2 comments about Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1; Cello Sonata.

1. This is an extraordinary album. It is not only 'A' great performance but also well thought-out analysis of the scores. Superb!



2. Great talent~ Han-Na Chang gives musical, well-thought out interpretations of these two works. Like Sarah Chang in her interpretation of Shostakovich's Concerto, when the need arises, Han-Na Chang plays with great virtuosity, unparalleled energy, and a burning intensity. I only wish she would have taken the first movement of the concerto a little slower; it was a bit too fast for my taste.

1 comments about Beach: Solo Piano Music, Vol. 3 - Fire-Flies.

1. With this third installment, Joanne Polk completes her consistently thoughtful, exceptionally performed and unforgettably diverse traversal of the solo piano music of New England's own, Mrs. Amy Beach [1867-1944].

   In reviews of Volume 1 ("By the Still Waters") [February 11, 2003] and Volume 2 ("Under the Stars") [October 24, 2000], never having heard any of these works before, and being caught completely off guard by the continuous melodic invention, ingenuity and personal voice of Beach, I had hoped to adequately express my excitement and enthusiasm. There were wonders here unique to the repertoire--- the marvelous Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60, the attractive miniatures of Op. 128, the Valse-Caprice, Op. 4, the mournful Hermit Thrush "dialogues" of Op. 92--- that needed talking about.

   Volume 3 ("Fireflies") offers, if possible, piano music even more strikingly original than its predecessors. There are inspired creations here, too--- the lyrical, Schumannesque Four Sketches, Op. 15, the delightfully comic, almost jazzy Fantasia, Op. 87, with its slips and slurs trippingly mindful of Bach, the forward-looking miniatures of Op. 148, which subtly recall Brahms, Scriabin and, of all people, Ernesto Lecuona, the atmospheric impressionism of the Nocturne, Op. 107, the wistful Elgar-like ruminations aptly titled From Grandmother's Garden, Op. 97--- that cry out to be recognized and heard.

   The apostolic Ms. Polk enables us to do both. By her absolute communion with the composer, she transfixes, her breadth of vision, every thought, whim and nuance captured to perfection in a recording of incredible clarity and warmth. Absorption such as this precludes the notion that these pieces can be played any other way.

   [Running time: 69:38]

2 comments about Nocturnal.

1. Well thought out, beautifully played, like all Bream's work. Doesn't get any better, really.



2. This recording should be in the collection of every serious classical guitarist in the world. It is the most breath-taking, intense, dramatic and colourful and superlative-inspiring recording of a guitarist extant. The recording marks a return for Julian to Britten's Nocturnal After John Dowland - certainly the most important modern work for guitar and a peak moment in its repertoire. This second recording is every bit as intense, colourful, dramatic, so on, as Bream's first and, I think, has the bonus of Bream's added maturity without ever losing the freshness and excitement with which he approached it in his Landmark record '20th century guitar' back in the 60's (also a must-have, but more rare). Bream's conception is notably different in the second recording - slower, more intense tempos, particularly in uneasy; he plays the ossia (2 instead of 4 notes in the tremelo) for gently rocking (very haunting) and reaches (I believe) a more dramatic and exciting climax in the passacaglia (!). Added to this are Frank Martin's chilling Quatre Pieces Breves, Brouwer's Sonata for Guitar, a group of Lutoslawski Folk songs, and Toru Takemitsu's All in Twilight (this esspecially is played so as to provoke such a perfect atmosphere of transience and twilight).
   
   Buy this disc immediatly or I will visit you in the small hours and so on.

5 comments about Elliott Carter: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello & Harpsichord; Sonata for Cello & Piano; Double Concerto for Harpsichor.

1. Like J.S. Bach in his own lifetime, Elliot Carter has a reputation as an 'intellectual' composer, a stubborn conservative indifferent to the fashionable tastes of his contemporary audiences. Both reputations are just; neither Bach nor Carter made many concessions to fashion, and in both composers, it's the intellectual depth of the music that will make it perennially meaningful to future audiences. No composers have ever more systematically explored and expanded the harmonic vocabulary and theory of their eras than Bach and Carter. It will take some generations, I think, before the rest of us catch up with Carter's tonal brilliance.
   
