5 comments about The Best Of Liszt.

1. I find for the most part this is an excellent recording and "La Campanella" is breakthaking in its rhythmic dynamics and especially in the upper keyboard trills that are so much a part of this piece's intense virtuosity. I wish someone would reissue Gary Graffman's long out-of-print recording of this piece. I recall it being the best I ever heard.
   Where I have serious reservations is in Dichter's playing of the etude "Un Sospiro". I am open to being corrected but where in the world did he come up with the insertion of a 4 or 5 bar improvisation before the recapitulation of the theme? I've never heard that before. But for overall GRAND Liszt playing, I agree with the on-line reviewers-nothing beats the Jorge Bolet recordings.



2. There are a ton of great, well-known pieces on this 2-CD set, and it's a fantastic deal! Very beautiful in all respects except that, I agree with the reviewer below--the DB range of playing is not as wide or dynamic as it should be. It would be better if it was a bit HARDER and more powerful!--this is essential for the passion and intensity that Liszt created. Also, Mephisto Waltz seems to have been shortened. But all in all, good collection at a good price.



3. This Phillips label compact disc presents us with many fine works for piano by the incredible Franz Liszt (1811-1886) who together with Frederic Chopin revolutionzed the piano for the 19th century. On here are the Mephisto Waltz, Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 1-12, Etudes, Valses and transcriptions from Paganini's La Campanella and the Waltz from Gounod's opera Faust.
   I like to think that the first cd, tracks 1-10 represents the softer side of Liszt. His friendship with Frederic Chopin influenced his lighter, romantic and nocturnal type of music, which are found in such works as Schwanengesang (Swan Song) "Un Sospiro" and Les Jeux D'Eux A La Villa D'Este. The second cd, tracks 1-10 represent some of the more dramatic and intense works for piano, among them the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C Sharp Minor, which opens the second cd. The work has been orchestrated, it's polyphonic festive mood has been used in the Looney Tunes cartoons. It is meant to describe the folk dancing of Hungary. The Fantasia on the Waltz from Gounod's Faust is incredibly demanding and sweeping, beautiful in this rendition. All the works are performed by the piano artist Misha Dichter. Although to be quite honest, this is not the best of Franz Liszt per se. It only provides us with high quality piano works. But Liszt was more than a radical new pianist, he was also a fine orchestral conductor. He invented the symphonic poem, or tone poem, which was greatly used in the 19th century, influencing such composers as Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Why did'nt they have Liszt's great symphonic poems the Dante Symphony and the Faust Symphony ? Also the Dance Of Death Totentanz should have been here, also his fantastic piano concerto. These days, it's hard to find a great interpreter of Franz Liszt. So much of his music is out of this world. It feels like only an octupus with millions of hands and fingers would aptly play his complex, multi-melodic score.



4. I've lived with this CD, and similar Liszt CD's by artists of equal fame, for at least two years. My admiration -- my gratitude -- for this one rises with each listening. I believe that Liszt would be very grateful for these performances, could he hear them. It is difficult to imagine a pianist serving a composer more thoroughly than Dichter does here. There is no careless note, yet no faltering in momentum or vitality. Dichter has mastered the music, yet remains its servant. His performances of the few meditative pieces on this CD are as impeccable as his work on the many bravura ones; deeply felt, and tastefully expressed. This seems a treasure house to me; its length is 145 minutes. The engineers have depressed or compressed the dynamic range, I think; there is not enough difference between piano and forte for my taste... I am perhaps equally fond of Philips' 2-disc edition of Liszt's Annees de Pelerinage I-III, performed by Brendel and Kocsis, 289-462-312-2. Philips' 2-disc edition of Lizts's etudes, with Arrau and Magaloff, is of less interest to me at this time; I suppose this is my reaction to the compositions themselves.



5. A very good and recommended recording. The only thing I miss is more lyricism. Traditionalists may argue that lyricism has little place in Liszt, but look and listen! There are lots of beautiful melodic passages that need carefull attention to phrasing and tone. It would make this recording milder and sweeter to the ear. But as far as the virtuosity is concerned, no complaints. But don't forget, you can only be flashy for so long before it gets dull....!

2 comments about Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra.

1. I have the original lp of this album(it came in clear vinyl) which was recorded in SQ quadrophonic sound! The early U.S. release on CD doesn't even come close. I only wish it could be remastered using SACD or Dolby Surround like some of todays CD's or even DVD Audio. But, even on CD this is one of the best early electronic music masterpeices!



