4 comments about Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier (Das Wohltemperierte Clavier) / The Art of the Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge) / Musical Offering (Musikalisches Opfer).

1. I may be blinkered by the recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier I grew up with, but Moroney's interpretation leaves me cold. I am not at all opposed to transcriptions and arrangements of WTC, and I honestly don't know how Bach would have played it himself; but this is the harpsichord, not the piano; and these pieces are weakened (if that were possible) by Moroney's Romantic interpretation. The notes speak for themselves, but Moroney often seems to want to either say something different, or add needless emphasis. I like my tea with one sugar, not three, thank you.
   
   As a resource it's quite valuable (small mistakes aside): but I would look elsewhere for a satisfying performance.



2. No tan conocida como su obra para órgano, el legado que nos dejó Bach en forma de piezas para clavecín han sido sin lugar a dudas una constante fuente de inspiración y un reto para los interesados en la música para teclado (se sabe que Mozart y Beethoven frecuentemente interpretaban al piano algunas de estas piezas como ejercicios para los dedos, tradición que mantienen hasta nuestros días muchos afamados intérpretes de piano, que en vez de tocar interminables escalas como ejercicio prefieren tocar algunas de las obras de Bach). En esta colección de 7 discos se tienen 4 de las obras fundamentales que Bach escribió para este instrumento: los dos libros de "el clave bien temperado", la "ofrenda musical" y la que sería su última obra: "el arte de la fuga". La interpretación de Moroney a estas obras tan demandantes raya en la excelencia, y esto se puede apreciar fácilmente sobre todo en algunos pasajes de "el clave bien temperado", que por su dificultad hasta la fecha

   siguen siendo un verdadero reto para quien se enfrenta a ellos. Quizá lo único que podría cuestionarse de esta colección es el crimen de "lessa majestad" que cometió Moroney al completar la variación No. 14 (inconclusa) de "el arte de la fuga"; sin embargo, las razones que da en el folleto me parecen razonables, y de esta forma el espectador no se queda con la sensación de vacío y pérdida que deja el escuchar esta obra tal y como quedó (sin terminar). Si a la excelente calidad del disco añadimos un precio excepcional, tenemos aquí una compra que seguramente no lo decepcionará bajo ningún concepto.




3. No tan conocida como su obra para órgano, el legado que nos dejó Bach en forma de piezas para clavecín han sido sin lugar a dudas una constante fuente de inspiración y un reto para los interesados en la música para teclado (se sabe que Mozart y Beethoven frecuentemente interpretaban al piano algunas de estas piezas como ejercicios para los dedos, tradición que mantienen hasta nuestros días muchos afamados intérpretes de piano, que en vez de tocar interminables escalas como ejercicio prefieren tocar algunas de las obras de Bach). En esta colección de 7 discos se tienen 4 de las obras fundamentales que Bach escribió para este instrumento: los dos libros de "el clave bien temperado", la "ofrenda musical" y la que sería su última obra: "el arte de la fuga". La interpretación de Moroney a estas obras tan demandantes raya en la excelencia, y esto se puede apreciar fácilmente sobre todo en algunos pasajes de "el clave bien temperado", que por su dificultad hasta la fecha siguen siendo un verdadero reto para quien se enfrenta a ellos. Quizá lo único que podría cuestionarse de esta colección es el crimen de "lessa majestad" que cometió Moroney al completar la variación No. 14 (inconclusa) de "el arte de la fuga"; sin embargo, las razones que da en el folleto me parecen razonables, y de esta forma el espectador no se queda con la sensación de vacío y pérdida que deja el escuchar esta obra tal y como quedó (sin terminar). Si a la excelente calidad del disco añadimos un precio excepcional, tenemos aquí una compra que seguramente no lo decepcionará bajo ningún concepto.



4. The Moroney WTC is an excellent recording of a great work. Both lively and expressive, Moroney puts a great deal of feeling into this music.

   One of my favorite harpsichord recordings.

No comments about Maestro Celebre (Box Set).

1 comments about Movie Classics.

1. For those of you familiar with the Mozart concerto, and the movie "Elvira Madigan", which has been used to name the concerto, would know how beautiful, elegant and romantic the music is. The other tracks of the cd are from great films and the music is well-performed by master artists. Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto 2 First Movement is here, and the Fanfare from 2001, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie's, Ravels Bolero and Strauss' Blue Danube. But if you are in search of the finest interpretation of the Andante movement in the Mozart 21st piano concerto, look no further. Svetlana Stanceva delivers the greatest rendition- poised, stately, elegant, escalating the work into romanticism. Other versions and if you have heard this concerto often enough, are either too slow (Walter Klein on the piano for example) or too fast, but Stanceva's is definately measured and perfect. Take this cd home with you and enjoy a night of beautiful music.