   So let me proclaim it: Elliot Carter is the greatest American composer ever. I'm not totally alone in that assessment, though others are less forthright about it. Despite being the composer's composer, however, Carter has never captured much 'market share' of popular audience. One reason, I think, is that he offers very little mystique - no transcendental bells and whistles - very little managed care for the emotions, and hardly anything you could dance to. So what is Elliot Carter's music about? Like Bach's Art of Fugue, Carter's music is about the possibilities of music.
   
   The three compositions on this CD are ravishingly beautiful music for the mind as well as the ears. The oldest of them, the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1948), starts from the realization that the two instruments are utterly dissimilar in their sonic capabilities. Carter sends each of them on a high-energy exploration of those capabilities, probing their harmonics and dynamics. Both parts are extremely virtuosic; they were regarded as unplayable when first published, a notion that cellist Joel Krosnick and pianist Paul Jacobs put to rest.
   
   The Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord (1952) marks a transition in Carter's work from his excitement over the still-uncharted possibilities of harmony and tonality to a new excitement over the rhythmic 'opportunities' of European music to incorporate influences from jazz, from Asian, and from Indian music. Just as he spent the first half of his long career exploring pitches and scales, Carter has spent the second half extending the rhythmic vocabulary of his music. One of the hallmarks of his later style is the use of polyrhythms and the assignment of quite distinct rhythms to different instruments of his ensembles. His Double Concerto, recorded on this CD, is a percussionist's idea of paradise, a summa theologica of counter rhythms and percussive uses of silence.
   
   Two of the compositions on this CD include prominent parts for harpsichord. The Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras is exactly as unique and inventive as its name suggests. Carter treats the harpsichord not as a precursor of the piano but as a radically different instrument, with its own proper timbres and touch. The harpsichord played here is NOT a copy of a Baroque instrument; it's a hopped-up modern machine with all sorts of registers, hard and soft plectra, couplings, etc. Be sure you have good separation on your sound system for this piece of music. The spatial relations between the two orchestras and the two keyboards are an exciting feature of the sound.
   
   Elliot Carter was born in 1908. At last notice, he is still composing. To speak of the two 50-year halves of his career is not an exaggeration. If you've never or seldom listened to Carter's music, this CD will be a fine introduction to it. The performers' enthusiasm can be heard in every passage. If you already know and enjoy Carter's string quartet or symphonic music, you'll find these three pieces representative of his most original art.



2. 3 1/2
   
   Carter is said to be one of the important modern American classical composers, but I agree with the previous reviewer who finds the first half far superior to the latter. These three works obviously have much in common with some of the sporadic, atonal sentiment which dominates current compositions, almost always to the detriment of the music. We do see that generically rampant, neo-classical "sketching" throughout the Double Concerto, but Carter's 2 Sonatas on the disc push past a compositional void that nearly curses the entire genre. Although the schizophrenic nature remains intact, these sonatas are gently layered with a musicality that gives form to an often formless gesture.



3. The Double Concerto begins promisingly enough with mysterious percussion rustlings from which string tremelos emerge,soon echoed by the solo piano and harpsichord.All this has undoubted poetry but it has to be said,returning to the piece after some ten years that grasping the whole is pretty tricky and the climactic moments (track14!) are somewhat akin to listening to barbed wire.For all Carter's harmonic formulations(or perhaps because of) the pitch content often sounds rather lifeless,it's as if there's no centre of any kind.Yes,the various skitterings of the two soloists are enjoyable but i can't imagine this piece ever being taken up in a big way.
   The cello sonata is the best piece on the disc.The rhetoric is more conventional than the concerto,even neo-classical and Carter is on much more sure territory here:There's a fantastic jazz-like swing to the second movement and the opening moderato with the mechanical ticking on the piano accompanying the passionate cello is one of Carter's most inspired creations.



