New Releases

[vandermolen]

The Daniel Jones disc from Lyrita will be eagerly awaited !

Indeed!

[Papy Oli]

The Daniel Jones disc from Lyrita will be eagerly awaited !

Good reminder as it is one composer I should really re-visit. I fell like I short-changed him right at the tail end of my British composers exploration last year.

[André]

The big Ormandy box is a shoo-in for me. I'm already making place for it budgetwise. It'll help that its release should be around my 65th birthday 

[Mirror Image]

The big Ormandy box is a shoo-in for me. I'm already making place for it budgetwise. It'll help that its release should be around my 65th birthday 

When is your birthday, Andre? Ours must be pretty close.

[Roy Bland]

[Que]

The big Ormandy box is a shoo-in for me. I'm already making place for it budgetwise. It'll help that its release should be around my 65th birthday 

For the generation before me Ormandy used to be a household name, but what are his "incontournables" ?

Q

[knight66]

Chandos have issued a disc called Verklate Nacht with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner. Stuart Skelton is on several tracks and Christine Rice on only one, a less well known version of the title track by Oskar Fried. It dates to1901, between the composition and publication of Schoenberg's version. Fried produced a duet using using the words of the poem by Dehmel. It should be better known, but it is not relevant to compare it to the tone poem which has very different objectives. This is lush in a different way, which perhaps jar against the very frank words of the poem, for instance: 'I am bearing a child which is not by you. I am walking in sin by your side. The transformation is the man's acceptance of the woman and child, they walk off into the night transfigured.

That track is followed by a luminous performance of the more famous piece inspired by the same poem. Although beautiful there is plenty of tension and the payoff is terrific.

The opener is a substantial 12 minute orchestral song setting the dying hallucinations of an injured soldier, perhaps surprisingly composed by Franz Lehar. Very direct and terrifically expressed and sustained by Skelton. The moods constantly change, fevered, febrile.

The final pieces are a group of four orchestral Songs of Farewell by Korngold, lush and lyrical, Skelton brings the needed weight and lyricism to them.

It is a terrific and intelligently designed programme and a superb set of performances. It makes for a very satisfying listen. The best disc I have bought since the most recent John Wilson disc.

Mike

[André]

When is your birthday, Andre? Ours must be pretty close.

April 21 

[André]

For the generation before me Ormandy used to be a household name, but what are his "incontournables" ?

Q

His Sibelius, his Beethoven (yes!), Rachmaninov, all his american composers recordings (he made plenty of them).

Potboilers such as the Ruslan y Ludmila overture or the Russian Easter overture are not just exhilarating but sound inevitable under his baton. His Rite of Spring (mono) is punchy, almost primal in its expression. Like Monteux, Ormandy invariably found the tempo giusto for a piece, ensuring the music breathes and blooms. Ormandy's tempi were always 'normal', sometimes even on the moderate side of things. Fast tempi may be exciting but eventually prevent a work's full emotional spectrum to be appreciated.

[Mirror Image]

Chandos have issued a disc called Verklate Nacht with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner. Stuart Skelton is on several tracks and Christine Rice on only one, a less well known version of the title track by Oskar Fried. It dates to1901, between the composition and publication of Schoenberg's version. Fried produced a duet using using the words of the poem by Dehmel. It should be better known, but it is not relevant to compare it to the tone poem which has very different objectives. This is lush in a different way, which perhaps jar against the very frank words of the poem, for instance: 'I am bearing a child which is not by you. I am walking in sin by your side. The transformation is the man's acceptance of the woman and child, they walk off into the night transfigured.

That track is followed by a luminous performance of the more famous piece inspired by the same poem. Although beautiful there is plenty of tension and the payoff is terrific.

The opener is a substantial 12 minute orchestral song setting the dying hallucinations of an injured soldier, perhaps surprisingly composed by Franz Lehar. Very direct and terrifically expressed and sustained by Skelton. The moods constantly change, fevered, febrile.

The final pieces are a group of four orchestral Songs of Farewell by Korngold, lush and lyrical, Skelton brings the needed weight and lyricism to them.

It is a terrific and intelligently designed programme and a superb set of performances. It makes for a very satisfying listen. The best disc I have bought since the most recent John Wilson disc.

Mike

Sounds like this is right up my alley, Mike. Thanks for the review. Have you heard Gardner's other Schoenberg recordings?

