested in the film/tv/cartoon music of Alfred Schnittke, I started with volume one of the four-volume CD set issued on the Capriccio label, with "The Story of an Unknown Actor" and "the Commissar." I also re-viewed G. Rojdestvensky's compilation of "Dead Souls," not from a film score, if I'm accurate, but from a five-hour Russian tv series. That video, by the way, is a riot, with the Russian conductor acting out throughout the 29 minutes of the performance.

My usual approach, when possible, is to first watch the movie and then listen to the film music CD. That was not possible for "The Story of the Unknown Actor" but "The Commissar" sure caught my attention!

Where to begin? This movie, set in the context of the Russian Civil War following the Revolution, is hardly about war and mostly about Russian-Jewish relations. The story line is full of potential: a female military "commissar" in the Red Army becomes pregnant and she is brought to, and imposed upon, a large Jewish family for her health needs (including maternal clothes), her child delivery, and post-partum recovery. This story was being produced for a movie in 1966, at a time when all, absolutely all, central "Jewish themes" were banned from Soviet cultural production (which, btw, leads to a further appreciation of Shostakovich's "Babi Yar" symphony). But, because of the producer's close connection to the Ministry of Culture or simply as a result of neglecting to pay close attention to the script, the movie was funded and given a green light.

The biography of this producer is fascinating but not especially relevant to a Chatterbox post. Let's just say that his parents were arrested when he was five and, knowing that he was destined to a special orphanage for "enemies of the people," he ran for shelter to a ... large Jewish family who protected him for several months before finding a safe way to send him to his grandmother.

The strange story of this movie and its film score is that it was banned, for over twenty years, partly because of its central Jewish theme but also because the producer, in spite of all his liberal intentions, was culturally insensitive to the Soviet Jews, injected constant Christian Orthodox symbols into his production, and even had to force Jews to be featured in a movie they actually feared (he was so insensitive that one critical scene involves having Jews walk right into a well-know (to them) location where Jews were mass murdered during WWII). Believe it or not, he was accused of Zionism by Soviet authorities and of anti-Semitism by the Jewish intelligentsia. He was exiled from Moscow and forbidden, forever, to produce any more movies.... Eventually, with Gorbachev's new thaw, the movie was released, in 1988, and celebrated, by individuals such as De Niro as a testament to the democratization of the USSR.

Schnittke (whose father was Jew) was called upon to write the film score because Askoldov, the producer, could not find any record of Jewish music in the Moscow archives and such music was vital in several scenes. He delivered a very good score, better to my mind than the fake but more popular Tchaikovskian leitmotiv of "The Story of an Unknown Actor" which actually makes sense in that movie about the falsehoods of romanticism. But the music he composed was shelved by the KGB for the next twenty years.

I recommend this movie even if you don't understand Russian. It is a historical testimony as to what Russian liberals were trying to achieve in the mid-1960s, however limited their comprehension of the "other." They still advocated harmony and union with all Soviet people, including an end to anti-Semitism. In the end, the "Commissar," who has had a powerful vision of a forthcoming pogrom against her benefactors (in a scene depicting the Holocaust), leaves her baby to their care and runs to a sure death against the Polish "white" army:

During the Russian Civil War (1918–1922), a female commissar of the Red Army cavalry Klavdia Vavilova (Nonna Mordyukova) finds herself pregnant. Until her child is born, she is forced to stay with the family of a poor Jewish blacksmith Yefim Magazannik (Rolan Bykov), his wife, mother-in-law, and six children. At first, both the Magazannik family and "Madame Vavilova", as they call her, are not enthusiastic about living under one roof, but soon they share their rationed food, make her civilian clothes, and help her with the delivery of her newborn son. Vavilova seemingly embraces motherhood, civilian life, and new friends.
Meanwhile, the frontline advances closer to the town and the Jews expect a pogrom by the White Army as the Red Army retreats. Vavilova attempts to console them with a Communist dream: "One day people will work in peace and harmony", but the dream is interrupted with a vision of the fate of the Jews in the coming world war. She rushes to the front to rejoin her army regiment, leaving her newborn behind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uplRMFNI0-Y
An excellent analysis of this movie, its context, its producer's background and many cultural shortcomings with regard to Jewish culture in the USSR, is found here:
http://www.readperiodicals.com/201410/3473940521.html

[jserraglio]

Bernstein, Copland, Foss and Fine discuss American Music - 1950 - WNYC b'cst
_______________________________________________________________

Recorded in 1950 at the Berkshire Music Festival featuring Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss and Irving Fine entitled "What is American Music?".