4. The Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord is immediately appealing. Carter's signature complex crossrhythms are present but they are delightfully airy and not at all forbidding. This is an excellent place to start your exploration of Carter's vast and imaginative work. The Cello Sonata is also quite accessible . It's a big and exciting piece. The Double Concerto is another matter! It took me many listenings before I really started enjoying it but it was worth the effort. These performances are thrilling.



5. Carter is considered to be perhaps the greatest living composer, and I didn't know any of his music, so after browsing the internet (and in particular,Amazon) for a place to start, I obtained this CD. I have been delighted with it. All of this music takes some acclimation, but that's the nice thing about a CD--you can stick a CD of new music in the car stereo and play it as often as you need to until it starts to reveal its treasures. In the case of this CD, all three works are rich in complexity and have required quite a bit of listening, but the effort was well worth it--two of the three works have revealed lots of treasures. The Cello Sonata is full of wonderful, even magical moments. The Sonata for Flute, Oboe... has been only slightly less rewarding. I like its playfulness. The only work on this disc that has proved resistant so far is the Double Concerto. Carter's unique twist on tonality that makes the other works so interesting seems to have disappeared in the Double Concerto, written later in his career, and I haven't found much to like in it. But the CD is worth obtaining for the two sonatas. They are great works.

5 comments about Schwanengesang; Vier Ernste Gesange.

1. I can only second the rapturous reception this recording of Schwanengesang has received. After making a series of attention-getting lieder recitals for RCA, Quasthoff came into his own when he moved to DG and in addition found the superb Justus Zayen to accompany him. Together they pull us completely into Schubert's world and allow us to relax into the blissful communion unique with this composer.
   
   I sympathize with the reviewer below who doesn't find the same dramatic excitment that Bryn Terfel extrcts from these songs. Quasthoff is altogether less theatrical, and he never exhorts. But Quasthoff's decision to balance romance with classicism is truer to Schubert, I think. Here he has discovered a multitude of colors and tones in his voice, yet they are presented on the scale of a drawing room, not an opera house.
   
   Having heard him sing the Brahms Vier ernste Gesange in person, I found the recorded version a shade less compelling--in person Quasthoff can hold an audience spellbound and breathless with his inward, fervent religious feeling. Even so, this account stands at the summit alongside recordings from Janet Baker, Hans Hotter, and perhaps Thomas Allen. Neddless to add, I rate this an unsurpassed recital, the best lieder recording in a decade.



2. Ordinarily, I am very much a fan of Quasthoff's recordings. His performance, on the DG label, of Brahm's 'Wie rafft' ich mich auf in der Nacht' is just about as sublime as lieder gets. Having said that, and perhaps as a result of coming to this recording from Terfel's magnificent performance with Martineau, I was severely disappointed by this recording.
   
   I am quite surprised at the reviews this recording has received from other members of the public complimenting Quasthoff's vocal 'expression'. Admittedly, Quasthoff has a fantastic voice. The rich, dark, teutonic texture of his voice would match, one would assume, the rich, dark texture of these songs. Frustratingly, however, Quasthoff seems to me really quite detached from the variety of intense emotion that otherwise can be conveyed by this piece of music. His reading throughout the song cycle comes across as almost flat and unemotive. There is a strong sense of a kind of 'calculating deliberation' and ' technical perfection'in these songs that seems to prevent Quasthoff from embracing and communicating the rich, personal initmacy of these songs. It is as though he is reading from the score too closely, with a reluctance to 'let himself go', as it were, and deliver a more personal interpretation of these songs for fear of attracting censure and criticism. The result is disappointingly wooden. The vitality and exhuberance is missing form the earlier songs in the cycle and the deep, deep, personal isolation, loneliness and tragedy of the closing songs is almost completely absent. 'Am Meer' seems a particular case in point. The emotional climax of the song in the last verse is passes without any sense of desperation or awareness. Similar 'frustrations' exist throughout the cycle.
   