2. This 1975 album is, in my estimation, nearly singular in the world of electronic music due to its sheer complexity. In fact, this album by American electronic composer Larry Fast is much closer to progressive rock than Berlin School electronica for example - there is just a lot going on in each of these compositions.
   
   The six tracks on the album range in length from 2'58" to 12'50" and feature a range of tones and dynamic contrasts. Another interesting aspect of the music, and I never expected to discuss this in a review of an electronic composition, is the abundant use of melodies, harmonies, and most importantly both rhythmic and melodic counterpoint. In fact, it is amazing what Larry achieved with just the use of a mini-moog, an Oberheim Polyphonic, and a Mellotron 400. In fact, it makes me wonder what it would have sounded like if he had scored these complicated synthesizer pieces for rock instruments, including a full drum kit.
   
   Interestingly, Larry's link with prog rock is not as tenuous as one might think with his being an electronic composer and he struck up a good working relationship with the prog band Nektar around this time. His excellent work can be heard on Nektar's Recycled album (1975).
   
   This remastered album features restored cover art and excellent sound quality, along with some skimpy liner notes.
   
   This album is very highly recommended to those electronica fans who want something a little more varied than the typical fare. Also recommended are two albums by Isao Tomita including Snowflakes are Dancing (1974) and The Tomita Planets (1976).

3 comments about Guitar Adagios.

1. This two disc CD contains much great peaceful music some of which you may had heard before. It is well worth adding to anyones classical music collection. Play this at the end of a hectic day and appreciate how music really can help calm you down.
   



2. This is arguably the most relaxing music anywhere. It is lovely to take a nap to, fall asleep to..... use your imagination to......



3. These are wonderful cds. They include Andres Segovia,Julian Bream, John Williams, Presti/Lagoya and Pepe Romero among other guitarist's. This two cd set has a rare performance of Segovia with the "Symphony Of The Air"performing Boccherini's "Cello Concerto in D". John Williams performing Bach's "Cello Suite In D" at seventeen years old. Also Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya performing Debussy's "Clair de Lune" and Granado's "Spanish Dance No.2 The Oriental". Presti/Lagoya's music has long been out of print and to the best of my knowledge this is the first time their music has been available on cd.These cd's have over 2 and a half hours of music and are well worth the money.

5 comments about Canzoni e Danze: Wind Music from Renaissance Italy.

1. There are 30 selections of Renaissance instrumental music - some dances, some polyphonic fantasies, some incidental music for courty or urban celebrations. It would have been a common experience in the 15th C to hear in public places the instruments you can see "Piffaro" holding in the cover art. Piffaro means "piper", and most of their instruments are wind - the dounble reed shawms, the narrow-bore trombone, flutes and recorders. Wind players were tradesmen and guild members in the Renaissance, but they were not commonly unable to read music as some have claimed. In fact, many of the manuscripts of elegant vocal chansons that have survived were originally prepared for use by the "piffari" of Ferrara, Verona, etc. There was no wall of separation between vocal music composed by clerics and court favorites and instrumental music that functioned as lively entertainment.
   
   That's what Piffaro brings to life for concerts and recordings. But it's fiendishly hard to make a satisfying concert of 30 short, brilliant, but similar instrumental fantasies, however often one changes horns. I adore this music but it's best in small doses, a piece or two at a time, overheard in a park or before a wedding. Fortunately, with a CD, that kind of listening is possible, and you don't even need to get married!
   
   What makes Piffaro special is not only that they play all those exotic instruments, but that they play them well. If you're old enough to remember David Munrow, the New York Pro Musica, and other Renaissance Faire bands of the 50s and 60s, you may be skeptical that anyone could play a shawm or a crumhorn with finesse, but Piffaro does it. Load this CD on your iPod. It's perfect for outdoors.



2. "Canzoni e danze": Wind Music from Renaissance Italy. Performed by Piffaro - the Renaissance Band (dir. Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken). Recorded in June and July 1994 at St. Osdag's Church in Mandelsloh, Germany. Released in 1995 as Deutsche Grammophon Archiv 445 883-2 (and since then re-released at mid-price: Canzoni e Danze). Total playing time: 62'29".
   
