LATEST
CD & DVD REVIEWS |
Monday
December 19th
|
We
wish our readers a very happy Christmas and New Year
160
reviews completed so far this month
Benjamin
BRITTEN
Violin Concerto Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony 4 Wanda Wilkomirska
(violin) Warsaw PO/Witold Rowicki rec. live, 1967 ORCHESTRAL CONCERT
CDs
[JW] Hair-shirt
production values from this company ensure that terrific concerts such
as this have a continuing and richly deserved afterlife.
Joan
BRUDIEU
Missa Defunctorum, Madrigals Exaudi Nos/Joan Grimalt
rec. 2010 COLUMNA MÚSICA
[Byz] Brudieu's
Mass: one of the finest of its time and place.
Paul
DUKAS
Ariane Et Barbe-Bleue Deborah
Polaski (soprano) Kwangchul Youn (bass) Slovak PCh, VIenna RSO/Bertrand
De Billy rec. live, 2006 BRILLIANT CLASSICS
[KE] Sombre
but with moments of great orchestral and vocal virtuosity.
Gustav
HOLST
The Hymn of Jesus, The Perfect
Fool, Egdon Heath BBC Ch, London PO, BBC SO/Sir
Adrian Boult rec. 1961 HIGH DEFINITION TAPE TRANSFER
[RB] Sturdy,
well measured, well judged performances where a sense of rooted and
dedicated rightness allows the music to emerge naturally.
Bruno
MADERNA
Piano
Concerto, Concertos for Two Pianos, Quadrivium Aldo
Orvieto, Fausto Bongelli (pianos) Gruppo 40.6; Fondazione Arena di Verona
O/Carlo Miotto rec. 2010 NAXOS
[RB] Those
Roundhouse concerts come to unruly life again.
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH Gustav
MAHLER
Symphony 2 Kathleen Battle, Christa Ludwig, Konzertvereinigung
Wiener Staatsopernchor, Vienna PO/James Levine rec. live, 1989 ORFEO
[DM] Surely
one of the great Resurrections of our time.
Piotr
MOSS Meditation
and Psalm, Voyage, Cinq tableaux de Caspar
David Friedrich Grażyna Strzeszewska, Anna Sikorzak-Olek
(harps) Polish Radio Ch in Cracow/Polish Ntl RSO in Katowice/Michał
Klauza rec. 2009/10 DUX
[JW] Moss
wants to convey mood, and feeling, and he does these things very well
indeed.
Mario
PILATI
& Achille LONGO Piano
Quintets Circo Artistico, Aldo Ciccolini (piano) rec. 2009
NAXOS
[RB] Another
pair of provocative discoveries.
Giacinto
SCELSI Collection
- Vol. 4: Early piano works Donna Amato (piano) rec. 2002
STRADIVARIUS
[RB] Intriguing.
Adventurers really do not need to be all that hardy to enjoy this collection.
Codex
Chantilly Vol.
II
Ensemble Tetraktys/Kees Boeke rec. 2010 ETCETERA
[GH] The
singing is elegant and the instrumental work delicate and neat. The
overall production is colourful, easy to grasp and smartly presented.
NEW
and RECENT ARTICLES
Our
Christmas reviews
December
Download Roundup #2 by Brian Wilson
Bob
Briggs - Musicweb reviewer (1954 - 2011) - A tribute
John
S. Bridge A Manchester Musician by Stuart Scott
Musicweb
International Recordings of the Year 2011
Masterwork Index: Debussy's
La Mer
Robin Milford: A biography
and a List
of Works by Peter Hunter
BOOK
REVIEW
The John Ireland
Companion - edited by Lewis Foreman
NOTICES
Congratulations
on your 60th Birthday Wf MT in Chicago -- Listen live
Have
you seen MIMO - Musical
Instrument Museums Online
A
brief history of film music by Steve Vertlied is available to
read online here
Maurice
Chevalier
Louise
- 1927-1958
RETROSPECTIVE RTR 4188 £7 postage paid
Priory
Records have launched an internet radio station, playing
their recordings 24/7 free
St
Paul Chamber Orchestra - an archive of more than 150 performances,
free for streaming online
New
York Philharmonic digital archives - documents from the
orchestra's history
Of
interest to all lovers of English music: Gustav Holst's The
Coming of Christ, Two Psalms, Nunc Dimmitis & I love my love
conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton. Available for £12 post-free
from Musicweb. Click here.
Discs
received for review A new feature; updated monthly
Shopping
on-line? Help us by doing it through MusicWeb Sales
page
Advice
for Windows Vista Users wishing to play sound samples from reviews