No comments about Music for the Nursery.

2 comments about Wunderlich, Fritz.

1. When Fritz Wunderlich died (tragically, in an accident) at the
   age of 36, some of Opera's greatest experts and critics were
   devastated and called his death a "heavy blow to music."
   
   How true. Wunderlich never had the chance to get international
   exposure at the level modern tenors do. He lived in the "wrong era", before media hype, and he died youg - much too young.
   
   Yet even today, Wunderlich experiences a remarkable renaissance.
   The world has (re-)discovered this gorgeous voice. Monaco and
   Corelli had more power (though not much more), Bjoerling's and
   Pavarotti's and Joseph Schmidt's timbres were more ringing (though not much more), Di Stefano and Carreras sang more sweetly (though not much more), and Bergonzi's and Tucker's belcanti were fabulous.
   
   But hardly any of those had all thoe qualities combined like Fritz Wunderlich. Listen to his breathtaking musicality when he sang Mozart, his effortless height, his clear diction (probably unparalleled by any opera singer ever), his phrasing, his passion when he sang Verdi or Puccini.
   
   And his height ... has there ever been a tenor who could reach,
   seemingly without effort, the high D (no printing mistake...)
   the way he did in "Granada" ?
   
   And not just that he hit the high notes. It's how he hit them:
   with expression, intelligence and, wherever required (mainly in
   song and operetta), with wit and charm.
   
   His Lieder are exemplary, his Italian songs probably more impressive than most Italian tenors'.
   
   If one imagines that Wunderlich was just at the beginning of his career, one shudders at how great he would have become. I think he would have been mentioned in one breath with Caruso and Gigli.
   
   What a huge loss to music, indeed.



2. I don't claim to know a great deal about opera and my knowledge of great classical music singers -- German or otherwise -- is limited to the usual list of suspects and divas. But as far as I'm concerned, Fritz Wunderlich possessed one of the greatest God-given voices you will ever hear in ANY type of Western music. If you ever wondered why so many music critics still lament this man's tragic death before he could become a household name, I would advise you to purchase this collection. Good Lord, what a voice! Believe me, once you hear ol' Fritz belt out a few tunes, you won't be thinking of any other male singer in any other type of music (whether it's Pavrotti, Domingo, Melchior, Vickers, Fischer-Dieskau, Sinatra, Nat "King" Cole, Billy Eckstine, Elvis, George Jones, Sam Cooke or even Bob Dylan) for some time. Herr Wunderlich was simply in a class by himself, and you are also strongly urged to get his EMI recording with Christa Ludwig and Otto Klemperer of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Be warned, though, on that one. Not only will he shatter your heart with his singing of Mahler's sad lyrics, but he's liable to cause you lockjaw with his unique, incomparable phrasing.

3 comments about Schumann: Orchestral Works.

1. This is one of the earliest attempts to play Schumann with a modern orchestra using period instrument practices. The strings are reduced and play without vibrato. The size and configuration of the orchestra corresponds to Schumann's orchestra when he was the conductor in Dusseldorf. David Zinman on Arte Nova has tried the same thing with his Zurich orchestra, but the results in general are not as interesting as on Florian Merz's set. In spite of the wide dyanamics difference between the brass and the rest of the orchestra, the details of Schumann's orchestration always come through. My one caveat about the performances is that Merz's tempos sometimes seem a little sluggish. I don't think you can compare him as a conductor in this music to virtuosi like Szell and Bernstein, but Merz does make his points effectively and clearly has interpreted these works with great scrupulousness. The sound engineering is quite good, too. It's worth knowing that this album contains the recording premiere of a brief work by Schumann for chorus and orchestra that is very enjoyable.



2. Florian Merz is more than a wunderkind. Born in 1967, he was only 24 and 25 years of age when he recorded these CD's with this orchestra which he had personally created and organized. He took Schumann as his first recording project. Perhaps that's because the recorded competition on this composer happens to be remarkably weak: there's only one right way to perform Schumann's music, and that's with a maximum of vitality that's combined with a Teutonic severity. Every conductor except Hans Swarowsky has instead performed Schumann only tepidly, and some have combined this limpness with sentimentality. Merz, by contrast, is almost as high-octane as Swarowsky (who unfortunately recorded only one of these symphonies, the "Spring," twice). Furthermore, Schumann's music is also somewhat spastic, with accents popping out this way and that, and so it's very difficult for a performer to sustain the relentless forward motion which is so essential to any successful performance. Schumann's music is super high-energy, and a performer's challenge is always to channel that energy forward, and not in any other direction.
   