   Perhaps, in my naivety, I am attracted to a too Romantic interpretation of these songs to be moved by Quasthoff's more clinical reading, but compared to the enormous and beautifully conveyed emotional range and subtlety of Terfel's recording, this recording does little for the imagination.
   
   Terfel's CD, in case you are interested, though not seemingly available through Amazon, I have seen available on Ebay. Happy hunting.



3. I never thought I would hear anything like Thomas Quasthoff's performances on this CD. His plain, unaffected, yet technically masterful singing is more than "revelatory." It transmits the emotional impact of the songs very powerfully and with a directness I have never heard from any other singer, whether lieder specialist or not.
   Quasthoff, I think, is leading the way as a singer and artist. All singers will be grateful to him, as will the public, for exposing us to lieder which is heart felt, rather than just a mass of calculations. He is indeed a master.



4. All of this music is familiar territory for Thomas Quasthoff, so it is not surprising that he conveys a consistency of mood and character. He is not afraid to color his voice in the Schubert and have some restraint in the Brahms, but both are sung in good taste. The recording is warm and captures Quasthoff's voice superbly. There are many voices that will do justice to this music, but Quasthoff knows just how to make his voice meet the demands of these works.



5. Thomas Quasthoff/Justus Zeyen - Schubert, "Schwanengesang" Brahms "Vier Ernste Gesaenge"

   "To sing like that just once - and then ..............." wrote Maxim Gorky after hearing Chaliapin - and there really are moments on this recording which make one understand exactly what he meant. There is a definitive quality about the singing, which persuades you that Quasthoff's way with these songs is the only one, and his accompanist is in all aspects his equal, with a poetic yet muscular style which ideally complements this most individual of voices, with its noble, burnished tone and its sense of powerful ease.

   This combination of works is unique on disc, surprisingly since it is a very logical one; both are late works, both represent the composer's valediction to the genre, and both are ideally suited to the baritone voice. There has been much discussion of late as to whether or not "Schwanengesang" ought to be performed as though it were a "cycle," or as two or even three separate sets of songs. The latter approach was taken in the Hyperion edition, not entirely successfully, but Quasthoff brushes aside these considerations; such is the magnetic power of his singing that one rarely imagines that these songs could be performed in any other way.

   All of Quasthoff's great qualities are apparent in the Rellstab settings - superb legato line, natural inflexion of words and that uniquely beautiful tone with its embracing warmth and sweet tremulousness. These interpretations easily stand comparison with the best, and it is a matter of taste as to whether or not you prefer, say, John Mark Ainsley's bright, youthful tone and ardent manner to Quasthoff's aching yet understated passion. For me, Ainsley has the edge in "Liebesbotschaft" and "Staendchen" - in the latter, the tenor is simply perfection; at "Liebchen, komm' zu mir!" you can, as Graham Johnson puts it, almost feel the singer's tenderness, and at "Komm, begluecke mich!" you sense the lover's forlorn mood. Quasthoff also sings this beautifully, but he lacks Ainsley's tender ardour - he is rather fierce at moments, sounding almost threatening rather than pleading.

   The Heine and Seidl settings are another matter; here, Quasthoff is in his element, and it would be difficult to find a more ideal interpretation of songs such as "Ihr Bild" and "Am Meer." "Das Fischermaedchen" is beguilingly seductive in a way totally lacking in Anthony Rolfe Johnson's version, and "Die Taubenpost" is one of the finest pieces of Schubert singing I have ever heard. Where Rolfe Johnson annoys with his reedy tone and approximate German, Quasthoff enchants and moves with his exquisite modulation and colouring, especially at the song's close, where he makes you gasp at the way he handles the little appoggiatura lean on "Sehnsucht" and his just-enough pressure on "treuen."

   The Brahms set is equally fine; Quasthoff's singing and Zeyen's playing are both magisterial from start to finish. This singer seems to have a special affinity for the music of Brahms, and together with his marvellous pianist, always sensitive and consistently virtuosic in the best possible sense, he convinces the listener that these songs are among the greatest in the genre. Their darkness and almost obsessive quality make them perfect for this voice, and Quasthoff interprets them in wonderfully fervent tones.

