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RECORDINGS
OF THE MONTH
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH York BOWEN (1884–1961) Music
for Viola 
Lawrence
Power (viola); Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano) rec. 2007 HYPERION
CDA67651/2 [61:39 + 60:55][MC] 
Power
goes from strength to strength in this collection
of Bowen’s viola music ... see Full
Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809) Symphonies
Volume 9: Nos 70, 73 & 75 Heidelberger
Sinfoniker/Thomas Fey
rec. 2007 HÄNSSLER CLASSIC
CD 98.517 [61:31]
The
most vibrant Haydn performances I’ve heard
for a long time … see Full
Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Charles IVES (1874-1954) Orchestral
Sets 1-3 Malmö Chamber
Ch & SO/James B Sinclair rec. 2006-07 NAXOS
AMERICAN CLASSICS
8.559353 [63:36] 
[SH]
A
great moment in the history of recorded music ... see Full
Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Garth
Knox – Amore Garth
KNOX (b.1956) Malor
me bat (2004) [9:16] Marin
MARAIS (1656-1685) Les Folies d’Espagne
(1685) (arr. Garth
KNOX, Agnès
VESTERMAN) [10:35] Roland
MOSER (b.1943) Manners of Speaking
(2006): Poem [3:49] Anecdote [2:45] Tobias
HUME (c.1569-1645) A Pavin (1605)
(arr. Garth Knox)
[6:45] Attilio ARIOSTI
(1666-1729) Prima Lezione (1720):
Allegro [4:16] Largo [4:12] Andante [2:09]
Anonymous Celtic
Dance (arr. Garth
Knox) [1:36] I Once Loved a Lass/
Jig (arr Garth
Knox)
[2:35] Klaus HUBER
(b.1924) ... Plainte ... pour Luigi Nono
(1990) [5:15]
Garth Knox (viola d’amore), Agnès Vesterman
(cello) rec. September 2006, Propstei St.
Gerold, Austria
ECM 1925 - 4766369 [54:06]
[GPu]
Outstanding
… high musicality and ravishing sounds … see
Full Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Ralph
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
a
cappella choral works
Laudibus/Mike Brewer rec. 2008, DDD Texts
and English translations included
DELPHIAN DCD34074 [64:00]
JQ
An
outstanding celebration of RVW in this anniversary
year ... see Full
Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Martha
Argerich - Music for Two Pianos Includes Sergei
RACHMANINOV (1873-1943) Suite No. 2 Johannes
BRAHMS (1833-1897) Sonata, Variations on a theme by
Haydn with Mirabela
Dina, Gabriela Montero, Lilya Zilberstein, Polina Leschenko, Yefim
Bronfman & Giorgia Tomassi
rec. live 2002-4 EMI CLASSICS
2076232 [69.41
+ 76.38] 
[MM-B]
Brilliant
and uplifting … a must-have ... see Full
Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Ensemble Syntagma -
Remembrance: Music by Gautier
D’ÉPINAL (1205/30-1272), Colin
MUSET (13th century), Jacques
de CYSOING (middle of 13th century), Jehannot
de L’ESCUREL (d.1304) and Gautier
DE COINCY (1177-1236) Ensemble
Syntagma rec. 2006 CHALLENGE
CLASSICS CC72190 [63:14][GPu]
Outstanding
… undogmatic coherence and persuasive sensitivity
in rare repertoire … see Full
Review
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
The
Rise of the North Italian Violin Concerto:
1690-1740 Volume Three - The Golden Age
Antonio Vivaldi
(1678-1741)
Concerto for violin, 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns,
strings and continuo Pietro
Locatelli (1695-1764) Concerto
da Chiesa in C, Concerto for 4 Violins, strings
and continuo Giovanni
Battista Sammartini (c.1700-1775)
Concerto à più Stromenti in
E-Flat, Giuseppe
Tartini (1692-1770)
Concerto for violin, strings and continuo
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for violin, 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns,
timpani, strings and continuo
La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler (violin) rec.
2008. DDD.
AVIE AV2154 [79:25]
[BW]
Buy
the CD or the download, but get this recording
somehow ... see
Full Review
BARGAINS
OF THE MONTH
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) Cantatas
with Violoncello Piccolo Chœur
de Chambre Accentus/Laurence Equilbey & Ensemble Baroque
de Limoges/Christophe Coin rec. 1995 NAÏVE
VOIX BAROQUE E8918 [62:20][BW] 
Not
Bach’s best-known music but strongly recommended ... see Full
Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Percy GRAINGER (1882–1961) An
Introduction Joyful
Company of Singers; BBC Philharmonic; City of London Sinfonia;
Royal Northern College of Music Wind O rec. 1994-2000 CHANDOS 
CHAN2029 [77:11] [BW]
The
favourites plus less well known pieces, excellently performed and
recorded ... see Full Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868) Il
Viaggio a Reims Katia
Ricciarelli, Enzo Dara, Samuel Ramey, Ruggero Raimondi, CO Europe/Claudio
Abbado
rec. live 1984 DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
GRAND PRIX 477 7435 [67.07 + 68.35] [RJF]
One
of the best recordings of a Rossini opera ever set down ... see Full
Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Padre
Antonio SOLER
(1729-1783)
Complete Harpsichord Sonatas – Volume 1
Pieter-Jan Belder (harpsichord) rec. 11-13
February 2008, Oud-Katholieke Kerk, Delft
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 93758 [56:39 + 76:01]
[GPu]
An
auspicious opening to a complete Soler sonatas,
vivacious and perceptive … see Full
Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) The
Works of Igor Stravinsky Columbia
SO/Igor Stravinsky, Robert Craft rec. 1959-1966 SONY-BMG
88697 103112 [22 CDs: ca 26:32:00] [RB]
A
lifetime's treasury of musical experience
at a breathtakingly low price ... see Full
Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Richard
WAGNER
(1813-83) Das
Rheingold (1869) [145:47]
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Georg Solti
rec. 1958. ADD. 24-bit remastering. Booklet
with German text and English translation.