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k3z5sc7vraqoc ... r.mp3?dl=0

[jserraglio]

Stanley Hummel plays Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, and Weber ERSTA 1000 - LP 1950s

[piston]

Other than his score for "The Commissar," Schnittke wrote music for at least three other films that were banned or long obstructed by censors in the late 1960s and 1970s.

His music for the short film "The Angel" (1968), directed by Andrei Smirnov, was not heard for two decades because of the movie's realistic treatment ("poetic realism") of the social chaos for a small group of mostly civilian refugees on a train flat car during the Russian civil war. Such realism, with unfriendly characters found both among Red and White Russians, was unacceptable shortly after the fiftieth anniversary of the Revolution. The Angel in question is the tuberculous leader of the gang of White Russians that eventually captures the refugees. He dispatches the unpopular Red commissar (who had previously called the civilians parasites) by busting his head on a sickle with a hammer. The civilians are allowed to live but he also lets one of his men brutally rape and beat the young daughter of the train engineer. Too brief to be compiled into a suite, Schnittke opted for short sequences of tension-filled modern-sounding instrumental music (clarinet, flute, strings, brass), which was quite fitting for this non-romantic movie. But, the closing scene of the young raped girl, her face badly bruised, walking away to her freedom with three refugees offers the longest music sequence and there's hardly more than two minutes of music in this 35-minute movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKlDRm4d1M
It's harder to understand why the film "The Autumn" (1975), by the same Andrei Smirnov, was also prevented from being released until the 1980s. There's nothing politically or historically controversial in this movie about an adulterous couple spending time on a farm in the countryside in search of a normal, more publically open, relationship. As there's some intimacy, but nothing I would characterize as major erotic scenes even for the mid-seventies, my guess is that the available video today is a heavily edited and censored version of the original film. In this instance, Schittke uses "pop" instrumentation to open and close the movie. Other than that, dialogues dominate nearly the whole script, with the exception of one scene of a major emotional outburst accompanied by a choir's crescendo. Nothing sufficient to compile a film suite here either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwYIg2l71Nc
The third movie that was not permitted diffusion, called "The Agony" (1974) in English, directed by Elem Klimov, focuses on Rasputin, in particular, and on the virtual self-destruction of the Romanov's credibility during the year 1916. The reason why it was shelved for seven years is that it offered a non-conclusive political portrayal of these actual events. It's a long movie and there's plenty of Schnittke music in this case, enough so for Emin Khatchaturian to compile a 20-minute suite in four movements:


And, from Schnittke's cartoon world, I also listened to "The Glass Harmonium" which can easily be viewed as an explicit critique of the police state in the Soviet Union. As the cartoon producer pointed out, the animated film provided the best means for USSR cultural producers to be openly critical of societal realities. All the censors had to do, in this case, is to insert a statement, at the start of the cartoon, that the critique was directed at the "brutality of the bourgeois police state."
Twenty minutes of continuous, very fine, and completely original Schnittke music here, in a cartoon style reminiscent of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine:

[Wallingford]

Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3 (Iturbi)
Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" (Gaubert)
Hindemith's Mathis der Maler and Symphony for Brass & Percussion (Monteux)

[Wallingford]

Robert & Gaby Casadesus, in an old Columbia LP of French piano-four-hand music:

Debussy's Petite Suite
Satie's Trois pieces en forme du poire
Faure's Dolly Suite
Chabrier's Trois valses romantiques

[piston]

Several of A. Schnittke's film scores were intended for movies pertaining to dimensions or episodes of "The Great Patriotic War," but, once again, these movies were less combat action driven than many of their American contemporary counterparts (which lack of combat scenes often implied a greater range of artistic freedom for the composer). I have listened to his music in the five-episode t.v. series "Aim the Bombs at Us," directed by Sergei Kolosov, to his early film score for the film "Introduction [to life]," directed by Igor Talankin, to the really fascinating "The Daily Stars" music, in another movie directed by Talankin, and to the movie called "The Ascent" in English, which is the only film score out of these four movies included in the Frank Stroebbel four Capriccio CDs on Schnittke's film music.