   Rather than externalising the dramas of both "cycles," this singer conveys their individual moods and feelings not by pointing at himself and saying,"Look at me! See how I suffered," seeming instead to point at us, and say," Look at you!" His singing unites emotional poetic grace with muscular reason, and this major recording is one which will be indispensable for all who love this sublime music.

2 comments about Bobissimo! The Best of Roger Bobo.

1. Bobissimo!!!
   
   Yes, this is the man - indeed!
   
   He is the first prime musician (at the level of Rostropovich or Horowitz) for the tuba.
   
   before Bobo there were great tubists. After - there are great musicians.



2. It's Roger Bobo, what more can be said. This is one of the finest albums of tuba music recorded by one the world's greatest tuba players. You're doing a disservice to yourself by not owning this.

1 comments about A Virgil Fox Christmas.

1. In this compilation, we hear Virgil Fox at his virtuosic best. From the stillness of "Silent Night" to the majesty of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," the great Aeolian-Skinner of New York's Riverside Church is displayed in all its glory. Pay special attention to the last variation of Daquin's "Echo Noel" for the sparkling pedalwork added by Marcel Dupré and played as only Fox could! Some lovely pieces not composed for Christmas, but certainly appropriate, shine in this collection, notably Franck's "Panis Angelicus," the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria," Schubert's "Ave Maria," Guilmant's "Marche Religeuse," and, of course, "The Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah". Fox's registrations are, at times, symphonic but the full organ in "Adeste Fideles" and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" will make you glad you bought that subwoofer!

5 comments about Gregorian Christmas: Chants & Motets.

1. I've used this for years as part of my meditation regime and never realized that I've never done a review for it.
   
   When I listen to it just after my morning meditations, it always bring up solem divine feelings in me that bring some tears to my eyes.
   
   The people who perform this work really capture the divinity in it. I'm really not interested in who the creators or performers are. All I know is that what they did work for me.



2. The play list is correct, the one with the ability to listen to clips. This CD has 14 tracks, beginning with "Puer natus est nobis" (the Introit) and ending with "Magnificat anima mea Dominum." The list that says ON THIS CD is a totally different list of chants. I do not know what it is doing on this page.
   There is no Mozart. There are sparse credits in the liner notes. The recording appears to be of a group calling itself Capella Gregoriana, although nothing is said about them. Predominantly chant, there are times when the selections move to motets, the natural outgrowth of chant, being simutaneous independent plain songs as it were, combined to form a melodious and rhythmic whole much as partner songs do. Highly recommended, this is an excellent budget album. Just be sure that you understand that you are getting the 14 tracks that you can listen to, not the list that says other tracks are on the CD. As for the Christmas feel, it is certainly reverent and soothing. It is not festive. If you like chant, you will appreciate this album. I certainly do. If you are looking for festive type Christmas music, find another source.



3. Not technically Gregorian, because of some polyphony. But this is one of the best selections of this kind of music that I've heard. Compare to expensive monastery or convert CDs, and others, and this is one you put on the CD changer more than the rest. Found it in a bargain bin at Fry's. Amazing CD.



4. Beautiful musical rendition of Christmas music. Soothing and lilting, it'll help you get centered or reconnected or whatever it is you need for stress relief. A fantastic CD at a great price!



5. This is a beautiful collection of soothing Christmas chants and motets...Put this in your CD player and you'll have trouble getting upset about the person who just cut you off for the last parking space at the mall! An excellent-quality recording for an amazing price...

1 comments about Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 3 & 4.

1. It has taken Irish pianist John O'Conor a while to get around to recording the Beethoven piano concertos. Along the way, his complete set of the piano sonatas has been long heralded. His Beethoven bagatelles garnered fine praise as well. He is a Beethoven player in the clean, classical tradition exemplified by Wilhelm Kempff, Backhaus, Gieseking. John Lill, Leon Fleischer, Rudolf Serkin, and Anton Kuerti also come to mind as strong, clean Beethoven comparisons.
   