Decca Originals 478 0382 [70:34 + 75:13]
Fifty
years on, this is still the recording
of Rheingold ... see Full
Review
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Richard
WAGNER (1813–1883)
Der Ring des Nibelungen Royal
Danish Opera Chorus (Götterdämmerung)
and Orchestra/Michael Schønwandt rec.
live, Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, May
2006
DECCA
074 3264 [7 DVDs: 920:00 + Bonus: 36:00]
[GF]
Wholly
engrossing, fresh and deeply involving ...
see Full
Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH The
Art of Christa Ludwig rec.
1956–1969 EMI
CLASSICS 5176082 [5 CDs: 387:44] [GF]
A
worthy tribute. Should be snapped up by all lovers of great singing
... see Full Review
BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH Rostropovich
plays Cello Works
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello); Various accompanists rec. 1969-1995
WARNER ERATO 2564696817 [9 CDs: 9:55:00][RB]
A
zanily variegated, enterprising selection … glorious playing ... see
Full Review
Click
for alphabetical listings by composer:
[Part
1 New] [Part
2 A-B] [Part
3 C-L]
[Part 4 M-R]
[Part 5 S-Z]
[Part 6 Misc A-L]
[Part 7 Misc M-Z]
[Recommended
recordings]
I was full of admiration for Benjamin Pasternack’s
previous CD of Copland’s solo piano music; indeed, it became one
of my discs of the year and has been played often since (see review).
So this new release already created some anticipation, as I have
always had a soft spot for the rarely heard Piano Concerto as well
as looking forward to the other works here.
In fact, the planning on this new Naxos release is very intelligent indeed.
I don’t recall having heard the suite from Copland’s little-known opera The
Tender Land before, but suffice to say it is full of what might be
termed the best of his popular style. As befits the subject matter – the vicissitudes
of a simple farming family in the Depression-hit South of the 1930s – the music
is redolent of Appalachian Spring, the film music to Of Mice and
Men and other ‘wide-open’ scores of the 1940s and 1950s. The Suite he extracted
from the opera, which was not a success after its New York premiere in 1954,
is in three movements. The Introduction is replete with those open fourths
and fifths in the brass, the Love Music that follows it enjoying the
simplest and most affecting of melodic lines. The lively rhythms of the Party
Scene which follows could be out of Billy the Kid, whilst the ringing
affirmation of the Finale: The Promise of Living, are about as American
as Copland ever got. It is well worth making an acquaintance with and note
writer Joseph Horowitz admits to preferring it to the flawed opera.
The Piano Concerto is firmly rooted in the 1920s, though once again
the glorious introductory bars, where horns, trumpets and trombones exchange
bold fanfares, points to his later style. It’s usually referred to as his jazziest
work, and there are lots of elements to back this up, particularly the second
movement, where Copland clearly has Gershwin in his sights, though with very
different results. But the opening movement, for all its ‘blue note’ leaning,
has more in common with the angular dissonance of the Piano Variations, written
just a few short years later. The Concerto is a marvellous work, full of New
York swagger but tightly constructed – rather like the more popular Clarinet
Concerto – and it’s a real mystery why it doesn’t crop up on more concert programmes.
There have been some good recordings over the years, including the benchmark
version from the composer himself with Bernstein at the helm, though it does
sound rather aggressively bright by modern standards. I’ve tended to stick
by an excellent RCA recording from Garrick Ohlsson and the San Francisco Symphony
under Tilson-Thomas, part of an excellent Copland survey he undertook in the
early 1990s (Copland – The Modernist, c/w Orchestral Variations, Symphonic
Ode and Short Symphony). I have to say this newcomer runs it close,
with orchestral playing every bit as solid and assured. The string tone of
the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, another new name to me, is superb and the brass
and wind sections are easily as sonorous and colourful as their more famous
counterparts. Pasternack shows once again that he is completely inside Copland’s
style, and the very tricky passages of the second movement are just as effective
as Ohlsson’s more overtly virtuosic reading.
The disc rounds off its rarity value in style with arrangements of Copland’s
popular Old American Songs, originally for voice and piano but
here transcribed to include chorus and orchestra by Irving Fine, R. Wilding-White
and Glenn Koponen. It works very well, with the St Charles Singers relishing
the allusions to folk ballads, minstrel tunes, hymns and children’s tunes.
The lyrics – included in the booklet - may be pure cornball in places (‘My
pig says ‘griffey, griffey…’) but they’re great fun and the chorus approach
them in this spirit.
The recorded sound is warm and generous, coping with the thicker textures well,
and good liner-notes complete a very desirable Copland selection.
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