"Introduction" to life features teenage actors and their psychological and emotional responses to the war, from their initial, childish euphoria to the hard-knocking realities, in the case of the leading character, of becoming part of the war effort as a warplane maintenance crew of teen-agers at a freezing, wind-swept, military base. Schnittke conveys these hard knock realities by using various instruments for percussion, including the piano, the harpsichord, the xylophone, etc., and reserving the strings for other expressive purposes. The young actors are splendid in their roles, often seeming more mature than their adult counterparts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkurvKhe9ec

The t.v. series "Aim the Bombs at Us" is much centered on female actresses (domestics of the German occupiers) who are instrumental in providing intelligence on the precise location of a nearby German air field and military facilities for a forthcoming bomber attack. This story, drawn out over 300 minutes for the series, provided Schnittke with a wide range of scenes to exercise his instrumental imagination and polystylistic inclinations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anj9MwgimeU

The film "The Daily Stars" derives its name from the published memoirs of poet Olga Fyodorovna Bergholz who became a Soviet icon by not only surviving the entire duration of the Leningrad siege and its collective starvation and deaths from exposure but also because of her daily local radio broadcast to inspire, with her poetry and otherwise, all of those starving and dying people. But she was also a problem to Soviet authorities who had arrested and killed her husband during The Great Purge and had imprisoned her before the war and beaten her to the point of provoking the miscarriage of her third child. That miscarriage followed the loss of her two daughters in circumstances depicted in the movie as being related, in her mind, to one of her daughters' deep Orthodox Christian faith. This theme of religiosity, symbolized by a bell being destroyed and even whipped, was surely problematic for Soviet authorities when the film was made, and it obviously influenced Schnittke's score with the prevalence of numerous bell instruments and of choir music. A sub-theme of "the carousel of life and death" leads to a number of circus scenes and their corresponding music. There's plenty of music for a suite in this movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UBTiiSAiLE

"The Ascent" is a rivetting movie with virtually no music (hardly detectable in the background) until its denouement, in the last twenty minutes or so. In Belarus, a Soviet unit has been routed by the Germans in the middle of winter and is freezing and starving to death. Two soldiers -one brave and energetic, the other sick and constantly coughing-- are sent through the heavily snow-covered forest to find food and shelter. In the process, the brave soldier saves the life of the sick one who is wounded by a small German party. The people they contact in a fishing village all are susceptible to being executed for harboring and assisting them. When the two soldiers are caught and interrogated, the sick individual is unbreakable, but the brave and healthy one tries to save his skin! "The Ascent" in question is not about climbing a mountain; rather, it is when the sick soldier, a male and a female collaborator, and a Jewish girl thrown with them in jail, literally had to climb on logs, in front of the villagers, to be executed by hanging, with the "brave" soldier, watching the scene. And it is figuratively about their ascension to the highest virtue expected in times of war: loyalty to the end. This is where Schnittke's hypnotic music kicks in and leads us to the unbearable agony and defeat of a suicidal soldier who has lost all respect from the villagers and his very soul to the enemy:

To lighten up this intense film music, I also watched "The Butterfly," a visually hallucigonenic cartoon by the same producer of the Glass Harmonica, with another inspired Schnittke score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq4jkHKvAx8

[jserraglio]

Stanley Hummel - Liszt Beethoven ERSTA LP 1010 1950s

ERSTA 1010 - Recording Engineer: Peter Bartok

Liszt- Sonata in b
Beethoven- Sonata No.23, Op.57

[jserraglio]

Karl Weigl (1881-1949), Symphony 5
Stokowski/ASO 1968)

[jserraglio]

Casals cond. St. Matthew Passion Jul 1, 1963 Carnegie Hall
streamed from NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
http://www.wnyc.org/story/st-matthew-passion/

quite a bit of other Casals performances there including works not associated with him: Faure's Requiem and Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder.