[Mirror Image]

April 21 

Ah, not too close. Mine is March 10th.

[Que]

His Sibelius, his Beethoven (yes!), Rachmaninov, all his american composers recordings (he made plenty of them).

Potboilers such as the Ruslan y Ludmila overture or the Russian Easter overture are not just exhilarating but sound inevitable under his baton. His Rite of Spring (mono) is punchy, almost primal in its expression. Like Monteux, Ormandy invariably found the tempo giusto for a piece, ensuring the music breathes and blooms. Ormandy's tempi were always 'normal', sometimes even on the moderate side of things. Fast tempi may be exciting but eventually prevent a work's full emotional spectrum to be appreciated.

Thnx!! 

[Brian]

Tomer Lev, Daniel Borovitzky, Berenika Glixman, Alon Kariv, pianos

[Brian]

As expected, the Great Big Ormandy Columbia Box will NOT include Ormandy RCA stuff. (Judging by the relative lack of late Sibelius recordings...others may have more expertise on his discography.)

Click to expand

[Daverz]

As expected, the Great Big Ormandy Columbia Box will NOT include Ormandy RCA stuff. (Judging by the relative lack of late Sibelius recordings...others may have more expertise on his discography.)

Click to expand

This must be just volume 1?  I don't see his Bruckner 4 or 5, the Ginastera/Bartok disc, or the later Prokofiev recordings (all Columbia).

[André]

Many omissions... Beethoven 5, 6, 7 and 9 are there but not the rest. The list of soloists in 9 suggest this is not from the stereo set, so maybe these are earlier, mono performances. Will the stereo integral be reissued separately ?

Also disappointing is the lack of some great Prokofiev performances: PC 4 with Serkin, the VCs with Stern, symphonies 4 and 5... strange as the set has TWO performances of nos 1 and 7, as well as the famous 6th, the Scythian Suite, Alexander Nevsky. Why not the others ?    And where is the Rachmaninov 1 to go along with 2 and 3 ?

And why do we see mentions of other conductors like Szell, Koussevitsky, Walter ? Presumably they appeared on the original LPs along with some other Ormandy performances, but it doesn't make sense to keep them in such a box.

Anyhow, lots of great stuff is there, including many fine works by American composers. Ormandy was a great champion of contemporary music.

[Daverz]

Many omissions... Beethoven 5, 6, 7 and 9 are there but not the rest. The list of soloists in 9 suggest this is not from the stereo set, so maybe these are earlier, mono performances. Will the stereo integral be reissued separately ?

Also disappointing is the lack of some great Prokofiev performances: PC 4 with Serkin, the VCs with Stern, symphonies 4 and 5... strange as the set has TWO performances of nos 1 and 7, as well as the famous 6th, the Scythian Suite, Alexander Nevsky. Why not the others ?    And where is the Rachmaninov 1 to go along with 2 and 3 ?

And why do we see mentions of other conductors like Szell, Koussevitsky, Walter ? Presumably they appeared on the original LPs along with some other Ormandy performances, but it doesn't make sense to keep them in such a box.

This is the way Sony has been doing their "complete album" sets for a while.  It does mean you get some things that would be dropped otherwise, but then there is also lots of duplication with the Stern, Sandor, Serkin, Szell, etc. boxes.

I was really looking forward to a digital transfer of the fabulous Philadelphian's recording of the Ginastera Concerto for Strings, especially now that that work has been "Kopatchinskaja'd" (a synonym for "murdilated" in my mind).

[JBS]

There is an Ormandy Beethoven set available....from Japan.
[Asin]B005J7CTPS[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

I was really looking forward to a digital transfer of the fabulous Philadelphian's recording of the Ginastera Concerto for Strings, especially now that that work has been "Kopatchinskaja'd" (a synonym for "murdilated" in my mind).

I LOVE this particular performance of Ginastera's Concerto for Strings:

[Todd]

The big box of the year.





I've yet to listen to Ms Renaudin-Vary, but once again she delivers a striking album cover.  I'm thinking she plays a big part in her own marketing.  If so, good for her.



An unusual mixed program, but with execution all but guaranteed to be stratospherically good, it must be heard.










No images yet, but Augustin Hadelich has a set of the Sonatas & Partitas coming, and Mr Mönkemeyer has a Vivaldi/Paganini/Tartini set coming.