   As it happens, O'Conor has inherited the maestro lead of the Beethoven master classes Kempff once taught in Italy, with O'Conor formerly there among the students of high preparation. If we need examples, consider those Schubert Impromptus and a Trout Quintet with Cleveland, performances which also rank very high among available recorded performances of those works, readings benefitted deliciously by O'Conor's way of melding clarity in finger work and harmonic inflection with a subtle warmth and color of tone that only grows on listeners, the more the discs are played.
   
   In this completion of the concerto series, we hear no let down, no relaxation from musical love into inattentiveness. O'Conor's way with Beethoven still carefully attends to the all-important sforzando, punched with expert musicality at all levels. This touch is still an apt keyboard hit, right on the note that arches the phrase or makes its rhythmic point while never, ever disrupting the phrase's flow. This player seems to hear the typical Beethoven harmonic narrative as an exceptionally clear and compelling story. So this player consistently conveys that a whole lot is happening in Beethoven's unfolding sonata-dramas, minus the more overtly-wrought sweat and blood and tears (not to mention the Lisztian posturing) that other players are wont to bring to their own, more overtly Late Romantic Way with Beethoven.
   
   Now the artist completes his Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle on Telarc, offering us superb readings of concertos one, three, and four. One suspects these performances will wear as well, and as long, as O'Conor's other Beethoven discs. I have already swooned in appreciation of piano concertos two and five in another comment. Not to mention how well received the pianist's readings of the complete sonatas set and the Bagatelles. In the early first concerto, which is actually the first published and the second written, O'Conor lands the composer's second youthful calling card, squarely in the silver platter of high musical arts. He is self-assured with a flourish that is incredibly knowing and incredibly wise. This Beethoven is an ambitious young fellow of strong genius who already knows he has no intentions of ever returning to his hometown of Bonn.
   
   Acknowledge, in the third and legendary fourth piano concertos, that O'Conor conveys all the grand sweep of line, color, gesture, and sheer musical size of both works. Despite the breadth of understanding, the pianist resists getting hysterical or bombastic - so effortlessly that one quickly wonders how in the world any of these three concertos could ever, ever, ever wear out their concert welcomes with any audience, anywhere. No warhorses, then. No old grandpa chestnuts, roasting quaintly on the western classical music home hearth fires.
   
   Quite without recourse to hackneyed or overblown manners, O'Conor refreshes a listener's hearing of these thrice-familiar works. I would guess that this piano player is hardly tired of playing Beethoven, no, not yet, not yet at all. So, who can tire of hearing him played, just this way? Alert. Fresh. Warm- with a most subtle warmth that goes down without a hiccup, smooth as butter. Only later might a listener pause to think that maybe it all wasn't really that easy. Only later might a listener pause to delve more deeply and mysteriously into asking: how could O'Conor really be that good, really be that much of a believer in the human size of big and small, lived life. One recalls Clara Haskil and Dinu Lipatti for all the warm poise of this homely, simple-seeming but magically-spun keyboard magic.
   
   Youngish German conductor Andreas Delfs leads the LSO in pace with the piano player in all three concertos. One again notices that the master recording is DSD, so one hopes for an SACD edition to arrive, soon. In any case, regular red book CD or future SACD, the conductor and orchestra are fine partners to the soloist. The band members get it all, too - the sforzando punch, the harmonic clarity, the strength of character and wit and classical transformation that render this approach to Beethoven distinctive, and probably indispensable.
   
   Now we realize that, truly, this remainder of the complete concerto series has achieved much. Now we realize we do have a golden addition to the available Beethoven catalogs of recorded music. Bravo to all involved. One passing bargain detail - you get all three piano concertos, on two discs, for the price of one. Get this one now, or wait for the SACD? Well. I got both the RBCDs, and I am breathlessly awaiting the super audio versions.

No comments about Copland: Appalachian Spring; El Salón México; Old American Songs; Fanfare for the Common Man.