[piston]

Some would say that Gavriil Popov, once a very promising Russian composer (according to Shostakovich and Prokofiev, no less), was crushed so badly by Stalinist cultural purges, in the thirties and forties, that he did nothing worthy of any attention following his avant-gardiste first symphony (the source of his problems with the regime and a source of inspiration for Shostakovich's pivotal fourth symphony). I don't believe that's true. Even if he was a serious alcoholic (so was Mussorgsky, Glazunov, Shostakovich, et. al.), the composer whose education had previously focused on architecture and mathematics remained a highly capable symphonist and film music writer until the end of his life.

What did happen is that the authorities forbade the performance of his works, opposed the re-publication of his earlier works, refused to have his music recorded on Melodiya discs, and they often banned or removed from circulation movies with his film scores. In short, they completely blacklisted him for three to four decades.

I have been listening to the earliest recordings of Popov's music and found only two of them from the whole LP era! (his compositions date back to the mid 1920s):
--his war symphony, no. 2 (1943), was recorded on the Urania label by Hermann Habendroth and the Leipzig Radio Orchestra in 1956;

--his Septet, op. 2 (1927), later called a Chamber Symphony, is the work that first drew the attention of Prokofiev, along with conductor Leo Ginsburg, in Berlin, and which brought him initial fame. Yet, it was first recorded on the Melodiya label in 1971 and is, I believe, the only Popov work ever recorded on that famous Soviet label:


There existed Russian recordings of Popov's music from the sixties, indicating that at least one conductor was performing his work by then. But it took the Olympia label to unearth all existing Soviet recordings and to disseminate them in the 1980s and 1990s. To this day, it remains the unchallenged Gavriil Popov label, with recordings of four of his six symphonies, a different recording of his Chamber Symphony op. 2, and the very interesting orchestral suite from the 1932 documentary (the first sound documentary in the USSR) "Komosol is the Chief of Electrification." This series of three Olympia CDs is a small beauty, a testimony to the pioneering efforts of that label:



In addition to listening to the electrification orchestral suite, with its use of the Theremin, I have watched the documentary to further appreciate the composer's genius, particularly with his Ravelian waltz when viewing the assembly line of a light bulb factory. His music for the production of generators/turbines and the celebration of a dam is no less remarkable. That orchestral suite, to a very successful documentary, was withdrawn from publication at the very time it was being printed!

I have also listened to the four symphonies on Olympia, noting their respective recording dates. The second, which won the Stalin Prize and was first recorded in Germany, was also taped in the USSR on May 1961, in a performance by the Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, conducted by G. Provatorov. But, to my knowledge, this recording awaited another 25 years before it was made public by Olympia. According to Popov, it's in two parts, one about peace and the Russian soul, and the other about war. Shostakovich would write that it is a remarkable work which does not simply cite popular songs but which is thematically developed on the basis of the popular song.

The fifth and sixth symphonies, composed late in his life, do not sound to me like the writings of a creative mind destroyed by Stalinism. Actually, the fifth, "Pastoral," recorded in 1963, might be his best symphony! The sixth, "Festive," was first recorded in 1984.

Which leaves us with the First, the source of all his subsequent trouble with the authorities: it was first recorded in June 1989, well into the deconstruction of the USSR, by G. Provatorov and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. You would think that a work so influential in the history of Soviet music, to the point of influencing Shosta's fourth, would have been recorded long before that! But, no, that was the first time it could be heard since the first and only performance in 1935.

It is my hope that Northern Flower will continue what Olympia started. The former label recently issued a recording of the 3rd symphony for strings and of another film suite. We are waiting for the fourth symphony to see the light of day.