   This set introduces to the world a great conductor who just happens to be also a Schumann specialist. It has no close competition.
   
   I hope that this will turn out to be the first of hundreds of recording projects for a young man who, with his first recording project, has already proven himself to be one of the immortals of the orchestral podium.



3. And so was Schumann. I think this might be a landmark recording, maybe along with Fey's Beethoven on Hannsler: young German conductors going absolutely berserker with the music. This is not period instrument music but it nods to period practices. First thing that wallops one (almsot literally) is the old-style tympani, played like Hector Berlioz is manning the durned thing--almost too loud, I thought at first, but then I got to really enjoying it. Otherwise everywhere contrasts are heightened, the weird items in the orchestration are brought to fore instead of buried, and the overall effect is how radical this music can sound in the right hands. The conductor doesn't go for velocity or contortionism, he shoots for highly caffeinated. It's the best approximation of Schumann's "manic" state that I've ever heard as long as you don't buy the myth that mania is just running around feverishly.
   
   What this reminds me of is some of the more astute presentations of Berlioz--ones that recognize the fact the composer was an avant-garde composer way back when and he wanted everything heard and nothing smoothed out or made superficailly pretty.
   
   This is a tough recommedation. It costs a lot and the people who buy it and like it will love me forever for pointing this out to them, the others will hate it--no middle ground on this one. The more I hear it though the more I'm intuitively convinced that this is what the composer was hearing in his head. Whether you like what Schumann heard in his head is up to you.

No comments about Mozart in the Morning (Box Set).

No comments about The Best of Baroque (Box Set).

1 comments about Music for Lovers.

1. Don't let the title put you off. While I guess this is a good collection for lovers, it is also an excellent collection for anyone. I purchased it because it contained many of my favorite classical pieces. Because the pieces are so easy to listen to, this collection is great background music for reading, etc.

4 comments about Alfredo Perl Plays Ludwig van Beethoven (Box Set).

1. Thanks to Arte Nova and the artists for giving us top-quality Beethoven performances (symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas) at below-top prices. The Perl piano interpretations are comparable to those of Kovacevich and Brendel. The sound quality of these CD's is excellent, and I feel Perl plays the lyrical and dramatic passages of the sonatas just right. If you are interested in getting acqainted with all the Beethovem piano sonatas and the Diabelli variations (op. 120), this is the set to buy. This collection also makes a great gift to a music-loving friend!



2. I complete this set buying one by one, for the price, too, but i had a great suprise when I listened the vol. 2 (Moonlight sonata) and the Diabelli variations. Perl is relationed with th classic and romantic repertoires (hear his Liszt!), and in these interpretetions are in the spirit of Brendel, Pollini and Arrau, leaving to the climax of each sonata and give a timeless impression of the works. Maybe is not too fogous, but the music introduces in our souls forever, like all the music of Beethoven. Highlits: "Moonlight", "Waldstein", "Hammerklavier" and op. 109. Good price, and the only less positive point, is the recording. I'm sure that this interpretation will be better in the future. Listen to Beethoven. Note: En español, ver los volumenes en separado



3. I have to admit I bought this because it is competitively priced, but I listen to all these discs becuase of the great interpretaitons.

   I do not own any other complete sets of the 32, but I have most of them on vinyl from many other painists. Perl's interpretaions are, to me, conservative stylistically (nothing eccentric) but he brings great warmth to each and every note.

   The sonics are very good, as well. As far as room ambience is concerned, if you had a 1 to 10 scale where 1 is a typical Glenn Gould record and 10 is one of those Nimbus records with gobs of room echo (like the sound of a pianist playing for a ballet class) I would place these recordings at about a 6, which is slightly more room ambiance than I would like, in the louder passages, but it adds something to the quieter passages.

   I think that these recordings will stand the test of time.




4. Beethoven would no doubt approve of this fine collection of his thirty-two piano sonatas. Alfredo Perl gives passionate, thoughtful performances that rightly put the focus on Beethoven's music and not Perl himself. I especially enjoyed Perl's rendition of the Diabelli Variations, which is included on a bonus 10th disc; I found his interpretation of the variations to be one of the finest in recent memory. Moreover, at this price, this collection (over 12 hours of music) is hard to beat-- either as an introduction to the magic of Beethoven's piano sonatas, or as a fresh take for those already familiar with these seminal works. Bravo!