   The Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band was founded in 1980 and has been under the joint direction of Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken since 1988. After appearing at the "Tage Alter Musik" in Regensburg, Germany, the group was signed up on "exclusive" contract to Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, for whom they made a total of four CDs under the name "Piffaro". This name is appropriate because it expresses the band's programme: on a wide selection of late medieval and renaissance instruments they attempt to recreate the repertoire of the "Stadtpfeifer" (German) or "Piffari" (Italian), bands of city "waits" who would play popular tunes in the open air at special events during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. These bands are documented as having both loud, raucous, rollicking repertoire played on brass and other wind instruments (shawms, trombones, crumhorns, dulcian, bagpipes) and softer pieces to be played on instruments such as the lute, the bandora, recorders or flutes. The pieces on this CD represent both categories pleasantly alternating between the extremes; as far as I am able to gather the information from the rather flimsy booklet, it seems that quite a number of the pieces were originally written for very different instrumental or vocal combinations and that "Piffaro" have taken the liberty of re-scoring them for their particular combination of instruments. At all events, this is a highly entertaining disk of somewhat unusual music of the more popular kind, and the excellent playing deserves the five stars which all the reviewers up to now have awarded it. The only complaint I have is about the booklet, which offers only a minimum of information and, in particular, gives no details whatsoever about the instruments used or who is playing when. Those who enjoy these ancient instruments would do well to purchase one of the BIS CDs by the Joculatores Upsalienses, where the excellently printed, comprehensive booklets offer a glossary of medieval and renaissance instruments with illustrations taken partly from contemporary sources (Joculatores Upsalienses: Early Music at Wik; The Four Seasons; Skogen, Flickan och Flaskan).
   
   The other Piffaro productions for Deutsche Grammophon Archiv are here: Chansons et Danceries (French Renaissance Wind Music); Flemish Feast: Renaissance Wind Music; Los Ministriles: Spanish Renaissance Wind Music.



3. This is truly one of the best albums of Renaissance music currntly available! Purely instrumental! Much of it appears to be music for a royal court event or the like, with much use of brass and wind instruments. There are also many selections for the festival setting, usually involving the bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy. Too many albums of ancient music "pad" the content with monotonous choral polyphonic selections, perhaps starting out with one or two really good instrumental pieces. However, they did not do that in this one!



4. 'Piffaro The Renaissance Band' is a Philadelphia group who has done several superior albums of Renaissance music for the label 'Archiv', late of Deutche Grammaphone, now part of Polygram. I was astonished when I heard from a student of one of the directors, Robert Wiemken, that the band is paid virtually nothing to make the record and have it distributed. While I would expect that from a minor label, it is surprising that an act should make it to Deutche Grammaphone and not be paid for their recording. I go into this minor digression because I am especially impressed by this recording and all their others as well.
   
   I do take issue with it's being labelled a recording of 'wind' music, as there is ample representation from the family of string instruments, most famously the guitar and the hurdy gurdy.
   
   Although I really enjoy 'old music', I'm not an expert on it, but I set out to distinguish this music from modern stuff, and the two I can find are the presence here of a lot of drone instruments such as the bagpipe and the hurdy gurdy and the absence of instruments such as the clarinet which give us that lushly woody tenor we hear in pieces such as 'Rapsody in Blue' or in some of Kurt Weill's German stage pieces. We also certainly miss the rich sounds of the piano, as the pianoforte has not been invented yet.
   
   If you like old music, this band is a 'must hear'!



5. Simply lovely. Some whimsical, some more technically serious. In all, definitely worth the money and the time. One of my new favorites.

3 comments about Classical Music 101.

1. When i bought this CD i paid more attention to the number and type of tracks, and didn't realised that 99 tracks in just one CD could only be possible if... each track had a mere 30 or 45 seconds. My mistake, so i was disappointed with the result, and because someone could be lead to think that this CD has 99 complete tracks, make no mistake: its a compilation of brief samples.



2. This is a great CD, however, it needs to be listed as just "snipets" of classical pieces - they are just excerpts from each classical theme.



3. This CD only contains 30-60 second long snippets of each of the pieces. It could be a teaching tool but is not something you can just put on to listen. It does contain reference to popular TV and Film works that contain the music.

1 comments about Best of Scott Joplin.

1. My husband, an Englishman, one day announced he'd heard the most incredible music by Scott Joplin. I bought this CD for him, and he's really enjoyed listening.

2 comments about Stravinsky: L'oiseau de feu; Le sacre du printemps [Hybrid SACD].