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:


2 CD Naxos set--Bernstein, Leonard (1918-90): Mass, a Theater Piece for singers, players, and dancers (1971) | Texts from the liturgy of the Roman Mass, additional texts by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz--Marin Alsop, cond. Baltimore Sym Orch., MOrgan State University Choir, Dr. Eric Conway, dir., Peabody Children's Chorus, Doreen Falby, dir., Jubilant Sykes, Celebrant, Asher Edward Wulfman, boy soprano. Disc 1 (65'11), Disc 2 (38'50), TT (104'01)--Rec. @ Joseph Meyerhoff Sym. Hall, Baltimore, MD 21-22 Oct 2008.

Bernstein composed his Mass on commission for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in DC in 1971. For a long time, Bernstein's recording of the work was the only one. But just in this new century, 3 new ones have appeared, and the work can now truly be said to have entered the standard repertoire, and not just in the US or the English speaking world.

Many consider the present recording the best of all. Jublilant Sykes has an amazing baritone voice, and his performance has a tad more religiosity and reverence to it than Alan Titus's performance in the Bernstein recording. The choir and the children's chorus as well as the other soloists are all excellent, as is Marin Alsop and her Baltimoreans. Highly recommended.


Janos Starker: "The Warner Legacy" a 10 CD compilation of recordings featuring Janos Starker. Warner Classics 0825646341252.
CD 7 (54'05)--Brahms. Gyorgy Sebok, piano, originally isued 1979, recording dates unknown STEREO.

Tr. 1-3.....Cello Sonata 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 (25'37)
Tr. 4-7.....Cello Sonata 2 in F Major, Op. 99 (28'35)

These performances are committed and involving, and that goes for both participants. These performers feed off each others' energy, and these are two of the very best performances in this 10 CD box. Among the very best.


CD 8 (59'57)--Beethoven. Gyorgy Sebok, piano, originally issued 1960, recording dates unknown. STEREO

Tr. 1-3....Cello Sonata 1 in F Major, Op. 5/1 (21'50)
Tr. 4-7....Cello Sonata 4 in C Major, Op. 102/1 (15'48)
Tr. 8-10..Cello Sonata 5 in D, Major, Op. 102/2 (22'06)

CD 9 (52'29)--Beethoven. Gyorgy Sebok, piano, originally issued 1960, recording dates unknown. STEREO

Tr. 1-3....Cello Sonata 2 in G Minor, Op. 5/2 (23'15)
Tr. 4-7....Cello Sonata 3 in A Major, Op. 69 (29'10)

These performances used to be available in the US in a 2 LP set from the Musical Heritage Society on license from Erato, which originally recorded them.

I own five other sets of these works: Bylsma/Bilson, duPre/Barenboim, Ma/Ax, Maisky/Argerich, and Perenyi/Schiff. All have their compensations, especially, in my opinion, the last two. But these Starker/Sebok performances are far better than I remember them from their MHS incarnation. My impression then was that while the cellist and pianist were each very good players, somehow they seemed not to meld together well. In this incarnation, I think their cohesion as an ensemble in exquisite rapport with one another is one of the most outstanding features of this set. Excellent sound for the period. In fact, these performances are so good, that they are a good reason in and of themselves to get the whole 10 CD box.
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[scififan]

I finished listening to the 1959 recording of Lucia Di Lammermoor from Covent Garden with Sutherland, Gibon, Shaw and Rouleau with Tullio Serafin conducting. I really enjoyed it and the wonderful ambience of a live performance. This was broadcast only days after Sutherland's brilliant debut in the role. For me it brought back memories of Sutherland's Metropolitan debut which I heard live on radio.

The astonishing purity and beauty of Joan Sutherland's voice was a wonder to hear and she did create a character. Serafin's conducting was perfect. Gibom, perhaps, took a bit of time to work into the part of Edgardo but by the second act was singing very well indeed, though I think that Di Stefano conveyed more passion and fire in the role.