1. The Rite of Spring, like Holst's The Planets, is cursed to be served up every time recorded sound takes a leap (more often a small step) forward-- and this latest concert recording from Amsterdam keeps the tradition alive. It's stupendous in terms of clarity and impact, with hardly a single flaw: every section of the Concertgebouw sounds realistic and colorful. (I do not know the multi-channel SACD version, however, which must be even better.) The orchestra plays several notches better than they need to; this is really disciplined, perfectly blended ensemble even when the music roars and shrieks (James Levine produces the same immaculate effect with the BSO in Le Sacre.)
   
   As for Janson's interpretation, I'd rate this one of his two best recordings on the RCO Live label, along with the Shostakovich Seventh. I learned long ago that his sense of phrasing and pace isn't sympathetic -- we just hear music too differently. So I chafed at some awkward transitions and bumpy phrasing. Even so, Jansons' Le Sacre is huge and powerful, if not the last word in savagery. It's preceded by a Firebird Suite that is beautifully played but faceless; at least Jansons doesn't fuss and worry over each phrase a la Gergiev. For other listeners who have a more positive view of Jansons, this CD could easily rate five stars.



2. I am basing tuis review from an Amazom mp3 download.
   This release is a dissapointment on 2 levels,performance and value.
   Things start off with The Firebird,,rumbling with a promising performance,but it just a suite,not complete score. Next up is the Rite
   of Spring. It is a very tame performance,failing to ignite any excitement.What the applause is for,I do not know. Maybe they were being courteous.
   As for value,24.98 SRP for about 60 minutes of music is not a good value. They easily could have gotten all of Firebird and Rite on this disc

1 comments about Baby Einstein: Baby Santa.

1. I gave it as a gift to a relative who has a 8 month old and it is a big hit...

3 comments about Baroque Masterpieces.

1. The music was very good but wish they had more to listen too. Not enough bang.



2. This CD has 17 pieces on 22 tracks including 7 by Handel, 2 each by Bach & Corelli, and 1 each by Pachelbel, Mouret, Albinoni, Gluck, Clarke, & Purcell. They are frequently the best known piece by the composer--and easily recognizable: Pachelbel's Canon, Mouret's Rondeau (theme from PBS' Masterpiece Theater), Albinoni's Adagio, etc. If you like high quality short pieces/excerpts, this CD is for you. My only qualification is: no Telemann, but it's just too good for a 4-star rating.



3. As I have stated in many of my previous reviews, I am a huge fan of the Sony Essential Classics (SEC) budget series. Most of the recordings feature classic and often definitive performances featuring the likes of George Szell, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Casadesus, Isaac Stern and Rudolf Serkin among others. Here we get a variety of orchestras and conductors including big names like Jean-Claude Malgoire, Raymond Leppard, Pierre Boulez, Sir Charles Groves and the great Eugene Ormandy. This disc features excellent performances of what is arguably the most popular Baroque music ever written. I am not usually one to give five-star ratings to greatest-hits style collections (particularly in classical), but the half-dozen performances by Ormandy make this disc a great purchase for both novices and serious collectors.

5 comments about Adolphe Adam: Music from Giselle.

1. This CD done by the London Symphony Orchestra is the best available of the music from Giselle. It's superb. It's better than the music at any performance I have attended or watched on DVD, and it's better than the Giselle CD available by a Russian orchestra. The English always add that extra touch, the subtle nuisances that set this recording apart. It brings alive the enchantment of Giselle.



2. You must like ballet and classical music, if you do this is a great product.



3. Adam's ever popular "Giselle" has been well served on disc, and this recording from 1986 by the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas is arguably one of the finest. Tilson Thomas, with a representative and well-recorded selection of the score (running for almost 77 minutes), proves this ballet music can stand on its own. Recommended.



4. Having seen Giselle many times and listened to the music many more, I've discovered that there are good versions of the music-and then there are bad. This one is certainly one of the good versions. The tempo is fast where it needs to be and slow where it is appropriate. The orchestra is simply wonderful. Plus, it's all on one CD-a rare find.



5. Adolphe Adam wrote several quite pleasant ballet scores and one genuine masterpiece: Giselle. Giselle was the first great ballet, setting a standard later followed by the the ballets of Delibes and Tchaikovsky. While Giselle -- as the earliest great ballet -- is somewhat less sophisticated musically than the later ballets of Delibes and Tchaikovsky, it is charming, very beautiful, and very moving emotionally. In fact, it is quite simply unique. In my opinion, no one who loves classical music -- or simply great music in any genre -- should be without a recording of this uniquely beautiful work.