One interesting feature of the performance is that Serafin includes the scene between Lucia and Raimondo which takes place just before the signing of the marriage contract. The latter argues strongly on several grounds that Lucia isn't bound by a verbal agreement with Edgardo. As well as giving Raimondo a good part it adds a convincing psychological dimension to the pressures which cause Lucia to break her promise and eventually go mad.

The mono sound is excellent and the excitement tangible in this historic performance.

[piston]

Yuri Shaporin is an interesting fellow. A late bloomer who composed very slowly, he was widely respected for attempting, without "epigonism," to create original music in the traditions of Rachmaninov, Glazunov, and Taneev. One can view his legacy has having brought together some of the best lyrical and orchestral attributes of these predecessors.

What is epigonism?

Zhdanov: What do you musiciansmean by that term?
Shaporin: Epigonism is the worst form of traditionalism. Tradition means the development of your predecessors' ideas.
Zhdanov: I should like to get this straight. Who is branded an epigone? Is it those who learn from the classics?
Shaporin: Epigonism is not, in fact, a development of ideas but ...
A Voice: Blind imitation!
Shaporin: Yes.

However, interest in Shaporin's great vocal symphonic works only peaked at the end of his life and shortly after his death when one of his students, Evgeny Svetlanov, recorded his trilogy of "cantata-symphonies." Fifty years later, these works are so much forgotten that one can only find them on the internet by googling in Russian and the most important of the three works in question is only available on Melodiya LP.

I have listened, with great delight, to:


Yuri Shaporin, The Battle for Russia, oratorio for soloists, choir, and orchestra, op. 17 (1943-44) Larisa Avdeyeva (mezzo), Igor Petrov (bass), V. Ivanovsky (tenor), The USSR State Academic Russian Choir, A. Sveshnikov, USSR State SO, E. Svetlanov.
Melodiya, 2 LPs, 1967
Note: His major contribution to his country during the Great Patriotic War.


Yuri Shaporin, "How Long Will the Vulture Circle?," oratorio for mezzo-soprano, bass, chorus, and orchestra, op. 20 (1945-47) L. Avdeyeva, M. Reshetin, USSR State Academic Russian Choir, Sveshnikov, USSR State SO, Svetlanov.
Melodiya, 1965?
Note: I really don't know why some sources, including a Melodiya CD on this very work, call it "How long will the Kite Circle?" The words "kite" and "vulture" are completely different in Russian.



Y.Shaporin - "On the Field of Kulikovo," symphony-cantata, op.14 (1939), Galina Kovaleva (soprano), Ludmila Filatova (soprano), Konstantin Pluzhnikov (tenor), Nicolai Okhotnikov (bass),
Leningrad Radio and TV Chorus, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Viktor Fedatov.
CD Rus New.
Recorded in 1980.
Note: A work on the 1380 battle of Moscow Prince Dmitrii Donskoi against the Tatars on the field near the confluence of the Nepriadva and the Don.

Y. Shaporin, The Flea Suite, for orchestra of woodwinds, horn, trumpet, trombone, 16 domras, 3 baians (accordeon-like), piano, double bass, flexaton, xylophon, tympani, and other percussion instruments, State Academy Orchestra of the USSR, G. Rozhdestvensky.
Brilliant Classics, from a February 1982 recording.
Note: based on the same story than Shchedrin's Left-hander.

[jserraglio]

Stanley Hummel “Piano Encores”
ERSTA 1020 LP rip (1950s)

01 Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in A minor
02 Bizet-Rachmaninoff: Minuet from L’Arlesienne
03 Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12
04 Rachmaninoff: Etude-Tableau, in A minor, Op. 39, No. 6
05 Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G major, Op. 32, No. 5
06 Rachmaninoff: Prelude in A minor, Op. 32, No. 8
07 Moszkowski: En automme, Op. 36, No. 4
08 Chopin: Ballade in A-flat, Op. 47
09 Chopin-Liszt: Maiden’s Wish
10 Liszt: Au lac de Wallenstadt, Années - Suisse, No. 2
11 Liszt: Feux follets, No. 5 from 12 Transcendental Etudes